Claire Lewinski
Whangarei, New Zealand
In attempts to heal my brain injury I hiked across the South Island of New Zealand.
I grew up in McCall, a small mountain town in Idaho. I was raised with frequent trips into the wild, backpacking, rafting, hunting, and berry picking. Wanting to stay close to the mountains, I went to Montana State University in Bozeman to study chemical engineering, planning to hike New Zealand after I graduated. In my last semester, I had to drop out to recover from a traumatic brain injury, completely lost my identity, and decided the only way I could find it was continue to go on the trip.