At 82 years old, he hiked the length of New Zealand
With a pack weighing about 16 kilograms, camera slung around his neck and a satellite phone tucked away, Ernst Schweizer started striding, accompanied by a cheeky grin.
At Cape Reinga, where Māori spirits set out on their final journey to their ancestral homeland of Hawaiki, Ernie was just beginning his own journey.
Tramping into summer’s sunshine, it was day one, November 2, 2024.
Ahead of him lay 3000km of the Te Araroa trail.
He began his trek. First across golden sandy beaches and then along the sparkling moss-lined pathways of Northland’s rainforests, walking among giants, the Kauri forests.
“You know, going out and seeing something, being out in nature, walking at your own speed, and detouring if you want, I just really enjoy it,” Ernie said.
His pack was filled with just the essentials:
Food and water supplies
1x fleece jacket
1x flannel shirt
1x rain jacket
1x pair of long pants
1x pair of pants
1x t-shirt
“The only thing I have two of is my pairs of Norsewear socks,” he says.
In the middle of the North Island, he experienced a standout part of his adventure - the Tongariro Crossing. “I did it with the most amazing, beautiful weather, perfect for taking photos. It was a magic day.”
Living on Backcountry New Zealand dehydrated meals, whenever the retired x-ray service engineer stopped in a town for resupply every 10-15 days or so, he’d treat himself to a “nice steak or fish, with some dessert, and a glass of wine or rum and coke.”
Ernie ate lightly otherwise. “I had one 90g freeze-dried meal in the evening, one nutri-bar at lunchtime, one and a half Weet-Bix for breakfast with one Berrocca tablet and a coffee morning and night.”
“With me on the road was always a block of chocolate. I did enjoy that,” he says. “But that didn’t go very far, it’s usually gone by the first evening.” Whittaker's hazelnut, dark almond, or fruit and nut are his top picks.
A ferry trip across the strait, along the pines of the Queen Charlotte track, and then he was marching up into the South Island’s spine, the Southern Alps. “I’d driven around the South Island in a car quite a lot, but you don’t really see the Alps unless you go up there and go hiking,” he says.
Ernie usually hiked by himself, encountering one or two people during the day and finding company at the campsite or hut in the evening. “During the day, my mind would just wander, I’d let it just bounce around, I think about my past, my future, my life, how good it was.”
“Always a pleasant thing. I have a positive outlook on life and a great sense of humour. I do not worry about things which I cannot change, which are not my fault. I just accept it and go with it,” he says.
It was only during the last six days of his hike that Ernie found himself wanting to quit. Descending from the mountains from Lower Princhester Hut, he faced three days of swamp.
“The first day was 10 kilometres of up to the chest black, gooey, swamp,” he says.
But other than that, Ernie was lucky. No blisters, no knee or hip problems. Only 13 days of rain the entire TA trip.
“I’m lucky, if I do my hiking, I hardly have any rainy days. The gods look after me.”
He did have to backtrack to the Tararua’s after reaching Bluff, as notoriously bad weather prompted him to detour around the forest park rather than wait a week for the weather to pass.
So with the weather forecast predicting five days of sunshine and a slight bit of rain, Ernie decided to finish the Te Araroa.
Four days in, he took his time, moving up and down the undulating Tararuas. On day five, he passed the Otaki River.
“The river was low, you only had to get the bottom of your feet wet,” he says. “But during the night, staying in Waitewaewae Hut, it started to rain heavily into the morning.”
At daybreak, Ernie stood in the hut doorway and looked out. “The rain was like a curtain coming down from the roof,” he says.
The now muddy brown Otaki River had risen two metres overnight, roaring and wild. Between him and the track end were six smaller river crossings.
“The first three were okay. But then the last one was up above my knees and very fast-flowing. It was about four to five metres wide.” Ernie pondered what to do. With more rain on the horizon, he could be stuck in the Tararuas for another week if he lingered much longer.
But then, he spotted a tree on the opposite riverbank, its limbs stretching out a meter over the creek. “I knew if I could make it two-thirds of the way across, I could hang onto that tree,” Ernie says.
“And I just did it. I just made it. I may do some crazy things, but I’m not stupid. It was a calculated risk,” he chuckles.
142 days later, on March 20, Ernie became the oldest hiker yet to traverse the length of New Zealand, at 82 years old. As he said himself, Ernie “knocked the bastard off.”
Slippers on instead of hiking boots now, Ernie reflects on his four months exploring Aotearoa on foot.
“I’m quite satisfied, you know, with what I achieved without any injury, and I did it in a very good time for myself. Not that I was striving for any special time,” he says.
“I just did it at a speed that I can enjoy it, one where I can stop and take pictures. Because that’s the main thing, you know that you enjoy the scenery you’re walking through.”
“I surprised myself, though. I can still walk those young ones into the ground, especially on the flat. A lot of people ask me what’s your secret…the attitude is what helps because 90% of how your body feels is in your brain.”
“Don’t rush it,” Ernie advises other hikers eyeing up the TA. “Do it in a way that you enjoy it. You know, if you don’t like walking along the highway, skip that, take a bus. You’re here to hike, not walk along the road!” Ernie took more than 2065 photos on his hike.
He thinks it’s important to prepare, too. “Read about the trail, find out how to get your food, and if there are any places where you need to organise a detour.”
And he’s no stranger to a big hike.
“I did the Camino and I did it my way,” he says. He walked 2100km from Geneva, Switzerland (where he was born), across France to the Atlantic.
He only started tramping the big hikes when he retired, finding himself with a lot more time. After the first big hike, he was hooked. He walked 1000km across Australia from Perth to Albany, and has walked a few 500km journeys in Tibet, Bhutan and Nepal.
“To finish on a high, I thought to myself I would like to do a really long one,” and he picked Te Araroa, a place he’s called home for the last 42 years.
At the end, he reunited with fellow TA trampers at the famous Bluff signpost.
“I came around the corner, and Katja, a German girl whom I had last seen four weeks ago, came around the other corner, and we reached it at the same time,” he says.
“I’m happy, I’m finished. And I’m so happy now to be able to give something back, encourage somebody to ‘go out there, do it.’ As you can see, age is certainly not an excuse.”
You’ll now find Ernie either curled up cosy inside with a good book, having a boogie to some live music, or extreme four-wheel driving.
His boots and pack won’t be tucked away in the cupboard for long, though. This October, Ernie and his partner Robyn will set out to hike Japan’s Pilgrimage trail, the Kumano Kodo.
