My (Mis)-Adventures

My first outdoor experiences were ‘tramps’ with my family when I was a kid. The reason I walked was because my mum said I had to.  I now get the privilege of exploring my ‘whys’, my intrinsic motivations, independently. I recently wrote a post about why reflecting on my motivations is so important to me. You can find the re-posted version here . Everyone has different ‘whys’. Talking to others about their motivations has helped me better understand my own. My ‘whys’ are constantly in flux. They can vary day to day, month to month, hour to hour. More on why this is something to be aware of here . I like doing hard things, but not just because I want to be faster or walk further, although that can be an added bonus. I walk because I want to improve my resilience, prove to myself I am capable. I want the good brain chemicals that come from exercise. I walk, because being active makes my body and brain feel good. I walk, and I don’t want to always do hard things.  I walk for the c...

Three years ago I did a very memorable trip in the Tararuas. I started from Holdsworth Road end, climbed to the tops and walked across Mt McGregor, the Broken Axe Pinnacles, The Three Kings, Girdlestone, Brockett and Mitre Peak before walking out down Atiwhakatu Stream. I ran out of gas on my second day and food on my second to last. I got blown off my feet at least twice, took the wrong spur in the low visibility three times and needed to traverse Brockett and Mitre Peak in the incredibly high winds. I loved every second of it. Because at the time, this trip was perfectly aligned with my motivation for tramping. Why? Why did I put myself through the ringer on my weekend? Because it was fun? But shivering in wet clothes, getting tired and hungry, bashing through the bush with a pack that weighs more than a small child, was that fun? Early into my paddling, one of my friends told me, if I wanted to paddle hard, scary rivers, I needed to have a really strong sense of my whys. My whys b...

  Hoping to make the most of the day light, we were up early and on the road before 8. However, we were stopped in our tracks half way between Murchison and Reefton when my car – Sylvia – decided she had had enough.  What started out as the windscreen not defogging quickly turned into the realization the car was overheating. We found a hole in the coolant tube and without a new tube or coolant we were stuck.  Luckily for us a dairy farmer – Luke – picked us up and let us use his landline to call the AA.  After a cup of tea and short stint waiting with the cows we were in a tow truck with Sylvia safely strapped to the back.  We are heading to a crag out behind Kumara Junction, up Mt Turiwhate. It was developed by Te Tai Poutini quite recently and features rock that migrated up from the Darrens. It is alpine-style climbing with Polytech-approved bolting.  After a quick pit stop in Murchison to swap into Felix's car and get breakfast from Lee at Tu...

Stopping to take in the view and contemplate life choices Our day started off as many of my adventurous days do; with a 4 a.m. alarm. The day before we had hiked up to Lake Wedgemont, suffering our way up the thousand meters of elevation in the late afternoon heat. By the time we got up to the lake, it had started to cool down but a swim was still in order. This left my hair wet overnight and made me severely regret my decision to only bring a thermal liner to sleep in. In all my clothes curled up into a ball my hair still managed to keep me cold and keep deep sleep always a step too far. Matt was comfortably stretched out in a sleeping bag next to me oblivious of my discomfort. By the time the alarm went off, I was ready to get up and go but Matt offered to make breakfast while I wiggled into his pre-warmed sleeping bag to heat up a little. A coffee, some sad undercooked porridge, and inevitable day-bag-packing-faff later we started our hike up towards the scree slopes of Mt Cook. (No...