We decided to head to Able Tasman National Park in New Zealand. On our adventures, unsure what to expect we headed up along Georges Hill in a town near “Mapua”. We were originally tempted to do the full 19km loop around a part of the huge national park, that also included Georges Hill but then in wet and windy conditions we decided to stick to Georges Hill, with a return of around 9km.
Arriving there was just as the website stated, follow the road and arrive at the car park. The drive over was nice, around a 6/10. Signs warned us about penguin sightings and Kiwi sightings but the reality was that we didn’t see any.
The hike itself was pretty nice, around a 6/10 once again. It was much more rainforest vibes as we climbed the looping hills of George. We saw several maintenance men on the way up with most of them stopping there excavating activities upon the sighting of me and Jackson.
Wildlife on the hike was limited, a few birds is all we saw. The hike was fairly standard up until the climax of the hike. The pathway went from a slow but steady increase on wetland greenery to a rather steep , 30% incline path upon ruggid dry mud the colour of sand during golden hour.
We persevered and made it to the top of the hill. Unsure if we had actually made it to the peak at the time, we looked around and saw an “off road” path to the left and a subsequent normal path heading downwards again to the right. We looked at the directional arrow and it seemed to point directly in the middle of both of them. Being young, adventurous and curious we followed the philosophy of “The Only Way is Up” and went upwards on the off road overgrown pathway.
We battled our way through overgrown grass, through a narrow pathway wondering about the potential view and photo opportunity. Upon arrival, it was a telecoms box, a pathway for the engineer and works man of the telecommunications line above us. However never the less by the hut was a huge rock, we stood on top of it and peered outward.
The view from the top of Georges Hill was nice, the sea, the sand and some distant rocks, PRETTY GOOD, but in New Zealand there is definitely a lot better. We then headed down to the downhill track to grab a photo with the sea in the background (see below) and then we returned home.
Drive over 6/10
View 6/10
Hike 5/10
Difficulty 6/10
My Overall Experience 5.5/10
So that was our experience, are you going to go on the Able Tasman National Park Georges Hill walk in Waitumi in 2019?
Yours Truly, Dylan
