Wanaka
Main page of the Through-Hike with overview of the sections
My two crazy friends, Noor and Connor, set a goal to walk the whole distance from Tekapo to Twizel in one day, 55 km in blazing sun, with only rare opportunities to rest in the shade. Don’t get me wrong, the route along the canals that channel water from one reservoir to the next, with views of Mount Cook, offer beautiful scenery that I enjoyed better from my bike. Even the three hours it took me to arrive at our next domicile destination was enough for me in the sweltering heat.
Arrived I used the afternoon to devote myself a little to my writing over coffee. In the meantime I’m not only writing my posts, but also my story, which I’m developing a little bit more every day. Again and again I think of things that I could include in the story, but I can’t yet find the right way to put them into words. For now, I’ve decided to write everything down as it comes to mind, without worrying too much about the wording. First of all, I want to mark out the plot before I start building.
Since I have a fold-out keyboard with me, other hikers keep coming up to me in the huts to ask what I’m writing with the keyboard. Actually, they all think it’s a good idea, something they would also like to have with them as a little luxury item. Most of them keep a diary in one way or another. Mostly in handwritten form, others, like Connor as a weekly email to his friends, or Noor, who publishes an entry with pictures and a summary every day in the app PolarSteps. Again and again it is mentioned that I am not only writing my blog, but also writing a story. It’s not uncommon for people to talk about a book, an idea that I think would be great to turn into reality, but also scares me just as much. It’s a beautiful dream that I would love to translate into reality. It’s a dream that still seems like an unattainable mammoth project to me at the moment.
In order not to run away from my trail family, I didn’t ride the complete route to Ohau, like some others. We hiked this part together again, on foot, along another canal, after resting for another day.
Twizel does have a disc golf course, like Tekapo, but this time we couldn’t find a place to rent discs.
Up in flames
Ohau arrived at the campground, the first thing I noticed was that there were hardly any trees left. Four years ago we had camped in a forest that is now completely gone. As it turned out, this fell victim to the flames of a forest fire a few years ago. It took me a while to process what was actually different. Four years ago we camped in the shade of a forest that was now simply no longer there.
Another river
This time, the only river crossing that was actually part of the trail awaited us. We were supposed to have circumnavigated the previous one. Since it hadn’t rained in a long time, we were able to make this unscheduled crossing without any problems. This time there was a plan B, a bridge, which is however 5 kilometers downstream. Fortunately, since the current had posed no danger, we were able to forgo the detour and get to the other side wet-footed. This time we also formed a chain as a precautionary measure. As it turned out, this was even less necessary.
Experiencing and writing
It is and remains difficult to put into words what we experience here every day. From the outside, it is really nothing more than one step after another, another mountain we have climbed, another river we have walked along, and another forest we have roamed. The days are so varied that you always have to remember to look back to see what a feast for the eyes you have already left behind.
From our perspective it is so much more, it is the effort of climbing the mountains that is rewarded with the views, it is the fun we feel trying to cross the rippling streams and rivers without getting our feet wet, the feeling on our feet of walking over a soft forest floor instead of hard rock.
But what is even less to put into words are the moments and the relationships you have and build on the trail with your fellow competitors. It is the “being there for each other” that helps you get through difficult passages. It’s “being able to laugh at yourself” when you slip and land in the water. It’s a comforting arm to lean on when things don’t go as planned.
Ties
It’s interesting what you carry around with you without knowing an outlet to release the pressure that builds up inside you, like sharing it with others. It takes some effort to open up, to build trust, to feel comfortable enough to fall into the metaphorical as well as physical arms of others. We have learned to hide our feelings with the fear that they will be used against us and thus hurt us. Self-protection, as a by-product, leads us to walk around with masks of one of our selves all the time. Masks that prevent us from building deeper relationships, or at least delay them.
Allowing ourselves to shed these is based on reciprocity, those who reveal themselves are more likely to experience insight into their counterparts. Something I have struggled with at times. Opening up leads to understanding others better and being able to put myself in their shoes better. I have never consciously closed myself off in my past, it was the emotional distance from myself that blinded me to this. I have always described myself as anxiety free, but really I was just “anxiety unconscious”.
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