Waldorf News

Somewhere Inbetween: Waldorf graduate to chronicle five month trek across the length of New Zealand

From Arthur Gay

We’re going to walk the entire length of New Zealand.

Somewhere Inbetween is a feature length documentary following the journey of four friends as we walk the length of New Zealand from Cape Reinga to Bluff for five months, covering 3,000 kilometres.

Why? Adventure. Discovery. Exploration. Celebration. The challenge. Not one of us has done anything like this before; we don’t consider ourselves the ‘outdoors’ types, but when we leave our lives completely behind for 5 months to live on the road, everything is going to change.

The Te Araroa trail stretches 3000 kilometers across New Zealand starting at the northernmost tip of the North Island and finishing in the Southern Lands of Bluff. During its descent down the islands, the trail passes through all of the geographically unique landscapes that makes New Zealand so diverse. From the sands of Ninety Mile beach, the archetypal farm lands of the central North, the meandering Whanganui River, the Southern Alps and the High Country, the list includes deserts and snow, mountainous forest and grassy plains, and we will see it all.

And you’ll see it too. I’ll be documenting our odyssey every step of the way, and creating a film to share with you. However, even I don’t know what it will truly be about until after journey’s end, but you can help me get there.

I want you to come with us across New Zealand. I want to show you and share with you the freedom, tranquility and unpredictability of nature that compels us to venture into its unknown chasms and live each day as it comes.

This film will reflect the personal nature of every location and situation we find ourselves in, capturing its mood and atmosphere. The struggle of living out of a bag in the middle of nowhere, the peaceful serenity of the Whanganui River, the melancholy of the early morning fog, sunrises, sunsets, each setting offering a unique perspective and feeling. Most importantly it will attempt to investigate the human aspect of our journey, the changes that come about and hint at what the road really means for each person.

Ultimately, I want to uplift and connect with you as you raise your own questions, and get you to ask yourself where you are in life and inspire you to embark on your own journey.

Click here to learn more about the Somewhere Inbetween project and how you can help support it with the crowdfunding campaign ending soon.

Not one of us has done anything like this before; we don’t consider ourselves the ‘outdoors’ types (well, except Anton –he’s actually quite outdoorsy- but the rest of us are city-folk through and through), and when we leave our comfortable lives behind for five months to live on the road, everything is going to change.

Somewhere Inbetween will reflect the personal nature of every location and situation we find ourselves in, capturing its mood and atmosphere.

The struggle of living out of a bag in the middle of nowhere, the peaceful serenity of cannoning the Whanganui River, the melancholy of the early morning fog, sunrises, sunsets, each setting offering a unique perspective and feeling.

Most importantly this documentary will attempt to investigate the human aspect of our journey; the changes that come about and hint at what the road truly means for each person.

We have already gathered support from some very generous sponsors. Outfitters New Zealand have sponsored us almost all of our hiking gear (which is worth a lot of money). They specialize in high end hiking equipment so having them on board is invaluable. Holiday Parks Association of New Zealand have offered us $2000 worth of accommodation at any of their many parks across New Zealand. And, Interislander and Wanganui River Canoes have offered their support too.

We estimate that with the generous support that we have on board already – we can hopefully survive on $4000 per person for our food, camp sites and other consumables. So we are all saving very hard at the moment. But we are going on this journey, no matter what, even if none of us know how to properly skin an eel to survive…

We are continuing to seek sponsorship support, and our next big ask is from you.

We need your help to get essential film gear. As we mentioned, generous sponsors have taken care of a large amount of our walk expenses, now we just need our gear, and good film stuff costs a lot. Luckily, due to the nature of this project we don’t need heaps of gear, but we do need a few essentials in order to capture the film in the best possible way.

In total all of our film equipment costs around $15,000+ GST. This may sound like a tremendous amount of money, because it is, but we really want to make an amazing film. Our gear list covers camera, lenses, sound equipment, external hard drives, and even a small portable solar panel to power our endeavour. Auckland Camera has promised to give us the best possible prices they can, which really helps us. We will be raising most of this money ourselves, but we need your help to the tune of $6,000.

Your support would be so amazingly appreciated. This film is really important to us and we want to create something powerful that we can ultimately enter into national and international film festivals. We’re just getting started, and it’s a long road ahead but we would love for you to be a part of our journey.

To make things even better, Marta is going to be blogging about the walk and her experiences. She will be updating it as much as possible, and you can keep up to date with her blog and more on our website.

Also check out our Facebook page and give it a like.

Click here to learn more about the Somewhere Inbetween project and how you can help support it.