By Ruth
It has been about a week since we decided to finish up our TA journey in Twizel. In that week we have been busy. We hitchhiked to Aoraki/Mount Cook for a short and easy walk with amazing views of the tallest mountain in New Zealand, and the surrounding glaciers. In a twist of irony, I managed to severely sprain my ankle on that very short, easy, and flat walk, so that kind of sucked. But if we had any thoughts of going back on trail, that put paid to them as I could barely walk for several days after. It made me realize how very lucky it was that neither of us had any serious injury problems while on trail. Then we hitchhiked out to Christchurch, about 4.5 hours away from Mt Cook.
Once in Christchurch it became clear that due to arcane flight change rules and pricing methods, we would have to fly back to Canada that weekend, or else pay several thousand dollars extra. We weren’t hoping for such an abrupt departure from NZ, but it seemed to be the only reasonable option. So we spent a restful 3 nights in Christchurch before flying back to Canada. Of course, while we were there we stocked up on lots of New Zealand wool for various upcoming knitting projects.
Now that we are back in Canada, we have been busy with trying to set our lives back up: looking for a place to live, looking for work (Elliot at least has started this), trying to figure out how we can get NZ-level good peanut butter here in Canada. You know, the basics.
But before we get swept back up into all the large and small things that occupy modern life, I wanted to take some time to reflect on the trip we just completed. I went back to our first post on this blog, and if you’ll indulge me I’d like to quote myself and what I wrote about our reasons for setting off on this trip to begin with:
WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?
This is the toughest question to answer. There are a few reasons: we want a break from work, we want a challenge, we love hiking and being outdoors, we want to enter a new day-to-day that is completely different from the plush comfort of our regular lives, we want to meet interesting people, and we really want to write a blog together and this was the only way we could think of that would give us anything interesting to write about. But as we go along the route I have a feeling we will figure out some new reasons as well.
So, did this trip accomplish all the things we hoped it would? Yes and no. I remember a moment in Upper Travers Hut (Day 93) where we were meeting a lot of new people, and one lady asked me why we were doing TA. My response: “I don’t answer that question anymore. I’m just doing it now — I can’t remember why.” And it was true. At a certain point along the way, I stopped being able to remember why we set off on this challenging/painful/frustrating/difficult/beautiful/rewarding/awe-inspiring trip. It was so different from what I imagined it would be.
We definitely got to hike and be outdoors. But it wasn’t all pristine mountain valleys and rivers — we also walked a lot of roads and smelly cow pastures. It was definitely a different day-to-day, but while I thought the challenges would be mostly physical, a lot of the difficulties ended up being more psychological - managing moodiness, missing home, dealing with pressures from other people on TA, and struggling at times to be on the same page as Elliot.
And as for meeting interesting people… well that was by far the most transformative aspect of this trip. We received so much kindness and generosity from complete strangers, which has completely shifted my thinking about human nature. We experienced a full range: from people going out of their way to give us a kind word of encouragement when they saw us walking with our backpacks, to trail angels who opened their homes to us and treated us, a couple of strangers, like honoured guests. Every one of these meetings and interactions chipped away at a fallacy I had believed for a long time, which is that people are wired to act in their own self-interest. In fact, once we opened ourselves up to the world, it became clear that so many are kind for kindness’ own sake. And that includes you, our blog readers. Whether you read every day or just one post, whether you left supportive comments every week (looking at you, Auntie Moira) or just read along, we are honoured you wanted to share some of our journey with us.
I feel a sense of indebtedness to the world. Hopefully as part of setting our lives back up here in Vancouver, we can figure out how to pay forward some of the many good deeds and helping hands we received on our travels.
