Tomorrow is the start of a 30+hour journey that will end in Kerikeri, New Zealand. My bags are packed, my tourist Visa is in place and my leave from work approved. I’m all set and excited about what the next 5 months will hold. The idea to hike Te Araroa somehow got planted in my head a couple of years ago as the pandemic led me down a YouTube rabbit hole of thru hiking. I’ve always wanted to travel New Zealand and what better way to see the country than to walk it’s entire length, right? The trail is just over 3000 kms from Cape Reinga at the tip of the North Island to Bluff at the tip of the South Island. The TA, as the trail is also known, has a great website, https://www.teararoa.org.nz/, that describes the trail in detail and that has helped me to prepare.

On a different note, I certainly feel that this is a somewhat selfish endeavor and not necessarily one that’s environmentally friendly considering the flight and that a lot of hiker food comes in individually plastic packaged servings. I couldn’t see a way to avoid the flight, but I decided to try to make this a nero-waste hike. Zero waste would be the ideal, but I’m unsure of how realistic this is and don’t want to set myself up for failure. So nero (near zero) is my goal. I have reusable food storage bags and plan to buy as much food as possible at bulk food stores. I’m also only bringing toiletries that come in recyclable or reusable packaging, my first foray into toothpaste tablets…I’ll try to include some details about my experience with a nero-waste thru-hike in this blog to hopefully inspire others to try the same whether hiking or at home.

It still hasn’t completely sunk in that this is really about to happen! Please follow along and feel free to share this blog with anyone you think might be interested.