Trail Notes, Trip Stories and Honest Advice from the Field

The Freewheeling Kiwi Blog

Sharon Evans is the founder of Freewheeling Kiwi and one of Australasia's leading small group Himalayan trekking specialists

She has walked the full length of Te Araroa — 3,000 kilometres from Cape Reinga to Bluff — and led multiple groups to Everest Base Camp with a 100% summit success rate. She also treks in Australia, Bhutan, the Annapurna region and across New Zealand.

When Things Go Wrong - Umukarikari

Below me the swollen river raged down the valley, dirty grey water rushing, crashing and tumbling, rolling boulders, tugging trees from flooded banks, swirling and churning every which way. 

Above, sky the same colour as the water closed in, the tops of the mountains remaining hidden in the murk. I knew what it was like up there, near horizontal rain driven by a malicious wind intent on tossing me off the narrow ridge. Behind, the perilous trail from where I’d descended was more a cascade than a track.

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Sharon Evans is the founder of Freewheeling Kiwi and one of Australasia's leading small group Himalayan trekking specialists

She has walked the full length of Te Araroa — 3,000 kilometres from Cape Reinga to Bluff — and led multiple groups to Everest Base Camp with a 100% summit success rate. She also treks in Australia, Bhutan, the Annapurna region and across New Zealand.