In early 2021, our son was working in Whanganui and we planned to visit him. We had only ever passed through Whanganui, and so Deb brought it up on Google maps to see what interesting places we could visit while there. And there it was - this intriguing dotted line, leading through town to the beach, and along the coast. As she looked at it, she realised that from this path you would be able to see a section of coastline that you'd never ever get to see from a car.
That dotted line turned out to be Te Araroa - a 3000km trail from the top of New Zealand to the very bottom. She'd heard of it before, but it was always something other people did. Fit people. Young people. Hikers.
Middle-aged, out-of-shape women getting close to 60 don't walk Te Araroa. Men with dodgy knees and old memories of tramping don't walk Te Araroa. Couples who should be preparing for their retirement don't walk Te Araroa.
A couple days later, Deb told Mike about seeing the trail on the map and said, "Why not us?"
We plan to start walking Te Araroa in September 2023, on the day Deb turns 60. What an amazing birthday present.
We want to document our progress to the start, and then the journey itself. For ourselves, and for family and friends, but also for anyone who might not fit the profile of a Te Araroa hiker but thinks, "Why not me?"
We want to talk about gear and training and fears and hopes. About the lessons we'll learn and mistakes we'll make over the next couple of years. We're excited and no doubt completely under-estimate what we need to do. We hope to be at Cape Reinga in 2023, saying to each other, "Why not us!"