Two of them set out to climb mountains

Those of you who are mountaineers will probably laugh at us, but this is the story of the beginning and aborting of a daring hiking trip and the extraordinary experiences we had with New Zealand's people and the realization that we can do what we think is right and important.

The story begins with a beautiful stay at a camping park after our beach stage. We treated ourselves to a rest day to give our bodies the necessary strength for the following mountain stage of about 5-6 days. The fellow hikers were already sharing horror stories about the "3 Forests" and we had respect and a plan. On Monday we started in the Herekino Forest. First 9 km over land and then straight into the forest. We knew it would become steep and muddy, as experienced Rennsteig runners, that was not initially a problem. It was only after we needed 3.5 hours for 4 km, Andreas landed on his bottom for the fourth time, and a sleeping place was still far from sight, that the first doubts arose. But we had our house with us and our Te Araroa app recommended a suitable place to set it up. We reached the place at 6 p.m. in a pretty jungle-like terrain by a river. We believe we were really alone in this forest, with huge fern fronds, kauri trees, and a bird that sounded like the mockingjay from The Hunger Games. Quite exhausted, we cooked a soup and fell asleep at 8 p.m. We were awakened by the birds at 6 a.m. and continued at 7 a.m. Again, completely motivated, we climbed the last 3 km to the summit to descend on the other side. The descent was a real challenge for us! Steep sections, constant mud and sludge, roots in the ground, small falls from the sky, and always in the way. And after Andreas fell with full luggage the day before, I fell into a mud hole with my backpack, which didn't want to let me, or my shoes, go - Sh*t! That was an adventure, we kept getting back up and continued. Nevertheless, the uneasy feeling remained that a fall could have worse consequences. And so we left the forest to gather new strength at the next campsite (12 km). But New Zealand wouldn't be real if it hadn't started raining heavily then. It was obvious that the next forests would be no less muddy and dangerous.

The decision: we break off the tour through the mountains here and protect our health. From the next village, we wanted to hitchhike to the nearest town. But the village only had 3 houses, twelve dogs, and a gravel road, it was pouring rain, no cell phone reception - what now? The village was mentioned in the trail information, and that a man named Peter could provide accommodation. So we called from a weak cell phone signal, gave our location and request. The young woman on the phone asked a question, and suddenly the reception was gone. What now?

And here begins the story of the truly extraordinary and hospitable Kiwis. A woman comes by car, waves to us. We walk up to her and ask for Peter's address. She offers us tea and a phone call (landline) in her house so that Peter can pick us up. At the moment we get into the car, another car comes rushing up, the young woman - Pipi - barefoot, in shorts in pouring rain, comes to pick us up because she understood where we were. In the end, we end up on a farm, get shelter in a small bungalow, a warm shower, and dinner. And even though the host Peter has a business meeting in his house, we are allowed to stay until it starts, drink hot tea, and experience the everyday life of the family.

The next morning, Pipi takes us to the main road. We hold our thumbs up and after never having hitchhiked in Germany, the second car stops and Mike, a management consultant, takes us 60 km to the nearest town, Kerikeri. We spend the night at a campsite again and the next day hike to Pahia, a small holiday resort on the east coast in the north of New Zealand, in very beautiful weather. Here we have planned our next hiking days today and hope or think that we made a right decision for our health and have therefore met great people and consciously perceived the country and its people.

Conclusion: We are here to enjoy the freedom to do what we want. We are not here to win a challenge (the hiking community likes to measure its strength). We want to experience as much as possible, stay healthy, and not torture ourselves. The way we do it will not be limited to just hiking. We take good care of ourselves!

Warm greetings - Susi and Andreas