My FIRST TREK !

Taranaki Falls Walk, The National Park, New Zealand, originally uploaded by abhijit_dan.

Yes ! I am back !!! After neglecting my beloved blog for months , I am back ( and with a bang !!!). I guess I needed some fuel ! And now I have plenty !!!

I was never an Outdoors person in my life - in fact City life was life for me ! The song "You belong to the City" by Glenn Frey reflected my ideology in life !!!

All that changed when I first went to New Zealand in 2005. I fell in love with nature ! I connected with it and for the first time felt the connection with my self so strongly !!!

On my second trip to NZ ( this time with my wife), I ensured that the Opportunity to Connect was phenomenally high !

I discovered that NZ was one of the best havens for Trekkers in this world ! In fact they call it TRAMPING ! http://www.tramper.co.nz/

It has superb facilities ! Well marked and made out tracks all over the country - well managed by the Department of Conservation ( DOC).

NZ has many GREAT WALKS. http://www.newzealandnz.co.nz/great-walks/

These take many days and there are huts which allow one to spend the nights. This allows people to travel light as they do not have to carry tents.

Our FIRST walk was a baby step. It was just a 2 hour looping track. But the terrain was slipperry and it started raining - so all in all it was great training !

This walk was in what is called the National Park area in the Northern Island, NZ. Also called the Tomgariro park. The Tongariro crossing is one of the GREAT walks of NZ. We didn't do that. We were not ready and neither was the weather !

However small our baby step, it was awesome ! And today we are a few treks old !!! One great step to connecting with NATURE !