by Nigel Peck and Susan Garber

One often thinks it’s only adolescent males who overestimate their capabilities, underestimate the hazards and get themselves into risky situations. On occasion though, even septuagenarians can make those mistakes. Such was the case yesterday on Christmas Day in New Zealand near Wellington on the Escarpment Track from Paekākāriki to Pukerua Bay.
 
It’s not that we were foolhardy in that we did research the walk beforehand on multiple sites with extensive consultation with our trip planner, ChatGPT. The synopsis was that the walk was moderate but with exposure to heights on narrow tracks with a steep drop on one side. After considering this it sounded possible for us – we could start the track and then if it felt too daunting, just turn around.
 
The flaw to this reasoning was that the first steep section was at the beginning, quite intense and exposed, heading up – doable by focusing on the steps right ahead and not looking anywhere else. We climbed a couple hundred feet where it leveled off and looking back, had absolutely no desire to descend what we had just climbed as it would have been exponentially scarier.
 
We therefore continued along the track. We thought we would end up on the top of a ridge and then only have to worry about steep descents at the end. Not so. The track actually winds around up and down along the middle of the slope which is pretty much all completely exposed and very steep with clear views to where you would end up, far down down by the railway tracks, the freeway and the ocean, should one mis-step.
 
This went on for kilometres up and down, in and out and pretty much always with the daunting drop to our right. We continued focussing solely on the view three feet in front, where to plant our walking sticks and not dwell on what we were doing. After a couple hours we had been climbing only to reach a point where the track headed straight down via a series of a dozen stepways on an incredibly steep slope. Another factor we now had to contend with was the wind gusts which had been steadily increasing and were at that point somewhere around 40 km per hour.
 
We felt ‘hooped’ and somewhat petrified. How would we make it down these incredibly steep steps series several hundred feet, looking down to where our demise would happen as our NZ Christmas walk? And then Olaf appeared walking up the track.
 
He with his girlfriend, Steffie, had passed us half an hour earlier with heavy packs as they were camping whilst trekking extended sections of New Zealand (in Steffie’s case from the tip of the North Island to the bottom of the South Island). Several hundred metres further down at a suspension bridge they had stopped and come to the conclusion that we might need help getting down, and reascended to offer assistance. The winds were buffeting us above and Olaf mentioned they got even more intense where the terrain funneled them.
 
We gratefully accepted Olaf’s offer and started down with myself being to know that Sue was being assisted by Olaf, so all I had to do was focus on each step, where to plant my poles to withstand the wind gusts and make my way down each set of stairs at a time. Olaf walked behind Sue holding on to her pack to help steady and give the moral support that allowed to make her descent. 
 
Steffie also came up, saw that Sue was being assisted and asked if I needed help. I declined saying I could manage but she followed me for moral support, saying to just take it as slow as need be. After about twenty minutes (which felt like several hours) of descent, we made it to the suspension bridge and could breathe again.
 
At this point we asked if they would consider accompanying us for the next bit, just in case it got hairy again. They both agreed but Olaf suggested that he would accompany us as he and Steffie were going to take different routes to their day’s end destination (he had developed blisters and would take the train for a bit) and she still had another 20 kms to go on her 42 km walk for the day. We readily agreed, Steffie took off and Olaf walked with us for another couple kilometres.
 
Those kilometres continued on steep, exposed slopes going up, down and around on narrow tracks, ascending up and down steep sections but none were as bad as the section where Olaf and Steffie returned to us. I would tell you about the countryside and views if I could, but can’t, as throughout the stretch focussed only on the immediate half dozen feet in front of me.
 
One key takeaway of this whole account is the incredible thoughtfulness and generosity of Olaf and Steffie to return to offer help. I’m not sure how we would have done without their assistance – for us that Christmas Day it was the most amazing gift that anyone could offer. We did get several photos of them and exchanged contact information.  We hope in their travels they will come through Vancouver so we can have them stay with us and in some small measure show our appreciation for their help.
 
A second key takeaway is if you see a situation with people appearing to need assistance, evaluate the situation and then, if you can, give the help. It sometimes can make a challenging situation better beyond anything you might imagine. 
 
Spread around, it’s one way to make the world a better place.