Wilderness November 2021

A LITTLE over two months ago, the nation was basking in its Covid-free status. My family had not long returned from a holiday to Waihi Beach and we were looking forward to another short break in September to Wellington, where a first-time visit to Zealandia was high on our to-do list. That trip never eventuated but after more than eight weeks of lockdown in Auckland, I’ve found my daily walk to be a sanity-saver. That said, it still took time to get psychologically ready to begin the Walk1200km challenge. Despite months of planning the challenge, and preparing myself to do it, many Wilderness readers started before me. I had the usual doubts many others face: am I ready to do this? Knowing that once I started, I had to keep…

A WARNING TO ALWAYS TREAT YOUR WATER I have enjoyed tramping in many different parts of our beautiful country and have always appreciated our ‘clean, green’ natural environment. Staying at DOC huts and camping beside rivers or streams is one of the great things about living in New Zealand, especially as we don’t have to worry about things like wild animals that may eat us or poison us. We do, however, have an invisible parasite that, up until now, I thought was something very few people became afflicted with and was really nothing to worry about: Giardia. On a recent overnighter, I drank unfiltered water from the sparkling clear streams and rivers we passed, enjoying the pure fresh taste. I also ignored the DOC warning at the hut we stayed…

Get your photo published here to receive a Victorinox Escort keyring pocket knife worth $22. Learn more about Victorinox at e.ampro.co.nz. ARE YOU DOING THE WALK1200KM CHALLENGE? We want to see where you’re logging your miles. See wildernessmag.co.nz/lastweekend for submission criteria.…

HISTORIC REEFTON TRACK REOPENS A 150-year-old track near Reefton has reopened after dozens of volunteers put in thousands of hours of work to clear it in commemoration of a young climber’s vision. Jack Grinsted was working for a local tourism promotion organisation four years ago when he first learned of the 11km Painkiller Track, which ascends a ridge near the West Coast town. He said the track was built in 1872 to access a gold-bearing quartz reef at the head of Painkiller Creek. A road was later blasted out of the rock so vehicles could access the mines. The mines were eventually abandoned and the track reopened to trampers in the 1970s, but it soon fell into disrepair and was stripped from future maps. After talking with fellow climber and…

The Walk1200km challenge invites readers to take the first step on a great, yearlong journey. In doing so, it acknowledges that the prospect of walking 1200km in a year might seem daunting, perhaps even off-putting. So how to best get in the right frame of mind to start, and then to continue? Elaine Hargreaves, associate professor at the University of Otago’s School of Physical Education, Sport and Exercise Sciences, says you’re more likely to take that initial step if you can see immediate benefits from the activity. “We know from a theoretical perspective that people need to feel like there are positive outcomes obtained from the behaviour. With walking, that could be mental health benefits, physical benefits or social benefits,” Hargreaves says. In other words, we need to walk for…

Mental health is an important issue for New Zealanders as the country nears the end of the second year of the global pandemic. Lockdown, the inability to travel, job losses and uncertainty about the future have compounded to place people under untold stresses. Treating mental health disorders is complex. But increasingly, we’re learning that getting regular exercise in nature is a proven way to improve both physical and mental health. In 2019, associate professor Dr Liana Machado from the University of Otago’s Department of Psychology led a study examining the benefits of exercise on cognition and mood by getting participants to climb stairs. The study found that people felt “more energetic, less tense and less tired” following the stair climbing and that the higher the intensity of exercise, the better…