Category: Uncategorized

One slice of cheese, atop one multigrain cracker and beneath one pitted green olive One each I watch Arlene prepare a hut snack for herself and her partner, my mouth watering. Cheese and crackers a luxury that reminds me of home and of some pretend Mediterranean vacation I could be on. *I would, in fact, […]

Oh, how intensely human it is that I am immersed in some of the most spectacular examples of wild and true nature that exist on this planet and I am writing about my feelings! I have forgotten to mention how, on many occasions over the last 3 weeks, it has struck me dumb how rivers […]

After a tussle with a tricky hillside, in a struggle to get my pack off my back, I broke my (grandmother’s) chain. Before I started this walk, I wondered with a friend whether adornments such as this one would matter to me as much when I was away from all the extra nonsense of the […]

I have been neglecting my gratitude practice, not making time to physically note what has been delighting me. I hope that once I settle into being on the move, my practice will find its place. That I will make space for it* Today felt lonely. Arriving in Queenstown yesterday, especially at such speed, with such […]

My phone timer rang and I hobbled to the guest laundry building out back, blisters nearly split. I opened the door to the (inhale) dryer. All of my clothes, warm and clean, sat there waiting to be folded. Today I used a dryer for the first time in 7ish months. Today was my hardest day […]

I have officially been on the road for 6 days and by tomorrow’s 9am, I will have travelled a total of 150km of trail. Physical updates: My socks have not been properly dry for 4 days and that is making for some exceptionally uncomfortable blisters. I feel a sharp pain in my left heel when […]

I write today from Merriview Hut, where accommodation is $15 NZD inside the hut and $10 NZD if you choose to pitch your tent; an extra dollar earns you a fresh egg, which you can boil in water from the running tap. And this is my paradise, today, for last night when I shimmied into […]

I woke up rather slowly this morning; it’s really something how good a sleep feels after you’ve earned it! Not that you have to earn sleep! But you know what I mean! I’m in that space between spaces, the purgatory-esque realm between my body’s old schedule and the new one to which it will so […]

I covered 40km today. Half of it quite quickly, thanks to Lilly and Haley, the mother/daughter duo who picked me up quite soon after I hit the main road this morning. It was windy and, as I learned from the backseat of her car, Haley takes pride in her capacity for helping others. When she […]

It was sunny today in Auckland, funnily enough, and I emerged from the bathroom at the Grand Harbour Chinese restaurant, after my first ever yum cha, wondering if there may ever come a day when I stop being scared right before I do scary things. I got in my Uber, leaving mom and brother behind, […]