‘At least I’ll die happy!’

One year ago (November 2020) I decided to go on my birthday hike and 20 minutes into the hike, I realised I screwed up my knee. I didn’t want to stop and kept going. I should have just stopped, but guess what, I didn’t! I didn’t think it was that bad, but it was! *face palm*

After many visits to the Physio, I was doing these exercises every day to fix the screw-up. Because I had booked my first ever New Zealand Great Walk, ‘Milford Track’ for end of Feb 2021. Again, I should have just stopped and shouldn’t have rushed getting back to hiking, but nah, I still went ahead for the great walk. By end of day 2, I was mentally screaming with agony, the pain was too much to bear!

Fast forward to November 2021, when any of my friends asked me, ‘What do you want to do for your 30th Birthday?’, there was only one thing I definitely wanted to do. I wanted to be on top of a mountain! More specifically, on top of Roy’s Peak. I did Sunrise Hut recently but I stayed overnight in the hut after the climb, so I wasn’t sure how these dodgy knees are going to hold up.

Just FYI I have been doing heaps of cycling, running, walking, mini hikes, etc., to work on fixing the dodgy knees. To be very honest with you, I totally expected pain and at least a few days of non-functional legs after the hike. Even the day before the hike, I went on a 22km off-road bike ride, on a track I had no clue about. And I was slightly worried that my legs will be sore and my next day will be wasted.

So, the day was here, and I woke up before my alarm. Sat upright and analysed my legs, ‘Do I think I can do this?’, ‘Am I being too ambitious?’, ‘At least you can say you tried!’, ‘I am stupid or what’, ‘What’s the worst that can happen’, ‘At least I’ll die happy!’, etc., were a few things that was going through my head. STOP IT! I told myself and JUST GO! Worst case scenario, I have the weekend to recover before I go back to work on Monday. Then did some positive affirmations, ‘My legs are perfect’, ‘I have no issue’, ‘I will be absolutely fine during the hike’, etcetera, etcetera! I had done enough of self-talk. I got ready and started driving to Wanaka.

The day was literally PERFECT! Clear blue sky, lush green snowy mountain tops, couldn’t have asked for a better day. For anyone who doesn’t know. Roy’s Peak is a 16km hike all together (8km each way). I took my time and it took me 4 hours and 20 minutes to complete the whole track! I couldn’t believe that I could do that! After all this time, I could do it, I did it! I couldn’t believe it at first and then a feeling of proud rushed into my eyes and made me go a bit mushy.

I had taken many snacks with me for the hike and only ended up eating an OSM bar before I started driving to Wanaka and my Nutella and Breadsticks when I was sitting at the top of Roy’s Peak summit. Overall, after this hike, I know I could do anything I wanted to! My next question is, ‘Which mountain do I climb next?’.