Healing power ofnature
There’snothing betterthan awalk or hike inour spectacular nature tomake youfeel betterandcalmthe mind, especially if sharing the experiencewithfamily, writesLornaThornber.
For Victoria Bruce, the ‘‘weird energy’’ that buzzes through her body as a result of chronic anxiety dissipates whenever she sets foot on a hiking trail. Growing up in Australia, the 36-year-old spent much of her time outdoors, but it was only when she returned to New Zealand, the country of her birth, as a solo mum-to-be that she got into hiking in a big way.
‘‘As a Kiwi who didn’t grow up [in New Zealand] and had very few connections here, it wasn’t easy,’’ she says of her move from Myanmar, where she had been working as a journalist, seven years ago.
‘‘They say it takes a village to raise a child and at the time I didn’t know what the hell that meant, but I totally understand now.’’
Immersing herself in nature with her daughter Emilie, who’s now 7, she soon discovered was an effective treatment for the low-lying combination of anxiety, depression, post-traumatic stress disorder, and self-doubt that prevented her from finding inner peace.
‘‘Living with chronic anxiety is almost like feeling you’ve got too much adrenaline in your body. Your brain and body are on constant high alert and, over a long period of time, this can be so exhausting. It affects the way you view yourself and the world around you. You know you don’t need it, but it’s there and you’ve got to find a way to manage it.’’
Working from home while looking after Emilie during the first nationwide lockdown, her anxiety grew, so she decided they were going to make tramping a bigger part of their lives as soon as they were allowed.
‘‘I find tramping and being in nature just so peaceful and soothing and fun, and all that weird energy in me just goes away. We’ve been doing it as much as we can ever since.’’
Victoria began tramping with her daughter when Emilie was still a baby, carrying her in a pack until she was able to walk herself. Emilie was just 41⁄ when she did her first overnight tramp – to Woolshed Creek Hut in Canterbury’s Mt Somers area, and it proved a defining experience for them both.
‘‘We loved it,’’ Victoria says. ‘‘Since then, we’ve built up our knowledge, confidence, stamina, and tramping gear, and she’s now been to 43 huts around the South Island.’’
Living in Christchurch, the pair tackle a new track about once a month, fitting day hikes and multi-day tramps around work and school.
One of the mother-daughter duo’s favourite adventures involved climbing an obscure mountain in a hailstorm to a Department of Conservation hut that bears more than a passing resemblance to the tiny tin shed in my backyard.
The pair were driving home after completing the 32-kilometre Rakiura Track on Stewart Island when Victoria decided she was keen to do another tramp. Emilie was less keen to begin with, but acquiesced when her mother told her she’d found a goodie that was ‘‘only’’ 5km.
‘‘I didn’t realise then that it was vertical,’’ Victoria says.
The weather wasn’t great as they made their way along the scenic but scarily narrow gravel road over Danseys Pass to the tussock-covered alpine wonderland that is Oteake Conservation Park, but they are fairly hardcore trampers these days. They weren’t going to let what was then just a little light rain get in the way of their new mission: climbing Mt Buster to a hut beside Buster Diggings, where mother nature and long-gone goldminers have collaborated on a series of gravel and quartz sculptures on what was once New Zealand’s highest goldfield.
Being bombarded by hailstones as they fought their way through the tussock and scrub on the
5km ‘‘shortcut’’ to Buster Hut was what Victoria has come to think of as ‘‘type-two fun’’: experiences that aren’t a bundle of laughs until you look back on them.
‘‘We were watching the next batch of ominous dark cloud when the hut appeared, and it was even tinier than the DOC website had shown,’’ Victoria says. ‘‘But we were so happy to get there. I remember my daughter running up to the door and yelling, ‘It’s ours, mummy! We’re the only ones here!’’’
Pumping up their air mattresses on the wooden floor, the pair warmed themselves up with steaming bowls of chocolate pudding and played cards until the weak sunlight waned enough to reveal a huge harvest moon.
‘‘We snuggled up and watched the wind dance across the tussock grass under the moonlight,’’ Victoria says.
It got so cold that night that the water in their cooking pots froze over, but they were as warm as freshly heated chocolate pud in their down sleeping bags with thermal liners.
‘‘The next day, we stepped in icy puddles all the way down to the car, drinking in the outstanding landscape of tussock grass and mountains.’’
The Rakiura Track, a lesser-traversed Great Walk that takes in beaches and native bird-filled bush that looks much as it would have thousands of years ago, was also a highlight. Again, they were unlucky with the weather, getting rained on three days out of four.
‘‘Part of it was definitely type-two fun,’’ Victoria says. But there were some pretty special type-one
fun moments. ‘‘One day, we went from being kneedeep in mud on the track to snuggling up in a tent listening to raindrops and kiwi calls, which was nothing short of magical.’’
Their longest tramp together, in terms of distance, was the 66km St James Walkway through subalpine sections of Canterbury’s St James Conservation Area and Lake Sumner Forest Park, which DOC deems a great introduction to multinight tramping. Time-wise, their longest hike was in the Nelson-Tasman region’s Kahurangi National Park, where they spent ‘‘six magical days exploring a loop track starting and ending in the Cobb Valley’’.
The loop track, which saw them swim in Lake Peel amid a cloud of red dragonflies, proved Victoria’s favourite multi-day tramp so far.
‘‘Each day was its own adventure, especially the Dry Rock Shelter, where we spent the night alone in our little tent under a massive rocky overhang, listening to weka scratch around outside and kea shriek overhead.’’
Emilie clearly follows in her mother’s footsteps in terms of her love of tramping.
Right now, Victoria reckons the year 3 student is fitter than she is, saying: ‘‘If she’s well fed and has the right gear and some good entertainment, she’ll keep going.’’
She only complains, Victoria says, when her mother fails to keep the conversation flowing.
‘‘She loves a good chat and we often tell long stories to each other while we’re on the trail.’’
She’s such a chatterbox, Victoria is sometimes relieved if other people are around so she ‘‘can talk their ear off while I appreciate the scenery’’.
Victoria says she and Emilie prepare themselves mentally for each hike by talking about the terrain they will be covering, and they take as many breaks as they feel they need.
‘‘I think kids like to feel safe and have fun, and if you’re providing them [with] those basics, they’ll follow you on any adventure. I asked Emilie [what she likes most about hiking], and she told me it’s the people we meet, staying at the huts or in our tent, and playing in the bush.’’
The pair have never had any serious mishaps on the trail (slips and trips are about the extent of it), but they alway tell someone where they’re going before setting out, and carry a personal locator beacon so they can call for help if needed.
‘‘For both of us, confidence and experience are key. Once Emilie’s tried something once or twice and is confident in her own ability, everything flows much easier.’’
Despite their years of tramping together, Victoria feels they have seen just a fraction of what New Zealand has to offer. She would love to take six months out to walk the Te Araroa Trail, which stretches 3000km from Cape Reinga to Bluff, but that is still in the early planning stages.
Victoria’s advice to other parents keen to get their children into tramping is to start them young and build up slowly to more challenging terrain and overnight tramps.
‘‘Our children are the future custodians of our environment, so it’s important to give them a good grounding and appreciation of nature. Remember to keep things safe and fun – it’s about the experience, not the destination. Long walks are a great opportunity to enjoy each other’s company, play silly games, or share deep thoughts while discovering the magic of the New Zealand bush.’’
Whatever your age, Victoria believes tramping is ‘‘good for the soul’’.