Shoshannah Shand wants to set the record straight: she’s not out tramping with her two small children every day, even if the frequency of her social media posts suggests otherwise.
“Sometimes we don’t hike for a couple of months,” Shand explained. “I haven’t hiked since August. After a month, I get really itchy. I really need to go on a trip because I’m feeling the itch.”
Shand shares tips and inspiration for outdoor adventures with kids on Instagram.
Since sharing snippets of her adventures online, Shand has attracted thousands of followers, many of whom are amazed at her exploits. She takes her two young children on overnight and multi-day tramps throughout New Zealand, mainly in the South Island, where she is based.
Shand said she went into labour with her second child while descending Mt Thomas, near Oxford, and was back tramping with her newborn six weeks later.
“It feels a bit crazy, but I think I would go crazy if I didn’t go tramping,” revealed Shand.
“I got into it for my own mental health, and people go, ‘Oh, that’s a bit selfish of you’. Well, not actually, because the more you do for yourself, the better you are and the better you can turn up for your kids.”
Shand’s children, whose identities she keeps private, are now aged one and five.
“I scared my mum, and I brought a tent, and I tramped into the bush by myself with a toddler and went and camped out by a lake.”
Early tramps involved Shand carrying her son part of the way, but now that he’s older, he’s able to walk long distances on his own, the most recent being a 17-kilometre stage of the St James Walkway in North Canterbury.
“He did the whole way. He’s five, and I was surprised. He was so proud of himself, [he] was so excited.”
Shand said other trampers already at the hut celebrated his achievement.
This raises the question: how do other trampers feel about sharing a hut with an infant and a toddler?
“There’s been a few times when we’ve passed people on the track, and you can see their reaction, ‘Oh, no, we’re going to have to share a hut with kids’. But often, they’re pleasantly surprised at how well-behaved the kids are.”
Positives and negatives
She said negativity is often expressed in online comment sections, while the reaction is more positive in person.
Shand was raised in remote Port Ligar in the Marlborough Sounds, one of ten children born to Tim and Raewyn Shand, sheep and mussel farmers.
Tragically, two months after the family was featured on Country Calendar, Shand’s father lost his life in a motor vehicle accident.
“We spent our childhood hunting and camping, and my parents did quite a bit of tramping,” Shand recalled.
“Getting to experience a lot of risk and surviving it, I think, really helped me set up for life, and I can see how much it benefits the kids.”
When Shand opens up her social media to questions from followers, the most common query is how she gets her children to walk long distances.
“I’m like, well, you make them,” laughed Shand. “That sounds a bit harsh. You take a break, and I think a break works wonders.
“If he’s had enough, he stops, and I’m like ok, sweet, we’ll have a break, stop for five minutes and right, let’s keep going.”
She said he hasn’t had a time when he’s stopped completely and that she can always coax him to keep going.
“I say, we’ll we’ve got to get to the hut, we’ve got to get to the car before it’s dark, and then that is motivating.”
She also encouraged parents to turn walks into adventures and explore further than just around the block. By sharing her adventures online, she hoped to encourage others to get outdoors and go tramping.
“There’s a whole negative side to things when you put yourself out there in the public. It leaves you open to people saying whatever they want, and it can be quite awful, but there’s a really positive side to it, too.
“I get so many messages and photos saying, ‘Look, we went on a hike, and you inspired us to do this,’ and it makes me really excited.”