Kylie

“I decided to go hiking Tongariro in New Zealand and it was the first time I travelled solo. It was like a whole mountain already just getting to New Zealand on my own. I wasn’t really prepared to go and do a 24-kilometre hike and I honestly didn’t think I could do it. It was a hike over two mountains—one of them called the Devil’s staircase. I remember saying at the start ‘Shit, what am I doing here?’ because the bus had dropped us off and we got told, ‘see you on the other side’. Suddenly I thought to myself, what if I want to turn around? I felt stranded. I got told, ‘once you get over the Devil’s staircase, you’ll be fine’ but it was about 666 stairs of hell and that’s how it got the name. I remember getting to the top of it and thinking ‘bloody hell, I still got like 15 kilometres left to walk’ and there were parts ahead where you had to pull yourself up the mountain wall to reach the other side. Once you reached that part, you could see rockpools and beautiful scenery. I honestly struggled, but I did it. I finished it and I felt fucking amazing standing on the top, by myself with a bunch of strangers looking around. I could’ve turned back but I don’t know what I would have done but I definitely would have felt like a failure. I just had to keep going. Little bit like in life. You just have to keep going.”