Where do MPs go, when they go bush?

There's simply nothing better than ditching the workwear for an outdoor get-up and heading into the bush.

Thousands will head into the great outdoors this summer, including MPs from across the political spectrum.

RNZ interviewed a range of politicians about their experiences going bush: the highs, the lows and the whys.

Labour's Duncan Webb is lucky to be alive

Labour MP Duncan Webb has been tramping since he was 13 and still grimaces when he recalls his first bush adventure. He followed his older brother and some of his mates into Arthur's Pass one day, clad in heavy oilskin jackets with thin sleeping bags tucked into bulky packs they'd borrowed.

"Our parents had no idea what we were doing, and neither did we," he said.

After an "extremely fatiguing" first day the boys found themselves in poor weather as they were crossing a mountain pass.

"It just rained, just constant rain and driving wind. We were freezing cold and as we came down the other side of the pass we got lost."

The group took the wrong side of a creek and ended up next to a steep gorge, when Webb's pack proceeded to fall down.

Webb said he fell into the river retrieving his pack and struggled to carry on to a hut as his drenched clothing chilled his body down.

"I was really tired and exhausted so I sat down and curled up and tried to go to sleep. I had quite advanced hypothermia."

Webb said his 14-year-old companions "kicked him" until he moved and they eventually found a hut, had a kai and got warm.

The next night proved no better after the group camped next to a lake that flooded their tent in the middle of the night. Desperate to catch a train out the next day, Webb said the group swam across a flooded river "hearing boulders tumbling under their feet in chest deep water".

"Utterly stupid," he said.

His happy ending was being sent into a pub as the youngest to fetch some food for the group. Some kind West Coasters gave him hot chips and a lemonade, he said.

"We were all terrified. Our families weren't pub goers. So, I was sitting there having chips and lemonade while my mates were out the back freezing cold," he laughed.

Webb's nightmarish first go at tramping hasn't put him off what has become a lifelong love of walking in the bush.

"It's almost meditative because you're out there and sometimes it's quite hard work, you've gotta pack on and going uphill so all the physical things are going but at the same time, you're not thinking about anything in particular. You're just focused on what you're doing and where you are and it's really refreshing and re-energising."

Webb's favourite place to walk is, somewhat surprisingly, Arthur's Pass. He's currently planning a tramp with his grown children in Mount Aspiring this summer.

ACT's Cameron Luxton on being one with the food chain

A hunter, not a tramper, ACT MP Cameron Luxton's ideal day in the bush involves tracking wild pigs and deer. Having lived in Galatea, near the foothills of the western side of Te Urewera, Luxton has made many memories. Some are better than others.

"One that immediately strikes is when I was brand new to hunting, I didn't pick it up until I was in my teenage years. I climbed the biggest hill I could find. looking for the elusive deer. I was up there in my rugby shorts, walking through a beautiful clearning, nice and light green with dark bush around it, I thought this is perfect, this is the sort of place I need to be. That light green turns out to be my first experience of stinging nettle... I needed to learn that lesson once."

Luxton said hunting for him was more than just gathering food.

"You have to be zen. You have to be part of the bush. You're inserting yourself into the food chain, into the cycle. You have to be part of what the bush is. It can take a couple of hours, sometimes a day or so, to really get that feeling but when you hit that flow moment, that's when you really are into it."

There was nothing like getting off the beaten track either, he said.

"DOCs got some great tracks out there but there's nothing like getting stuck into some gnarly heads of some gully somewhere, bashing through some bush that you just wouldn't do if you weren't after a quarry (game animal). So, hunting opens up a whole lot. Our forest and our hills are a massive untapped resource for a lot of people."

Over the years, he's introduced his sons to hunting, though they may not be so keen on following in his footsteps just yet, he said. "My eight-year-old son shot his first deer last year. He's keen but he's actually just got really into spear fishing. It's one of those things like, do you force your hobbies onto your kids or do you adapt to what they're doing?"

Given summer is not prime hunting time, Luxton said he would be spending it at the beach.

"Come autumn though, as soon as that first chill is in the air, that's when I'll start getting really excited to get back into the bush. End of March, early April I start doing silly things like getting the roar horn out and having a moan in the backyard."

New Zealand First's Andy Foster loves a long run

NZ First MP Andy Foster is a proud member of the Tararua Tramping Club and has walked many of the trails in the steep ranges north of Wellington. He loves being up above the bush line in the tussocks, grasses and mountain daisies.

"We can only visit that as opposed to staying there long term because it's can be a hostile environment, but also the views you get to see from up there. Then there's just being away, you know, away from the busyness of life and often the best part of that is you're connecting with other people. You're spending time with other people. I made a lot of good friends out of tramping."

Though he's slowed down over the last few years, Foster was at one point a keen mountain runner, clocking some huge kilometres.

"I've done runs like round Ruapehu in a day, Milford-Routeburn, Nelson Lakes to Lewis Pass across the table lands to Leslie-Karamea, out of the Wangapeka into the West Coast. It feels really good to do those sort of things. You get to see a lot, you possibly don't get to appreciate it at the same slower pace that you go tramping but it's great."

He's hit more than a few hurdles out on long runs before but that's never put him off, he said.

"The run we did from Nelson Lakes through to Lewis Pass, it was in summer and the weather turned ugly. We got over the Waiau Pass heading towards Lewis and the weather started turning ugly, snow on the hills. We decided we'd actually stop slightly short at Cannibal Gorge. We had a couple of pieces of cheese and one bit of pita bread and that was it between us. We got there right as rain in the morning."

Foster said while there were many highs that had come from tramping and mountain running, there were also some lows that came with the territory.

"Heights are not my favourite thing because you look down and think, if I fall off that's the last thing I'll ever do. The sad thing is that over time, I've lost a number of friends who've fallen off things tramping or low level climbing. It's not to be taken lightly."

National's Barbara Kuriger walks to explore

National MP Barbarba Kuriger and her husband Lewis lace up their tramping boots every summer.

"We've done the Queen Charlotte, Abel Tasman, Milford Sounds and we like to get off on a Great Walk when we can. Last year we did a mixture of Coromandel, Waikaremoana, the Tongariro Crossing and, of course, in Taranaki. We've always got little short walks we can do on our Taranaki maunga on a Sunday and we go up Maungatautari while we're in Te Awamutu."

Kuriger said they make the most of transfer services that carry overnight gear for walkers, making the trails that much more enjoyable.

"We do a little bit of a cheat walk because we tend to take more of the accommodation where there's food available. We don't carry our beds and everything with us. We do an option where there's huts available. It makes it pleasant, because you're just really walking. You're not carting things."

She particularly loved the solitude of the bush, she said.

"You get to the end of the day and you've seen some amazing things out of out of civilization. You spend a whole lot of time, 11 months of the year actually, being with people and it's quite nice just to get out in nature and take that time out.

Kuriger was already looking forward to walking this summer.

"We're actually doing a little bit of a combo, where we go down the Forgotten Railway and then end up in and around Wanganui, which is actually the great walk that's not a walk because it's river. We're going up to the blue duck station and I've always wanted to go up to the blue duck station. It's exploring different parts of the country. I love it."

The Greens' Chlöe Swarbrick on feeling small in the great outdoors

Green Party co-leader Chlöe Swarbrick didn't grow up walking but has come to love it during her adult life.

"I've become much more of an outdoor greenie as I've got older. It definitely wasn't a thing that my parents were super into when I was younger. I was very much living an urbanised life up until I made the effort to get outdoors. I'm lucky now to have a lot of friends and community who spend time outdoors and have been teaching me the tricks of the trade."

Swarbrick said she kept a pretty busy schedule, but still managed to find time for the odd overnight tramp during the political year.

"Probably my favourite one from this year was one up in the Tararua Ranges. We went up to Powell Hut. The visibility was pretty terrible but we spent one night up there and went all the way above the clouds. There's nothing quite like nature to remind you how small we are and to humble you to the things that really matter."

She said she walked to connect with friends, and disconnect from life.

"One of my good mates in particular who I get to go tramping with, we will spend time delving into all of the most insane recesses of politics, but then spend hours just tramping along in silence. That's the thing that I really do enjoy; that opportunity to just take some time and some space and to get off of a screen."

While she didn't have any walks lined up for the summer break yet, she was sure she would end up in the bush at some point.

"When I'm in Tāmaki I often do my best to get out to West Auckland, as well as getting across to Aotea. My summer is kind of unfolding. I know that I will be in the Waikato touching base with my family but from that point, I will absolutely be hitting my mates up to see who's keen on an adventure."

Note to reader: Te Pāti Māori declined RNZ's request for an interview for this story.

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