Make your own path.
Explore Pilgrimage Possibilities
Pilgrimages Aotearoa offers a small number of guided pilgrimages, but there are plenty of other pilgrimage possibilities for you to explore on your own or other groups to support you.
Quite a number of New Zealand groups have developed walks or haerenga with a strong sense of pilgrimage. Karuwhā Trust has a strong bicultural kaupapa. The Te Araroa Trail is a superbly documented route with a useful App and The Urban Walking Festival may be of interest for more general walking (See below for details.)
pilgrimagenz.nz is another website you can explore that offers a small number of pilgrimages in New Zealand although its main focus is curating pilgrimages overseas.
Walking with intent has a power to clarify and explore what’s going on inside you. Walking with friends can be even more helpful. If you have any sense of pilgrimage in your family or group, then get out there and go! One of the easiest ways is to pick a piece of the Te Araroa Trail and walk for a day between two communities. As you walk, you will get to know the places you are walking through in a whole new way. If you want to understand the bicultural history of New Zealand you will need to find local people, mana whenua, to help you in your journey.
Te Araroa Trail
The Te Araroa Trail provides people with a ready made pathway that spans the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to the Bluff. If you are planning a solo or group pilgrimage one of the easiest ways is to pick a piece of Te Araroa Trail and walk from A to B between two communities. Most people walk the trail from north to south and a quick google search will provide blogs, apps and inspiration for the journey. The Te Araroa Trail - Northbound Guide is called NoBo. This is the route we are following in our Northbound Pilgrimages.
Karuwha Trust
Karuwhā Trust can take people further and deeper into learning about Maori history by offering haerenga (journeys) to places of historical significance in the Aotearoa story. An annual haerenga to Waitingi during Waitangi Weekend is well worth attending. This welcoming group seeks to engage New Zealanders in a conversation about identity and history so that people may better understand the story that they are a part of of. They explore the spiritual, personal and communal aspects of our collective history.
Urban Walking Festival
The Urban Walking Festival offers an annual Auckland based programme of free walks all around Tāmaki Makaurau. Director Melissa Laing was inspired by Jane’s Walks, an international festival of citizen-led walking conversations. During the festival you can participate in a variety of urban walks led by city-loving guides and local hosts who share the stories and hidden gems of their local neighbourhood. This is a brilliant way to engage in a walking conversation with people who live in your neighbourhood and beyond.