Of Wild and Wonder

22/12/19 - 25/12/19 Party: Torea Scott Fyfe and Maddy Whittaker It was 9pm lying in Rowan's lounge in Wanaka, looking at met vu at the stretch of good weather between us and Christmas. My plans to attempt Aoraki had fallen through, but big peaks were very much still on my mind. I turned to Torea, "How about Sefton?" At 4am the next morning we left for the West Coast. Setting off at the start of the Copland Track at around 9am, a cloud of sandflies chasing us and our 30L packs, which we were trying to pretend were as light as they were small. It's beautiful forest and mostly flat track which made a great backdrop for a good long catch up yarn with Torea. Having both been working with DOC in remote places (Anchor Island and the Haast Ranges) for December, it'd been too long since our last trip together. Despite the immaculate met vu forecast, it rained that afternoon. We flew up Scott Creek, didn't find the start of the Bluewater Track, started bushbas...

My route - 1400km long The summer I became slightly feral In the summer of 2018-2019, I spent 77 days walking the length of the South Island (1400km), with my journey mainly based around walking the South Island section of the Te Araroa trail northbound. About half of these days were spent on the TA and the other half were spent doing tramps and climbs along the way (essentially used the TA as a pathway to all these places in different national parks which I had wanted to explore). People keep asking me how my trip changed me - who did I become? The answer to that is hiker trash. I became hiker trash. Hiker Trash is a term used to affectionately describe hikers who have sunk to a lower standard of living. Nowhere is it more apparent than in a group of thru-hikers who have been living on the trails for months. However becoming a piece of hiker trash is not an exclusive process. Here is your one stop guide to essentially becoming homeless and not giving a damn: There are thre...