Along the Trail, I started to use my GoPro more and more often. I used it as another camera when I thought the image quality or the wide lens would be more adequate for the scene I was capturing. I used it as an alternative travel journal, recording myself talking about how I felt and what I experienced. I used it to remember moments, people, landscapes; to show Life on the Trail from a different point of view.

I wish I could s...

or … MAGIC…

It is just impossible to say goodbye so soon. It is just impossible to stop hiking so suddenly.

Eef, P-J and Patrick had planned to go to Stewart Island a while back. Staying in Invercargill after the end of the Trail, I am still undecided. I am flat broke and tired, but on the other hand, this might be my best chance ever to go to Stewart Island. After all, I have been living in New Zealand for a few years now and I...

or  … the end…

Saturday 11th of April 2015.

I am awake before my alarm clock goes off at 6.30am. I have breakfast with a slightly knotted stomach. This is it, the last day.

I take everything out of Arno (you know, my pack), and just carry rain gear, warm clothes, camera, food and water for the day. Eef, P-J, Patrick, Johannes and I all meet up in the lobby of the hotel, it’s raining heavily outside. But by the time we step out an...

or  … staying focused…

Te Anau is a very pleasant place to take a zero day.
Patrick, Eef and P-J powered through the Routeburn track and I am delighted to see them arrive in Te Anau only a day after me.

We will walk the last stretch of the Trail together. I do not want any more solo time. I know now I can do this on my own, I have had plenty of profitable solitude, and the Trail is almost over. I want to spend the rest of it wi...

or  …WILD…

Just as Cook Strait or the Rakaia and Rangitata Rivers, Lake Wakatipu is a natural interruption in the route of the Te Araroa. The trail ends in Queenstown and starts again at the Greenstone trailhead, on the other side of the lake.

The last blue line on the map.

I hitchhike with Patrick to Glenorchy, (where we take a compulsory stop at the GYC cafe) but from there we take different routes. Me sticking to the original...

or the last milestone …

Summer’s on its way out. Even if the trees seem to still hesitate about putting their yellow coat on, there is a chill in the air that leaves not doubt about the change of season.

The sun is still low when I leave Wanaka at 8.30am on the morning of Friday 20th, and the Lake is perfectly still, reflecting the silhouettes of the trees and the mountains,as in a zen painting.

I feel pretty zen myself.

This sec...

or I Walk the Line…

The line. The red line on the map, the line of the track under my feet, the line between loneliness and people, weariness and motivation, life and death, giving and getting…

I leave Tekapo on the 8th of March, feeling light. I am eager to walk again, my backpack is light with only two days of food in it, and it is an easy trail that lies ahead of me. Overcast morning, no wind, perfect for walking.

From Tekapo...

or 300 km of tussock, rivers and solitude …

It’s a very long stretch of the Trail I have just done in one go, and as much as I would like to write in details about it, it is way too long and varied. So I’ll do my best to write a readable summary, devided in 2 parts.

Now, you might want to take your map out while you read all this, as it is a long section and there will be a lot of names of places, tracks, rivers and lakes and i...

or the WOW factor.

There is no word to describe this section of the Te Araroa. Or actually, there are too many.

so I’ll just say one word: WOW

ok, I’ll try to be more eloquent.

I start back on the Trail from St Arnaud the afternoon of Tuesday 10th, after taking the morning as a half day off to rest and relax. I catch up with Rebecca who is waiting for her partner to join her for the rest of the Trail, and Rob and Joss who were...