I'm Leaving Everything Behind to Walk 3,000 Kilometers Across New Zealand | Te Araroa

This is probably the craziest thing that I've ever decided to do - and I have made some pretty crazy decisions before in my life. Te Araroa.

What is Te Araroa?

Te Araroa is a thru-hike across the North and South islands of New Zealand, it begins at the Lighthouse in Cape Reinga, and ends in Bluff.

The trail was revitalized by Geoff Chapple, a renowned NZ author, journalist, and adventurer in the early 1990s. He founded Te Araroa Trust in 1994 to raise funds and develop the trail. It took 17 years to turn Te Araroa into a reality, with the trail officially opening in 2011. (See here)

Since then, thousands of hikers from across the globe have come to have a go this wonderful challenge. Approximately 2,000 people complete the Te Araroa trail each year in one continuous journey, although this number changes and is growing. A recent estimate for the 2022/23 season was over 4,000 people, and the Te Araroa Trust has suggested the number could reach 10,000 by 2030.

Te Araroa has a wide range of terrains, from sandy beaches and huge farmlands to high mountain passes, native forests, and urban areas. The trail includes varied landscapes like rivers, volcanoes, and plains, with sections that can be anything from well-maintained single tracks to difficult, muddy, or technical alpine passes. It is considered one of the world's greatest hikes due to its length and diversity.

Why am I doing it?

I have felt a pull towards adventure for most of my adult life, whether it be the dream of traveling to Tokyo to see drift cars, to become a social media influencer, or to pack everything into a van and tour the country - the larger than everything goal has always been there, rumbling beneath the surface.

I think for a long time, I mistook it for the desire of material achievement. To start businesses, buy houses and cars, to stack wealth and escape the system while building within the system. Anything outside of this was a humble curiosity and would have to wait until I reached a certain level. Fortunately, life has other plans.

My life has been colorful, we lived in Christchurch when the 2010/11 earthquakes happened, and I reckon the city never felt the same after that (even though I still love it)

I was one of those kids that thought smoking was cool, and I picked up drinking as a teen - it really took a hold after some hard experiences as a young adult. I've faced addictive tendencies, mental health crises and a trip to the emergency department activated my move to Dunedin from Christchurch in 2021.

By 2023, I was 28 and had reached a decision. I had to go sober to fix my health. Visits to hospital, steroid inhalers for my lungs and trouble with the law just wasn't me anymore.

After some time healing, I began studying holistic wellbeing, did a course in Whānau Ora, and became a peer support worker after my own journey of being supported. This health is wealth thing, I'd become obsessed. I read over 80 self-help books, started exercising, built websites, and started sharing my journey.

We then found that under the surface, I had been navigating undiagnosed ADHD, and was officially diagnosed by a psychiatrist at 29 years old. He said I had a career path that characterized this (ive had 20 jobs), and we spoke about how unfortunately lots of people with ADHD find self medication as an answer and develop substance abuse issues. It felt good to have an answer for a lot of the questions I had about myself - but I must admit, there is a certain grieving period that you experience for your younger self when you find something like this out. (ADHD was nowhere near as common when I was a kid as it is now)

Anyway, during course, In 2024, my mum got sick. And unfortunately, later in the year took a turn for the worse. I took a break from most things, although we ran a business together which kept us busy and mum always liked me to continue my pursuits, I reckon it's so she could hear all about them when we caught up.

In early 2025, she sadly left us. I say for her new spiritual journey across the universe.

Some of those experiences, the time I spent searching before I found sobriety, the moves, the people, the mental health crises, the friends I lost to suicide, losing a parent, the grief - they reside within me. They used to be giants but now I see them as malleable associates.

But that's given me a lot to walk with, a lot to process. And now that I'm 30 I'm starting to see why some people disappear into the forest in a log-cabin. So that they can slow down from things and just, experience.

So that's my why, that's my reason to challenge my body to a task like this. It's so I can find the answers to the questions I still have without feeling stuck in busy-ness. I know it will be hard, perhaps my greatest challenge yet. But I've got the time (just) and an amazing and supportive network around me that can carry things while I'm gone.

Wish me luck,

John

Testing my pack in Glenorchy, Otago