December 14, 2024 • 11 mins
The weather's warmed up and summer is well and truly here - meaning it's the perfect time for a hiking adventure.
Tramping influencer and hiking guru Hannah-Rose Watt has taken the guesswork out of planning a trip in her new book revealing the best trails for walkers of all experience levels.
She says she designed Wild Walks Aotearoa: A Guide to Tramping in New Zealand to offer something for everyone.
"That's part of it, everyone can kind of pick it up and get something different from it."
LISTEN ABOVE
See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.
Mark as Played
Transcript
Episode Transcript
Available transcripts are automatically generated. Complete accuracy is not guaranteed.
Speaker 1 (00:06):
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb all Right, summer has kicked in, the Christmas holidays
are on the way, and what better way to spend
the sunny days than out on an adventure. I, for one,
love a good hike at a beautiful time in the
Nelson Lakes ditz strict just a couple of weeks ago.
So to get some expert tips on where we should
be heading, I'm joined by hiking guru and tramping influencer
(00:33):
Hannah Rose.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hannah Rose's book Wild Walks Out Hero features fifty nine
trails across New Zealand, lots of tips and some guidance
on the equipment and etiquette that you will need when
you head into the bush. Hannah Rose. What joins Hannah Rose?
What joins me? From christ Church? Good morning, Hannah Rose, YadA,
how are you? I'm very very good, thank you and
(00:56):
all the better. I've just loved going through this book.
I mean, it's fantastic for people to pack up and
to learn about all these great tracks. But I've just
been looking at the pictures going, oh yes, I remember, oh,
I love that part of it. Oh, I love that walk.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
What do I think? Yeah, I think that's part of
it is everyone can kind of pick it up and
get something different from it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely. What do you love about tramping?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I started it when I was quite young, and I
think the thing I always loved about it was the silence,
you know, the feeling that you're just away from everything
and you can just put all of your problems into perspective.
Like when I find that I'm ruminating on things a lot. Now,
if I go out into the bush or into nature,
I know that it will be solved. One of my
(01:40):
friends always said he's PhD person, and he said that
if he needed a problem solved, he would just go
tramping and then it would be solved straight away.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What do you look for in a high cole trial.
I mean, it can depend on how much time you've
got counted. But what kind of settings do you enjoy
the most?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I really love the really bushy settings, like I love
man Aspiring National Park. I think that's probably one of
my favorites, just with the soaring mountains, the hanging glaciers
and then the beautiful bush and forest. But anywhere that
is quite remote, I think I prefer especially when you
(02:19):
can't see any kind of structures or if you have
any cell service. Those are definitely my kind of places.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh, I couldn't I couldn't agree more. I love a
wall that takes you through a variety of different settings.
As you might say, you might start off in the bush,
but then you sort of head to an alpine area
and it can be so different in such a short
space of time, can't it.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Absolutely? And I mean you were talking about Nelson Lakes
National Park earlier, and I think that that's what Nelson
Lakes is so perfect for. You know, you get such
a variety of terrain, and every day if you're on
the trailer is different and it looks different. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Your parents are trampers. Is that where your love came from?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Definitely? Yeah, they did so much tramping in the youth,
and I have stacks and stacks of photo albums from
them because Dad had a film camera and he took
it everywhere and so when I was young, and I
still love looking through the film albums just to see
all the places that they were. And then obviously, you know,
when I started getting into tramping, kept on telling me
(03:17):
all the places that I needed to go, and so
I started going there and then I was able to
kind of compare the photos that they took when they
were there and the photos that I took, you know,
twenty years later, and how much the terrain has changed.
But they, yeah, they were very much trampers and they
had such heavy, heavy bomb proof gear. So different nowadays.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh, it certainly is. And there's a great section in
here on equipment and things tramping as a young person.
Is that why you've put in chapters for hikes, for
tykes and sort of the quickies, so that you know,
families can find something that's appropriate for them.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Absolutely. Like I think with tramping, there is a feeling
that it's quite exclusive and it you know, there might
be quite a few barriers to entry. And so what
I was trying to with my book is that it's
inclusive and it is for everyone. And so I didn't
want something like having children to have to stop you
(04:16):
from going out there and enjoying the outdoors because it's
the best place the kids to be. And now that
I've got friends with children, it's amazing seeing them outdoors
tramping enjoying it. And then the kids can just run
around and they can just jump in the mud, they
can play in the way streams, they can just go
absolutely mad, and it's just the most perfect place for them.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
How do you start out? For people without much experience,
what should they know before they hit out?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I think it can feel really hard starting out with
something like this. You know, it's a whole community that
you might not be a part of. Maybe you don't
have the right gear, and it's I know it sounds
really cliche, but we all worthier. We all started like that.
So my advice would probably be if there's a club
in your area, to join a club, because that way
(05:03):
you can hire gear you don't you know, that lowers
barrier to entry in terms of cost. You have people
who are really experienced you you can go with them
because it can feel quite intimidating starting you and particularly
getting gear. But you don't have to, you know, get
the top of the line stuff. You just need to
go to an opshop, get a few wee bits and pieces,
(05:24):
find yourself a community, and then just start doing it
and then it just grows exponentially from there.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And then would you suggest to someone if you are
sort of starting out and you want to do multi
day walks. Just do an overnight first up.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Absolutely, just we day walks. You can start with a
week overnight. You know, we have such an amazing network
of huts in New Zealand as well, so you can
start with something like a great walk where you know
that the huts are. You know, they have gas, they
have really nice mattresses, they have bookings, you're guaranteed a bunk.
They usually have a dock warden. So there's differently different
(06:01):
levels of the tracks in New Zealand and so you
can start off with those kind of ones so you
know there'll be other people around, there will be the
additional support if you need it, and then once you
sort of get a little bit more comfortable, then you
can start doing slightly more that country more remote overnight is.
But I think there's just so many options.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You've got a great section on etiquette as well. What
is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to etiquette
in a hut or maybe the lack of it. I
was a hot.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Warden for around two weeks mula Hut last year. And
for those of you who don't know what mulaht is,
it's an alpine hut in alrequi Mountclok National Park, and
it's quite an accessible alpine hat. So when I was
a hot warden, I definitely got quite a lot of
ideas for my etiquette section, and I think the biggest
(06:54):
one for me was just people walking inside the hut
with their shoes on or their boots on. You know,
you've just swept, You've just made it look really beautiful,
and then everyone's stomping through the air. But that's a
really super one. But I think just keeping things tidy,
that's probably the biggest one that people tend to tend
to miss.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Okay, I'm going to I'm going to ask for some favorites.
Now favorite I was going to ask you for your
favorite track. Would you can answer, or maybe you've got
a favorite area that might be easier.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I've done a lot of back and forth to try
to figure out what my favorites are. So my favorite area,
I think, like I mentioned before, would be mounti Spiring
National Park. I just think the variety of terrain there
and the different trails that are around the area. There's
just so much that can be accessed. But my favorite
(07:48):
trail I think is definitely the Gillespie Pass Circuit. Which
is unsurprisingly down and Manispiring National Park, but it kicks
off from Macarora, which is just west of Wanaka, and
you get probably some of the most beautiful views in
the country. There's iceberg lakes, there's precipitous cliffs with waterfalls
(08:10):
tracing down them, there's alpine passes, there's waterfalls to swim,
and it's kind of got everything. But aside from that,
I think Blue Lake and Nelson Lakes would have to
be up there as well, So I think a tie
between those two.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What are some of the best keep secrets? And I
mean when I flip through this book, there's lots of
really well known tracks on here, but also great to
discover some new places. What do you think of some
of the best keep secrets in.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Oh I think you can actually find some really amazing
secrets by just having a topo map on you. So
I find that if you're doing a walk like some
of the great walks, and you have a wee topomp
you can actually see if there are any little side
tracks or any little caves or waterfalls that in nearby.
Because quite often if you just venture maybe five or
(09:00):
ten minutes from the path, you get some really really
amazing things, and you get to see some really amazing places.
But one of the walks that I talk about in
my book is Ballroom Overhang, which is on the west
coast of the South Island, just north of Punakaiki, and
that is I feel like it's a weaver of a secret.
(09:22):
It's just such a beautiful spot. You travel up the
Fox River, there's a lot of limestone outcrops and you
just feel like you're in Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones
or something. And then you sleep under a huge cave
and it's a really really special experience.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's so funny you mentioned the little side tracks and things.
I got on a fast packing trip every November with
a group of girls who were super fit, much better
than I am, and we'll often do quite a distance
in a day, sometimes over thirty k's in a day,
and they'll still do every little sidetrack and I'm the
grumpy one at the back, going no, no, I'm fine, thanks,
I'm just gonna I'm going to keep going straight ahead
here and they drop their packs and they'll run up here,
(09:59):
and then they'll run up there and take these amazing photos.
But you're right, sometimes they're just the little hidden hidden gym.
Hey best equipment these days, as you said, it's changed
so much. What's your favorite thing to have on a
tramp or the best bit of equipment?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Ah, I think the thing that people look over a
lot is the pack. I think the pack is really
really important and actually on the note of doing we
side trips like that, my pack has a detachable lid
and so you can actually take the lid off the
pack and it turns into a functional day pack. So
it has straps that you can tuck away and then
(10:38):
pull out when you want to use them, and they're functional.
So they've got a chest clip and everything like that.
And I use that so often because I think really
nice thing to do when you're tramping is to base
camp somewhere. So you travel to a beautiful location, you
set up camp, and then from there you can do
quite a few wee day trips without having to lug
around a heavy pack. And just having something like that
(11:00):
is so functional and so useful and really overlooked.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That is a really good idea. Do you know what
my favorite thing is that I've discovered for tramping, Marino underwear.
We're just probably sharing far too much information. But gee,
they make it making multi day tramp much more pleasant.
Oh they do.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They don't look make God, they are comfortable.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Hannah Rose, what thank you for the book. It is
absolutely beautiful, really nice to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So this is a really good if you know anyone
who likes heading into the outdoors, this is a really
great idea for Christmas. And as I said, it's got
lots of or anyone who's keen to start, because there's
really good tips in here as to how to get
started and the gear you need and etiquette you need
to head into the bush and things like that. But
it's a little stunner. It is called Wildwalks at and
it is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
You're listening to the Sunday Session podcast with Francesca Rudkin
from News Talks.
Speaker 2 (00:11):
Edb all Right, summer has kicked in, the Christmas holidays
are on the way, and what better way to spend
the sunny days than out on an adventure. I, for one,
love a good hike at a beautiful time in the
Nelson Lakes ditz strict just a couple of weeks ago.
So to get some expert tips on where we should
be heading, I'm joined by hiking guru and tramping influencer
(00:33):
Hannah Rose.
Speaker 1 (00:34):
What.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
Hannah Rose's book Wild Walks Out Hero features fifty nine
trails across New Zealand, lots of tips and some guidance
on the equipment and etiquette that you will need when
you head into the bush. Hannah Rose. What joins Hannah Rose?
What joins me? From christ Church? Good morning, Hannah Rose, YadA,
how are you? I'm very very good, thank you and
(00:56):
all the better. I've just loved going through this book.
I mean, it's fantastic for people to pack up and
to learn about all these great tracks. But I've just
been looking at the pictures going, oh yes, I remember, oh,
I love that part of it. Oh, I love that walk.
Speaker 3 (01:09):
What do I think? Yeah, I think that's part of
it is everyone can kind of pick it up and
get something different from it.
Speaker 2 (01:15):
Absolutely. What do you love about tramping?
Speaker 3 (01:19):
I started it when I was quite young, and I
think the thing I always loved about it was the silence,
you know, the feeling that you're just away from everything
and you can just put all of your problems into perspective.
Like when I find that I'm ruminating on things a lot. Now,
if I go out into the bush or into nature,
I know that it will be solved. One of my
(01:40):
friends always said he's PhD person, and he said that
if he needed a problem solved, he would just go
tramping and then it would be solved straight away.
Speaker 2 (01:49):
What do you look for in a high cole trial.
I mean, it can depend on how much time you've
got counted. But what kind of settings do you enjoy
the most?
Speaker 3 (01:59):
I really love the really bushy settings, like I love
man Aspiring National Park. I think that's probably one of
my favorites, just with the soaring mountains, the hanging glaciers
and then the beautiful bush and forest. But anywhere that
is quite remote, I think I prefer especially when you
(02:19):
can't see any kind of structures or if you have
any cell service. Those are definitely my kind of places.
Speaker 2 (02:26):
Oh, I couldn't I couldn't agree more. I love a
wall that takes you through a variety of different settings.
As you might say, you might start off in the bush,
but then you sort of head to an alpine area
and it can be so different in such a short
space of time, can't it.
Speaker 3 (02:38):
Absolutely? And I mean you were talking about Nelson Lakes
National Park earlier, and I think that that's what Nelson
Lakes is so perfect for. You know, you get such
a variety of terrain, and every day if you're on
the trailer is different and it looks different. It's amazing.
Speaker 2 (02:53):
Your parents are trampers. Is that where your love came from?
Speaker 3 (02:57):
Definitely? Yeah, they did so much tramping in the youth,
and I have stacks and stacks of photo albums from
them because Dad had a film camera and he took
it everywhere and so when I was young, and I
still love looking through the film albums just to see
all the places that they were. And then obviously, you know,
when I started getting into tramping, kept on telling me
(03:17):
all the places that I needed to go, and so
I started going there and then I was able to
kind of compare the photos that they took when they
were there and the photos that I took, you know,
twenty years later, and how much the terrain has changed.
But they, yeah, they were very much trampers and they
had such heavy, heavy bomb proof gear. So different nowadays.
Speaker 2 (03:39):
Oh, it certainly is. And there's a great section in
here on equipment and things tramping as a young person.
Is that why you've put in chapters for hikes, for
tykes and sort of the quickies, so that you know,
families can find something that's appropriate for them.
Speaker 3 (03:55):
Absolutely. Like I think with tramping, there is a feeling
that it's quite exclusive and it you know, there might
be quite a few barriers to entry. And so what
I was trying to with my book is that it's
inclusive and it is for everyone. And so I didn't
want something like having children to have to stop you
(04:16):
from going out there and enjoying the outdoors because it's
the best place the kids to be. And now that
I've got friends with children, it's amazing seeing them outdoors
tramping enjoying it. And then the kids can just run
around and they can just jump in the mud, they
can play in the way streams, they can just go
absolutely mad, and it's just the most perfect place for them.
Speaker 2 (04:37):
How do you start out? For people without much experience,
what should they know before they hit out?
Speaker 3 (04:43):
I think it can feel really hard starting out with
something like this. You know, it's a whole community that
you might not be a part of. Maybe you don't
have the right gear, and it's I know it sounds
really cliche, but we all worthier. We all started like that.
So my advice would probably be if there's a club
in your area, to join a club, because that way
(05:03):
you can hire gear you don't you know, that lowers
barrier to entry in terms of cost. You have people
who are really experienced you you can go with them
because it can feel quite intimidating starting you and particularly
getting gear. But you don't have to, you know, get
the top of the line stuff. You just need to
go to an opshop, get a few wee bits and pieces,
(05:24):
find yourself a community, and then just start doing it
and then it just grows exponentially from there.
Speaker 2 (05:30):
And then would you suggest to someone if you are
sort of starting out and you want to do multi
day walks. Just do an overnight first up.
Speaker 3 (05:38):
Absolutely, just we day walks. You can start with a
week overnight. You know, we have such an amazing network
of huts in New Zealand as well, so you can
start with something like a great walk where you know
that the huts are. You know, they have gas, they
have really nice mattresses, they have bookings, you're guaranteed a bunk.
They usually have a dock warden. So there's differently different
(06:01):
levels of the tracks in New Zealand and so you
can start off with those kind of ones so you
know there'll be other people around, there will be the
additional support if you need it, and then once you
sort of get a little bit more comfortable, then you
can start doing slightly more that country more remote overnight is.
But I think there's just so many options.
Speaker 2 (06:23):
You've got a great section on etiquette as well. What
is your biggest pet peeve when it comes to etiquette
in a hut or maybe the lack of it. I
was a hot.
Speaker 3 (06:33):
Warden for around two weeks mula Hut last year. And
for those of you who don't know what mulaht is,
it's an alpine hut in alrequi Mountclok National Park, and
it's quite an accessible alpine hat. So when I was
a hot warden, I definitely got quite a lot of
ideas for my etiquette section, and I think the biggest
(06:54):
one for me was just people walking inside the hut
with their shoes on or their boots on. You know,
you've just swept, You've just made it look really beautiful,
and then everyone's stomping through the air. But that's a
really super one. But I think just keeping things tidy,
that's probably the biggest one that people tend to tend
to miss.
Speaker 2 (07:14):
Okay, I'm going to I'm going to ask for some favorites.
Now favorite I was going to ask you for your
favorite track. Would you can answer, or maybe you've got
a favorite area that might be easier.
Speaker 3 (07:27):
I've done a lot of back and forth to try
to figure out what my favorites are. So my favorite area,
I think, like I mentioned before, would be mounti Spiring
National Park. I just think the variety of terrain there
and the different trails that are around the area. There's
just so much that can be accessed. But my favorite
(07:48):
trail I think is definitely the Gillespie Pass Circuit. Which
is unsurprisingly down and Manispiring National Park, but it kicks
off from Macarora, which is just west of Wanaka, and
you get probably some of the most beautiful views in
the country. There's iceberg lakes, there's precipitous cliffs with waterfalls
(08:10):
tracing down them, there's alpine passes, there's waterfalls to swim,
and it's kind of got everything. But aside from that,
I think Blue Lake and Nelson Lakes would have to
be up there as well, So I think a tie
between those two.
Speaker 2 (08:26):
What are some of the best keep secrets? And I
mean when I flip through this book, there's lots of
really well known tracks on here, but also great to
discover some new places. What do you think of some
of the best keep secrets in.
Speaker 3 (08:39):
Oh I think you can actually find some really amazing
secrets by just having a topo map on you. So
I find that if you're doing a walk like some
of the great walks, and you have a wee topomp
you can actually see if there are any little side
tracks or any little caves or waterfalls that in nearby.
Because quite often if you just venture maybe five or
(09:00):
ten minutes from the path, you get some really really
amazing things, and you get to see some really amazing places.
But one of the walks that I talk about in
my book is Ballroom Overhang, which is on the west
coast of the South Island, just north of Punakaiki, and
that is I feel like it's a weaver of a secret.
(09:22):
It's just such a beautiful spot. You travel up the
Fox River, there's a lot of limestone outcrops and you
just feel like you're in Jurassic Park or Indiana Jones
or something. And then you sleep under a huge cave
and it's a really really special experience.
Speaker 2 (09:38):
It's so funny you mentioned the little side tracks and things.
I got on a fast packing trip every November with
a group of girls who were super fit, much better
than I am, and we'll often do quite a distance
in a day, sometimes over thirty k's in a day,
and they'll still do every little sidetrack and I'm the
grumpy one at the back, going no, no, I'm fine, thanks,
I'm just gonna I'm going to keep going straight ahead
here and they drop their packs and they'll run up here,
(09:59):
and then they'll run up there and take these amazing photos.
But you're right, sometimes they're just the little hidden hidden gym.
Hey best equipment these days, as you said, it's changed
so much. What's your favorite thing to have on a
tramp or the best bit of equipment?
Speaker 3 (10:16):
Ah, I think the thing that people look over a
lot is the pack. I think the pack is really
really important and actually on the note of doing we
side trips like that, my pack has a detachable lid
and so you can actually take the lid off the
pack and it turns into a functional day pack. So
it has straps that you can tuck away and then
(10:38):
pull out when you want to use them, and they're functional.
So they've got a chest clip and everything like that.
And I use that so often because I think really
nice thing to do when you're tramping is to base
camp somewhere. So you travel to a beautiful location, you
set up camp, and then from there you can do
quite a few wee day trips without having to lug
around a heavy pack. And just having something like that
(11:00):
is so functional and so useful and really overlooked.
Speaker 2 (11:03):
That is a really good idea. Do you know what
my favorite thing is that I've discovered for tramping, Marino underwear.
We're just probably sharing far too much information. But gee,
they make it making multi day tramp much more pleasant.
Oh they do.
Speaker 3 (11:20):
They don't look make God, they are comfortable.
Speaker 2 (11:24):
Hannah Rose, what thank you for the book. It is
absolutely beautiful, really nice to talk to you.
Speaker 3 (11:29):
Oh, thank you so much for having me.
Speaker 2 (11:32):
So this is a really good if you know anyone
who likes heading into the outdoors, this is a really
great idea for Christmas. And as I said, it's got
lots of or anyone who's keen to start, because there's
really good tips in here as to how to get
started and the gear you need and etiquette you need
to head into the bush and things like that. But
it's a little stunner. It is called Wildwalks at and
it is in stores now.
Speaker 1 (11:54):
For more from the Sunday Session with Francesca Rudkin, listen
live to news Talks it'd be from nine am Sunday,
or follow the podcast on iHeartRadio.
Popular Podcasts
Bookmarked by Reese's Book Club
Welcome to Bookmarked by Reese’s Book Club — the podcast where great stories, bold women, and irresistible conversations collide! Hosted by award-winning journalist Danielle Robay, each week new episodes balance thoughtful literary insight with the fervor of buzzy book trends, pop culture and more. Bookmarked brings together celebrities, tastemakers, influencers and authors from Reese's Book Club and beyond to share stories that transcend the page. Pull up a chair. You’re not just listening — you’re part of the conversation.
Dateline NBC
Current and classic episodes, featuring compelling true-crime mysteries, powerful documentaries and in-depth investigations. Follow now to get the latest episodes of Dateline NBC completely free, or subscribe to Dateline Premium for ad-free listening and exclusive bonus content: DatelinePremium.com
On Purpose with Jay Shetty
I’m Jay Shetty host of On Purpose the worlds #1 Mental Health podcast and I’m so grateful you found us. I started this podcast 5 years ago to invite you into conversations and workshops that are designed to help make you happier, healthier and more healed. I believe that when you (yes you) feel seen, heard and understood you’re able to deal with relationship struggles, work challenges and life’s ups and downs with more ease and grace. I interview experts, celebrities, thought leaders and athletes so that we can grow our mindset, build better habits and uncover a side of them we’ve never seen before. New episodes every Monday and Friday. Your support means the world to me and I don’t take it for granted — click the follow button and leave a review to help us spread the love with On Purpose. I can’t wait for you to listen to your first or 500th episode!