Valerie De Clerck (29) and her husband, Dominique Ghijselinck (32), were visiting friends in Ettrick after walking almost the whole length of the South Island while on holiday.
The couple added the Otago Central Rail Trail to the list of walks they have completed in this country and overseas during the past two years.
That list includes the Pacific Crest trail, from Mexico to Canada - a 4250km trek that took them five months.
"It starts in semi-desert country, so you're conscious of where the next water is coming from, as it's five to seven days between towns," Mr Ghijselinck said.
"You needed to take bear canisters to deter bears, and then, of course, there was the rattlesnakes . . ."
They first visited New Zealand in 2005 and worked on Judith Hunter and Alistair Stevenson's apple orchard at Ettrick.
"We couldn't wait to come back again. This is so like an outdoors paradise to us and we wanted to be at one with nature," Mr Ghijselinck said.
Their home country was "packed" with people and there was so much light pollution that you could not see the stars, Ms De Clerck said.
"It's amazing to look up in the sky here at night and see all the stars and the Milky Way."
They had walked most of the well-known tracks in this country and also rated the rail trail very highly.
"The rail trail is a completely different part of New Zealand and you get that feeling of solitude with the hills and the big skies," he said.
Although they enjoyed hiking throughout the country, their favourite walks were through unspoiled country, off the main tracks.
"That's what brings people here: the fact that you can go out into what is really still a wilderness, left in its original condition.
"If you improve tracks too much, or have them very accessible, they will attract too many people and the very solitude that brings people here will be threatened," Mr Ghijselinck said.
"I know that's a contradiction, because we are the visitors here, but you don't want the unspoiled places overrun with too many people."
"Here we appreciate a more simple life," Ms De Clerck said.
The couple plan to head home soon and will hang up their backpacks for a while.
They have recently invested in their fifth pair of boots since their travels began two years ago and once they have saved some more money, they intend to continue hiking around the globe.
