We’re always trying to lighten the load of our packs, to pack less and keep things simple. But there’s usually one thing that manages to stow away and travel with us without our even knowing. Some people like carrying it and that’s okay, but personally I think it weighs us down and stops us …
“Ooh, you don’t want to hike there today.” It was an unequivocal statement. Actually, yes I did. “It’s too windy,” said the lady at the Visitor Centre with a note of finality in her voice. “Oh well, I’ve been hit by wind before!” I smiled jovially, trying to defuse the ominous cloud of doom she’d …
My life is so good these days I have to pinch myself. I have hiking to thank for it. I live a simple yet rich life and a 3000km walk on New Zealand’s Te Araroa trail last year was the kicker that got me started. After it, fear was largely gone. I realised most fears …
There is something about this place that induces laziness. Where the first month was a challenging oscillation between paradise-found and cabin fever, I have more recently found myself surrendering to the slow pace and tiny world that is my island home. No longer pacing the deck, itching for some movement and variation in my day, …
Ten days into my new life on this dollop of sand and coral in the South Pacific and I already feel like I’ve been here a month. I eat, write, swim, eat, sleep in a hammock, write, swim, eat, gin & tonic, sleep. Every day is the same. It’s Groundhog Day, but in the best …
From the moment I returned from hiking the Te Araroa Trail in New Zealand my time sitting in an office in the corporate city world was limited. In the words of wild man Bodhi, resisting arrest at the end of the classic surf movie Point Break, “You know I can’t handle a cage man!” The …
Comyns Hut – back in the ”good ol’ days’ on the trail… Coming home was never going to be easy but I guess I didn’t appreciate that hiking the Te Araroa Trail would have quite the impact on my life that it has. I think I did a lot of my grieving about its …
