Hiking Preparation for New Zealand Trip

I went to New Zealand for three weeks at the end of 2024, and my friend and I did a lot of hiking and backpacking. One of our backpacking trips, the Heaphy Track, was 49 miles of hiking over four days (yes that is a lot!). The first day was a 10-mile hike, gaining 2600 ft (800 m) of elevation. This is a much longer distance and a much higher elevation gain than the hikes I normally go on. It’s always important to follow the boy scout motto “be prepared.”  Preparation is key to get our bodies ready for this track.

We both did more hiking than normal. As my friend and I live in different states, we had to train on our own. For me, my main preparation was to find and go on hikes with higher and higher elevation gains. There weren’t many near me, so I had to travel a couple hours into the mountains. (I always love an excuse to go to the mountains, so I was happy for another excuse to go.)

I found a hike with a similar distance and elevation gain; just over 8 miles with an elevation gain of 2,470 ft (753 m). This was a pretty good training hike, if I do say so myself.

Lodging Problems

Before I could go on any hike, I had to get to the mountains and check into my lodging. I booked an Airbnb, which I later learned you could also book through a company website. They had an office in the town that I had to pick up and drop off the keys. I informed them ahead of time, that I wouldn’t be able to check in until after hours, around 8 or 9 pm. They said that was okay, and gave me a lock code to be able to pick up the keys at the office in town. I was also sent detailed instructions to find the small hut.

I got to the Airbnb a little before 9 pm, after driving to the end of a small unpaved road. On arrival, I noticed that there were other huts around, all unoccupied. In the dark it looked eerie and unsettling. I am not a fan of the dark or horror films, so when I took in the location of my hut, I was totally creeped out! I had come out here alone, which made it even more spooky.

When I got into the hut I realized that I didn’t have any cell phone service. That was okay, I could just connect to the wifi… or so I thought. My phone said I successfully connected to the wifi network, but I didn’t have access to the internet. I’ve never seen this before, and it was rather confusing. I restarted my phone and that didn’t help. Thinking it was a problem with my phone, I tried my laptop. That didn’t work either. I restarted my laptop, which didn’t help either. Each time I tried to connect, the same thing happened – no internet.

This Isn’t Safe

As I am a type 1 diabetic traveling alone, not having a way to contact someone in case of an emergency is concerning. So, I got back in my car and drove back into town. I messaged the Airbnb hosts to ask them about the internet. I also contacted my roommate to let her know about my current situation.

The host wasn’t very helpful and couldn’t/wouldn’t do anything about the lack of wifi that night. I told them I was alone and wasn’t comfortable with this. It came to a point where I didn’t get any sort of response from them for about 20 minutes. At this point my blood sugar number was starting to drop and I needed to get back to the house to get substantial glucose/food. I informed my roommate on the matter and drove back. I ate enough to prevent my blood sugar number from going low and stayed up for a few hours.

Luckily the wifi started to work around 1:00 am. I don’t know what changed and why the wifi started working, but it did. At this point I messaged my roommate to let her know that I had access to communication, and went to sleep.

The Next Morning

I woke up, ate breakfast, and starting working. Before I came, I got the OK from my boss to be able to telework from the mountains (kick ass!). After a couple of hours, someone from the Airbnb came by to check on the wifi. I had informed them what had happened and that I was alone. They informed me that sometimes the wifi doesn’t work and they don’t know why. This would have been a good thing to know before I booked this place, as I would have found different lodging. Being out without cell phone service, where no one else is nearby, with spotty internet, isn’t ideal for anyone.

At the times that I was at the Airbnb, the wifi worked most of the time. It did cut out a couple of times for a couple of hours. Now that I knew that this was a common occurrence, I calmly waited for it to start working again.

Training Hike

On Friday night I packed up and got everything ready for my training hike the next day. I made sure I had enough water, electrolytes, glucose (in the form of glucose tablets, granola bars, and gummies), lunch, first aid kit, and phone. (See my packing list post for more information.) Arriving at the parking area around 7:00 am, I was surprised to find it was nearly full. Confirmed by the park rangers later, this area usually doesn’t start filling up until around 8:00 am. It was annoying to have a full parking lot, but at least I knew that there would be plenty of people on the trail, if I needed help.

Like I always do, I started off the hike with a slightly high blood sugar level. When I walk or hike for long distances my blood sugar number will drop. To prepare for this inevitability, I begin workouts with higher-than-normal blood sugar levels.

The hike went well, until I started getting blisters on my heels. Unfortunately, this is normal for me, so I stopped, and dealt with the blisters before they could get any worse. It was about an hour after this that my hiking boots were making my feet sore. I had new boots and was breaking them in before my New Zealand trip. This hike showed me that these were not comfortable enough boots for me. It didn’t ruin the hike, and I was able to complete the hike without additional feet issues.

Blood Sugar During the Hike

My blood sugar did what it normally does. It was high for a bit, before it started slowly coming down. By the time I had made it to the turn around point, it was low. I had stopped to have some glucose before it went low. It was perfect timing for going low because it was lunch time. When I got to the turn around point, I stopped to rest and to eat my lunch. This was more than enough to bring my blood sugar number back up, before I began hiking again.

I injected a small amount of insulin before finishing up my hike. My blood sugar number didn’t go low again for the rest of the hike. And the way back was downhill, so it was easier on my legs and cardiovascular system to hike down. All in all, it was a great training hike. I had enough diabetes supplies on the hike, and there were multiple people that knew what hike I was doing and what time I was leaving and coming back.