One of the problems that people have when they are setting out on a long distance hike such as Te Araroa is that they don’t know what to expect. What should they pack, what sort of decisions will they have to make. This is especially important when people are new to a country or new to long distance hiking. Much of this could be helped with a simple game. For Te Araroa this could include, in say the first stage, a series of questions such as;
- How much have you trained.
- Choose your gear.
- What weight will you carry.
- Etc….
And then you could start. Leaving Cape Reinga you could face choices such as tides, how much food to eat, sleep, “Oh no, you have a blister!”, how far to go, and the normal dehydration. Having a game that could give people examples of the decisions that they would be making in at least the first part of the North Island might save a lot of people large amounts of pain as under prepared, over weight, too much too soon takes its toll.
