The MedTrekking Idiot has become a tramp in New Zealand — from the Bay of Islands in the north to the Fiordland Natonal Park in the south.

Tramping, of course, is a popular activity in this Down Under nation, though it’s known elsewhere as hiking, backpacking, rambling, hill walking, bushwalking or any other kind of walking that lasts more than 47 minutes.

Men who walk in New Zealand are called trampers, women walkers are known as tramplettes.

During the past week, The Idiot/Tramp enjoyed a number of short hikes, called trampettes, throughout the sheep-filled country and rarely met enough people on the trails to be overwhelmed or, as they say locally, trampled.

Here, from north-to-south, are some of the trampettes taken by The Idiot/Tramp. He dedicated his walks to Donald Tramp and Charlotte Trampling.

The Idiot/Tramp sauntered on well-marked loops on undulating hillsides on Urupukapuka, one of the 140 subtropical islands in the Bay of Islands in northern New Zealand.

The Idiot/Tramp strolled through the protected Puketi rain forest listening to the songs of the kokako, tui and other birds while learning how possums became one of New Zealand’s most despised pests (there are now forty million possums compared to 30 million sheep).

It wasn’t just nature that The Idiot/Tramp encountered while sauntering around New Zealand. Art by New Zealand artists, it turns out, is the new nature at a tramp through the Connells Bay Sculpture Park on the island of Waiheke near Aukland.

The art walk in the Connells Bay Sculpture Park on Waiheke island included the “Diminish & Ascend” staircase by Dave McCracken.

The art walk in the Connells Bay Sculpture Park on Waiheke Island included the colorful New Zealand version of the Terracotta Warriors, aka “Vanish” by Gregkor Kregar.

The art walk in the Connells Bay Sculpture Park on Waiheke Island included “Cows Looking Out To Sea” by Jeff Thomson.

The walk on Waiheke Island even included a real horse and a real ocean.

There are vineyards throughout New Zealand and The Idiot/Tramp tiptoed through budding grape vines with his daughter Sonia at one touted wine hub near Blenheim on the South Island.

The “Lady and the Tramp” tiptoe through a vineyard near Blenheim on New Zealand’s South Island.
(Photo: Maribeth Rohman)

The Idiot/Tramp also took reflective strolls in the Fiordland National Park in the enticing Southern Alps, where trampons are required for the steeper snow-covered mountains.

The Idiot/Tramp had a reflective roam and ramble at aptly named Mirror Lakes.

The Idiot/Tramp gave two-thumbs-up to paths and trails in the Fiordland National Park.

The Idiot/Tramp thought twice about scrambling up this stunning waterfall.

The Idiot/Tramp also scouted out, from the air and the water, possible new tramping grounds, including one stretch of New Zealand’s Southern Alps that reminded him of a trampoline.

The surface of the Southern Alps, with few-and-far-between visible hiking paths, looked like a trampoline from the air. The Idiot/Tramp didn’t jump.

The Idiot/Tramp scouted new hiking venues from a boat on picturesque Milford Sound, which is actually a fjord. (Photo: Antonia Scott-Clark)

Tramp on.

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About Joel

Joel Stratte-McClure has been a global trekker since the 1970s. He lived in France for over 30 years, working as a journalist, before he turned his attention to a unique life-time-project of walking the shores of the Mediterranean. The first 4,401 kilometers are explored in his inspirational and entertaining first book "The Idiot and the Odyssey: Walking the Mediterranean." The next 4,401 kilometers are covered in the gods-filled sequel, "The Idiot and the Odyssey II: Myth, Madness and Magic on the Mediterranean,” published on Valentine's Day 2013. The last 4,401 kilometers will be discussed in the last book of the trilogy currently entitled "The Idiot and the Odyssey III: Alexander the Great Walks the Mediterranean."