THE GREATEST OF THEM ALL?

Sun, two families, surf crashing onto granite boulders, battalions of nīkau palms standing shoulder-to-shoulder, coarse pink-gold sands, and hazy sea mist. That’s our first memorable day walking the Heaphy Track coastline. Our children –Tom, Lee and Alexia – have grown up with the MacIver family – Louis, Ari, Safi and Remy – whose parents, Juliette and Ken, we first met at ante-natal classes 20 years ago.

Tania and I found encouraging the children to tramp the Heaphy was much easier with the incentive of the MacIver family to walk with. And, along with us, post-Covid 19, most others walking the track are New Zealanders.

I hadn’t walked the entire track since 1988, when working as a summer ranger in Golden Bay. Then, along with a fellow student, I shouldered perhaps