One Tent

“If you find a path with no obstacles, it probably doesn't lead anywhere."

New Zealand | Fiordlands

“I will come again & conquer you because as a mountain you can’t grow, but as a human, I can.” -Sir Edmund Hillary

Sitting on a bench in the back of REI, I tried on my first pair of trail running shoes. I wanted something real. I was tired of running laps on flat pavement just to stay in shape. I wanted a real experience with real dirt and rocks under my feet. The sound of running water and rays of sunlight glimmering through the tree canopy above. As a kid, I crawled through ditches, floated down the bayou, and climbed trees on a daily basis. But as an adult, I spend most of my days sitting in front of a glowing screen and watch the sun set over the downtown buildings around me. I was excited to get home and try out my new shoes.

I talked my girlfriend into a quick evening run around the Bull Creek greenbelt before it got too late. The rocks crunched under our feet as the leaves ruffled in the wind. I started to feel the vigor that had long been dormant. Right as we started to get deep enough for traffic sounds to grow faint, the trail came to a stop. Looking around for another way through the trees, I noticed that the trailed seemed to continue on the steep side of the mountain we stood at the base of. To our right, a steep drop into the creek below, and to our left, the trailed continued. And so did we. Eager for adventure, we continued onward, heaving ourselves upward using the plants to either side of what we pretended was still a trail. Up and up we went. Steeper and steeper it got. We pressed on, but noticed it was getting rather dark. We stopped for a bit to consider turing around to head back before it was too late. In our attempt to turn around, we realized the incline was too steep and too dangerous to back down. We were literally holding onto plants to prevent ourselves from sliding down into the rocky creek.

With no alternative, we climbed higher as the sun set behind us. We knew there were houses somewhere at the top and for now, reaching civilization was our only goal. Worried for what I had gotten my future wife to consent to, I started to feel a huge cloud of responsibility overwhelm me. We had always talked about how our relationship was perfect and we had never gotten to see each other in our rawest of forms, being stressed beyond control. That was soon about to change. I tried to guide the way for us, carefully choosing what I thought was the safest path. This was choosing difficult as it was now too dark to make out what we were grabbing at and with no phones to use as flashlights (or call for help for that matter). Pressing on, I started to panic. Our options raced through my mind. Should we continue climbing? Is it possible to tie ourselves to a tree and wait until morning? What if one of us gets badly injured? We pressed on. It was now nighttime with nothing but moonlight to guide us. The inclined that was once climbable was now a series of steep cliff sides. We strafed our way around one until we found some rocks and branches to pul ourselves up to the next. In a time when blame was ripe for the taking, we instead took a break and turned to prayer. As we carried on, I tried to find my footing on a rock, but the rock made a break for it and tumbled down the slope. I fell, but quickly caught my balance and continued on. Full of adrenaline, I didn’t feel anything unusual, but knew I fell pretty hard. “Are you okay?”, Elise called out. I brushed it off as if nothing had happen, although when I looked down through the darkness, I make out a trail of blood starting from my knee and ending at my sock. I felt a fear rising from within me. I apologized again for getting us into this, and with every excuse to blame me for our mishap, the only thing she did was continue to encourage me.

It had been dark for a couple hours now when we finally climbed our way to what was a real trail. A real trail! As we frantically made our way over to it, Elise happened to notice my leg. But no worries now, we’re almost there. We followed the trail until it ended at the back of someone’s house. We tried to navigate around, but it seemed to be a cul-de-sac. We took our only option, and climbed into their yard, making our way to the street. Halfway there, two dark objects hurried toward us. Woof! Woof! We found ourselves too far in at this point to make a break for it, for they would surely tear a moving target to shreds. Instead, I impulsively decided to play the “good puppy” card. We stood completely still as I motioned for them to come to us as I said in a high-pitched voice, “Come here! Good dogs! Do you want a treat?”. Although angry, the dogs only brushed against us to show us who’s boss. We were alive! Slowly making our way to the front fence, we lifted ourselves up and over, into the street several miles from home.

We couldn’t have been happier! We had finally made it to safety. Walking down the street, we passed by a group of people sitting in their driveway enjoying the cool weather, carefree. The stark contrast between them and us made me realize what we had just gone through, and how in the last several hours, we learned more about each other than most people do in several years. We had defeated any temptation to fight and blame. To give up and turn against each other. We and had grown in the best way possible, as a team.

Five months ago, we decided that we needed an out-of-america-experience. We had fantasized backpacking through Europe; we daydreamed about running the hills of Ireland. We wanted to travel someplace that would require a single life straw and a heavily used pair of chacos. 

Fast forward to October: New Zealand had been a thought in our minds, but seemed far too unrealistic. Who the heck goes to New Zealand? 

Fast forward to November: Apparently, WE DO. One night, we took the plunge, typing our credit card numbers into cheaptickets.com, purchasing the biggest trip of our lives. Hello, New Zealand. 

Planning for a trip like this can be an emotional roller coaster. From booking plane tickets to figuring out what the heck a trainer is, it became extremely apparent to us that planning for this adventure was going to be rough.

Plan in Advance

There is a definite balance to be had when planning a 3-week trip to a place you have never been before. Planning specific things can enhance your experience and make transitions between cities far less stressful. 

A. Make a rough itinerary. We used google documents so that we both could edit at work or whenever we had a genius idea. We tend to over research, so google docs allowed us take notes as we frantically watched videos on New Zealand landscapes.

B. Figure out what cities you want to visit and what days you will visit them. Don't plan every second out, but it is important to know your destinations. Henceforth...

C. Get your transportation nailed down. The last thing you want to happen when abroad is to be stuck. Research different modes of transportation and book your tickets in advance.

D. Purchase tickets to very specific events. We had dreamed of hiking the Milford Track, but did not purchase tickets in time. We lost out and had to book a different hike. It turned out to be totally fine and cheaper, but we missed out because we did not book in advance. You will regret it if you do not book important milestones of your trip.

Don't Overplan

After all of the advance planning, we came to realize how important not over planning can be. Although creating itineraries is extremely important, it can rob you of the experience if you don't leave room for spontaneity. At one point, we had every second of our trip planned out. It was awful. It was stressful. What if we missed our train? What if the ferry decided to leave 10 minutes early? Thinking about the potential holes in our plan created stress that instantly made us dread our trip. Hello?! If planning is stressful, then you are doing something wrong. Half the fun of a trip like this is planning it. Moral of the story: Punch your over-scheduling type A personality in the face; he is your enemy. Enjoy going with the flow and experiencing all your trip has to offer. 

Enjoy Planning

Planning can be daunting and seem endless. I know we felt like it was never going to end and that we were digging ourselves into a torture hole of planning. One night, after many arguments and realizations, we decided to completely start over. Planning was for the dogs. We decided to look up pictures of where we were potentially going. We watched terrible YouTube videos about Kiwi birds and some random volcanoes we would never see. This sparked our excitement and made us feel like we were going to New Zealand with a purpose. Our trip had true meaning and all of the planning was just extra to enhance our experience. 

Plan Together

Not all cases are like this, but in our situation, we are traveling to New Zealand together.  We discovered early on that one of us is far more controlling than the other. There would be many secret individual planning sessions where the other would be left out or clued in last minute before booking. If you have different personality types, planning a trip like this can be one of the more stressful things in your life. For us, we had to step back and work together. No booking without the other person present and consenting. It was a struggle, but after some much needed practice, we learned to listen to each other and enjoy planning together. 

Visit with a Local or a Past Traveler

We were extremely blessed to have met a man whose parents live in New Zealand. We were able to chat with them on the phone before making any official plans and figure out what would be best for us. Thankfully, talking to them saved us from the horrible, limiting mock plan we had made beforehand. We were quite mistaken - we were going to New Zealand at the worst possible time to the worst possible city.  Even if you don't know anyone who lives in your country of choice, find someone who has either been there or lives there via a blog or email. Contact them and ask them what to do. The biggest mistake would be to spend thousands of dollars on a trip, naively roaming about in a city that all of the locals hate in the coldest winter months - we were going to do just that. 

Planning a trip can be both exciting and terrifying. It can be the most beautiful and the most gutting experience in the whole world. Make the best of it and enjoy every moment. 

In the words of Andy Warhol: