It begins

Tomorrow I start the Te Araroa Trail which is a massive walk from one end of Aotearoa New Zealand to the other. That’s over 3,000 kilometres and will probably take many months.

Why?

Honestly I don’t have a great reason but I think the only time I’ve been properly happy has been when out and about in nature, so when I left my job I didn’t have anything specific to do but really didn’t want to grouse around at home for a while. Instead this seems like a great opportunity to enjoy the beautiful NZ summer and make my way through the cultural and natural experiences of this country.

How?

I’ve flown north and taken the bus further north and will get the shuttle even further north. From there I will mostly walk south over and over until eventually reaching Bluff at the very south. The exact details I don’t know but I’ll have to work it out along the way. There’s quite a lot of logistics to manage with washing clothes, food, water, gas, etc. I have a tent for sleeping in and associated paraphernalia for sleeping out in the wild.

Other thoughts

I hope it’ll be fun and I meet awesome people along the way. I have a bunch of goals but I want to expound on those in subsequent posts. I also want to post a vlog per day of walking. There’s not much point in a vlog when I’m just staying in a town though. There is always the possibility of giving up or failing at some point but hopefully if that happens, it occurs safely.