By Elliot
After a busy day of shopping and socializing yesterday, we needed a rest from our rest day, so we spent the day doing very little.
We did have a social engagement in the evening though. We were invited for dinner by Geoff’s childhood friend and his wife, who happen to live in Auckland. It was a lovely evening. They served us plenty of vegetables and a variety of New Zealand’s bounty: cheeses, fruits, nuts and fish. They wanted to make sure that we didn’t miss any of the food New Zealand is known for. They also refused to let us leave empty handed: we got homemade cookies and a variety of spices to add culinary interest to our camping meals.
On a completely different note, all the time we spend on the trail is good thinking time, so I come up with a variety of theories about the trail. It is thus that I came up with the following taxonomy.
There are three types of hikers: section hikers, through hikers, and the elite.
Section hikers, which are those who only hike one section at a time, are the most casual, often the most relaxed, of the bunch. They generally don’t have the lightest packs, and are less concerned about injuries. Even if most of the skin on the bottom of your foot had formed into a blister, it’s not the biggest problem if you are leaving the trail in a few days. These people are also the most reasonable, treating sections of the trail as a vacation instead of some kind of life-transforming journey.
Then you have the through-hikers, which is the group we are a part of. At this level, everyone has a reason for why they walk, sometimes expecting transformation of the self by walking the trail. This group worries about their aches and pains, agonizing over whether and where to take a rest day to let the body recover just enough to go on. The days of walking feel challenging for this group, but we hope things get easier the longer we walk.
Then you have the elite. They don’t worry about aches and pains. They are almost machine-like in their hiking. We met an American couple who’ve already done several hundreds kilometre long trails this year. They were doing 40+ kilometre days, starting before 7am and ending after 7pm, and seeming to love every step. They aren’t looking for transformation from the trail. The trail has consumed them, and they seem to no longer be tied to normal life. This is their normal.
Anyways, those are just my wholly unscientific trail thoughts. What type of hiker are you? Leave a comment below!
