Earlier this year, Leadenhall Analyst Jack Ryan completed a walk across New Zealand known as Te Araroa, which is a Māori name and translates to ‘the long pathway.’ It is a 3,000km walk spanning from Bluff at the bottom of New Zealand’s South Island to the top of the North Island at Cape Reinga. Jack completed this journey in mid-April after three months of walking.
Why the big walk?
“I have been asked countless times ‘Why did you do it?’ and honestly, I don’t entirely know,” says Jack.
“I suppose I’m drawn to the challenges something like this creates. In the beginning that was mostly physical, but it soon became apparent this was a much bigger mental challenge. I also wanted to spend a somewhat extended time in one country, getting a true feel for its wildly diverse beauty and tell a story through my images and work on a project of sorts. I carried an analogue camera and captured everything in black and white, trying to showcase the gritty nature of long-distance hiking. This really isn’t something that many people do nowadays as it is wildly impractical.”
When asked who Jack walked with, he says technically he did the walk solo, but notes that’s not strictly true.
“My girlfriend joined me for some 250km’s from Queenstown to Twizel. My Dad came to join me in Tongariro National Park for a few days (home to Mount Doom). And I met many people along the way and ended up walking with a group of people for two weeks whilst we navigated some of the river crossing hazard areas on the trail.”
What were some of the highlights?
“My single favourite moment on the entire trail was sunrise atop Mt Rintoul. To understand how this particular day played out you must understand the culture of New Zealand hiking. The Department of Conservation has huts with bunks all over the country which is where many hikers will sleep. On this day I shared a hut with a couple at the base of Mt Rintoul, deep into the Richmond Range at the top of the South Island. Someone was snoring quite aggressively and around 4 am I decided to leave. I headed up the scree in total darkness and reached its summit just as the sun peaked up over the horizon. I sat alone watching what I can only describe as the perfect moment, uninterrupted views, red sky, and a view of the ocean for the first time in over a month since departing from the bottom of the island.”
Jack also notes that when it came to challenges, ‘there were a few.’
“In the South Island I actually had it pretty good, with my only real challenge being in the first two weeks as I felt unbelievably overwhelmed by the scale what lay ahead, combined with an unexpected bout of homesickness. After passing Queenstown, the whole South Island was pretty trouble free other than just general fatigue.
“I found the North Island to be a whole other challenge. I had rain every other day, all my gear was soaked constantly. I had lost enough weight that my bag no longer fitted me properly. I had freezing weather for back-to-back nights for around two weeks. I faced blizzard like, -9 degree cold and 130+km/h wind on the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. There was a lot of walking alongside busy roads where you have no choice but to be 100% alert, which became extremely tiresome. I started to get foot infections. The days started getting shorter, making daily distance something of a problem. However perhaps the biggest issue of them all was my constant hunger. I ate something around 5,000 calories a day and would still feel hungry almost always. I would go and repeat the South Island section at a moments notice, I can’t say the same for the North Island.”
What’s next?
What’s Jack’s next adventure? He’s not entirely sure but he has some impressive ideas. “I have a few shorter (between 600 and 1,000km) walks in Australia in the works hopefully in the coming years. I would really like to look towards doing a couple of long (3,000km+) walks in the USA but I’m not sure yet how to logistically make this happen. Looking back on the images I took, I’m really drawn to the idea of capturing a cohesive body of work and documenting different areas, different people and their stories, the emotions which come with these challenges and what emotions these undertakings bring to me.”
