ENABLING WILDERNESS: CREATING THE OPPORTUNITY FOR DISABLED

TRAMPING WITHIN NEW ZEALAND’S NATIONAL PARKS

(PAPER REVIEW)
Khushi Kachhadia
14th April, 2020

Acknowledgement
Matt McKone, Jacqueline McIntosh, Bruno Marques
Victoria University of Wellington, PO Box 600, Wellington, NZ
 ENABLING WILDERNESS: CREATING THE OPPORTUNITY FOR DISABLED
TRAMPING WITHIN NEW ZEALAND’S NATIONAL PARKS (PAPER REVIEW)
Khushi Kachhadia
CODE, Vivekananda Global University, Jaipur

New Zealand is a country known for its picturesque landscapes. Experiencing nature is an
intimate and personal journey. Mick Abott in his PhD thesis say how we experiences a landscape
into two categories; the visual & haptic. To fully experience wildness one needs to not only see
but also feel the landscape and the way ‘kiwis’ currently connect is through one of the thousands
of walking tracks known as Tramp. But these landscapes are only available to those who are
physically fit and capable of walking long distances through rugged terrain.
This study proposes design modification to an existing track to allow accessibility for disabled
adventurers; People who have an interest in outdoors but due to some incident, are no longer able
to, and are bounded with wheelchairs. But people who live with a physical disability tend to form
other strengths. So, someone who doesn’t consider themselves ‘disable’ but rather ‘enable’ in
another aspects. Such can physically do marvels.
While it is important to understand the physical parameters, knowing the mental impact of a
disability is also important. Barlew L. explains that there are 4 categories of mental difficulties;
humiliation, with humiliation comes humility & frustration and with these comes a constant
remembering of loss. Nature plays an essential role in our lives offering us mental & physical
benefits also improving total wellbeing. W.J.T. Mitchell identified eight emotional responses;
fear, awe, humility, frustration, pride, introspection, freedom and spirituality. These are scenes
with the potential to elicit strong emotion and to showcase the ‘power’ held within New
Zealand’s signature landscapes.
The mobility framework for a person is a wheelchair, which can be modified to acknowledge
new possibilities for the bodies’ range of movement, for example they can turn on a more
defined axis compared to someone requiring full balance i.e. an able-bodied; through effectively
using their arms. Understanding the disabled person’s ‘superpowers’ will create a new way of
tramping, unique to their abilities involving pulley system, cable crossings and other
mechanisms.