A Maverick Traveller: The Podcasts of Mary Jane Walker Mary Jane Walker

This post follows up my two earlier posts about the wild Catlins region of New Zealand. I went through in a campervan at the start of June 2021. I visit the waterfalls, and list freedom camping sites. Information about freedom camping sites can be a bit hard to come by, so I have made the effort to identify all five such sites in the Catlins. I also describe other camping spots, including beautiful Pūrākaunui Bay, my favourite.

THE Lake Marian Track has lately become very popular, although tourist numbers are down at present because of Covid (so, if in NZ already, you should go there!). The track begins from Marian Carpark, one kilometre down the unsealed Hollyford Road from its intersection with the Milford Road, some ninety kilometres out from Te Anau. It now has a wooden gantry only 20 minutes in, from which you can admire the Marian Falls, which are really more like rapids. Even if you don’t do the rest of the track, you can still walk to the gantry . . . All in all, this is one of the best little short trips that you can do from the road in New Zealand! Indeed, the travel writer GirlEatWorld has described Lake Marian as “my favorite experience in New Zealand so far.”

The Taranaki (NZ) Around the Mountain Circuit turned into an epic for me!

I only got halfway before falling into a ravine on the way north and injuring myself, so the northern side will have to be written up some other time. But meanwhile, here are some thoughts on doing the southern side. Which is what you miss out if, like a lot of people, you only tramp around the northern side of the mountain, handy to New Plymouth, where the popular Pouakai Track and (Northern) Summit Route are located.

I decided to go up to Syme Hut, next to Fanthams Peak/Panitahi, which you can see on the left of the featured image. Then I hiked through all kinds of wonderful terrain, before getting lost on poorly signposted and maintained track and injuring myself, and needing to be helicoptered out.

Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/around-mount-taranaki

Reefton, on the West Coast of NZ’s South Island, was one of the first towns to get electric light and is the gateway to many trails today.

It is the only sizable town on the West Coast that’s some way inland. The town got its start in 1871 following the discovery of a gold reef nearby, and was originally called Reef Town. To this day it’s got plenty of atmosphere (mostly smelling of coal-smoke), and is surrounded by historic mine workings.‍

The town has a lot old-time charm. The 100% New Zealand page on Reefton invites you to:

"Follow the town’s heritage walk past the Reefton School of Mines, the courthouse, Oddfellows Hall, St Xavier’s Convent and the Band Hall. At the Miner’s Hut you can sit in front of the fire, enjoy a cup of tea and watch steel being shaped by a blacksmith."

There are lots of walking and hiking tracks nearby, as well, including the start of the Paparoa Track which I talk about in another post. And also, of course, the Kirwans Track, which people generally do as part of a loop hike.

Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/reefton-kirwans-track

Hanmer Springs is a popular hot-spring resort east of the Lewis Pass in NZ’s South Island. It’s also the gateway to a wilderness.

You get to Hanmer Springs by turning northward, off State Highway 7 between the Lewis Pass and Culverden. The town lies in a small plain just south of the Hanmer Range, which includes Mount Isobel and Jacks Pass.

It’s a short trip from there to the historic St James Homestead, Amuri Skifield and the pretty Peters Valley, which leads into the St James Conservation Area and the St James Cycle Trail.‍

The St James Conservation area to the northwest of Hanmer Springs, named after the old homestead, has a lot of variety of landscape. It is in a transitional zone between the beech forests of the Lewis Pass area, watered by westerly winds, and the more desert-like terrain due north and east of Hanmer Springs.

In fact, many of the best features of the area are to the north and northwest of the town. As one blogger puts it, “North of Hanmer Springs exists a rugged, expansive landscape where few visitors bother to tread.”

Closest to the town, on the northern side, is the Hanmer Forest Park, where there are a number of short walks, tramping tracks and walking tracks. These include the Mt Isobel Track, to the summit of Mount Isobel.

Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/theres-more-to-hanmer-than-springs

That’s a question we need to ask in New Zealand. Should immigration targets be linked to positive spending on infrastructure and housing to cope?

On last Sunday’s Q+A, most of the panel and the interviewees seemed to think that New Zealand needed a larger population, built up by immigration. Or that immigration-fuelled growth was, at any rate, inevitable.

Indeed, why shouldn’t New Zealand grow its population and its cities? By the standards of many other countries, we have the room.

And yet, New Zealand has a longstanding habit of failing to make sure that all the necessary transport links, pipes, wires, schools, hospitals, houses and jobs are in place, before the population is bumped up by immigration.

As far back as the mid-1970s, this failure to plan led to the rise of Rob Muldoon’s brand of anti-immigrant populism.

Nothing much has changed since then. Except that the problem of too few houses, in particular, has got worse.

Do we need a referendum linking permitted levels of immigration to prior provision for jobs, housing and infrastructure, to force the New Zealand state to lift its planning game?

Note regarding featured image: A much cheaper house than almost any in New Zealand, at Port Elliot, South Australia.

Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/do-we-need-referendum-immigration-population-infrastructure-housing