The Australian Women's Weekly

Stepping out

At the top of the Tararua Range on New Zealand’s North Island, the wind is strong enough to knock you off your feet. It’s a fact that Laura Waters, 49, learnt the hard way. Having made her way north from Cape Reinga, the adventurer had already covered more than 1500km of the Te Araroa Trail (‘The Long Pathway’ in Maori) on foot. But, up on the ridge, she stumbled into dangerous territory.

“The wind was so loud, it sounded like a jet engine. It was deafening,” Laura tells The Weekly. “It was white and foggy and like I’d been dragged into a parallel universe – a raging world of white noise.”

The terrifying experience might have put some walkers off, but for Laura, it was just a tough day at the office. Having set

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