TA. 01 | Announcing the big update!
Well… what better way to fire back up the blog and to kick off the new Substack than with a big update on life and where it’s heading!
For those who are new here, I’m Hunter – a travel writer and photographer/videographer who’s passionate about mental health and environmental advocacy as a traveller. I’m no expert, but have a variety of random life experiences that have brought these topics to the forefront of my life, and are the pillars that help dictate my life’s decisions and direction, and ultimately inspire me to remain open and continue learning more.
Which leads me to the big update! If you’re on my website, you’ll notice the count has started back at 1, but with a new acronym… TA, for the Te Araroa
If you’re not familiar with this, it’s the name of the 3000km trek that travels from one end of New Zealand, all the way to the other! Yes… you read that right… 3000km to cross the entire length of New Zealand. Which is exactly what my friend Emily and I are planning to do starting this October! We will be hiking the TA to raise funds and awareness on mental health and environmentalism, in addition to our own personal reasons of tackling such a big adventure.
We’re in early planning stages but has been on our minds for the past couple months. Originally agreed upon semi-jokingly, “if Australia doesn’t let me stay in the country, I’ll meet you in New Zealand for a big hike,” words said by me I think barely weeks before I was flying out of Canada. Fast forward [maybe] a couple weeks, and not even 48hours after landing in Australia, I found myself violently ill, and 4 days later having emergency surgery to remove my appendix. It was in the first few days of post-surgery recovery when I was faced with the reality that I may no longer meet my visa requirements, I was not allowed to do anything I’d want to be doing for at least a month, and had the lovely pleasure of my abusive ex threatening to sue me for defamation if I didn’t remove the article I put up back in November (due to this, it is no longer available). To say I was exhausted and overwhelmed was the biggest understatement (I will say though, I’m pretty proud of how I handled things in the midst of the biggest shit storm); for some reason, in the midst of all the overwhelm, all I could think was “I just want to walk for a really long time and only have to worry about where I’m sleeping, what I’m eating, how far I have to walk, and how much water I need to be carrying.” I felt desperate for it. I remember my friend I was staying with during my first week of recovery saying, “why don’t you once you’re healed?”
“Because I can’t afford to do anything else but work for the next 6 months if I want to ensure I can still get my visa hours complete…” I had said in probably the most defeated tone I’ve ever felt…
These thoughts never left my mind the past month. All I could think was that I never wanted to take my physical health for granted again; I wanted to get back to a place where I felt capable of saying ‘yes’ to all the big, fun, crazy, random adventures I could possibly find myself on. I wanted to set a big goal to work towards, and I wanted there to be a bigger purpose to this endeavor that served more than just my personal goals.
After many chats with Em, and hours sitting in my own thoughts, somehow this adventure seemed to be the most perfectly aligned plan. It tied in all my big goals for my final 6 months of my second Australian WHV visa: get strong, work lots to make lots of money and complete my hours, and invest in my personal/creative business goals; and contributes to my overall life goals + curiosity and excitement for this one short life we have.
It’s a terrifying, daunting, and crazy-feeling feat we’ve set ourselves on – but the excitement outweighs it all. If you’ve known me at in the past 5-7 years, you know I love a project (I can’t help it… I feel like I thrive off them lol). This is the first time I’ve ever taken on a personal project alongside another person, and I couldn’t be more stoked or grateful to have Emily to work alongside on something that is uniquely personal and greatly important to us both on an individual and collective level.
There’s SO much to share and I can’t wait to dive into it all even more with you as we prep for this crazy journey over the next 5 months! Follow along on our socials @soletosoul.project for frequent updates as we prep, and to join us when we hit the trail in October!
So many more updates to come. X
Stay passionate and curious,
Hunter 💛
