We are all packed up and ready to set off on our Te Araroa adventure. This has been a “when we retire” dream of mine for a couple of years. Then during lockdown I suddenly realised that we can not know what the future holds and if you really want to do something, you need to get on and do it. It took a while to decide on our route. Travelling all the way to Cape Regina when we only have 5 weeks seemed counter intuitive. North out of Wellington creates a problem with the Whanganui River. South creates a problem with the 9 day stretch in the Richmond Ranges. So here we are, off to Invercargill tomorrow to start walking from Bluff on Boxing Day. The logistics to get to this point have been huge. My “3f” diet (Failsafe, Fodmap, Food sensitivities) means that I have had to plan food for each of the 35 days in advance. The newly purchased dehydrator has been going once a week since October and daily for the past fortnight. My holiday so far has been dominated by food boxes. The photo shows the contents of box 1, sent to Tuatapere. This has been followed by box 2 – Te Anau; box 3 – to Ashim’s friend in Glenorchy and box 4 to our friends Nige and Rhi in Lake Hawera. 

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