4. Joan's New Zealand Adventure
By Joan Brick While I have always loved camping and bushwalking since I was in Girl Scouts, I only really started doing serious hiking in the last five years. With work and family activities keeping me busy during the week, the weekends were as just as hectic, thus restricting my time for interests I enjoyed to those after 7:00pm which really was not conducive to hiking. After I left work to care for John, I decided that I needed to find an activity that was both physically and mentally challenging as well as socially stimulating. A Google search put me onto the Ballarat Bushwalking and Outdoor Club which laid the foundations for many of my hiking adventures with the club and on my own. My early hikes were close to Ballarat and included the Grampians, Mt. Cole State Forest, Brisbane Ranges, You Yangs, Steiglitz, Great Ocean Road and Werribee Gorge. Each walk, though challenging, only wet my thirst to try new hikes with varied terrains. The first walk that I put m...