What tramp you should do based on your tramping personality

What kind of tramper are you? Understanding your tramping style helps gauge how long a journey might take. Whether you’re a speed demon or a leisurely wanderer, start small, and you’ll quickly figure out whether you’re under, on, or over DOC times.

Hannah-Rose Watt has popped the personalities into five categories, and we’ve recommended a tramp from Wild Walks Aotearoa for each personality!

Hard and fast

Eats rocks for breakfast, can power up a hill without breaking a sweat and spends most of their day waiting for everyone else.

Wairakau Stream and Kaiaraara Rocks (Dukes Nose) p.208

With salt water, fresh water, jungle and some serious hands-on-rock action, this tramp gets a lot of praise. Featuring a near vertical climb, assisting you to scale the rock is one long steel pole and a butt-load of hell yeah. Scaling the pole rewards you with a spectacular 360-degree view. This tropical vista is an epic backdrop for lounging, lizarding on the rocks and enjoying snacks (while you wait for your tramping mates to scale their way up to the top to meet you!). 

Heck Level: 5/10

Efficient

Gets there efficiently but makes time for the odd snack stop and photo, might need reward-based incentives like a treat and a 30-second break for every 100 metres of elevation.

Mount Holdsworth - Jumbo Circuit (Jumbo Powell) p.130

This tramp serves as an excellent introduction to Tararua Range adventures. Short, sweet and a little gnarly, this circuit is accessible to a range of trampers. The loop can be completed in a single day or extended over multiple days. The most common and conducive to a comfy, view-filled walking holiday is two nights, one each in Jumbo and Powell huts.

Heck Level: 6/10

Whimsical

Will get to the destination but will prioritise lying in wildflowers and studying small plants, might even take a nap along the way.

Rob Roy Glacier p.82

Soft, kaleidoscopic wildflowers in alpine meadows, ethereal glacier cut gorges, and swirling alpine water. Need we say more?

Heck Level: 4/10

Snacker

Stops for breakfast, second breakfast, morning tea, brunch, elevenses, lunch, second lunch, (optional third lunch), afternoon tea, dinner, supper, dessert and might even throw in a midnight snack.

Wharariki Beach p.58

Why not plan a walk with food as the focus? Pack a camping stove and have a picnic dinner on Wharariki Beach while watching the sun go down.

Heck Level: 1/10

Plodder

Likes to take it slow, pretends to be taking a photo, but is actually catching their breath. Enjoys being at the back to take their sweet, sweet time and talk to the birds.

Lake Matheson p.72

This crispy little West Coast loop takes just over an hour to complete. Alternatively, it’s about 15–20 minutes to the first viewing platform where the sublime photography takes place. The track is impeccably marked, well-maintained and remarkably easy – a pathway you could boogie down barefoot between bowls of hot chips at the pub.

Heck Level: 2/10