Day 119 - Bluff - “I Just Walked the Length of New Zealand”

The last day. 36km and that’ll be it, I’ll be at the oceans edge with no where else to walk. My Te Araroa  journey is nearly at an end. This last section is notorious, to end a 3000km 4 month journey the trail ends in typical Te Araroa fashion with a road walk. I suppose it’s fitting, at least it’s a trail right next to the road. 

Thankfully the first part of the day is along an estuary walk. Unfortunately the weather is even worse than yesterday. High winds and rain today. Full rain gear on while I got blasted from the side with pelting rain. 

The tide rushing out of the estuary. 

The road section has begun. Taking shelter in an old bus route hut to avoid some particularly rough weather. The road walk was admittedly long and loud with traffic. I didn’t stop for lunch in order to get through it quicker. 

To pass the time I spent the walk going through every single place I stayed for the night over the past 119 days. All the days have blurred together, and it was a fun challenge trying to remember where I walked to and from each day. I have forgot the names of many places so soon. I blame NZ’s complicated and difficult to pronounce town names. It was a nostalgic road through memory lane nonetheless. 

Eventually I reached bluff and to my great relief the weather has turned significantly. It’s now partly cloudy and the wind has subsided. 

Before reaching sterling point  (the southern terminus) I stopped my the bottle-o and picked up a case of beer and champagne for the end. What I didn’t think of was that while it was only 3km the finish line there was a 250m elevation hill I had to get over. With my pack the heaviest it’s ever been I charged the last hill. Worth it. 

Going down from the hill it started to sink in that these were the last footsteps I would be taking on my journey. For the past 4 months I’ve been putting in 50,000 steps a day, now each footstep was fraught with significance and a feeling of eager excitement. 119 days, 274 stiles climbed, and 50 pounds of tuna led me to this point. 

And suddenly I emerged from the hill and the end was in-front of me. The familiar yellow sign post, its twin is at Cape Reinga 3026km behind me. I did it, I just walked the length of New Zealand. 

I’m not sure what I expected to feel when I finished; joyous? bittersweet? relieved? sad it ended? 

But what I really felt was that I just finished another day and that I’d wake up tomorrow to start a new day hiking. It didn’t feel over. It was a weird feeling. This journey that has dictated and consumed my life for 4 months was over, but the reality of it did not set in. I sat down with the other walkers who finished sitting nearby, it was a similar feeling all around; Disbelief. We were all in high spirits and excited, but no one wanted to believe it was over. We didn’t want to go back to being mere civilians. After cracking the beers and bottle of champagne when Florian and Joren showed up we had our victory photoshoot at the point. 

  

Just like that it was over. We walked away. The Te Araroa journey finished. 

Final thoughts:

There’s a romantic idea many people have when imagining thru hiking. That you’re in nature seeing wonders everyday, crossing mountain peaks, getting in touch with the earth etc etc. I knew this was never the case, or not in whole. But only after completing the trail can I fully appreciate the experience. I set out on the Thru Hike with very little expectations on my experience. I had grand ambitions, but no idea if I would enjoy it or resent it. The main reason I suppose I chose to thru hike was to have a ridiculous physical challenge that I could look back on. But also to see the wonders of New Zealand along the way. I wasn’t going to do one without the other. As my hike progressed my ideas of thru hiking changed and so did my motivations. 

Thru hiking is not through the rose coloured glasses that you want it to be. Many days I didn’t see anything more than roads, the forest canopy, or the cows in the fields. I had to slip on cold wet socks and shoes almost everyday. Heavy packs and rough terrain caused me to be in a constant state of soreness. Covered in the layers of a weeks worth of sunscreen, dirt and sweat. Cold sleepless nights or scorching sweaty days. An insatiable hunger that can’t be fulfilled. A seemingly endless demoralizing rain. 

Yet I had the most amazing, insanely rewarding time of my life, and completely recommend it to everyone. Thru hiking is wholly addictive. A rollercoaster lifestyle, and that’s really what it is; a lifestyle. Thru hiking transcends being an adventure to become your life. It doesn’t feel like a vacation or an adventure, it feels like your purpose for the length of the trail. The simplicity of the life is thru hiking best attribute. No alarms, wake up each day when the sun come up, go to bed when it gets dark out.  Everything in between is walking. That’s all you do, walk and let the mind wander. An intensely meditative experience. The outside world seems so far away and separated from reality. All that matters is walking from point a to point b. Why care about anything else? Throughout it all I had the pleasure to meet all the other walkers from around the world, each with a richer crazier life story than the last. All with a singular common purpose and shared perseverance. The thru hiking community, from the walkers to the trail angels, is what kept me motivated on trail as much as the trail itself. The kindness I received from the people I met was like I’ve never experienced before, truly inspirational. The people, nature, and the relish of challenge far outweighs any pain and suffering. I didn’t regret a single step. An incredible challenge that I’m in no hurry to forget, and now can say “I walked the length of New Zealand”. 

That being said my next “vacation” is going to be relaxing on a tropical beach holding a drink with a tiny umbrella in it.  

Thanks for keeping up with the blogs for the past 119 days.