You Don’t Know Until You Go… When I got the message asking if I’d be interested in traveling to a warmer climate to test out some gear, my mind immediately started spinning. New Zealand came to mind. It’s a place I’d been wanting to visit for years, but always felt just out of reach. Between budget constraints, the complexity of international travel, and general uncertainty, it had stayed on the back burner. But this time, I decided to say yes—to let go and wing it. With just a few weeks to plan, I dove into research. We’d be traveling in late fall and only had five days to explore the South Island. Five days is obviously not enough—but it’s what we had. I was in the middle of my grad school semester and knew this would be a quick turnaround, but I was determined to make it work. Then came the classic travel dilemma: how do you see as much as possible while still really getting to know a place? For me, the latter always wins. I’d rather connect deeply with one area than check off a bunch of spots. It’s the time spent sitting with a landscape—feeling it, experiencing it—that really roots a place in memory. We planned to spend three days in Aspiring National Park, with hopes of running up Mount Aspiring. Did it happen? Nope. For a lot of reasons. We spent our first night high above the main route, planning to summit via Quarterdeck Pass from the French Ridge Hut. But once we got there, it was clear the route was out for the season. Oh well. We headed back down, then ran up the ridge for sunset instead. Still beautiful. The next day, we tried the late-season route. Made it across the glacier, but had to turn around. Out of food. A flight the next morning. Twenty miles still to go. Excuses? Sure. But we were fried—five days of go-go-go on minimal sleep, and we were running on empty. Honestly—I don’t really care. We saw incredible places, moved through a landscape I’d only ever seen in photos, and made the most of the time we had. It wasn’t perfect, but it didn’t need to be. Sometimes just showing up is enough. #TevaBureauOfAdventure