“Putting my notice in and booking my flight were the hardest steps. Because then I had no choice, I was going down this path.”
– Joshua Votaw
Joseph Kearney is a builder. The 27-year-old had been working for a small Auckland building company for eight years when a friend returned from overseas in 2020 and asked if he'd like to do Te Araroa.
He abruptly decided he needed a change: “I said yes without really thinking of the repercussions, but as a builder there's work in most places, so I wasn't too worried about where I'd end up afterwards.”
Financially, things were easy for Kearney, as he moved back in with his parents to
