Hiking i New Zealand: Et møde med en ulv

I checked the sky for signs of rain and set off early to make the most of the day. I had packed my bag with a few necessities – a bite to eat, a bottle of water and heaps of curiosity about what the day would bring. I had recently read in my monthly upcoming magazine

which went through my mailbox in my new apartment in New Zealand. In the magazine there was this article about how healthy it was to go hiking in the mountains. So that’s what I did. I had already packed my bag and now I was ready to go. I wouldn’t waste too much energy on my way to Routeburn so I took a bus to a place nearby with a lot of small mountains and hills. So after I had been hiking for the last 20 minutes I got a little tired and I sat down on a rock. When I was hiking in the past lots of people passed by me but now there were none. Perhaps they were taking a break as well I figured. I got up and went on. Suddenly I was in a completely stranded area where there was not a soul to be seen anywhere. Then suddenly I heard some sounds. It kind of sounded like there was a big animal running around near me. I looked down and I saw a footprint in the sand. It looked like a dog or something like that. So I did my best to get back to the place I came from but then out of the blue a gigantic wolf jumped out and landed just in front of me. Its sharpened teeth were pointing directly at me and it was making exactly the noise I heard from a few minutes ago. I had no idea what to do and how to react when coming across a wild animal and certainly not a wolf. I panicked so I started throwing rocks at it. It was coming closer and I looked down in my bag to see if I had anything to kill that monster. The first thing I saw was my packed lunch so I decided to throw right next to the wolf. And lucky for me the wolf loved my egg salad. Afterwards I went home without ever looking back. I have now learned not to hike ever again and if I do always bring a lunch pack with some egg salad. But by the end of the day I also learned something else. That in pressured situations I somehow manage to get a grip and it feels extremely good.