Holiday from the holiday

It has been a while since I have published a blog entry and I actually already had the question if I was okay. Short answer: Yes!

Long answer: keep reading.

After some extensive hikes on the South Island (more about that is still to come) I wanted to hike the Timber Trail on the North Island, that has been recommended to me.

Everything was planned, the flight to Hamilton booked and I wanted to have a short stopover in Dunedin. A city that is being said to be very “Scottish”. Everything worked perfectly, until it didn’t.

I had many stupid accidents in my life so far and enough scars to tell the stories, but this one was by far the most stupid one.

It was very windy and I crossed a street. When I stumbled and fell, complete hiking equipment on my back, and hit one of my knees. There was no blood involved, but an incredible amount of shock, adrenaline and afterwards pain.

I am still not sure how I managed to make my way to the hotel (on the top of one of the surrounding hills) without constant crying out in pain.

I spare you the details but I was so distraught and afraid that I had torn a ligament or broke something, that I did not even want to talk to my partner back home and cut our conversation short, thankful, that he could take it, without pushing.

Fortunately, I had a little freezer in my room and used my sento towel for cooling the knee. And yes, Douglas Adam was right, always carry a towel with you.

There was no way, that I would be able to hike close to 150 km with a knee I was not able to put weight on without screams that make your blood freeze.

And here we went again, change of plan. Big time. I went to the North Island but changed my itinerary. Going to places I originally had not on my list.

Here some pictures

Now, I trust that everything has a reason and as strange as it may sound, I met the most interesting people, and during the time I was supposed to hike, the area I would have been in, as well as the area I was in, was hit by rain so hard, that in some places were landslides that cost lives. My tent is great, but it would not have withstood that incredible amount of water.

Though bus connections are decent in New Zealand, I felt that I was too limited in where I could go. My brain didn’t stop bothering me, asking to move on. So, I checked my preferred booking website, my bank account and decided to give my knee the proper place to heal: I booked a flight to Fidji….watch out for the next blog post🙃