It’s been less than a week since I got home from my tour with a bit of cash from tips. My natural instinct when I get a cash injection is to go travelling. I had a plan in place and was going to Nepal to do vipassana on the advice of Philipp who assured me 110% I should do it, without ever offering any reason why, but he knows me well. For a physical and mental kick I had researched how to do Everest Base Camp trek which I planned to do immediately after completing the course. The more I talked about ebc with people the more the word crowded and commercial came up. This didn’t bother me because I think more than anything I’m interested in the relationships that the common goal of a track provide. It is a unique experience shared by a handful of people all trudging in the same direction. I’ve only done four multi day hikes in my life (Northern Circuit, Travers-Sabine, Cape Brett and the crowning jewel Dusky Track) and all were within about a year from now, but I still regularly talk to a bunch of people I met on those trails and consider them friends who I would like to see again, and in fact plan to.
I then found myself during my tour off trail in Aoraki NP climbing up the cliff using little trees, in my mind knowing how difficult and dangerous it would be to get back down again. But I knew at the top would be something special. And there was. A waterfall fell from above, its streams so thin the mist blew in my face in the breeze. There wasn’t a cloud in the sky and I turned around to face the direction I’d come from and right there, with my feet soaking in a crystal clear pool, was Aoraki, the highest point in the country, the snow covered peak glistening in the sunshine. Somewhere in the near distance a glacier cracked and with a thunderous roar crashed to the valley floor below. My first thought was ‘why the hell would you go to Nepal when this wild beauty exists’
Fast forward two weeks and I’m about to embark on a solo mission down the South Island. I’ve planned as far as Mt Richmond Range to Arthur’s Pass and then I’ll assess the vibe. That’s about 24 days solid walking and I do enjoying stopping to smoke a cone so who knows how long in reality. It would be cool to walk to Bluff but I’m more keen to leave Te Araroa and do some of the more rugged tracks in Arthur’s Pass and Mt Aspiring. We’ll see what happens.
I went camping this new year with some mates, long time school friends who I’d in recent years lost any real meaningful connection with. It was epic. I had no idea these people were watching me so closely from afar. They knew everything about my life, my friends had never had secrets, you tell one person something and everyone knows. But I had forgotten this also applied to me. They knew my life had basically been one big fuck up since my mum died and that was ages ago. Anyway at this camp was a little girl, one of their daughters. She said to me “you’re very calm all the time” and I thought to myself “if only you knew what was inside my head small child”. Which is why I want to put myself out there into the mountains and valleys so I can test this calm theory and improve on it and see what happens when I get into a difficult situation,where being anything but calm and thoughtful could prove fatal.
Josh walks south 