Okay. Where can I start? First I want to say: get out of your comfort zone, always, because you'll be surprised and you'll learn!

Last weekend was a long one and Dan (my partner) took me to see the Ruahines. Our plans at the beginning were to camp at the top of the mountain for the first night and maybe camp elsewhere for the second night. But that's not how our adventure turned out.

Well, right away our plans changed because when we got there and started climbing, it wasn't just that it was a bit windy, it was VERY windy. I've never felt such a wind. There were times when, clinging to the vegetation, I told Dan that I didn't think I would be able to finish because the wind was literally carrying me away. If I let go of the vegetation at some points I could have fallen off the cliff.

Just as we were about to reach the top, we counted to three to step on the other side of the mountain into the wind, meaning that this was the peak wind speed we had faced, which was exactly 80 kilometers per hour.

In the end I managed to finish and we arrived at the hut Long View. As it was windy, we decided to spend the night there. As it was a long weekend, we saw a considerable number of people. Two hunters were camping at the top of the mountain. When we arrived at the hut there were two other hunters and a girl called Natalie.

And that's when I began to understand why New Zealanders are strong (physically and mentally). I'll explain...

Natalie was a friendly biologist. It was really nice to talk to her. She told us a bit about her adventures, that she had been to the south island in Fiorlandthat it was his first time in Ruahines too, which made adventure racing (I didn't know what that was) etc. A very humble and discreet person.

Our plans were in the hands of the weather. If the wind continued, we would return home, if not, we would decide what to do the next day.

The next day, the wind had stopped and we decided to continue our journey to the next hut, Howletts 4 hours later, Natalie was also on her way to the same hut. However, it took us 7 hours to get there. Halfway up we met a family with three teenage children at the top of the mountain, they were coming from where we were going and commented that they had passed a girl who was walking fast.

We moved on and met another hunter who had spent the night in the hut with us. We stopped for about 30/40 minutes. We continued on our way and then decided to stop to take some photos. As we were taking that super romantic shot (!) Dan turned around and saw a deer! It was the first time I'd seen a deer in the wild. We quickly grabbed the camera and went after it, but unfortunately we lost it. They run away very quickly and are very good at smelling us. =(

Well, we went back to collect our bags and set off again. The journey started to get very tiring. The sun was out. There was no breeze and our water was running out, it didn't feel like the same place as the day before with the strong winds. That's when we came across a valley that we had to cross. The valley was about 300 meters long. In other words, we would go down 300 meters and up the same 300 meters. In the middle of it there was a cliff and it was narrow (I forgot to take a picture! Next time I won't forget).

After this cliff that had no trail, where we had to walk through the vegetation scratching our legs, that's where it got tough. I was already exhausted! The sun was already burning, my legs were stinging with sweat and a little blood from the scratches, I didn't have much sunscreen and the water was not only warm, it was also hot. We still had a long way to go.

I was already walking with concentration. It felt like I was walking in a desert, craving ice-cold water like never before! We stopped when we saw a pool of water and drank the green water right there. We continued on our way. And more trackless paths. And vegetation scratching my leg and more sweat and more heat and more burning. We stopped, I couldn't take it anymore! I was pretty exhausted, we'd been there for 6.5 hours.

We stopped for about 20 minutes and went on again without stopping. That's when we saw a sign "10 minutes Howletts Hut"... it was everything I wanted to see at that moment. It was the cutest cabin I've ever seen. My favorite. No one was there.

There I could see how my foot felt. It was already full of blisters. But the funniest thing happened at that moment. Just as Dan was filling a bucket naked to pour cold water on it, a man arrived lol. It was very funny!

Well, the guy was very nice. He stopped to talk to us. To begin with, the guy had walked more than the rest of us. And he said that he had talked to a girl who was walking very fast halfway up the Sawtooth (a very narrow stretch at the top of the mountain that looks like sharp teeth, very dangerous, people die there!), the girl was Natalie, which means that she had gone much further than she had said she would.

A few minutes into the conversation in the hut, another woman in her late 40s arrives. Tired and a bit strange. The man left after a while and we stayed with the woman, whose name was Katherine. Later, talking to her, we found out that she had made a comic with a painting of the hut that was hanging there, and she had done this for other huts. In the end, she turned out to be a very interesting person and a real tramper!!! Katherine also knew a lot of huts and was also fit. We talked about her adventures. And she gave me some tips.

The next day, Katherine left the hut around seven in the morning and we left at 8:30. We headed for Daphne Hut to have lunch there and then go to the parking lot to get the car and go home (more specifically to the shower and bed), but there was one small detail... my feet were too sore. Luckily, Katherine had lent me some bandaids  (who will walk without bandaid: Especially someone like me who has baby feet - as Dan says lol) Living and learning!

Well, I had no choice. We went to Daphne Hut which, in fact, was only 1.5 hours away, it was very close, but the trail was very, very steep, you had to hold on to trees and plants to get down (going down is much worse than going up). And that's where my feet became raw meat.

We arrived at Daphne Hut for lunch. We stayed there for about 1.5 hours, we knew we had to go up and then down again and my situation was already critical, so I waited for the courage to arrive.

When we were there, we checked the signature book (every hut has a book where you sign, put your trip, the weather, where you're from, etc) and saw the path Natalie had taken. It was something extraordinary. She'd walked at least 30km in two days on very advanced trails! Our mouths were hanging open.

Finally, the courage arrived and we prepared for the last stretch. I knew it wasn't going to be the easiest 3.5 hours of my life. The good thing is that the trail wasn't marked at the beginning and you have to cross the river about 7 times in 500 meters before you start climbing, so my socks and boots were soaked, which incredibly helped a lot.

Well, that was the worst part. I was really tired. By the time we had walked for three hours, we could see the road and the parking lot from the top, and we had to start descending towards the parking lot. That's when the exhaustion hit. My legs were shaking. I was no longer talking. I was meditating. I was present, in the pain and in the hope of finishing, of arriving. There was a moment when I imagined the forest, that great, giant biome, sinking into the Earth and taking me with it. That was my feeling.

I survived, otherwise I wouldn't be writing this story, but it was hardcorelol. It was a long road with a lot of pain on an expert trail. But you're probably wondering why! Why go through all this pain?

Look, I'll tell you, the mountains teach you to have MENTAL strength. You know that phrase everyone says about you being your own worst enemy? Well, you face your worst enemy head on.

On the second day of the walk I said to Dan: please don't talk to me, I'm in a bad mood and I'm in a lot of pain. And he comes and tells me: you have to be bigger than your bad mood and your pain, we are a team here and if one falls all fall, we need to stay focused and be stronger than our weaknesses.

Do I need to say anything more about the lesson of all this?

Many people love the mountains here and do so with their eyes closed and alone. They are people with stories to tell. They're the people you want to listen to. And that's why New Zealanders have such a reputation for mental strength and, because of the hiking, physical strength too. Rugby players train in the mountains.

Howletts Hut was built by a teacher in 1893, there was no helicopter, people carried the wood on their backs!!! Just like many of the other huts. No pampering. After that I also understood why New Zealanders don't take medicine...

Just to finish, when we arrived at the first parking lot at 6:30 in the afternoon, we saw a car passing by on the road and Dan ran to ask for a ride to take him to the second parking lot where our car was.

The boy kindly stopped the car and gave him a lift. Talking to this 16-year-old boy, accompanied by his Labrador, he told him that he had just left school and was there to climb the mountain and go hunting with his dog for a few hours, because he had school the next day...

Even after all the pain and effort, I left saying that I want to do a trip like that on my own lol.

"Mental strength is the master of physical strength, because if the strength of the mind wants, the body obeys." Juahrez Alves

If you want to know what it is Adventure Racing see here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=occW94DgWT4 (video in English)

With great affection,

Cha ϟ