Mission Objective: Be afraid...

It's no secret that I'm a spooky-boo-scaredy-cat. I mean, I wrote a whole series of blogs about the things that scare me and believe me, they're just the tip of the iceberg...ICEBERGS - another thing that terrifies me. The whole Titanic thing and they're just so freaky BIG...! I feel sick just imagining them...

Anyway, I digress. So I get spooked. A lot. And when we arrived in New Zealand, eager to get on the open road and explore, I quickly picked up on the New Zealand Backpacker Mission Objective.

Every country seems to have a different objective and I reckon we hit them all...
India was all about 'Spiritual experience' - Learn about the culture, eat curry, find yourself involved in a Hindu worship ceremony and try to work out how to avoid kissing all the statues without offending the Swami...Mission completed!
Laos, Cambodia... 'Historical education' - Explore historical sites, learn about the chilling effects of war, meet locals, live simply...Mission completed!
 Australia was all about 'Chill out man'... just surf and have BBQs and be sun-kissed and peaceful...Mission completed!

So it turns out New Zealand's Mission Objective was 'Do something that scares you'...

Hurray! I haven't been scared hardly at all since we left England! Except for nearly every day in some way or another what with spider scares and snake scares and shark scares and sea swimming scares and flying in aeroplane scares and...

...The beginning of the walk...pre-tears...

Anyway, as usual I threw my concerns into the deepest corner of my unconscious and leapt headfirst into our first challenge. A five-day camping hike in the gorgeous Abel Tasman National Park on the South Island, near Nelson. Our friends Ben and Donna, at whose house we were staying had prepped us really well. We'd been out and bought walking boots (my first pair, despite having lived in the Lake District for 3 years...) and they had kitted us to the max with layers and layers and waterproofs and camping gear and cooking gear and maps.

..The Boy, powering ahead..!

We'd bought food enough for five days and packed the whole load into our backpacks. And I was actually excited!

For those who don't know me very well, I'm not the most outdoorsy person in the world. Not for lack of trying mind you, I really love being outside, I love being active and all that. The problem is that sometimes, only sometimes, nature gets a bit in the way of my enjoyment. I'll be trying to enjoy a lovely walk and the cruel wind will start piping up and before you know it, I'm freezing and miserable and irritated by my hair whipping my eyes. Or I'll be walking in the grass, or sitting enjoying a picnic when a horrible spider intruder will come striding in and ruin my happiness. Or I might be trying to enjoy a beer and a campfire on the beach but all I can worry about is whether a snake is going to come out of the nearby jungle and wrap me up...

So the idea of a five day hike in a hilly and coastal national park filled me equally with excitment (pretty views, sleeping under the stars, quality time with my husband etc) and dread (spiders, mosquitos, sandflies, spooky darkness, big hills).

...That first lunch stop.
At this point I was scared this adventure
might kill me...

So, trying to be positive, I set off. We'd waved Ben off after he had dropped us off at the start of the walk and, backpacks filled up and layers on (turns out it's cold in NZ in winter!) we began our adventure. And our bags were SO heavy. We'd been walking about two and a half minutes when I needed my first rest stop. I looked back to see how far we'd come and could still see the road with the cars on. Felt completely overwhelmed with how far we had to walk just to have lunch never mind before we camped, fought the desire to freak out, and carried on plodding.

...The Boy, 'promising' he wasn't
getting annoyed with the frequent rest stops...

I first cried about an hour in. The heavy backpack was causing each step I took to become a terrible ordeal and I could tell The Boy was losing patience with me beneath the gritted-teeth-smile. I had to stop every ten minutes because crying whilst walking was just too tricky. That first day lasted forever. But we finally made it to the campsite and never before have I enjoyed sleeping in a tent so much.

Even the darkness and spooky empty campsite and cold spider-filled toilet blocks couldn't squash my elation at finishing that first walk. Sitting by the campfire with a mug of wine and a square of chocolate I thought to myself "Blooming Heck, I might actually be able to DO this..!"

...Morning of Day 4. The huge smiles
are because today's walk is only
3 hours..!

Over the next 5 days we walked about 45km, camping at completely empty camp sites due to it being low season, having a brew on an empty beach, eating the same meals every day and feeling our backpacks getting slightly lighter each morning. By the end I felt so accomplished and proud. I even managed to go the last 3 days without crying.

..."Craters of the moon" walk. Steam pouring
out of the ground and huge hot mud pools...

For me, the camping hike was a scary venture. For George, not so much. He still had a hankering for danger, so as we travelled up the North Island in a rented campervan, we booked him in for a skydive. That should feed the fear-beast in his belly! And it did.

We spent the next couple of weeks exploring the North Island, swimming in natural hot springs, visiting Hobbiton and the Hobbit Holes, seeing friends and enjoying the beauty of New Zealand.

...Swimming in the natural hot springs was
gorgeous, getting out and being cold was not...

Because it really is something else. I very much feel like I have conquered some of my fears about being 'outdoorsy'. I learnt how to camp, hike, wee in nature and swim in a river.
Without any worries about nature getting in the way!

After conquering these fears, it was time to move on. Money was falling through our hands like sand and we had to make sure there was enough left to allow us to actually get home. Having only paid for our flights up to Los Angeles, we could very easily end up broke and homeless, wandering around Hollywood for the rest of our days, wondering if we could possibly sneak onto a plane to London when no-one was looking...

...The Boy Baggins...

So we sat down with our abacus and worked out how much money we had left after booking tickets home, and the answer was...really none at all. Having pre-booked flights to Fiji we decided it would be ludicrous to fly in and out of Fiji without seeing it AT ALL, so we decided to just go for it. What are your 20's for if not for getting into crazy debt?! I'll let future Hannan sort out our money issues when we get back. For now, present Hannan is going to FIJI and it will be paradise!

Turns out "getting to paradise", particularly on a whim, doesn't work out so well in Fiji. But that, my friends, is another tale for another time. Keep a look out for that one, it's a good'un.

The moral of this story is: Be Brave, Try new things and reach your own limit, not the limit the world has decided on. My 'something scary' was a five day hike and camp, The Boy's was jumping out of a plane at 12,000 feet.

Each to their own!

...Rest break, Perfect weather, Stunning view, NOT sulking...promise..!