THE PAPAROA TRACK is New Zealand’s most recently-commissioned Great Walk. The track partly follows an old gold-miners’ pathway with the hopeful name of the Croesus Track. And it partly also follows a brand-new course, including the epic gorge of the Pororari River. This part of New Zealand is probably the southernmost place on earth where you will find “tropical” jungle with palm trees and giant tree ferns. It’s 42 degrees south. But intense and continual rainfall and the moderating influence of the nearby Tasman Sea keeps the frosts, which are the main enemy of that kind of ecology, at bay. From end to end, the Paparoa track Runs from the historic mining town of Blackball, at the southern end, to Punakaiki, the site of the famous pancake rocks and blowholes, in the north.  Original blog post: a-maverick.com/blog/paparoa-track-blackball-punakaiki