So you’ve made it through the rivers, farmland and mountains of the South Island… now you just have to conquer the Longwood Forest Track to make it out to the coast.

The Longwood Forest is the last stretch of forest on the Te Araroa trail and notorious for being the muddiest part of the TA even in good weather! I heard many stories of hikers sinking knee or at worst even waist deep here on swampy muddy trails. Because of the mud it’s slow going so don’t underestimate how long this section will take.

Despite being so muddy there is very limited access to streams or drinking water through this section and I’d recommend carrying as much water as you can. It’s offer possible to collect water before leaving the 4wd tracks to enter the forest trail, possibly along the dirt road on the way down from the transmission tower and then not again until a small stream nearby Martins Hut.

There is unfortunately nowhere suitable for swimming to wash off the mud here.