Sharyn Smart talks with Brando Yelavich after he completes a 600 day navigation around the wild coastline of NZ.
Making an extreme decision to “clean up” his life changed Brando Yelavich from a troubled youth to inspirational hero.
“Go big or go home. I think that if you are going to do something you might as well give it a 110%. You only do it once, especially if you are walking around NZ. I’m not going to do that again! – he laughs.
The 21-year-old has just returned from his latest adventure at Outward Bound Trust of New Zealand in Anikiwa.
“I had no idea what was going to happen at Outward Bound. So it was just like once again going into the unknown and just living. I wasn’t nervous at all but just excited for an adventure of 21 days in my element.
“I quickly discovered outward bound was completely different to my solo adventure as it was team based. You were forced to be in very close proximity to 14 other people for 21 days. You pretty much can’t escape people. It turns these 14 strangers into family members or friends for life which was absolutely amazing.”
“I learnt a lot about other people and how they tick and a bit about myself and how I reacted to other people. I had already discovered most of the things that they teach about your-self when I was alone for 600 days on my solo adventure,” he laughs.
“I am now a super confident person as I met so many complete strangers and had to introduce myself and then sleep in their house over-night. It certainly builds your confidence fast!
“Some people now take that as intimidating. I feel you are not going to get anywhere in life if you are going to stand there as a sheep. You have to stand up and put yourself out there and do stuff that is different while giving it your all!”
For his solo adventure he spent 18 months trekking, climbing, sliding, swimming and paddling around the coastline of New Zealand covering over 8,000kms over 600 days and nights. 
Most days he caught and cooked his own food in his quest to live off the land and carry as little as possible.
“I started walking on February 1, 2013 when I was 19. I told all my friends that it was going to take 6 months. I was so far from wrong! I finished 18 months later on August 23, 2014, a month before my 21st birthday.”
“It was really to give myself opportunities. I decided I wanted to do it to change my life and give myself opportunities that I wouldn’t have otherwise. School was never really the place for me so I wanted to get my learning in the way I knew how to and that was in the wild.
Brando quickly learnt that he was not invincible and had many harsh life lessons along the way.
“When I left I had the intention of returning home but had no real idea if I actually would because I knew the coastline was going to be very dangerous and the ocean shows no mercy. I just about died so many times. I don’t know how I am still alive.
“There was one particular time when I passed out under the water. I was paddling down a river and fell out of my raft. I went under the water and the current squashed me up against a tree.
“I just started panicking, I was swallowing water and I was coughing. I remember having this moment after being under the water for what felt like 5 minutes but it was probably only 30 seconds, that this was the end, I was probably going to die stuck underneath the water in this river. I just had this total moment of complete peace. It just filled my whole body. I could see through the crystal clear water to the river bottom and watched the rolling of stones with the current It was all blurry but it was so special and so perfect.
“I started to notice my eyes going. They went all black and then the next thing I remember, I was still like panicking the whole time under the water and I woke up, I don’t know how long later, but I was floating on the surface in my life jacket. I think the current must have done its thing and spat me back out. It was pretty scary!
Kiwi hospitality was huge as word spread via Facebook and his webpage, with many offering meals and a warm dry bed for the night.
“Pretty much the number one thing that I realised from my trip is the greatest moments are those that are shared with others along the way.
“I never once asked anyone to donate or asked anyone for money. I just put it out there that I was raising money. Personally I don’t think that I raised the money. I was just the reason that so many people helped donate to such a great cause like Ronald McDonald House.
“I learnt lessons from all the people I stayed with as they all shared their past experiences with me. I learnt something from the young and the old. That’s just knowledge from the “university of life”.
“I enjoyed sharing with others by going to schools, Lion Clubs and other organisations as it was a plus for me as I was learning and they were learning.
“I learnt more in the first three weeks of my adventure that I have learnt in my whole life. I think everyone should at some point in their life get out and find them-selves. The best thing you can do for yourself is find out who you are.”
As part of his adventure Brando took time to speak at Schools, clubs and organisations. 
“Going to the schools was my opportunity to inspire the youth to think broader and be more open about the way they grow up and to go out and have an adventure and find them-selves. Just really live and try and focus on what life is really about. Life is about being happy and doing what makes you happy.
I think that having the label ADHD and dyslexia during my youth was harder but as I got older I got a lot more help because of it. Also people were a lot more lenient with emotions as when I was younger it was very hard as I was always labelled the naughty kid.
“I struggled through school. I was diagnosed with ADHD at six so I was really young and I’ve been on Ritalin like medication ever since.
Getting to know his “real self” empowered Brando to make some big life changing decisions.
“Halfway through my trip I went cold turkey on the medication and decided to stop it. It has been the most amazing thing I’ve done in my whole life. I just feel so free. My soul, my brain everything just is completely free now.
“I would constantly be talking about having clouds in my head when I was on it. That’s the only way I can describe it. It’s almost exactly the same as when someone is depressed. They describe everything being full in their head and blocked out by thick clouds. That is the same feeling I got when I came off the medication. It does have its place just not for too long I don’t think.
“You reach an age about 16,17, 18 when you hit rock bottom and you freak out. You think – Wow I’ve got this thing that screws with my emotions and I’ve got it for the rest of my life. That was a really stressful time in my life.
“Then I kind of turned it around on my trip and I discovered that this ADHD thing was actually a gift and if I didn’t have it I wouldn’t have walked around NZ. I couldn’t have walked around NZ. I wouldn’t have had the energy and the out goingness. I just couldn’t have done it.”
As the journey neared its completion Brando was forced to focus on what next.
“Coming back into daily life was very hard. I don’t live in Auckland any more. I live in the Coromandel with my girlfriend Ngaio Gregory. It’s like an adventure mecca! There are canyons, bush, beach, surf and everything in one place. It’s an awesome place to live and she is an awesome person to live with.
“I work in her dad’s plant nursery. I am always surrounded by plants and I do heaps of public speaking so I am all over the country still visiting cool places and meeting great people.
“I still miss the road or the beach. It’s a very strange feeling. I think my parents expected me to come back and keep on working and stuff like nothing had just happened. But it was far from that.
“I had just not worked for two years of my life. I had been relying on myself and I had been helped generously by so many people so to then come back and have to look after myself, make my own money and feed myself with food from the supermarket rather than go out hunting, which you can’t do in a city, was just a whole new level of stress.”
Looking back on his 600 day adventure Brando is in awe of what he achieved and who helped him along the way.
“I met amazing people and made some life-long friends that I wouldn’t have met otherwise. I’ve got such amazing friends all over NZ now to have more adventures with.”
“I’m constantly looking for new things to do and new adventures to go on. I’ve recently joined the volunteer Fire brigade in Hahei which is great.
“Long term, maybe five years down the track, I am hoping to sail around the world. I can’t sail yet but I think five years is long enough to learn and buy a small boat.”
“Anyone can do what I did as long as they put their mind to it and just give it their all”
To contact Brando email him at brando@wildboy.co.nz or follow him on Facebook Wildboy Adventures – Brando Yelavich