Victoria Bruce and her seven-year-old daughter Emilie have just about finished their epic 2100km, 138-day adventure of walking through the length New Zealand on Te Araroa trail.
They've been raising money for the Mental Health Foundation and Federated Mountain clubs. More than $22,000 has been raised, exceeding their goal of $20,000.
Victoria and Emilie set off from Cape Reinga on 2 October but had to skip the top half of the North Island because of lockdown.
Victoria and Emilie arrived to Bluff on 14 April, 2022 after a 138-day journey from the top of New Zealand. Photo: Victoria
With just hours to reach Bluff, their final destination, Victoria and Emilie tell Kathryn Ryan they’ve got about 22km left to go today.
“So, not too bad,” Victoria says. “Yes, it is,” tired Emilie chimes in.
After speaking to Kathryn Ryan at the end of last year, they headed into the Richmond Ranges, which Victoria says was magical.
“I think we took about 12 days to get through. So, we were all feeling pretty wild by the end of it.
“It’s been very quiet out there on the trails. We’re going days and days without seeing another person so that’s been really special, feeling like we have bush to ourselves.”
One time when they were having lunch on a rocky hill, Emilie saw what she thought was a bit of green moss on the rock move, only to realise it was a kea.
“Happily, we had packed [our lunch] all up, and it tried to eat mum’s hiking pole.”
There was also a bit of a drama over a missing top.
“I forgot my purple thermal top in a bed,” Emilie says.
It was all the more important since they were heading to the mountains and weren’t carrying spares.
“I think [I] was just absolutely over breaking my back carrying extras, so yeah, we were just going for one pair of thermals each, and about to head into the mountains, so losing Emily’s top was a bit of a downer,” Victoria says.
So, the Twizel community united to bring it back to them, all the way out to Lake Ōhau.
“There was a grandmother and grandfather on their bike, and they went all the way to the lodge to get my purple top and I was a bit silly because we would have to walk at least 6 kilometres.”
But luckily, her stuffed kiwi and tui have made it with her through the whole trip, safe and sound.
Photo: supplied
Mum Victoria, on the other hand, did suffer an injury after a bike crash in Queenstown. She says she’s mostly recovered now.
“That was a bit of a setback, knocked my confidence a bit and just had to spend the best part of a week in bed recuperating,” Victoria says.
“Emily got to go and live it up in Queenstown while mummy had to stay in bed.”
“With our friend, I got to go out and have all the fun,” Emily adds.
Asked if they were still keen to mark the spots in the North Island that they couldn’t because of the lockdown, Emily’s response was simple: “I’m done.”
Victoria has a different plan in mind; if they do it, they’d go northbound from Taumarunui and back up Ninety Mile Beach.
“But we’ll have to see what bribes mum can think up between then and now to make it happen.”
The mental health component of the trip was personal for Victoria too. She set out on this mission as part of her healing from a breakdown.
“It’s just so awesome that so many people have got behind [the fundraiser], we’re really grateful to have reached that goal.”
You can see more of their journey on Victoria's blog and on Instagram.
