What is your proudest moment?

"What is your proudest moment?"

Before this trip, there were few moments in my life that could answer that question. Seven weeks later, lying in my hostel bed after a four day backpacking trip through New Zealand's Kahurangi National Park, I am still struggling to pick a defining moment as my proudest one. Except this time, it is not because I lack moments to choose from, but rather I have too many form which to choose.

Over the past seven weeks, I stood up on a surfboard, chopped down a tree, helped plant a forest, canoed down a river, grubbed thistles in cow paddocks, and jumped in freezing cold water. In the past week alone, I turned 19, ate ice cream with my friends while wearing a thrift store makeshift princess dress, jumped out of a plane at 13,000 feet, and climbed a mountain through sunshine, hail, and snow.

One thing I learned from my time traveling is not to focus on choosing your one proudest moment, but rather to approach every moment like it could be your proudest one.

When I signed up for this trip months ago, I knew that the four day trek through the mountains would be the biggest challenge for me. I had never carried a 65 liter backpack before (mine was one of the smallest backpacks), and it was every bit as hard and as rewarding as I thought it would be.

On the first day, we met our guide Mark, who was described to us as "the Bear Grylls of New Zealand". After watching him whittle knives and start fires in the time it would take me to put on my giant backpack, I can confirm that he lived up to that title. After a short introduction, we set out on what would be our hardest day of the trek. It was by far one of the most physically and mentally challenging things that I've done. With our backpacks at their heaviest, we climbed up to the top of a mountain, passing through sunshine, rain, hail, mud, and snow in the span of a few hours. When we reached the top of Gordon's Pyramid, encased in clouds 4,885 feet in the sky, I was exhausted. However, all of the self-doubt and negative thoughts I had experienced while climbing the mountain completely faded the next morning when we woke up and looked out of our lodge windows. It was a beautiful day. In the distance, stretching up into the sky and towering over us, was the peak where we had been standing a day earlier. It wasn't until that moment, when I looked up at that mountain that we had all climbed, that I realized how proud I was of everyone, myself included.

I looked up at that mountain and not a single thought of aching legs or heavy backs crossed my mind. Instead, I thought of snowball fights at the peak and sliding down natural mud slides on our way to the bottom. I thought of the breathtaking views and the incredible feeling of relief when you reached the top, and I looked forward to the next three days with excitement, not dread.

Our second day started off at Dry Rock Shelter, where we all gathered underneath a huge rock overhang while Mark taught us how to whittle spatulas and knives and how to start fires. The rest of the day consisted of us walking - and sliding - downhill through the forest. We set up camp for the night and had plenty of time to relax and unwind after a relatively easy day.

The third day brought more adventures, as we set out in search of waterfalls and caves. We made our steepest climb in the morning, using tree roots and rocks as footholds in the slick muddy trail. When we reached our first waterfall, some of us immediately ran underneath the freezing cold water - our free shower for the week. We then moved on to our big activity for the day: caving.

After putting on harnesses, we climbed a ladder off a cliff and into the entrance of the caves. Mark told us it would take about one hour to travel just 200 meters, which seemed like an excessive amount of time at first. Once we started, I realized why it would take us so long. We had to squeeze ourselves and our backpacks through narrow passages of rock that felt like sandpaper, struggling to find footing in the deep mud. We climbed and crawled our way through, some of us carrying our backpacks over our heads. I felt another surge of pride when we emerged from the caves covered in mud and dust and stepped into the lush forest above us. We then used compasses to navigate the tricky landscape, climbing over tree roots and trying to avoid hidden holes covered by moss as we made our way to our final campsite: a hidden spot in the forest where you could sleep underneath rock shelters and waterfalls.

On the final day, Mark held a competition to test the skills he had taught us. Each group was instructed to build a fire, cook a dish, and present it to the group. My team, The Fantastic Four, roasted chocolate peanut butter rolls on a stick and won the competition. It was challenging to start the fire, but once we were holding the finished product in our hands, I couldn't believe that we had made our entire meal - including the cooking method - from scratch.

At the end of the trip, we sat down with Mark to reflect on the past four days. He asked us what we would remember three months from now looking back on this trip. With just thirty minutes left in our hike, my backpack light and my head heavy with new memories, I found myself once again struggling to pick a defining moment as my favorite one. For me, this backpacking trip was the pinnacle of my journey. It was the climax of the two month long story we had been writing. In those four short days, we traveled up to the sky and under the ground; we slept under waterfalls and on cliff faces; we carried tents on our backs while climbing up mountains. Every night, I went to bed with dirt under my fingernails, a slightly sore back, and an incredible feeling of pride and satisfaction. I laughed and whittled and crossed rivers and climbed rocks and fell in the mud and got back up and kept going. These past four days were some of the most challenging and exhilarating four days of my life.

To answer Mark's question: in three months, and for the rest of my life, I will look back and think of how this trip taught me more about myself in four short days than I had discovered in the past few years. As our time in New Zealand came to a close, I knew I would be forever grateful to have shared this adventure with an incredible group of people I am lucky to call my friends.