Hiking in Franz Josef

While most people who pass through Franz Josef usually embark on more exciting and thrilling adventures such as heli-hiking, or glacier walks, I decided to take it easy and just go for a couple of short hikes.

Both the Callery Gorge Walk and the Tatare Tunnels Walk had the same starting point, so I made my way to the base and started walking up.  I realized after visiting Auckland, that New Zealand isn’t very good at signage, as there is absolutely no indication at the base that this is the start of these two walks.  Secondly, the area was also gated off to cars, and only a small pathway on the side was accessible for pedestrians.  This caused a bit of confusion as I wasn’t sure if I was actually allowed to walk through there.  To add to that, there was absolutely no one else in the area.

After about 20 minutes of a slight incline, I finally made it to a fork in the road and saw the one and only sign on the whole trail.  The sign indicated that the Callery Gorge walk was one way, while the Tatare Tunnels walk was in the other direction. 

I decided to go for the Callery Gorge walk, as I’d heard that that is the more scenic one of the two.  The first third of the trail was relatively flat, with a wide gravel walkway, which made it very easy to walk on.   

Eventually, the trail became narrower as you enter a more forested area.

 

The trail begins to descend quite quickly and you end up at a bridge overlooking a creek with several beautiful waterfalls.

Once I reached the bridge, I really wasn’t quite sure if that was the end of the walk, or whether it continued.  There was a very small and narrow path on the other side of the bridge, which looked like it kept descending, but since there was no signage at all, I wasn’t really sure what to do.  At this point, I had walked for about an hour and I knew that the trail was supposed to take about 80-90 minutes, so I decided to keep going.

My hunch was correct and after another 10 minutes or so of a steep downhill walk, I ended up at a suspension bridge, which is the true end to the trail. 

I did this walk on a Saturday morning, and perhaps it was because this was the first nice day in a while in this area, but I only saw a total of 4 people during the entire 2 hours I was out on this walk.  Once I reached the fork in the road again, I decided to do the Tatare Tunnels Walk as well, since it was still quite early.  This walk was slightly more popular as I saw 6 other people.

The Tatare Walk wasn’t quite as exciting in terms of landscape.  The first part of the walk was also very flat and it did lead to some amazing scenery.

Immediately after the views of this stream, it was an uphill climb to the Tatare Tunnels.  Nothing overly strenuous but it is about 15 minutes of climbing.  I made it to the end, but the Tunnels were actually closed for maintenance, so after a short break, I just backtracked back down the hill to enjoy a leisurely walk back to town.