Family Hiking Adventure

• Sam Case, Grade 7
• Short Story
• 2017

Winding along the misty road somewhere in New Zealand, our faces all beamed with excitement. We sat squished into the small space of ‘Lizzy’ our recently named hire van. My family and I headed through the tightly packed pine trees towards the Routeburn track, a four-day hike through New Zealand wilderness.

We arrived at the trail head, wasting no time donned our packs and began. The leaf carpeted floor led us uphill to the first sound of a waterfall. We walked into the clearing where the silvery glittering was easily visible. It was a majestic sight, the water slipped off the cliff face and onto the jagged rocks below.

We reached the first cabin, there was nobody there. I remember my older sister screaming in terror at the sight of a snake (worm!) wriggling across the floor. We decided not to stay and trudged on for another hour. We were greeted at the next cabin, by the sight of thirty trekkers preparing for the night. We did the same thing and went to bed.

The next morning, we had to get going straight after breakfast as we heard the weather forecast was dire, and we had to make the treacherous mountain pass. The walk that day was stunning, I felt like I was in the mountains of Tolkien’s Middle Earth. But I felt nervous. The chances of getting caught in a blizzard were high and that small matter of walking alongside a cliff edge. I was about to step over a rather large rock when I slipped, landing only centimetres from the hundred-meter drop. My heart felt like it was going to explode. The near miss ended up being the only eventful moment with the weather kind we enjoyed the stunning pass and made our next cabin safely.

I was the first to wake up so I went outside to watch the sun rise over the mountains. I looked at my watch, it was three o’clock in the morning! I unhappily went back to bed, and waited… at 7:00 we were walking under a thick canopy of leaves. We made friends at the next cabin and played extremely fun games until the sun set.

The final morning of our hike, we were allowed a bit of a sleep in. It wasn’t long to the end of our journey. We laced up our boots, walked for an hour, then the race to the finish began. My dad was out in the lead, my brother and I hot on his tail. With a bit of luck my dad started to get a sore hamstring so I took the lead and being faster than my brother I crossed the finish line first. I was ecstatic. We were rewarded with the satisfaction of completing such an awesome adventure. We collapsed into the van happy and hungry, then we hit the road.