The year's top five hikes

The year's top 5 hikes

From Western Australia to New Zealand, here are my five top new walks for 2013.

Okay, they might not be "new" walks in that any of them are even remotely new tracks, however, they are new and exciting to me, with a mix of history, environment, wildlife and experiences . They're all very different, and I've ranked them here from shortest and easiest to longest.

Don't forget though, there are 63 brilliant other walks in my book Top Walks in NSW. It's been reviewed with words like "highly accurate" "inspiring" and "practical". It's designed to get everybody out and walking more – whatever your level of experience. It's a great buy for Christmas, and if you hunt around online, you'll find it on sale.

1. Wilkies Pools Loop Track, Mt Taranaki, North Island, NZ

Swingbridge, near Wilkies Pools Loop Track

Walking on one of the North Island's most perfect volcanos, the 2518m high Mt Egmont (Taranaki), has lots of delights: ice, snow and an amazing summit for starters. Its flanks are tangled Tolkien rainforest, with stunning waterfalls, bubbling creeks, berries and the highest suspension bridge in NZ. In a motorhome you can also camp for free at the Dawson Falls carpark, with a wide vista greeting you in the morning. This little 2.3km loop takes you through some gorgeous lush terrain, and its worth adding a couple of extra kays to walk down to and across the suspension bridge.

2. Weir Walk/Long Cave and Pagoda Lookout, Wollemi National Park, NSW

This walk has so much to recommend it. Pagoda-style rock formations to clamber over, Aboriginal sites, a gorgeous wide waterway to cool off in, with turtles and platypus, and soaring cliffs. It's about 5km all up, and one of the must-dos when you camp at Dunns Swamp (Ganguddy). 

3. Newnes Industrial Ruins Track, Wollemi National Park, NSW

Locals at the Newnes Hotel

It isn't just the amazingly well-kept 100-year-old shale-oil mining and processing plant ruins that are worth seeing on this 6km loop walk. It has prolific bird and wildlife, with goannas galore, scooting swamp wallabies, and endangered birds such as gang-gang cockatoos and glossy black-cockatoos. It's also an introduction to the fringe of the vast Wollemi Wilderness, the second-largest national park in NSW (after Kosciuszko). You can start at the campground, but you can also start at the Newnes Hotel (unlicensed) where there are excellent cabins.

4. Bluff Knoll, Stirling Range National Park, WA

Bluff Knoll. Yes, the walk goes up the top.

It's hard to pick a favourite national park in Australia, as I've had so many incredible experiences in so many, but the Stirling Range is definitely one of the main contenders. It's pretty much the only place in WA that it snows, its soaring jagged peaks over 1000m getting a dusting a couple of times a year. It has rich and diverse plant life, from the lowland scrub up to the semi-alpine peaks. All the walks are spectacular, but this one is listed elsewhere as one of the top 25 walks in the country, and I was stoked to get a chance to finally do it (at a cracking pace with two other blokes) when I was there a month or so ago.

5. Bay of Fires, Tasmania

The gorgeous Bay of Fires

Many people now know of the luxury, stunning Bay of Fires lodge and the deluxe (read "expensive") walking tour along this stretch of the north-east Tasmanian coast. However, there is another way to do the walk, and that's with the excellent guided walking company, Life's an Adventure. On their tour you walk further, do it in one less day, and at a considerably reduced cost. You get one night under canvas, and one night in a beach "shack" (a bit like a family holiday house, with two shared bathrooms), with great food, a knowledgeable guide, and all the logistics worked out along the way (so you only carry your lunch, camera and towel.) It's a corker of a way to see this stunning stretch of coastline over three days.

There are a zillion other brilliant walks out there, and I can't wait to get into some more next year. Please feel free to let me know of your recommendations, and I'll see you on the track.

www.kensbigbackyard.com.au

Note: Ken's travel this year was supported by South West Tourism, Tourism Tasmania and Life's an Adventure.