End of the Beginning

Emails. Rain. Reading. Clouds. Highlighting maps. Torrential winds. Sleeping in a 2-man tent. Endless cups of tea. More emails. Laundry. Once. New friends. Macpac. Swazi. Bivouac. Kathmandu. Mud. Even more emails. Auckland. And so it has begun…

We are FINALLY coming down the home stretch. Alex and I can feel it. It has taken months of endless planning, working multiple jobs, numerous hours on the internet and countless restless night thinking up the next great idea on what we are going to do for the trek. And we are here. We can taste it. Smell it. The list – the never ending list – has final begun to shrunk. It’s a good thing too as my notebook is coming to the end of spare pages available for list-making and other written plans.

Within the last week Alex and I have attempted to get a better feel for Auckland as a whole. All the new people we have met along the way continue to ask what exactly we have done since being here in Auckland and we truthfully answer them in return – not much. We’ve been to New Market – the local “it” shopping area of town… of which we focused our attentions on the four outdoor gear stores of Macpac, Kathmandu, Bivouac and Mountain Designs. To the point of which we know the managers by name.

But we have started to branch out. We managed to explore the Domain Gardens, pop into the local museum and head to the other side of the city to visit Alex’s friend for dinner (delicious!). It’s been great – amidst weather that continues to change every half hour – or quicker. And today we went to our first day of outdoor first aid training.

Much thanks to First Training who has provided us with the ability to attend this 2-day course. We managed to find our way to the location and plopped ourselves in between AUT students in order to settled down and hopefully learn a few skills that will help us in situations we hope we won’t need to use on our trek. There was fake blood. There was a video clip from Mr. Bean. There was everything one would hope to find in a first aid course. And that was just the first day. We still have tomorrow.

On the outside – Alex and I are making headway in contacting people and businesses all over New Zealand to see if they would be willing to be used as a food drop for us along the way. Most people we have talked to about this have been incredibly helpful and even some offering us hot showers as we pass through. Stayed tuned as we collect an official list of those involved in helping us with this portion of our journey as we will not be able to do our trek without your generosity!

Two days from now Alex and I will set out to do a trial run of all our gear. Hopefully heading west from here we will trek on the Hilary Trail and be able to test out our gear in “real” conditions. So far everything has done well in the major and continuous weather changes of Auckland, but it’s different when the weather turns crappy and one has the ability to go inside, curl up on the couch and read a book. Things are a little different when all you have is a 2-man tent to keep you comfort. Alex and I will head out into the wild to test just that.

And that all said, I am still left with a whirlwind of thoughts – the main one wondering why I ate too much today and why I didn’t go to sleep over an hour ago (even though it’s only 8:30pm) – I am reminded of why we are doing this journey. To promote women’s adventure travel. To promote environmental sustainability. To raise money for Indigo Foundation. $10000AUD is 2 years of funding. $5000 is one. $417 = 1 month of funding. $96 = 1 week. $14 = 1 day. I thank everyone who has helped us get as far as we have to date and I hope that people continue giving. Every little bit helps. Every little bit helps this community in the Solomon Islands in ways that we can only imagine. And yet together we can help. May mine and Alex’s trek along New Zealand inspire you.