Te Araroa Trust is a registered charity,  with the majority of its income from donations to care for and enhance the trail. Every dollar donated is spent directly on trail improvements and development. 

The recommended donation is:

• $850 – through walkers, walking both islands
• $500 – through walkers walking one island
• $250 – section walkers 

This works out at about 30c per kilometre or $6-$7 per day. Which isn’t bad when you consider it costs an average of $1,500 to maintain each kilometre on Te Araroa.

To give some examples of how donations might be spent:

• $50 pays for the resurfacing of 3 metres of damaged easy access track
• $120 pays for the materials for 1-meter of boardwalk to protect fragile areas and avoid the mud
• $150 pays for the materials for a new stile
• $1,000  pays for the work to clear windfall from a kilometre of tramping track in the bush
• $2,500 pays for the installation of a new water tank in the mountains by 4WD
• $150,000 pays for a new 30 metre swing bridge

Yes. Te Araroa Trust partners with government agencies but receives no government funding to support trail care and repair, or development of the trail. The Trust actively contributes to work being undertaken on public conservation land, private and other land owned by farmers and iwi etc. So your support is appreciated.

Your registration will last for 1 year from the day you register. This year covers your contribution for the season you plan to walk. 

The ‘season’ goes from July 1 to June 30. While most through walkers walk during the summer months many section walkers make their journey in small chunks throughout the year.

To be a member of Te Araroa you will need to register every year that you walk the trail. We ask that you donate to Te Araroa as well. We suggest that section walker’s donations eventually add up to the same donation as an end-to-end through walker ($850), but you can always donate more!

Yes, if you are New Zealand tax registered. You will receive a receipt in your confirmation email when you donate. 

You can claim 33.33 cents for every dollar you donated to approved charities and organisations. The registration fee is not included in the donation amount as a registration is not tax refundable.

Registration fees cover the cost of your walker merchandise pack and support the development of Trail App. $10 from every registration goes to support nature regeneration along the trail. 

Your donation funds the care, repair and development of the trail. Every dollar donated is spent directly on enhancing the trail.

We can refund you the $60 registration fee for last season. Just email us at info@teararoa.org.nz with your bank details/paypal information. You can then re-register and update your details.

Everyone who registers receives an email that contains their walker registration details. Walkers can check that their details are correct in this email. Walkers can also update their details using a link near the bottom of the email. Follow the link and make any corrections that are needed.

Your registration is connected to your email address. If you put the correct address into the system, your notification should be in your email somewhere. Check your Spam and Junk folders. If this doesn’t work, email Te Araroa at: info@teararoa.org.nz

Yes, we are committed to using locally sourced, durable and recyclable materials. Our bag tag, sticker, postcard and envelope are all made here in Aotearoa New Zealand and can be easily recycled. Unfortunately this year we have had to produce our patches overseas. We will be looking into alternative options for next year. We only post our packs within New Zealand, reducing the emissions associated with freight. We know that there is much more to sustainability than just recycling and exploring other ways to increase the sustainability of our merchandise and general operations is a priority for us.

Te Araroa has partnered with Pack & Send who have depots throughout the country. When you register you will see that there are several Pack and Send depots that are close to either the trail itself or an international airport – in Auckland, Wellington, Christchurch & Queenstown. You can choose to have your pack sent to one of these places. 

Alternatively you can collect your pack from the Tuatara Lodge in Invercargill (a good spot for Northbound through walkers) or the Kaitāia Far North i-SITE Visitor Information Centre (a good spot for Southbound through walkers).

You can also ask the Te Araroa community facebook group for help with your pack.

We looked into offering international postage, but the costs were highly prohibitive – in some cases more than doubling the cost of registration. Walkers come from countries all over the world and the cost varies country to country and over time.

Our system does not have the capability to calculate this automatically and, as a small team of just 3 employees, we don’t have the capacity to calculate this manually for each walker.

We are also mindful of our environmental impact and delivering within New Zealand reduces unnecessary emissions associated with international freight.

All walkers will be coming to New Zealand to walk and passing by at least one of the 6 convenient collection points, so there should be no reason why they cannot collect their pack.

Packs are posted out weekly, starting from Wednesday the 28th August 2024. Depending on when in the week you register you could wait between 2-10 days for your pack to be delivered.

Check the email you received when you registered. Follow the link at the bottom and you can update your details and request a pack.

If you opt to have your pack delivered to a Pack & Send depot, they will only keep your membership pack for three months. Don’t order your pack too soon! 

A simple way to avoid this is to delay the delivery of your pack to a set date. This way you can control when we send the pack out. When you know where you want to send your pack to, there is an option “I won’t be able to collect my pack in the next 3 months – defer my delivery”. If you choose this option, you will be given a date that suits your schedule better. 

If your plans change you can contact the depot and ask them to forward your pack on to somewhere else. This will be at your own cost.

Here are all the pack and send depot contact details:

AUCKLAND CITY
8 Mahuhu Crescent, Auckland CBD, Auckland 1010.
Phone 09 909 9099

TAKAPUNA – AUCKLAND
77B Barrys Point Road, Takapuna, Auckland 0622.
Phone 09 486 3355

WELLINGTON CITY
(Closest Service centre to Wellington International Airport) 60 Adelaide Road, Mt Cook, Wellington, 6021.
Phone 04 894 3893

PAPANUI – CHRISTCHURCH
(Closest Service centre to Christchurch International Airport) 17B Main North Road, Papanui, Christchurch, 8053.
Phone 03 925 9692

QUEENSTOWN
(Closest Service centre to Queenstown International Airport) Unit 29/159 Gorge Road, The Gorge Road Retail Centre, Queenstown, 9300.
Phone 03 442 8498

The other delivery locations are:

Kaitāia Far North i-SITE Visitor Information Centre 
Te Ahu, Cnr Matthews Avenue and South Road 
Kaitāia 
Phone +64 9 408 9450

Tuatara Backpackers Lodge 
0-32 Dee Street, Invercargill 9810 
Phone 03 214 0954

Packs are sent out from Pack & Send in Palmerston North to other depots around the country. If your pack hasn’t shown up, contact Palmerston North Pack & Send on 06 826 4337 or palmerstonnorth@packsend.co.nz and they can look into this for you.

When you register you will receive two emails from us. One is a review of all of the information you gave us. The other is your receipt.

Once your pack has been processed and sent to Pack & Send to deliver, Pack & Send will send you a tracking number, or delivery status email. You should be able to trace your pack with this. If you have any worries, you can contact the Pack & Send office in Palmerston North and they should be able to help out on: 06 826 4337 or palmerstonnorth@packsend.co.nz

Unfortunately occasionally packs do go missing in transit – if it’s found that this is a case, we will send out another pack to you.

Pack & Send can forward your pack to another depot or address, but you will need to pay for this. You can phone or email them and ask for this to happen. There will be a fee. At the time of writing this fee was $12.50. You can pay by bank transfer, cash or by credit card. Note: Credit card transactions can only be processed in the depot or over the phone.

You will need to check the Pack & Send website for open hours.

Take photo ID with you or show your trail pass when collecting your pack.

Pack & Send can forward your pack to another depot or address, but you will need to pay for this. You can phone or email them and ask for this to happen. There will be a fee. At the time of writing this fee was $12.50. You can pay by bank transfer, cash or by credit card. Note: Credit card transactions can only be processed in the depot or over the phone.

Take photo ID with you or show your trail pass when collecting your pack.