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The Blissful Hiker struggles with being a beginner at thru-hiking as she walks New Zealand's Te Araroa, but realizes that every step she takes brings her one step closer to being an expert. 


In this episode: 

1. Blissful leaves Ongarue in the North Island of New Zealand and walks toward Taumarunui, where she'll plan her canoe trip down the Whanganui River.
2. She meets a Maori who shares sweet coffee and his philosophy, a mixture of matriarchal wisdom and Christianity and it tells her to "ask the mother for help." 
3. In town, the trail provides when she meets up with four hikers she likes who invite her to join them for the canoe trip after four days walking. 
4. It's an easy hike on country roads to the Whakapapa River where she spies two rare whio – or blue ducks – in the rapids, a good omen. 
5. The hike is along a mountain bike trail called the 42 Traverse, a sanctuary for kiwi and rare carnivorous plants.
6. The trail cuts off for the Waione/Cokers Track, a muddy, deeply rutted trail where she meets a trapper who takes her on the ride of her life through bush on a 4X4.

MUSIC: The music in this episode is Argentine composer Angel Lasala’s Poema del Pastor Coya and Carlos Guastavino's Allegro as played by Alison Young, flute and Vicki Seldon, piano

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