Lady on a Tramp.

A couple of months ago I had just begun reading Lord of the Rings again, and you know when you read a book, sometimes they compell you to want to do something...
Like perhaps stop taking drugs, stab someone in the eyeball, throw a child off a cliff, or to believe in fairies. Well Lord of the Rings is one of those books that makes me want to pack my napsack and head for the forest. However, this has never really equated to anything, with my lack of survival skills. Until now!
Well, until a friends boyfriend agreed to come with us.


And so we set off, to Lake Daniels, which was about five hours outside of the city I live in, Christchurch.

And so after reaching Lake Daniels, three years later, we had to drag ourselves out of the van, pack the rest of the tents and the cooking utensils into our already heavy bags, and then show signs of mobility. I needed help tightening my waist belt, my hands were insufficient. Apparently that's where you are meant to hold the weight of the bag. But really it just means you have to carry the same amount of weight, and have good posture whilst you're doing it.

I made sure my tramping attire did not consist of any natural colours or patterns. I think New Zealand would be one of the only countries you could wear bright colours walking through a forest, as there are no Bears, or Cougars, or other human flesh eating mammals to worry about hiding from. God I love New Zealand.

So it took us about three hours to walk to our camping ground. I'm sure parts of Lord of the Rings were shot in the Lake Daniels walk, as it all looked awfully familiar. Lothlorien, anyone?

I was half expecting to see some elves on our venture, but was sadly disappointed when I did not. The trolls around the campfire, however, I did see. Albeit, it was us, and we were not eating mutton.

Really, what kind of person gets stuck in a tree trunk? Like, a horizontal tree trunk...

Now without trying to sound like I am advertising for my country; Come to New Zealand. We have subjectively friendly locals, semi-populated cities, some of the cleanest drinking water in the world, and boy oh boy is it good looking!