3 Days Backpacking New Zealand's Most Diverse Wilderness!

In this video, I'm spending three days backpacking through river valleys and beach forests over mountain passes and swing bridges on one of New Zealand's most diverse and overlooked trails. Waterfall! Stunning! The trail I'm on today covers over 60 kilometers through two connected but distinctly different river valleys, the Greenstone Valley and the Capels Valley. Now, I have over 16 miles of hiking to do today and it is already late morning, so with that, let's get going. Swing bridge! Oh my god, look at it! What happened? I crossed the wrong bridge, which means we get to go back across the bridge. All right, wrong way. That's okay. This is my show, gosh darn. So we just hit a V in our trail. We are headed to the McKellar Hut along the Greenstone track today and then two days from now, we'll be coming out along this track, which is the Capels track. The valley we're hiking into today is a big wide river valley with expansive views and then the valley we'll be coming down two days from now is a much denser forested valley. Um, but before we go to the valley, we have a cool bridge! This might be why I chose this trail, if we're honest. Whoa! This is so cool! Isn't that the best bridge? We have stunning weather today. It looks like sunshine, clear skies for the next three days, which, if you saw my last video, has not been our typical weather here in New Zealand. I'm so excited for a beautiful day of hiking, which we're really going to need to cover all these miles. Bird! A bird just flew away. I mean, come on, look at this moss! How do you not love that? A bunch of little Grinch fingers. Look at you grow! Whoa! Oh my god, look at this pool! Whoa, I have never seen water like this! It's like mermaid water. It's so blue and clear you can actually see the rock ledge underneath the water. I did expect this trail to be beautiful, but I don't think I expected so many different things so early on to amaze me. Okay, gotta cover some miles. Oh, another bridge! Wow! Waterfall! Bridge, bridge, bridge, bridge! I'm impressed. We have another bridge coming up and another waterfall. Wow! Forest of beech trees! There's Rainer doing his filming job. Nice job! If you are new here, I do almost all my trips with Rainer, who's my camera guy, my producer, also my best friend. Bridge number four! Bridge, bridge, bridge, bridge, bridge! Rainer and I are hiking much faster today than we usually do, and we're also covering many more miles than we typically do, especially on the first day of the backpacking trip. Part of the reason we're moving so fast is not just the fact that we have so many miles to cover, it's also that we got started rather late. We didn't actually leave the trailhead until around 11 a.m. We actually took a shuttle bus from Queenstown to the Greenstone Caples trailhead. Anyway, late start due to the shuttle, so we're moving fast. Despite the fact that we are moving very fast, this trail has been so beautiful, and we've been appreciating every moment of it. Honestly, I'm just totally loving this day. Check this out! We just burst out of the trees into this beautiful valley. Stunning! Oh my gosh! Cheers! Can I interest you in a gummy? All right, you want sour squirm or gummy frog? That's the way you think. Rainer and I took a short lunch break along the banks of the Greenstone River. We have been hearing the most incredible birds in the forest. One of the things that makes Greenstone and Caples Valley so unique is the number of birds that live here, particularly birds that are endangered or threatened. The one bird that I am particularly interested in seeing is the Kia parrot. Kia are very smart. They're also known to occasionally steal stuff from backpackers, and I just think it's so cool to see one. Entered the Greenstone Flats, this wide open section of trail between two mountain ranges. It's also farmland, so we are hiking with the aroma of cow poop surrounding us. The hills are alive with the smell of cow poop. Anyway, off we go! Bridge number five! Bridge, bridge, bridge! Yay! Somewhat less enthusiastic bridge chant from the first of the day. We're reaching about 12 miles of hike in here, so that's why. Oh, now this is a bridge! Whoa! All right, I guess this is the way. Okay. Oh gosh. It says safe load limit. One person. Do not exceed. All right, over we go. Oh wow. Okay. Okay, this is actually really scary. Oh golly. Okay. Oh, I am ready for this to be over. God. Wow. Oh my gosh. That was terrifying. All right, Rainer, your turn. Be careful. Nice, dude. Wow. Nice. That's something else. Yeah, is that scary? A little bit. Nice. Woo! Bridge number six, and terrifying. Because of all that rain that New Zealand has been getting, we got these big muddy sections we have to cross. It's kind of like a floor is lava, but lava is mud situation. Definitely not fun. Hello, cows. Sorry, we kind of snuck up on you. Wow, you really blend in. The sun has gone behind the mountains. It has drastically cooled things down here. We are also hiking through another section of forest right now. We have probably about five kilometers until we get to the hut. So we are just continuing to move fast. All right, three more miles. Wow. Oh, beautiful. We are getting so close to the McKellar Hut, which is our stopping point for the night. This most recent section of trail has been so beautiful, like one of the most beautiful today, through these farmlands, past cows. But oh my God, I'm so ready to be done. I'm so tired. All right, hut. Where are you? We see a sign. I think it's the hut. Oh, a final bridge. We made it. We finally made it to the McKellar Hut, and we got our gear set up as quickly as we could, and then went into the main kitchen area of the hut and cooked some food, ate some dinner. And then it's now time to go to sleep. We wound up putting in nearly 20 miles of hiking today. For my kilometer friends, that's like over 30 kilometers of hiking, despite the fact that today was very long and hard. That's what she said. It was still so stunningly beautiful. I cannot wait to see what this trail has in store for me tomorrow, because everything that we got to see today was truly magnificent. Last tiny little thing. I am using my Zen Biffy sleep system, and I'm so grateful for it, because I truly feel like I've just climbed into my bed at home after hiking 20 miles. And that feeling is the best. Okay, good night. Sleep well. Good morning. I slept just so well last night. I'm so tired. It is already 8 20 in the morning, which is a lot later than I normally sleep in backpacking. I needed a good night's sleep. All right, let's do this. You scared the crap out of me. I was gonna like dump water on you. Country cuisine smoothie. Yeah, a little sweet. That's good. I think that Rainer and I are going to eat our breakfast, which I kind of already did. Drink some coffee. I just feel so good this morning, which I did not really expect given how long of a day we had yesterday. So I'm very happy. I'm very ready to tackle the pass this morning. So Rainer and I had some breakfast and some coffee up at the hut. There was a lot of people in that little kitchen room. I'm headed over to start packing up my tent a bit here. Dude, Rainer, it actually got down to freezing temperatures last night. Yeah, inside my tent, the temperature that I recorded was 32 degrees Fahrenheit is the low. Yeah. That's summer in New Zealand for you. This is, I think, one of the craziest and coolest things about the McKellar hut. There are two toilets here, but they're not just any toilet. Flush toilets. How cool is that? Okay, that's it. Sorry. I'm really excited about the flush toilets. It's pretty incredible. I know. Yeah, I was expecting just like a drop toilet, but luxury. Got some folks still drying out tents before getting packed up, which makes sense because everything was very damp. And now the sun is coming up, which I do believe it's time for us to get going and start our hike. After the McKellar hut behind and have now entered Fiordland National Park, we are hiking through this beautiful, dense, mossy forest. There is moss covering absolutely everything right now, from the rocks on the ground, the trees, the branches, everything is covered in moss. I think that this is my favorite section of trail so far. I love this dense forest. I love all the moss. Okay, I'm going to enjoy this forest ramble because once we are through this, we have a very steep climb until we reach the McKellar saddle. Rainer and I have been hiking along the banks of this lake here, which I think is McKellar Lake. And as we were hiking, we heard the most incredible bird song. We didn't see the bird. I don't know what bird it is. It's just so beautiful and melodic. I've heard a lot of birds here in New Zealand, but I have yet to see very many besides the fantail and the robin. So I'm really hoping to see a kia, maybe hear a kaka. That would for sure make the trip for me. Wow. Pay the toll. Um, one dollar please. Oh wait, I have to pay you. Sorry. My bad. I forgot how the toll works. And now we have begun the short but very steep ascent up to the McKellar saddle. Once we reach the saddle, that will be the high point of the entire trip. I'm thinking we'll have some pretty great views from up there as well. We are on our final stretch of the climb. We've started to emerge close to the tree line. There have been little glimpses of the mountains in the distance through the trees. I think we're going to pause for a lunch break at the saddle. Feels like an appropriate time to take lunch, get some food, refuel, and begin our descent. Oh my gosh. Oh, incredible views. That is the view. I think this is a great spot to stop and have some lunch. Woo, let's do it. For lunch, I have a can, whoops, of sweet Thai chili tuna, some crackers, baby bell cheese. Might be on its last leg. Final day that it's safe to eat. Some bite meat biltong and a bumper bar. You curious what our mileage is from here? It's like nine and a half miles. All downhill. Pretty good. Oh, look who did. Put your little crunchies in there too. Yes, I did. Now that we have passed over the McKellar Saddle, we have hit the high point of our trip, and we are now hiking down towards the Caples River, where we'll be in the Caples Valley for the next two days. French, French, French, French, French, French, French, French. Our trail has brought us into the forest. Once we get down to the Caples River, we'll be hiking along the river for a little ways until we get to where we're spending the night tonight at the Mid-Caples Hut. Apparently, the Mid-Caples Hut has the best view of any of the huts in the area. I'm hoping we can get there before nightfall, so that we can appreciate the views and really enjoy the hut. We still have many miles to go. This trail is consistently so beautiful. Quick little New Zealand trail marker lesson for you. The blue and the pink markers are not actually hiking trails. The only hiking trail marker is orange. The blue and the pink markers actually mark what are called trap lines. So there are a lot of invasive species in Aotearoa, specifically things like stoats or other mice or rodents. And so trap lines have been set up to help capture invasive species. So the pink and the blue markers are used to indicate where a trap line has been placed, so that someone who's coming out and checking the traps or doing research knows where to head to look for the traps in the woods. This sign very helpfully lets us know that you should not follow the blue or the pink ones as a hiker, only follow orange. We stopped to filter some water and I put some electrolytes into my water bottle as well. I was starting to feel a bit sluggish and also like all the water I was drinking was just going straight through me, which is definitely a clear sign that I needed some electrolytes. If you are not familiar, my favorite electrolyte drink mix is Element electrolytes. I absolutely swear by Element when I'm hiking, especially when I'm doing a lot of really rigorous hiking in the heat. Yesterday I kind of started to crash a bit when we were around mile 16 or so, and I for sure knew that I needed food, and I also really needed to replenish my electrolytes, and Element really comes in handy for that. If you've not yet tried it, you can go to the link below, which is drinklement.com slash mirandagoesoutside. Place an order there and you'll get a sample pack of eight sticks of Element. All right, I'm going to drink half of this. I also think I have a blister forming on my foot, so I'm going to address that, and then we are going to continue hiking. We have roughly five more miles until we get into the mid capels hut for the night. Oh my god, there's a kia. Did you hear it? It flew across the trail, and then it was in the woods here. I could like barely see it, but I saw it. That was a kia. Oh my gosh, the trip's complete. Wow, that was so cool. Yay. I'm really hoping that we can see a kia again. So I think Raina and I are actually going to hike somewhat quietly for the next few miles, keep our ears peeled and our eyes out, see if we can see another one of the cheeky kia of New Zealand. Move. Oh my gosh, I can see the hut. Do you see the roof in the distance? Oh my gosh, we're so close. Here it is. This hut is huge. How's it going? Oh wow, huge space. Where are you coming from? We just came from McKellar. This afternoon, yeah. Yeah, it was nice. Long one. Yeah, it was a long day. Okay, so I went into the hut and I checked it out. I'm going to kind of quickly toss the rest of my stuff into my tent and then head back up the hut to make some food and eat and really get to appreciate the beautiful view from the mid capos hut while I'm having some food. These sand flies are really bad. That is maybe the only downside to this campsite. We didn't really have much of an issue with them last night because it was quite cold. So I'm hoping that it gets cold tonight and scares them all off. All right, I'm going to finish setting up. I'm going to go back to the hut, make some food and hang out. So it is just about nine o'clock right now. Everyone who's sleeping in the huts has actually gone to sleep already. So it's quite quiet in there. We are eating some dinner much later than we generally eat dinner, but it was a long day of hiking. Rena and I are going to eat dinner quietly, but I didn't really say anything because the hut bunk rooms are adjacent to the shared space where you cook and eat. The views from the deck of the hut are stunning. The views from our campsite are stunning. It's really just absolutely beautiful. We plan on waking up really early tomorrow morning, probably around 6 or 6 30, so that we can appreciate this beautiful view and not have a super rushed morning. We only have about five and a half miles of hiking tomorrow, but we have to be back at the car park by 12 45 for our shuttle to pick us up. So I do not want to be rushing it. So yeah, early morning tomorrow. All right, I'm gonna go eat some dinner. So Rena and I ate our dinner in complete silence in the hut room, and then once we ate, I came down to my tent and now I'm headed to sleep. Good night, Rena. Good night. Good morning. It is about 6 15 in the morning. My alarm just went off, so I'm gonna go ahead and get up, start shaking some of my stuff out, get some breakfast and some coffee, and enjoy a beautiful view at the hut. Ow, wet. It's bad. Yeah! It's a working! I'm getting a signal! Mushroom! This is what's sometimes called a Santa Claus mushroom or an Amanita muscaria. Do not eat this! You will have a weird time. Do not eat. Whoa! So many of our bridges that we've crossed have been over really small streams and kind of close to the water, except for that big, you know, the steel bridge that we crossed, which was quite scary, but this one goes over a really incredible canyon where the water is carving through the rock. It's truly very different than a lot of the other bridges that we've gone over. Gorgeous. We've been on trail now for about a mile, so we have roughly four and a half miles to go. There have been a couple of blowdowns on this trail, but I think that's just because of all the storms and the winds that have been wrecking havoc on New Zealand's trails this summer, because the trail is otherwise so beautifully maintained and really easy to follow. Just a lovely walk. All in all, a really spectacular start to our final day. These little birds have no fear. Okay, we're gonna go past. I practically stepped on you. We keep seeing these little birds that I think are robins, and they're very cute, but they have no fear, and they're kind of aggressive in some ways. Look at, like, right under your feet. We have yet to see any more kea or hirikaka. Basically just seeing these little, like, chickadee-esque birds, which I know is not what they're called, but I can't remember what they're called. We've seen fantails, and then these aggressive round birds that look like robins. Wide open valleys. We have about one mile left on our trail until we are back at the start of our loop, and then just a short mile after that until we are back at the trailhead. Like I said at the beginning of this video, the Greenstone Caples Track is so often overshadowed by the Rootburn Track. It's far more popular and much shorter in neighbor. In fact, if you look up the Greenstone Caples online, you'll get tons of articles calling it a good alternative to Rootburn or an option in case you can't get permits. But I think it does the Greenstone Caples Track a disservice to compare it to Rootburn simply because they are so close to each other. This trail has so much diversity of plant life, of views, and I feel like in its own right, it deserves as much love and attention as the Rootburn Track. It's kind of hard to pick a favorite section of this track for me. I think the boardwalks up at the saddle yesterday were beautiful. I loved, of course, all of the bridges. Hearing the bird song, the ferns, the moss-covered forests. There's just so much to be seen in 60-some kilometers. It truly is just a stunning, gorgeous track. So I guess I would say that if you are coming to New Zealand to go backpacking, maybe look at some of the options that exist beyond the Great Walks because you might find that just because a trail is not considered a great walk and managed as such does not mean that it won't be spectacularly beautiful and maybe exactly what you're looking for. We finished the loop! We just passed the turnoff for the Greenstone Valley Track which means we have finished our loop and now we just have one short mile back to the trailhead. I'm going to knock out this final stretch of trail so I'm going to say goodbye to all of you here. Make sure you subscribe to my channel. And as always, if you liked this video, hit the like button and I will see you outside. Bye! What are you doing? Are you making a movie? Who are you filming? Who are you talking to? Hello? Do you see what I deal with? Good job! That one makes it better.