Start: Hanmer Springs
Finish: Boyle Flat Hut
Distance: 14km
Today was a thinking day. After an easy hitch back out to the trail the track was a nice easy forest trail which meant I could plod along and let my mind wander. As a result I had 3 revelations.
The first place my mind went was to my mental health. I realised that for the past 2 months I haven’t had a bad day, I’ve been present and functioning.
Without me even realising, this walk has started to heal some of my old scars. I started this walk wanting to reconnect and get ownership back of my body and I feel like I’ve been doing that. My body is the only thing I have out here, it is the only thing getting me from A to B. With the help of the forests and the lakes and the mountains I’ve managed to find a sense of peace and calm in my mind and body.
After that revelation my mind drifted to my friends and how we are all out there living our lives. Some of us are at home with beautiful children and others are travelling. I started to get emotional thinking about how much these people mean to me and how lucky I am to have such incredible people to share my life with.
The third revelation came after thinking about all the road walking in the North Island and how I would really rather not do that. I had always felt like I had to continuously walk from Bluff to Cape Reinga but then I realised that I make the rules. This walk can be whatever the hell I want it to be because either way it’s incredible. I don’t need to walk every single KM to prove that I’m incredible because right at this moment I already know it.
Never in my life have I been so confident and proud of who I am and what I’ve achieved. Without a doubt I can say that I’m quite an incredible person.
