Larissa Mueller on the road between Whangamata and Whiritoa. Photo / Alison Smith
Larissa Mueller on the road between Whangamata and Whiritoa. Photo / Alison Smith
Six years after heading off around New Zealand with nothing but a horse, Larissa Mueller says she's worked out the secret to happiness is wanting what you have.
Larissa, 33, is headed for Tauranga after riding through the Coromandel with an unusual week-long stop at Waihi and says the Coromandel community proved to be a very friendly stretch of coast.
"Everyone has been really friendly and welcoming, from stopping lots of traffic over the one-way bridges at Tairua to staying at Jo Adam's farm in Onemana and with Kym Dobbs in Waihi, it was awesome. In Whiritoa we did a little loop through the town and everyone was super friendly."
She rides her 10-year-old grey station bred mare Sprite with a rope halter and blogs about her journey, shared on her Facebook page Homefree - riding for Leg-Up Trust.
The Hawke's Bay charity uses horses as catalysts to engage with at-risk youth, teaching them leadership, communication, managing anger and building resilience.
Larissa has had great support for the charity as people join her and Sprite at the different settlements she rides through.
"Gosh, if anything ever happens to Sprite I'll have a lynch mob of her adoring fans chasing me down for justice, that's for sure," she blogged of being on the Coromandel. "
"In Whiritoa we met up with Suzanne and Jackson who'd brought their horses down to ride through town with me. We met a surprising number of people on the streets for a small place, and admired the beautiful scenery. Thanks to all the people who made us feel so welcome and donated to Leg-Up Trust!"
She says she's "humbled" to be fundraising for the charity connecting kids with horses.
Horsing Around Aotearoa was Larissa's first 4140km mission, which she completed with friend Kendall Besselman, circumnavigating the South Island on horseback without a pack horse or support crew.
Now Larissa and horse Sprite are approaching another two years' worth of hours and 8000km, taking Larissa around the perimeter of New Zealand.
She started the last leg in January 2019, and has ridden for about 10 months over the two summer seasons since then.
From Tauranga it'll be a final stretch to Hawke's Bay, where she originally began her journey in November 2014.
She's hoping to have a "shindig" here, with as many people as possible who've helped or hosted her along the way.
Larissa stopped during lockdown and in winter to earn money so that all of the funds raised from promoting her journey can go to the charity she believes so much in.
The biggest lesson she's learned is how little she needed to be happy.
"Once in a while I miss those home comforts, like not having to do anything and just blob on the couch and eat crappy food.
"There are days when it's hard to get motivated, especially when I'm facing a busy highway, but the trade off is going through the coastline, the cool tracks and meeting so many friendly people.
"I've given myself a rule that if I ever want to quit I have to give myself two days, and it always passes if I'm having a down moment."
Larissa Mueller on the road between Whangamata and Whiritoa. Photo / Alison Smith
Originally from the tiny settlement of Reefton in the South Island, Larissa was working in Taupo and met Kendall at work where the pair got chatting.
"We quickly figured out we were both that girl who always wanted a horse and never got one.
"We had this crazy idea. We said let's buy two horses and ride them around New Zealand. Once we'd started telling people we were going to do this, we had to do it."
A first attempt from Taupo along the high speed Taupo-Napier highway ended after 24 hours and they planned again, this time heading off from Hawke's Bay along quieter coastal roads.
This journey they named Horsing Around Aotearoa, and it ended with the completion of the entire South Island.
When Kendall met her husband-to-be while the girls worked a winter at a ski field to earn food money, Larissa decided to carry on alone.
The secret to happiness is wanting what you have. I didn't come up with that, it's a quote from someone else, but you really don't need as much as you think you do.
She reconnected with her partner Alex McFarlane after she'd spent a couple of years in the saddle.
Alex supports her by driving a housetruck that they now call home.
"I said to Alex this is what I'm doing now, it's something I'm determined to finish, and I was really lucky that he said yeah let's go.
"I just kept running away and riding a horse, and he kept finding me."
Via her Facebook page, Larissa is often given advice from locals on how to avoid the busiest of highways and has seen an incredible amount of the country by being offered access to farm paddocks, forestry roads and historic trails.
"I never used to have any interest in history but doing this trip you think what it would've been like to be a pioneer in those days and bush bashing with your family.
"I had a cool experience in Port Hills, Christchurch, where there's still a stone water trough that the horse drank from on an old trail. It was spooky in a cool way to think about how many years people have been using horses like this.
"It's getting harder to do with how built up the country is and it's kind of a dying way of travelling."
The solitude is broken up with drivers pulling over to chat with her, or by staying with strangers who become friends.
"Being on my own sometimes I listen to music or a podcast and sometimes I'll end up singing to Sprite like a madwoman. It's balanced by staying with people, so it's solitary with super social times."
Spending so long in her head led her to one particular realisation.
"The secret to happiness is wanting what you have. I didn't come up with that, it's a quote from someone else, but you really don't need as much as you think you do."
As well as enjoying being in her own thoughts, she gets to eat as much as she wants without putting on weight.
Her lifestyle is envied by many she meets.
"Each time I've picked up my life and not had a job to go back to and committed 100 per cent to being on the road with my horse and living out of saddlebags keeps things pretty simple.
"It's very freeing. I get a lot of people who have the house, the boat, the mortgage, and they get jealous of me because I can change plans as I feel like it.
- Follow Larissa's journey via her Facebook page Homefree - riding for Leg Up Trust where you can find a link to donate to the Leg Up Trust Givealittle page.
