Earnslaw burn is a hard track that's located 20 minutes from Glenorchy or an hour and a half from Queenstown on the south island of New Zealand.
The track walks on a hillside within a thick native forest, and is not very maintained, making walking in it extra difficult, it reaches a basin that leads to a beautiful glacier at its end.

We started our day driving 2 hours to the trail head. We woke up really early in the morning in order to leave us enough time to walk without any pressure.
The previous night we didn't sleep too well so we started the walk a little short on energy.
We started walking soon after we arrived. The beginning of the hike starts with a climb onto the hillside, straight away we could see we were going really slow and that we will be short on sunlight by the time we'll reach the end. We stopped and talked about going back and doing another track instead, eventually we decided to keep going, we kept going slowly making very little way, and then, boom, Naama's hyperventilating, she's having an anxiety attack. We stopped and sat down. I tried calming her down and making her breath a little slower, once she could do that, we talked about what happened. She doesn't want to slow us down and she wants to keep going, but she's not sure if she made the right choice about continuing. I told her we could still go back but she insisted she's fine and we can keep going.
We kept walking, this time a little faster, but the path is hard, it keeps going up and down, crosses rivers and climbing fallen trees, we slipped here and fell there, this is more difficult than it should be. We are both in great hiking shape, what is going on?
Then, boom, Naama is hyperventilating again, this time we can't go back, we're too far into the forest, and the sun is about to set. We sat down again, relaxed again, and talked things out again. I should be more patient and not push her so hard, that is what goes through my mind but what comes out of my mouth when we walk is a totally different thing. We kept walking, this time, I'm already doubting if we'll be able to get to the end of the path. I still want to get to that glacier at the end so much so I try walking as fast as I can, but the terrain of the forest and the amount of obstacles in my way slows me down drastically causing me to fall down a few times, I'm starting to loose my temper, one last fall and...

All the blood rushes to my head. I lost control, threw the bag on the floor and sat on a rock on the road, not able to do anything with the rage. Naama asked me what happened but I can't really answer, I need to calm down. Once I did, I apologized for losing my cool, it was already starting to get dark. We kept going, hoping we're near the forest's end. We know that in the basin we can pitch a tent and get some sleep. At this point we both have given up getting to the glacier. Not long after, we got out of the forest. The walk we planned was supposed to take 4-5 hours but the walk we got took 7.5, we were tired and didn't know what to do, the sun was already gone, and it started getting cold.
We quickly got our minds right, Naama pitched the tent while I got fire wood. We built a fire and ate dinner, then we got in the tent.
It was a really cold night, I went outside a few times to photograph the stars and it was one of the most beautiful nights I've ever seen!
In the morning we found out just how cold it was, all of our outside gear was icy, and everything we took out of the tent started getting icy as well.
We took our time having breakfast and started making our way back.
The way back was much easier then the way we've made before, not because it was different, but because we were more prepared for what's lying ahead.
We didn't end up getting to the glacier like we wanted, but we got a really different experience that taught us a lot about ourselves and about each other.
I'm happy we went on this adventure and I think I might even say that it was one of my favorites.