Review: Northbound, by Naomi Arnold

Naomi Arnold can write. She has more than proven her mettle as a journalist and natural history writer, her work featuring widely in a raft of publications. Her previous book, Southern Nights, on New Zealand astronomy, came out in 2019. More impressive, is that Naomi Arnold can write WHILE trekking from Bluff to Cape Reinga, over nine grueling months, on the incredibly challenging Te Araroa trail – or the TA, as I’ve learned.

Northbound is the author’s account of the fulfillment of a 20-year ambition to walk the length of the country. The idea ignited when she read trail founder Geoff Chapple’s book, Te Araroa – One Man Walks His Dream, and niggled at her until she found her moment. In a scene raw with emotion, Naomi farewells husband Doug on the side of the road in Bluff on Boxing Day 2024. This moment was the first time the book made me cry. 

Perhaps because this story was largely written on-trail, sometimes holed up in her tent during bad weather, or hunched over the iPad in a campsite kitchen block, it reads with an immediacy and level of detail that a reflection after the fact could not have achieved. The effect is like being along for the ride, but thankfully without the pain and exhaustion that accompanies a physical feat like this one. The reading of it became a family event. My husband would ask as we prepared dinner together at the bench, ‘Where is Naomi now?’ My eight-year-old son piped up one afternoon while building with his LEGO, ‘How is Naomi doing, Mum?’ 

‘She’s missing people,’ I told him, referencing the intense loneliness that appears as a theme throughout, alongside the mental challenge of tramping as a woman alone. 

Northbound is by no means a how-to guide. In fact, as a result of the author’s work commitments and delays, her gameplan leans toward what not-to-do. Walking Northbound (NOBO) at the tail end of the season meant she met few other TA walkers, tackling long stretches in solitude, and contending with difficult winter conditions in rugged terrain. So, while this book does not seek to give advice, the honesty–stories of being thigh deep in mud, having a fungal infection, and crawling into a sleeping bag on the floor of a public toilet, for example–will no doubt be invaluable to those who think they might give the TA a crack. It’s one thing to read in a hiker’s manual that you must look after your feet, and quite another to read about the excruciating reality of what thru-hiking can do to your toes.

There are no heroics in this account, despite what is truly an inspirational achievement. Naomi tells her story with vulnerability, humour and a charming honesty. Husband Doug is an ever-present kindly ghost throughout, watching over Naomi from home. When called on, his levelheaded guidance is so reassuring I felt as if it was me out there, at nightfall, kilometres short of shelter and afraid. Nine months is a long time to be away from your spouse, and this dynamic plays out in the book as an unconventional love story, intertwined with the highs and lows of the trail. 

In the closing chapters, I tired a little of the details of what delicious treats were purchased at each dairy. Very understandable to include them, but I wanted the story to keep putting one ravaged foot in front of the other, to get to that lighthouse at Cape Reinga.

Northbound will be inspirational and helpful for hikers, but it’s not just for the outdoorsy. Naomi’s story is both harrowing and hopeful. There are reminders at every turn of the generosity and kindness of community. When you need people, they come through. A lovely book. I have lent it to my Mum. Reviewed by Anna Scaife