Jessica Wynne Lockhart Situated in the country’s isolated south-west region, the Hump Ridge Track will officially launch in October 2024 and has the potential to save the tiny town of Tuatapere. My first gasp was for breath, as I dropped my sweaty pack down on the trail, having finally reached the ridgeline. I’d spent the morning climbing roughly 900m on the Hump Ridge Track, at times relying on my hands to pull myself up through forests of dripping moss, rimu and manuka trees.
The second gasp, though, was for the view of New Zealand’s rugged south-west coast. From the rocky outcrop where I stood, one of the Southland region’s most untouched corners spread out as far as I could see. In the distance was the wide crescent of sand I’d hiked along earlier that day; a reminder of how far I’d come.
And above it all, a rainbow heralded my arrival into the subalpine terrain, an environment favoured by endemic kea and kaka parrots. Locals will be quick to tell you that these are the views that inspired the Carpenters’ 1972 hit Top of the World, which was based on a poem sent to the American pop duo by a Southland schoolteacher: Perhaps it’s an anecdote that’s shared so often because it’s the closest brush with fame that the tiny town of Tuatapere – situated in the far reaches of Southland, the country’s southernmost region – has had, well, maybe ever. The farming community’s only other claim to fame is that it’s the “sausage capital of NZ”.
It nearly .
