Okay, well here goes. I’ve never written a blog before but as just about every other person doing any part of the TA appears to have one, I thought I’d better join the party. Also I found reading through other peoples’ posts both helpful and occasionally inspirational, so if I can give back a bit to those coming after then we’re all good!
On 8th December 2019 I’ll (hopefully) be setting off to fastpack around 850km of the Te Araroa trail, here in New Zealand. I’m starting at Bluff and making my way to Arthur’s Pass. That is obviously unless I fall off a cliff / into a river / get heebie-jeebies the first night and run home screaming…
I’m aiming to cover about 25-35km most days and although I’ve never done a trip this long before, I’m a fairly experienced tramper / trail runner and have done a few multiday fastpacking trips before, both solo and with friends. My main concerns on this one are :
- getting bored
- becoming unreasonably terrified at night alone in the bush
- wussing out
I’ve already starting packing (Yep, I know. It’s only August…) and seem to be able to comfortably run with most of what I’ll need to carry. I’ll include a full kit list somewhere here a bit later.
I’m not currently sponsored or fundraising as I honestly don’t know whether I’ll make it past Martin’s Hut, which will be my first night in a hut alone for bloody years. Guess we’ll see!
Okay, enough for now. Details of planned day lengths, gear, food etc will follow.
Kia ora!
Only running the downhills... 