Hiking

So Alina's first phrase when she heard me going to hike was: "This is such a bad idea".

True, they have never seen me being keen on sports and physical activities, but New Zealand is doing something strange and completely new to me.

We left Auckland on Friday afternoon and arrived to Karangahake camp station two hours later. The planned track was about 30 km.

There've been 13 people in total, and we divided into small groups of 4-5 people for cooking, however, the actual path was covered by all of us as a one united group.

 

I must say that preparations were done very well. Group leaders, those of us who were more experienced in hiking, downloaded and printed maps, made a menu for all 3 days, divided food and cooking appliances between members.

You can safely say, that was my first hiking experience, so I was not any big help for the group really. My goal was to bring as little troubles as possible :) I fulfilled my task almost perfectly.

 A backpack that was bought a while ago for this track turned out to be a little small, and Kostya kindly agreed to carry my tent.

Next time I'll stick to the plan "i'm-a-strong-independent-Finnish-woman" and will carry all my stuff, shame on me, indeed :) It will also be more than useful to learn how to put a tent by myself. Common, Lena, be an engineer.

As a country with very well developed tourism, New Zealand provides excellent facilities for travelers, such as wild, pure nature and, what surprised me most, online resources with all necessary information about various tracks.

Correct me if I'm wrong but they don't have it in Finland, or do they?

Our track was supposed to be quite easy, it was planned as a practice before a bigger one in the end of March. However, as you know, best things come unexpected.

On the second day we found out that the bigger part of the track was "not recommended to follow" because it was overgrown with the wild nature I mentioned above. Our group had a small discussion and we decided to continue instead of coming back.
From that point on I felt like a true Indiana Jones. We had to scamble through literally jungles, to climb up mountains and to run down on slippery roads. By the end of the second day people started to feel nervous because it was just about to become night and dark, we've been still in the middle of nowhere, and water was running out.

Here comes the best part part of the whole experience, even in those difficult circumstances nobody panicked or became aggressive. Everybody was in a friendly, positive mood, well, except when you tried to ask somebody for water :D
I could never imagine tea to be such a precious joy of life, every single sip.

Some of us decided not to put a tent that nigh, because we basically had to make a night stop in the jungles and there was not enough space. Instead, 4 of us slept outside in sleeping bags.

A little bit of brandy, dark chocolate, starlight night and a perfect company from both sides of my sleeping bag, made this night to remember. Note, you should be sooooo jealous right now no matter what ;)

Shal

Shall you ask me in the end if I liked the journey, I loved it! Away from "everyday" you see yourself and people around from another side of the moon. Life as it is seems very clear and simple. At least for those 3 days. I definitely recommend.

Strange indeed, I gained 2 kg after the track. It must be how much my emotions weight.

And not a single nail got broken that day, moreover, i invented a new type of hiking, glamor hiking (c), anybody's surprised?

Good morning Europe,
Good night Auckland,

Lena