Out of Office

I’ve been gone. Missing in action. It’s been 251 days since I was here.

Some of that was to be expected. I went tramping across the entirety of a nation.

I spent a month prepping for that trek, four months on the trek and the last four months recovering from the trek.

Wow! Amazing, you say. Tell me about it, you say. In due time, I promise. I’ve written more about those four months than about any single subject in my entire life. Comfortably a novella, and rapidly approaching memoir territory.

I started writing as soon as the trail ended. But I didn’t have my laptop, and writing thousands of words on your phone isn’t a great user experience.

So I stopped. And by the time I did reach my laptop again, I didn’t have the motivation to write.

But now … I’m back, baby!

Let me give you the TL;DR on the last 251 days.

I left Vietnam, went to Australia for a month. Hiked Te Araroa. Drank coffee in Wellington for a month. Went back to Australia, and then back to Vietnam for three months.

Australia

I last left you in Vietnam, a swirl of chaos very close to my heart. At that point my writing was sporadic and sparse. I posted my Vietnam story at the end of October. I was in Australia when I posted it.

I left Vietnam in early October and headed to Sydney, Australia. Over the preceding months, I had been purchasing all the necessary gear for my hike and sending it to my dear friend Michael (of Sahara desert fame) in Australia.

I spent a couple weeks in Sydney, and got to have hiker’s xmas in October when I unboxed all that glorious new gear. Michael and I (and a few of his friends) did a 4 day hike in southern New South Wales so I could test out said new gear.

I then went up to the Gold Coast to visit my friend Claudia, spent a week in Brisbane and then a final week back in Sydney. I left all my “normal” life stuff with Michael and flew to Auckland on Halloween. I now had only 1 set of clothes and a backpack full of hiking gear.

Te Araroa

On November 3rd, 2024, I set out from Cape Reinga at the northern tip of New Zealand, and began Te Araroa. The next 110 days were spent walking the length of the country, a trail length of 3,039km.

I mentioned before that I’ve written a lot about it, but I find it hard to put the experience into words. It was, by far, the most difficult thing I’ve ever done in my life. The trail pushed me to my absolute limits physically, mentally and emotionally.

I walked for days across beaches, through rainforests and over mountain peaks. I waded through mud up to my thighs and waist high water. I walked in blistering sun, torrential rains and winds that knocked you off your feet.

I made, and lost, friends. I became part of a tramily (trail + family = tramily). We hiked together, we ate together, we camped together. We encouraged each other and joked about each other. I could not have done it without them.

Then, three pairs of shoes, three hiking poles and countless pots of soupy pasta later, on February 20th, 2025, I reached Bluff, the southern terminus.

And just like that, it was over. The next day, I had coffee with Serpi and Pickles, and we went our separate ways.

Post Trail Blues

And this is where the drift sets in. After 110 days of singular focus, I suddenly had nothing to do and nowhere to be.

I spent the next month in New Zealand, mostly in Wellington. My sole purpose each day was drinking coffee at my all time favorite coffee shop, Pour and Twist.

I still didn’t have any of my stuff, so I was wearing the same clothes I had just hiked 3000km in. I didn’t have my laptop, and I didn’t have purpose.

I knew I need to act, but I felt paralyzed. My anxiety and ADHD kept me from making plans. Finally after weeks of inaction, I headed to Auckland and then back to Australia.

I reunited with my stuff and shipped all that glorious, and well used, hiking gear to Eli. I went to Melbourne for a couple weeks. And I am happy to report that the rumors of it being a capital of coffee are absolutely true. Then it was back to Vietnam.

Vietnam

Back to a place I fell in love with just a short time ago. I felt immediately at home, the sweltering heat wrapping me in its warm, loving embrace. And so I stayed, for three glorious months. Until my visa ran out.

And that brings us to today. A week ago I had to exit Vietnam, and I arrived here in Bangkok. A metropolis that puts every US city not named NYC or Chicago to shame. It sees the chaos of Sài Gòn and raises it, it goes all in on chaos.

Originally my plan was to simply do a visa run. Come here, apply for a new Vietnam visa and return a week later for another three months.

But oh, how I float on the breeze. Instead of buying a round trip ticket, at the last minute I decided on a one way. I thought maybe I’d checkout Myanmar or Laos. But the winds of change seem to be blowing me north.

Nothing is yet booked, but I’m at about 90% sure I’m heading to Japan. More to come on that.

This post is out of chronological order, as far as the blog is concerned. But it felt necessary. For me, and maybe for you. Eight months is a long time for radio silence, so jumping back into posting back in Australia felt weird to me.

So I’m bridging the gap. My plan over the next couple weeks is to formally catch up. I’ve started writing about post-trail New Zealand, and will follow with posts on Australia and my three months in Sài Gòn.