How much does it cost to do the trail? Well, it depends, and I will get into that below, but the short answer is at least NZD $10,000 as at 2024. The Te Araroa Trust says you should have a ‘minimum of NZD $12,000 available’. That word ‘available’ seems significant: I think they are saying that it may not necessarily cost you this much, but unexpected events mean you need this sort of money to call on.

What sort of unexpected events? Accidents for a start. People do suffer injuries and have to pull out. This can be expensive. In my case, I was lucky to be transported to a hospital by ambulance when I sprained my ankle. But you may find yourself in a more isolated spot when this happens. And even so, by the time I was able to leave the accident and emergency department it was 11pm, and the only accommodation answering the phone at that hour was an expensive hotel. Then I had to take a flight home next day with little choice on price. By the time I’d paid for taxis and X-rays I think the whole experience cost about $800. Then there were hundreds of dollars on physiotherapy that were only part covered by ACC.

Waiting out bad weather can be another unexpected cost. You are probably not going to want to stay in a tent when a cyclone is blasting it with rain and people are evacuating their homes due to flooding. Again, you may not have much choice on price with accommodation, and you will probably be eating in cafés or restaurants in this sort of situation.

Other factors that affect the total cost are what you count. Do you include gear that you bought specially for the trail, but which you will use afterwards? I think you have to at least apportion some of the cost to the trail. And travel to and from the beginning and end of the trail to your start point? That has to be included.

And finally, everyone does the trail differently. Some people camp wherever they can and save a bundle of money, others like to sleep on a proper mattress in a hut or room where there is an opportunity. Paying for a bed can work well for couples, where the cost is shared, but not so much for individuals. And some people readily eat at cafés and restaurants; others live entirely off supermarket food. Transport varies from hitchhiking for free to hiring shuttles.

Below is my cost estimate based on following the walking scheme set out in my guides of 125 walking and no rest days (though you get about 6 days of only a half a day walking). Figures are in NZ dollars as at October 2024. You can download this as a spreadsheet and use it to make your own calculations. This allows you to multiply unit costs by number of times used (e.g. how many times you might stay in a hostel.) It is also divided into North and South Islands, in case you are only doing one of them.

Transport

Accommodation

Food

Miscellaneous

Gear

TOTAL

If the figure above looks scary, other blogs suggest lower figures. Some of the following people did the trail quite a few years ago, but I’ve converted their totals to NZD 2024 equivalents. Blogger Joe (2014) has it at $7850 (but excludes pre-trail gear purchases). Mick Beckers (2015/16) says $9040 but he camped extensively. Michael Deckebach (2016/17) worked out that his costs were $6442, but he did the trail very fast (101 days), slept in a tent often, and didn’t include gear in his costs, aside from shoes and a few replacement items like socks. See his site for some interesting graphs. Matt Gordon (2019/20) kept a very detailed record and spent $16,153, but this includes $4863 on gear and he ate in cafés and restaurants quite often. And Michelle Green (2019/20) estimates between $8500 and $14,600. So it is all a question of what level of comfort you desire and what you include in your calculations or not (e.g. gear, cost of getting to start/end points, side trips to resupply if you don’t use bounce boxes, rest days).

However, there is more to it than that. If you skimp on gear you could be putting your life at risk. If you don’t eat nutritious food, then that will eventually catch up with you. And if you stealth camp to save money then you risk damaging the goodwill of landowners that enables the TA to exist and thereby ruin it for everyone who comes after you. On that score, remember that your ability to do the trail depends on the goodwill, donations and many hours of volunteer work of a large number of people. You wouldn’t be walking the TA without all this, so give something back for that privilege and to make it even better by donating to the Te Araroa Trust (see their Registration and Donation FAQ page for a suggested amount). Oh, and you could also donate to me for my efforts in keeping this site up to date each year…