The right reasons to take a gap year!

Who am I?

Well Kia Ora as they say in this part of the world New Zealand, the country where I am originally from. I’m Paul (or pt to many) and for the last 20 years I have worked and lived in London, UK.

As many Kiwis set out to do, I embarked on my “Abroad Experience” in 2004 and arrived in London thinking I would be there for a few years before moving on, but somehow I am still there 20 years later! However, I recently managed to meet a fellow New Zealander brave enough to marry me and was able to persuade her that we should take 6 months off after the wedding to return home – I would walk the TA and she would join me for the fun parts; and it would give us both a chance to reconnect with this special place we came from.

But first a little more context.

Hiking background

I must confess here that the sum total of walking days I have done in New Zealand, I can count on one hand – so yes, I am one of those Kiwis who left without first having a proper look at my home country – and so this walk/wander is one way to address this. But that doesn’t mean I haven’t done any hiking.

My outdoor adventures abroad began with hiking near London, which often involved taking a train and walking a circular or round-trip route (including a stop at a pub for a crucial snack).

Shakedown walk with Jolly gear, on the South Downs Way.

Then I started exploring more and more distant places, alone and with friends. My favorite hikes I’ve done include:

• Capital Ring, London – 4 times.
• London Loop, London – 2 times.
• Ridgeway Challenge – 2 times.
• Yorkshire three peaks in 2 days
• Three Peaks of the United Kingdom for 3 days.
• Tour of Monte Blanco – 2024.
• Mount Kilimanjaro, Tanzania, 2012.
• Edale skyline.
• 1066 Sussex Road.

As well as these, I have enjoyed many other walks around the UK. If you have seen the Time Out “Country Walks Near London” books, I have done the vast majority of them in both volumes.

1066 Way, a hot 3-day summer hike, following the trail of William the Conqueror.

We’re lucky enough to go to a friend’s house in the summer to hike in the French Alps, and I became obsessed with that part of the world in the warmer weather; It’s always good as a teacher as I have 6 weeks free to explore.

The French Alps, the sunrise and my happy place.

Reasons for a gap year

After 20 years living abroad, I’m really looking forward to reconnecting with New Zealand as I’ve been feeling a bit distant recently – the Covid hangover and being away for what is actually a whole generation.

For the last 10 years (before this I was a solicitor, but that’s a different story) I’ve been teaching in east London, enjoying the ups and downs of working hard at a vibrant local school, but also getting to the point where I needed a break and a reset: – and as a friend told me before my wife and I left the UK, ‘you never regret taking time off work…’.

I got married in October and this would also be part of a long honeymoon for us, and I will be turning 50 in 2026, so on my 50th anniversary, what better way to celebrate than to walk around my home, Aotearoa, following the beautiful Te ​​Araroa.

So yes, climbing TA is clearly a correct reason to take a gap year.

Planning?

It’s fair to say I’ve been into all the logistical planning, but not so much the physical planning, so the walk will definitely start off as a relaxation – I’m hoping to get my trail bits back after the first month.

I keep fit regularly by swimming, walking, walking when I can and as often as I can cycling to/from work and around London, but a walk like this is as much mental as it is physical.

Logistically (I’ve been reading the blogs, the books, listening to Backpacker Radio over and over and always smiling when Zach and Chaunce go out of their way to say Te Araroa). For the benefit of many people, the spelling of syllable sounds is as follows:

Teh (Te) – Ah (A) Rah (Ra) Row (Ro) Ah (A) – Teh Ah Rah Row Ah – Te Araroa – Hope that makes sense – Zach and Chaunce, you can thank me later the next time you talk to a TA hiker. 😉

The Trek has brilliantly published its “best series” every year: to mark my gear – best of: sleeping bags/duvets; tents; sleeping mats; shoes; power banks; flashlight/torch; puffer coats, to name a few that I have studied closely. So thanks again to Trek for making all this information so available to me. I’ll detail some of my top gear in another post, but suffice it to say that many of the companies have been featured on Trek.

So I’ll leave this here for now: I’m enjoying finishing up the prep for the hike at KeriKeri (which is 200km from the start point at Cape Reinga at the top of the North Island), catching up with my in-laws and hoping to get on the trail in a few days, accompanying my wife who will be doing the first few weeks with me (what better way to start her married life than with some good type 2 diabetes fun…).

I will register again soon

Health

pt

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