tramping new zealand

When you spend considerable time by yourself, you can get introspective.

This doesn’t always happen when you’re tramping if you have spent hours walking in the day, as you have plenty to do in the evening. Collecting firewood and lighting a fire. Preparing dinner and eating it. Writing up my blog, etc.

No tramping for me this time around, and I was getting a lack of sunlight from about 5 pm to 8 30 am.

That meant darkness for around 15 hours, giving a lot of time to dwell on life and other things when you are on your lonesome.

Not only was it dark, it was cold.

It was pretty quiet, other than the occasional scurrying of the hut rat.

My trip this time was supposed to be with a good friend, but he had unexpectedly died last winter. He was fit from living on a hilly lifestyle block. His partner was a vegetarian, and they grew much of their own food organically. He had a positive attitude and a lot to look forward to.

He hadn’t been around the North West Circuit or the Southern Circuit.

So his passing was a wake-up call for his friends and me to get their health issues seen to.

And also, a warning that life is short.

Might as well do something, because you may not have the chance in the future.

This was ingrained in my brain while I was still in my teens, when an outstanding guy, the Dux of the school and squad leader of my outdoor education course, fell off Mount Rolleston. Other school friends met early fates with car accidents, a suicide, a drug overdose, other climbing accidents, drowning in a kayak, etc.

That left an indelible message in my psyche.

Don’t put stuff off. It takes considerable effort to set things up, so make the most of it while you can.

I developed a motivating philosophy during my travels. Make a Moderate Effort to do stuff.

Just think you will probably never return, so don’t run through areas on fast forward. Take your time. Soak it up.

I was sure getting Fred‘s Camp out of my system. These four nights were added to five previous visits by foot, and I’d spent a total of six nights in the hut, almost all on my own.

Oh, that was now clocking in as six visits and ten nights.

I was hoping that I’d have at least one further full Southern Circuit in me.

Just have to get my body fully functional again.

And engage in preventative exercise before embarking.