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The Blissful Hiker struggles with being a beginner at thru-hiking as she walks New Zealand's Te Araroa, but realizes that every step she takes brings her one step closer to being an expert.
In this episode:
- Blissful leaves Ongarue in the North Island of New Zealand and walks toward Taumarunui, where she'll plan her canoe trip down the Whanganui River.
- She meets a Maori who shares sweet coffee and his philosophy, a mixture of matriarchal wisdom and Christianity and it tells her to "ask the mother for help."
- In town, the trail provides when she meets up with four hikers she likes who invite her to join them for the canoe trip after four days walking.
- It's an easy hike on country roads to the Whakapapa Riverwhere she spies two rare whio – or blue ducks – in the rapids, a good omen.
- The hike is along a mountain bike trail called the 42 Traverse, a sanctuary for kiwi and rare carnivorous plants.
- The trail cuts off for the Waione/Cokers Track, a muddy, deeply rutted trail where she meets a trapper who takes her on the ride of her life through bush on a 4X4.
MUSIC: The music in this episode is Argentine composer Angel Lasala’s Poema del Pastor Coyaand Carlos Guastavino's Allegroas played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano
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