Bicycle crashes, mountain climbs and Tim Tams: welcome home

Blue is the colour she’s wearing, however the mood is anything but at Creative Waikato as a small group of Hamiltonians wait for Sequoia Schmidt to speak.

Schmidt sits on a couch in front of them, wearing light grey jeans, a blue shirt, a blue beanie and a black brace on her left leg.

“A car tapped me while biking in Tauranga and I injured my knee,” she says.

She’s in New Zealand for the first time in ten years, promoting her book Journey Of Heart; A Sojourn To K2 which details her experiences while attempting to locate the bodies of her father Marty and her brother Denali who died in an avalanche while climbing the mountain four years ago.

She’s also filming and working on a new book while she cycles around the country.

“I don’t know if it counts if you miss a section and catch the bus,” she laughs.

The 26-year-old was born in Napier, but left New Zealand for the United States before she turned 16.

She’s cycling because she flew through Canada, drove across America and says there was “no better way to learn about my country than to bike it”.

She carries on Denali’s legacy through The Denali Foundation, which she started to honour her brother’s love of art. The organisation provides art supplies to schools in America that have had funds cut.

At her home in Los Angeles, Schmidt is working on a feature film.

“It’s about what drives a mountaineer,” she says.

“It’s about what made Dad so passionate.

“It’s something that hasn’t really been captured before.”

The film is in pre-production and Schmidt says a chunk of the filming will be done in New Zealand.

Hamilton is the second to last stop on her journey, and she’s going skydiving in Auckland before flying home.

So far she has ascended Mt Aspiring, cycled through Rainbow Valley and discovered a taste for our chocolate biscuits.

“I’ve eaten so many Tim Tams,” she says.

Schmidt also took a trip down memory lane, revisiting the house she grew up in.

 “All of the cool stuff is gone. There’s no climbing wall in the hallway any more,” she laughs.

Footage from her adventures will debut at the New Zealand Mountain Film Festival, starting in Wanaka on June 30.

Schmidt took some time in Hamilton to relax and recover.

“I don’t know if you noticed, but I got a manicure today.”

“As much of an adventurer as I am, I still like to be a girly girl sometimes.”

She knew she had made the right call to come back just before her plane flew in.

She was watching episodes of Wild About New Zealand when an episode about a man climbing Aorangi/Mt Cook began.

“It’s just meant to be,” she thought when her Dad appeared on the screen.

“There’s no country in the world like New Zealand.”