Wildboy - Brando Yelavich

Brando Yelavich, adventurer and author will present about his life and adventures as 'Wildboy'

"The idea for this escape started some time before I walked off into the wild. I was 16 and had just broken up with what I thought at the time was meant to be the girl I was going to spend the rest of my life with. young and confused I got so sad and low I tried to take my own life. I was living in the furthest place away from the sea when I met my first hero. Paul was his name, he knew something was up with me feeling bad. I was inspired by this grown man. His life of freedom, festivals, woman and happiness was so different to anything I had ever experienced before. he took me surfing on a lake we shared meals. and talked lots of shit! one day I spoke about walking the coastline of New Zealand and he was so excited by the idea that together we almost instantly started making a plan and this is where the dream was created.

Three years into the future.

I had forgotten my dream and had fallen off life's track. I was stuck in a terrible place, I had no direction and absolutely no motivation to succeed. To tell you the truth I didn't know what I wanted, who I was, or where I was going. I sat alone in a small one bedroom apartment feeling sorry for myself 90% of the time. There were some people in my life at the time who really believed in me and could see potential in me but unfortunately in my head I felt like a disappointment. There were a few events that led me to become the first person to walk around New Zealand but I clearly remember realizing that there's no time like the present and this time my dream was going to come alive.

I Set off from the top of New Zealand at Cape Reinga on February the first 2013. With me, I was carrying a 50kg pack containing everything I needed. I had the expectation that I would be back home within eight or nine months. 600 days and over 8,700km later I emerged from a life-changing adventure that saw me Hunt, walk, swim, climb and Packraft my way around the entire coast of this Beautifl place i call home.

This journey truly changed me. I overcame near death incidents, loneliness and enormous physical and logistic obstacles. My emotions ran wild. I forged a new future and came back with a completely altered view on the world and my place in it.

Once I started, Brando the Explorer was born and he will explore till his last Breath. "Wildboy"