An Australian family of five, including a six-year-old girl has walked New Zealand’s epic Te Araroa trail from Cape Reinga in the north to Bluff at the bottom of the South Island.
In total, they walked about 2300km of the 3000km distance. Goldie Gerlach was aged five when her family started the six-month trek, and turned six halfway through. Deanna takes five with Great Walks.
GRW: How did the idea of taking on NZ’s Te Araroa begin?
Our six-month family adventure tramping New Zealand’s Te Araroa started with an itch. One hell of an itch that had been brewing for years as we dreamed of adventure as young lovers. We dreamt a lot but seemingly weren’t motivated or brave enough to make it happen. Then we were lucky enough to have kids, and before we knew it, we were ensconced in a privileged white suburban dream of weekend sport and awesome mates while surrounded by clean ocean and wildlife-filled national parks.
Despite how magnificent it all was, this itch grew into persistent anxiety – fuelled further by working our butts off but not being able to afford a mortgage – you know, that running on a hamster-wheel feeling. Then the grief of losing my folks in a car accident hit me with a fierce depression and as Covid lockdowns forced us to slow down, the relief of the slowness was immense. Did you feel it too? Relief and a deep nagging sense of how life could be. What are we doing all this for? Surely there’s a better way.
I felt purpose start brewing inside me in the national parks around us, walking with the kids each morning before we attempted (and often failed) at homeschooling. Our favourite part of the day, weeks, year. Damn, it felt good out there, in the natural world. Trees filled with living things, sounds of insects and birds and sparkling water. What if we could do this for a while? What if we could camp out here? And so, the trail adventure began. We’d always wanted to move to New Zealand/Aotearoa to connect with family/whanau over there. What if we connected with the land/whenua and the people/tangata before we settled. Another young family had walked the length of New Zealand on Te Araroa a few years ago, and if they could do it, maybe we could have a crack at it too?
GRW: Tell us about your preparation for such a great walk?
Being a novice tramper, preparation for the trail was important and became a bit of an obsession. I read everything I could get my hands-on. Magazines, blogs, trail notes. Favourite books were Geoff Chapple’s One Man Walks his Dream and Michelle Campbell’s Meeting Papa. I did wilderness first aid and even spent a few weeks camping in the snow learning navigation and how to manage in alpine environments.
I made spreadsheets of gear options – my tent spreadsheet had 20 different options – weighing up size/weight/price/durability. We talked to the kids about what life on the trail could be like and included them as much as we could with gear decisions and increased our local weekend walks to include more kilometres and elevation. We wanted them to feel some ownership and purpose with the adventure too.
We watched films online, our favourites being by Kiwi tramper, Elina Osbourne who made a great series about her hiker on the PCT in the US. She ended up starting Te Araroa just after us, so we got to hang out for a few days and became mates. We also did river crossing training together before we set out. Rivers would be our largest hazard on the trail, especially in the South Island where river crossings and wet feet became the norm. In fact, we still need to complete the section of rivers between Boyle Village and the Two Thumbs Range as river levels were too high when we came through, and remained high throughout with high rainfalls in April and May.
GRW: The youngest of your family to do the walk was just five at the time. Was this much of a concern?
Goldie being just five when we started walking was always a bit of a wildcard. We knew she was very keen to be in the outdoors and could do long days walking. But we didn’t know how this would go back to back or if her motivation would wane. We knew she was a capable climber and should be able to manage most technical sections but we didn’t know if her little legs could stretch around the holes in the trail or if her risk-taking would prove unsafe. She was keen and we were keen to have a go.
GRW: How do you handle grumpy kids on the trail?
The kids found parts of every day challenging out there on the trail. Getting ready each morning resembled us attempting to herd cats and it didn’t improve over time. Sometimes it all got too much, a fall, strain, annoying sibling, or controlling parent and frustrations bubbled over regularly. We all took turns. Usually, the raging one would storm to the front and pump out their frustration into making space between the tribe, eventually cooling off and coming back for a cuddle. Sometimes strains and pains lasted for days and our challenge would be to provide the ultimate distraction. Storytelling worked best and could last all day. We’d save our small portable speaker for our most desperate moments, blasting Abba had a wonderful ability to turn tired legs into dancing queens.
GRW: What have you learnt as a parent by taking your kids on Te Araroa?
As a parent I learned a heck of a lot about my kids out there on the trail (and learned some tough lessons about myself as well). Trail life is confronting in many ways. You share tiny spaces, are always hungry, hurt yourself, legs burn, you’re constantly tired and don’t often sleep well. How do kids cope with all that? Well, just fine actually. We learned that kids are capable of so much more than our safe domestic environments throw at them.
Kids can climb mountains, cross rivers, fall and hurt themselves, experience multiple wasp stings and still recover quickly. Kids can learn to love their siblings as much as their mates. Kids have epic imaginations and when they’re given the opportunity to be bored they create games and make things and tell stories. Kids can learn how to use sharp knives safely.
Golds was just five she found a small pocket knife submerged in the Taiharuru estuary in the first weeks of the trail. She became enraptured with carving and cutting things out there in the wild and we were usually close by to keep an eye out. She did the hours, a few small cuts, nothing serious and now she’s skilled with a knife and can make things. Neat aye?