Finding Perspective on the Heaphy Track
There’s something wonderful about spending five days traversing 80 kilometres of New Zealand’s legendary Heaphy Track. As my boots pressed into the earth of this well walked trail connecting the West Coast to Golden Bay, I discovered that this hike offered more than scenic views—it provided a mirror reflecting mine and others innermost selves.
The Sounds of Connectivity
The Heaphy Track has so many natural acoustics. The forest creates its own symphony—the gentle sound of rain on broad leaves, the wind’s whisper through towering beech trees, and the constant crunch of boots against gravel. Native birds, Tui, Tomtits and Robins, performing their beautiful calls while fantails dart playfully through the trees and bush.
This natural beauty made it all the more jarring when I encountered a fellow hiker with a portable speaker strapped to her backpack, electronic beats disrupting the forest’s carefully composed harmony. The incongruity was striking—why travel to one of the most pristine wilderness areas only to drown out its natural voice? Perhaps some carry their urban comfort zones as shields against the vulnerability that silence can reveal when you become lost in all the thoughts and pondering inside your head! Music stops you from going there!
The Rush Within
Each morning at the Department of Conservation huts brought an unexpected observation. Despite being deep in a national park to escape the pressures of daily life—many hikers would wake before dawn, hastily pack their gear, gulp down breakfast and rush to secure prime sleeping spots at the next hut. The irony wasn’t lost on me: we had travelled to the wilderness to escape urgency, only to recreate it in a different setting.
I found myself questioning this behaviour even as I occasionally felt like I needed to participate in it. Weren’t we here precisely to break free from such competitive instincts? To exist temporarily in a world where busyness has no place? The contradiction revealed how deeply ingrained our patterns of busyness and rush have become—sometimes, we don’t recognise them even when we are seeking their opposite.
The Mind in Motion
There’s a clarity that emerges somewhere around kilometre 15. As my body settled into the rhythm of daily walking, my thoughts began to flow with unexpected freedom. Without the usual digital interruptions, my mind went places it rarely visits in everyday life.
Old memories surfaced—conversations from years ago, faces I hadn’t recalled in decades. Solutions to long-standing problems appeared with surprising simplicity. Ideas connected in ways they couldn’t when fragmented by notifications and deadlines. It was so lovely – almost addictive!
The Struggle
The Heaphy Track doesn’t give itself away easily. My urban short legs, accustomed to quick commutes and regular dog walks, protested against the daily demands of 15-20 kilometres of varied terrain. Blisters formed, muscles ached, and joints reminded me of their existence in increasingly vocal ways.
When physical discomfort threatened to negate my experience, I dived quickly into mental fitness skills and I have to admit a few painkillers! Rather than fixating on each painful step, I turned my attention outward—to the changing view as we moved from mountain forests to coastal palm groves, to the quality of light filtering through the canopy, to the conversations with my gorgeous daughter who accompanied me on this trip.
The pain didn’t disappear, but it receded into the background. I had to stop it from occupying centre stage.It was a choice!
Strangers Becoming Momentary Companions
One of the unexpected treats of the hike was the collection of fleeting but meaningful connections with fellow hikers. Around nighttime cook stoves and morning coffee pots, I shared conversations with people I may never see again—a group of girlfriends from Australia chatting and laughing each night, a man and his son doing their first multi-day hike together, an 80-year-old with her daughter announcing this will be her last walk, a group of men hanging out and getting away from work but also reminding each other of what’s important, and a woman post cancer surgery and treatment who wanted to get out in nature to feel restored – and so many more.
These brief conversations reminded me that meaningful human connection can happen anywhere. Sometimes, the temporary nature of these relationships creates a unique space for authenticity.
The Wisdom of Change
Perhaps the biggest insight from my Heaphy Track trip is this: we need periods of complete change to sharpen our sense of direction. In our structured daily lives, we rarely question our course—we move along predetermined pathways toward predictable destinations. Same choices, decisions, without too much question.
But when we place ourselves in unfamiliar terrain—whether physical landscapes or challenging situations—we’re able to listen within more and pay attention differently.
The quiet thinking space of a multi-day hike strips away the constant distractions that often prevents us from asking essential questions: Am I moving in directions that matter? Am I fulfilled? What unnecessary baggage am I carrying? What am I failing to notice? What’s working and what’s not working?
Creating a renewed perspective helps us to apply it to the familiar when we return.
So pack your bags, lace your boots, and deliberately put yourself into places that make you uncomfortable. The discomfort is temporary, but the perspective shift might be the best clarity you receive! Your most important discoveries are not at the end of the trail, but in the quiet footsteps along the way.
Where will you go?
Sue 😊
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