kepler track and how many foreigners walk it

[wayno]

http://www.nzherald.co.nz/travel/news/a ... d=10849224

"Over 8684 people walked the Kepler last year of which 26.78 per cent were Kiwis, 14.12 per cent were German, 11.45 were Israeli and 10.12 were Australian, 9.43 from the US and 6.1 per cent from the UK. The remaining 12 per cent hailed from 57 other countries including Japan, Norway, Hungary and even one tramper from Cameroon!"

from my experience, during summer theres a higher no of foreigners

[jacko1956]

The Germans certainly seem to figure on hiking trails everywhere.
Anyone have an insight into why so many Germans hike/backpack etc?
There must be something they do in their kids formative years that instills a travel/hiking bug.

[wayno]

bavarians from the alps! those from the south especially grow up walking in the hills, i
someone was telling me they were in switzerland. you'd walk up a big steep mountain and feel proud of yourself and when you got to the top there's be some guy in his seventies up there enjoying the view and even smoking on a pipe! its part of a lot of peoples lives there
a lot of the germans who come to nz are really fit, they've been exposed to it so long they are in really good shape..
i have a german friend and he cant understand why there are so many unfit obese new zealanders when we have so much great countryside and space to get out and get active in, to him its a totally foreign concept to be inactive. he lives in munich but its important to him and a lot of germans to be active...
the germans also seem to often have really good quality gear, wheras americans and others from less mountainous regions vary more in the quality of their gear.

[1iron]

I think when I walked it 18 years ago more Germans than New Zealanders had walked it.

[wayno]

we won the war but they still got to invade

someone asked a friend who had just walked the Abel Tasman if there were many people on the track.. there answer was...
"no one who won the war"

[jacko1956]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yfl6Lu3xQW0

[wayno]

fawlty towers, don't mention the war,, contains racist jokes.... http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tSrTQVDjcrA

[Schmeed]

Well i did Kepler just this past November, I was actually on the track when it was posted. I must say out of about 50 people on the track we have 25 Germans, 10 Americans, 2 Aussies (including me) and 6 people from japan. I must say that they are some of the loudest trappers, but also the funniest. The kepler track is a great track, but i would recommend doing the capes and greenstone track because there are a lot fewer people on the tracks and the tracks are generally more enjoyable rather than just plodding along like the great walkers

[wayno]

caples and greenstone huts get overcrowded over summer esp over holiday season..

[Hallu]

Yeah I also saw lots of Germans on the South Island and was surprised by that. In France, they have the reputation to come here for the beaches, walking around in sandals with their socks on, not to hike in the Alps or the Pyrénées. Nevertheless, I never saw Germans hiking in Australia. I guess if you come to Australia, you don't come for the mountains. And most Europeans have never heard of the mountains of Tasmania, unlike NZ's Southern Alps.

I was also surprised by the number of Japanese hikers in NZ, which is a rare sight in Australia. I'd say that in Oz you see less Germans and Japanese hiking but I'd be curious to see some stats about who's walking the Overland or the Great Ocean Walk. I regularly see people speaking Spanish hiking around Australia, but couldn't tell you which country they come from.

[wayno]

bavarians just flock to the mountains, as soon as they can walk they are going up mountains... you get to the top of a steep climbing, gasping for breath and theres some old grey headed person smoking a pipe happy as larry...

i think our mountains get marketed to death overseas. Mitre peak, Mt Cook. ngauruhoe. images of snow, skiing,, plus all the lord of the rings movies and now the hobbit movies...

[roysta]

There's also another nationality you see lots of hiking in NZ but not in Australia, Israelis.

[wayno]

the nz hut system attracts bushwalkers with little money looking for something more than a tent to stay in, in the bush. israelis dont tend to have a lot of money, some bushwalkers just use nz huts as their main accomodation as much as possible as they move through the country, they may or may not pay the hut fees. people often try and stay in shelters on the great walks for free as well. something you're not supposed to do...
films like lord of the rings also attract a lot of people to bushwalk in nz when they normally wouldnt bother.
possibly theres a novelty factor for people like israelis coming from such a dry lower lying country. i meet a lot off people who dont live anywhre near moutains coming to walk in nz.

[GoForFun]

@roysta: Maybe they have the option to obtain a working holiday visa for NZ?! In Oz they don't.

[wayno]

i believe they can, i spoke to one who had work. also the laws were changed to allow tourists to work in horticulture, due to chronic shortages of local workers

[Igorius]

Hello,

I am from Germany and know from a current statistic that Germany is worldwide the nationality who spends most money on tourism. I don't know why we travel that much to be honest but veryone here is interested in it and loves to see diferent countrys/ cultures. Especially in NZ and OZ they seem to be the number 1. backapacker and travel group. But I know that most tourists come from asian (especially chinese, korean, malaysian). Although these tourists don't really travel with a backpack or a campervan - maybe a few - I haven't seen many of them on the roads - only in the cities or at the main attractions (Whitsundays, Blue Mountains etc.).

[wayno]

asians do walk the tracks, but almost always in large groups and guided. mainly day walkers but they do the higher standard overnight walks as well
although i know koreans who do their own tramps in groups as large as fifty...
havent noticed as many germans in recent years, they used to be more prolific, theres still plenty of them here now... the aussies are displacing them a lot more now since the recession