tramping new zealand

3 to 6 months post-injury is the most dangerous for re-injuring your tendon. You start to feel recovered, but strength is actually quite limited.

You need 12 months for a full recovery.

The thing with an Achilles injury is not to do too much, too soon.

You can easily get tendinitis, which is painful and can set rehab back months. The worst case is re-tearing the tendon, where you land back on square one.

Not wanted.

At the three months stage, I could wander around okay on the flat. Avoided hill climbs and abrupt movement.

So far, so good.

It was now February and I attended a wedding in Wellington and decided to continue on for a tour of the North Island, catching up with a few old friends that I now see rarely.

After leaving the luxury of Wellington accommodation, my first night out was car camping at Holdsworth Campsite. That was okay, and I even did a short bush walk, which went well.

Then, I went for my first real look at Taranaki after spending little time there. I wandered around some tracks and visited a few huts, albeit without a full pack.

Some days proved considerably more demanding than I’d anticipated.

No worries.

Plenty of camping.

Racing through Auckland as quickly as possible despite having lived there five years once upon a time.

Cape Reinga. Waitangi. A visit to Peach Cove Hut near Whangarei Heads was a test.

Then, I had a more vigorous daywalk to Kotepato Hut in the northern Ureweras.

It’s a more interesting start to full rehab than those exercises at home.