Wanaka’s Nicky Blennerhassett has just walked the length of the South Island, but she’s not sure why.

"It’s funny because I don’t really know what the reason was. Why do you decide to do anything?” Nicky had tramped before but not in the last few years, and had never done a walk of significant length.

She began the Te Araroa trail in Bluff on February 10 and finished at the top of the South Island two months later. Nicky had hoped to complete the whole trail in one go, but curtailed her trip after short days and cyclones made the going difficult.

She described the walk as a great experience. "One of the amazing things was seeing the changing landscape over the course of the track. Lots of these places I’d never been before and it was so varied.”

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Nicky said it was hard to pick a favourite spot, but thought the Mavora Greenstone Walkway, in Mavora Lakes Conservation Park, was particularly special.

Nicky, who is 57, estimated that 80 percent of the people she came across on the trail were in their 20s. "I probably came across about four people my age,” she said. The overwhelming majority of people she came across were foreigners. "I probably only met about eight or nine Kiwis on the trail.”

Nicky said she has been asked a lot why she chose to walk the trail alone. "People were surprised, but the huts are very social,” she said. The longest amount of time Nicky spent without seeing anybody was about four days, but the isolation didn’t bother her. "I really do really enjoy the solitude of walking on your own and taking that time out to think”.

Nicky said her only sticky situation was while crossing the Richmond Ranges. "Up the top of the range I was in really misty conditions. The forecast was for 70km winds and I think they were about that. It got a bit spooky because occasionally I couldn’t quite see the markers for where to go, and then they’d appear out the mist.

"There’s the odd day that you don’t like what’s happening but you just accept it and carry on. I missed the Takitimu section [approximately three days long] due to a broken pack, and also had to escape from the trail for a few days when Cyclone Debbie was coming through, missing about four days of the trail south of the Pelorus River section.”

"Afterwards I thought I was done with long walks, but after basically three weeks of rest I was ready for it again,” she said. Nicky plans to walk the two South Island sections she missed and the North Island leg of the trail next summer.

The Te Araroa Trail is New Zealand’s longest-distance tramping route, spanning 3000km from Cape Reinga to Bluff. Completed in 2011, it is one of the world’s longest walking trails.

PHOTO: Nicky Blennerhassett