Explore Freewheeling Kiwi Newsletters
Each month I share travel stories, adventure updates, behind-the-scenes moments and practical insights from the trail and beyond.✨
What You'll Find Here
Browse past newsletter editions featuring travel stories, group trip updates, destination guides, and reflections from adventures in New Zealand, Australia, South East Asia and the Himalayas. Each month brings new stories, new departures, and new reasons to explore.
Starlink, Swing Bridges and Base Camps 🏔️
When the Starlink dish arrived at Shambhala, I pointed it north instead of south. It took a rainy afternoon on the clay terrace to work that out, and 206 megabits per second to make it worth it. After two years of uploading from roadsides and hilltops, I'm finally connected from the bush.
This edition features the story behind going off-grid on our own terms, a gentle day out on the Waikato River Trails at Arapuni, and an update from Shambhala. We also count down to Nepal, where Annapurna Base Camp and Everest Base Camp treks are about to begin. There is also a short update on Narayan and a thank you to everyone who has supported his family.
How We Show Up 💜
Narayan Baniya is missing. The August 26 glacial collapse in Nepal triggered catastrophic flooding that took hundreds of lives, including guides and porters who make trekking possible.
This newsletter is about what happens when things break, how we show up, and why asking for help matters. It features the Te Araroa story of stepping back on day 80, the context of Nepal's vulnerability, and how to support Narayan's family.
Narayan was a guide with Himalayan Recreation, reliable and warm and genuinely good at what he did. He was also a father, a husband, a son. The rituals have been completed. His family and friends are asking for support.
October treks to EBC and ABC are proceeding as scheduled, but the guides carrying your load are thinking about their country right now, and they deserve to be remembered and supported as real people with real lives beyond the trek.
Dawn at Shambhala ⭐️
Every morning, the sun rises over the sea. It comes up through the clouds in shades of gold and amber, silhouetting the forest in front of me. Some mornings it's pink. Some mornings it's fire. Some mornings the clouds are so thick I only know it's risen by the light that gradually finds its way through. I don't miss a morning.
This edition features practical advice for anyone dreaming of the Annapurna Base Camp Trek, a training guide for Great Walks season, both October Himalayan departures, and an update from Shambhala about work that's quietly reshaping what the forest is becoming.