In a race to beat the cyclone that was wreaking havoc in the North Island and heading south, Matt Dowdle and his girlfriend Abby knew they had to get to Longwood Forest fast.

Nearing the end of his 126-day hike from the upper tip of the North Island to the lower tip of the South, Matt had taken a detour from the Te Araroa trail that runs the length of New Zealand to top up their dwindling food supplies in Te Anau and needed to get back on track.

The pair waited on the long, lonely road out of town for an hour before a local pulled up and offered to take them them a few kilometres down the road.



"Long story short, four rides and some dodgy driving later, we arrived at the road leading to Longwood Forest," Matt, a 24-year-old photographer and graphic designer from Auckland, said.



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MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY Matt said the most emotional part of the journey was getting his first glimpse of Bluff and the ocean beyond on Bald Hill.

He and Abby, who had joined him for the final third of his 3000km trip, spent a cold, wet night at the local "campsite" - a sodden slope of lumpy grass - before beginning their muddy climb up 805m high Bald Hill. Reaching the summit, they got their first (hazy) glimpse of Bluff, their final destination, and felt as though they were standing, alone but in solidarity, at the very bottom of the world.

"It was at this moment that I was hit with an overwhelming sense of achievement," Matt said. "I had walked just over 2800km of New Zealand and the reality of being so close to Bluff and the end of my journey was finally kicking in."

The weather soon turned again and the pair toughed it out for a couple more days before Abby decided, in Invercargill, to book a shuttle to Bluff, planning to rejoin Matt for the last three kilometres.

MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY The weather did its best to thwart his plans from the outset.

Having recently passed through the knockout scenery of Queenstown and Wanaka , the final 40km was a bit of a comedown: the track cut inland before passing a sewage treatment plan and joining a surprisingly busy State Highway 1.

Arriving in Bluff, Matt's sense of accomplishment was bittersweet. He and Abby hugged, kissed, took the obligatory photos by the sign at the end of the road and wondered what on earth they were going to do now the journey was over.

"I was happy but it was almost an anticlimax because I'd reached the bottom of New Zealand and now had to hitch my way back up to Invercargill. There was no one around to congratulate us; no one to give us a standing ovation."

MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY While he met a lot of people along the way, Matt said the long stretches on his own were lonely.

After a road trip that had been anything but pedestrian, it was hardly surprising Matt had mixed feelings about it coming to an end.

Now back in Auckland and preparing for an exhibition of photos from the trip, Matt said he's still working on "coming back to reality".

On the road, he said, he felt more alive than he ever had.



"I'd go to sleep when it got dark and woke up when it got light and always felt very switched on. It was a very natural way to live."



Matt had toyed with the idea of a traditional OE before deciding it made sense to see his own country properly first. The Te Araroa trail is still fairly new and he was sure it would deliver the challenge and adventure he craved. A seasoned "weekend adventurer", Matt felt ready to tackle anything it could throw at him.

MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY Andrew accompanied Matt on one of the toughest legs of the trip: the Ruahine Ranges.

"I tried to plan a bit but you really just have to get on the trail and take each day as it comes."

New Zealand's unpredictable weather toyed with him from the outset, lashing him with rain, hail, snow and biting southerly winds, seemingly mocking his yearning for extreme adventure.

It was the "weather bomb" that detonated as he made his way through the Ruahine Ranges that eventually blew him off course. He and Abby's brother Andrew, who had joined him for his leg of the walk, spent their first day together fighting to keep the bone-chilling southerly from knocking them off the steep track that was so hard to see in places it required some serious "bush bashing and compass work". After 14 hours, the pair made it to Parks Peak Hut, knowing they had another tough day ahead.

MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY Matt found reaching the end of the journey bittersweet.

"The wind had been taken out of our sails. I looked back at Andrew as we climbed over 1572m high Tupari [the next morning] and his face said it all... Now that we were on the tops and nicely exposed, the wind was howling through. We were battling at every footstep."

Begrudgingly giving up on his plan to make it to Sparrowhawk Bivouac, Matt agreed to Andrew's idea of taking a short but very steep trail across the mountains to the hut at Maropea Forks, doing his best to silence the voice in his head that told him it was a bad idea. Again, the wind did its best to push them over the edge, but they made it to the hut before they felt the full force of the weather bomb that brought snow to the lower North and South Islands in midsummer. For Matt, it was a disappointing setback, but also a perfect excuse for a break.

"It was 15 days since I last rested my body, so I was happy to put my feet up for the day and enjoy some much needed rest," he said.

MATT DOWDLE PHOTOGRAPHY Matt's girlfriend Abby joined him for the last 1000km of the trek.

Despite such setbacks, he said the whole trip went surprisingly smoothly.

"I thought I'd get stuck a lot more than I did. There were so many things that could have gone wrong."

He cites the 12 days he spent on a detour through thick bush in the central North Island as the toughest stretch when - surprise, surprise - "things got a bit hairy with the weather".

His highlights include the Nelson Lakes - "they're just beautiful with the mountains in the background" - and the Ruahines, which had provided the physical and mental challenge he'd wanted. His greatest pleasure though came from the simple act of walking through parts of the country he'd previously only dreamed about.

"It felt like we had the whole of New Zealand to ourselves," he said.

You can see more of Matt's pictures and read about his adventures on his blog lostzealand.co.nz.