#tramping

AW KIA ORA!!! you're going to have a blast, I'm sure of it [: I'll keep this brief but informative!! <- update: robin does not know what "brief" means

you need to take at LEAST twice as much water as you think you'll need. dehydration on a hike is an evil evil thing especially around november-feb when it gets hot! half a litre to a litre per hour is good to aim for.

speaking of: water treatment tablets are a LIFESAVER. got to your hut and realised there's no treated drinking water? fill up your bottle, pop in a tablet, and wait half an hour. it's magic and awesome and will stop you from shitting crazystyle from drinking untreated water

for a first time hiker, don't push yourself too hard!! you can see and do a lot in 6-10km. don't go for a 4+ day hike straight away. take lots of breaks, eat frequently, and oh my god please stretch

IF YOU'RE DOING ANY UPHILL TRAMPING. save your calves from agony and find some good calf stretches that work for you

people don't realise but there's an art to stomping up hills. this video is fantastic and has helped me a TON. same guy has other useful tramping tips on his channel!

eat your body weight in scroggin. #scroglife

take a proper hiking pack. not a backpack!! make sure you're familiar with all the straps and be sure to adjust if you're uncomfortable. also: the heaviest things should be packed CLOSEST TO YOUR BACK!!! this stops you from straining your back and makes your pack feel so much lighter

LAYERS. t-shirt -> long sleeved top -> jacket. pants that zip off to turn into shorts if you can find them. even in winter I find myself overheating on hikes. don't be that guy (me)

if you see a pīwakawaka you should make kissy noises at it

make sure to tie your bags up high in trees so that bears can't get it!! oh wait sorry wrong hemisphere disregard

if it's rainy and your trail is near steep cliffs or mountainsides: BE SO FUCKING SAFE AND CAREFUL. almost got smashed by a massive boulder bugstyle when I tramped the abel tasman trail. crashed down on the path a few metres in front of me. loose rock can be dangerous, if you're unsure, stay away from steep areas!!

have fun stay safe be gay drink water get bitten by an eel etc

  An exit could be a good beginning. I was nineteen, uncomfortable, unprepared, uncouth, and unsafe when I left my home territory, escaped my family, and said goodbye to a very few friends. I had developed the conditions which propelled this departure, part of it being arrested with my older brother for two recent unheralded burglaries. Honestly, I had talked him into it. 

  These were done at our little country school where we had graduated from, recently for me. They had some new media equipment and we also picked up some musical instruments there late one night after opening a window in the back of the building. It was in a remote area, seven miles from the nearest town and it was easy. We also successfully reburglarized it the next week to retrieve some necessary cables to make the previous stolen goods operable.

  I didn't need this equipment. I had a good job as a butcher at a small family business, where I was arrested later while getting ready to leave work. I remember very well. Howard, the owner whom I had ridden on a tractor with as part of a job interview, came back to the locker room while I was getting out of my work duds (it was kill day) and saying, quite concerned and confused, that the sheriff was up front to see me.

  I have often followed a regimen of timing recreational drugs like the acid I had just taken. I planned to leave for a party nearby and it should be hitting when I got there but, unfortunately, the deputy had other plans. They wanted to talk to me at their offices and jail in the next county where we lived and the school burglaries had taken place. I had more acid on me, gift tabs for friends, and shoved those seven hits up my nose while getting in the back of the deputy's cruiser. 

   They had already picked up my brother Tim where he and I lived, at our rental trailer on someone's farm. When another deputy arrived there, the door was wide open and Tim was blaring some rock/roll while weighing out bags of pot, sitting on the couch in his underwear. He told them everything. When they brought me in, however, no matter how dilated my pupils got, I was not helping them. After about an hour of questioning me (I may have started singing) they brought Tim in, who told me to give it up, they got us. I think that's when I thought that my overall situation could be improved upon and maybe some travel was in order, something I had been speculating on recently. It could do me some good. Get out, enjoy some fresh new perspectives on life.

  I was so high.

  We had no prior criminal activities and were released soon after. In our farm community there aren't many who even leave the township so we weren't a flight risk.

  My folks were furious, mainly that I had besmirched their reputations but had also brought my brother, the golden child, into my schemes. Yeah, it was like that. I was not favored. Actually, it was much worse than that and something that I had lived with for many, many years from my Mom and stepfather, Butch. I dreaded going back to our farm. I left as soon as possible before and I would do it again.

  There are too many who have been through hardships worse than mine but these were mine. I don't want to dwell on this, I already have, and feel that the hurtful issues surrounding me then have been resolved or dissolved. I'll relay some of these quickly, to clarify what I felt was so necessary to run from. One lesson learned was that it's better to move towards something than to run from it.

A comforting weight

The track winds in front of me

As my boots find dirt

Mud

Leaves

Sticks go crunch

And birds whistle above

Welcoming me

Avalanche Peak, Arthur's Pass National Park