Alas.....i have been remiss and bloggeth not for thine viewing pleasures these past two weeks!
No excuses - just the same old same old!
As you can all see from the title, time is flying by, catapaulting us toward the 'big day'!
We have not....as you might be thinking......been sitting around contemplating our navels. Brent and I were observed (but not by many) taking to the Hillary Trail from Arataki to Karekare. This was a gruelling 10hrs / 39kms of rugged trails. We started at 4.30am with headlamps on through to the Huia dam, then on to Whatipu. At one point we climbed from sea level to 400metres above in 30 mins - parts of the track were very steep and slippery, and very little flat ground. BUT...the scenery was spectacular (we are so fortunate to live in such a beautiful country) and as Hillary himself would have said....'we knocked the b**tard off!' While we were doing this...fear not, the other musketeers where not dormant. Rames was competing in a dragonboat racing competition, and Kathryn (bless her little tigery socks!) did a 40km walk solo around the Auckland volcanoes!!!
Last weekend we were all back together again as the 'awesome foursome' for a 30km trot down to Mission Bay and back - the highlight of which was my very traumatic toilet experience, which caused great mirth amongst my three 'friends?'!. Dying for a pee, I had looked forward to reaching the public toilets at Victoria Park and was relieved to arrive and find that only one of them was occupied. Gaily chatting and smiling with that wonderful sense of relief at finally being able to let go, I opened the door and started in, only to be confronted by a large brown naked body - male. In very exaggerated terms, the noise I (apparently) let out was something akin to a seagull in full voice, as I leapt back out like a scalded cat! My heart didn't stop pounding however until many kilometers were placed between me and my 'David', and I strangely lost the urge to pee!
Only two weeks to go now - it's all very exciting/terrifying! No major injuries - just the odd calf muscle strain, joint creakiness and tender feet, which is a major blessing! So far we have reached 60% of our sponsorship target, so...if you were planning on making a donation...now would be a really great time to do so. :-) Many thanks again to all of you who have donated so far via the web page, and also to all of those who have left encouraging messages and supportive comments - all much appreciated.
Here endeth this week's missive.
Love, light and peace!
Wednesday, March 24, 2010
Tuesday, March 9, 2010
Just 31 days........that's one month, to go!!
Kia ora folks! Another week closer and training is still going well.
This weekend found us trekking up and down the 7 volcanoes again, but in the heat of the day this time - just for the heck of it!! Well, actually it was just me and 'the boys' - Kathryn had a better offer of a weekend away with friends, so who could blame her. We started in full sun, singlets, hats, blistering heat, but by the time we reached One Tree Hill, we were being soaked as it bucketed down huge raindrops. Here began the first lesson of the day - be prepared!
Fortunately Brent had thought to bring the lambs wool as I was trialling the 'two pairs of socks' theory. By the time my feet were wet from the rain, this theory was well and truly defunct so I was very thankful for the wool on my feet for the rest of the journey and thankfully suffered no further foot trouble. Unfortunately, I had not thought to put any other clothing in my pack and was feeling the chill, or rather, not feeling my fingertips before too long. The inclement weather however did not last too long and we were soon in bright sunshine again. The entire route was about 27km this time around as we 'needed' to take a detour/shortcut home via Eden Park to find out the cricket score (not good at the time either!). We kept an average speed of 5.8kph over the distance, with the highest elevation being 200m above sea level. Thank goodness for Brent's fab new GPS so that we can report back with all of these wonderful statistics.
This next bit is a request for assistance.
In order for us to get to Taupo and for our support group to be able to follow us to checkpoints we have hired a campervan. If there is anyone who would like to make a contribution directly to help us out with the cost of that, we would be very appreciative. OR anyone who knows of a place where we could park up for the night in Taupo on the Friday night 9.April), before we start, we would also be very grateful to hear from you.
Please feel free to leave comments on this blog at any time. You just put the cursor over the bit where it says (0 comments) and click. Atext box should come up that you can type into. Have a go - even if it's just to say hi!
Huge thanks again to all of those who have made a donation via our page or left a message/comment in support - it is a very humbling experience - thank you.
You can check out our progress on the following link, and also check out on the Oxfam Trailwalk page the different sorts of things the money you donate will be used for.
http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=24&teamid=4064 .
Well team, it's good night from me, and it's goodnight from him (indoors - aka Brent!)
Ka kite ano :-)
This weekend found us trekking up and down the 7 volcanoes again, but in the heat of the day this time - just for the heck of it!! Well, actually it was just me and 'the boys' - Kathryn had a better offer of a weekend away with friends, so who could blame her. We started in full sun, singlets, hats, blistering heat, but by the time we reached One Tree Hill, we were being soaked as it bucketed down huge raindrops. Here began the first lesson of the day - be prepared!
Fortunately Brent had thought to bring the lambs wool as I was trialling the 'two pairs of socks' theory. By the time my feet were wet from the rain, this theory was well and truly defunct so I was very thankful for the wool on my feet for the rest of the journey and thankfully suffered no further foot trouble. Unfortunately, I had not thought to put any other clothing in my pack and was feeling the chill, or rather, not feeling my fingertips before too long. The inclement weather however did not last too long and we were soon in bright sunshine again. The entire route was about 27km this time around as we 'needed' to take a detour/shortcut home via Eden Park to find out the cricket score (not good at the time either!). We kept an average speed of 5.8kph over the distance, with the highest elevation being 200m above sea level. Thank goodness for Brent's fab new GPS so that we can report back with all of these wonderful statistics.
This next bit is a request for assistance.
In order for us to get to Taupo and for our support group to be able to follow us to checkpoints we have hired a campervan. If there is anyone who would like to make a contribution directly to help us out with the cost of that, we would be very appreciative. OR anyone who knows of a place where we could park up for the night in Taupo on the Friday night 9.April), before we start, we would also be very grateful to hear from you.
Please feel free to leave comments on this blog at any time. You just put the cursor over the bit where it says (0 comments) and click. Atext box should come up that you can type into. Have a go - even if it's just to say hi!
Huge thanks again to all of those who have made a donation via our page or left a message/comment in support - it is a very humbling experience - thank you.
You can check out our progress on the following link, and also check out on the Oxfam Trailwalk page the different sorts of things the money you donate will be used for.
http://www.oxfam.org.nz/
Well team, it's good night from me, and it's goodnight from him (indoors - aka Brent!)
Ka kite ano :-)
Tuesday, March 2, 2010
Shock Horror! - only 38 days to go!!!
Kia Ora! Yes......I'm late again - work is definitely getting in the way of my life!Ha! Had an excellent outing on Saturday morning - just under 30kms at an average speed of 6km/hr ... not bad considering that Rames is still recovering from surgery, and Brent from his latest outing with the 'Huia Bush Runners' on Thursday evening, which left his quads and hamstrings screaming on the hills! Kathryn (aka the Mountain Goat) set a cracking pace from the outset, taking on the Bullock Track, uphill at breakneck speed! I've seen her again already this week and she has some very sexy new trail shoes with plenty of grip for the off-road AND glow-in-the-dark laces, so I hate to think how fast she'll be now - we may have to put a governor on her! :)
We had a brilliant suggestion from the lovely Ellie ter Haar to wrap our feet in lambswool to prevent blisters, which we tried on Saturday, with great success. We are all sold on this idea, so huge thanks to Ellie for the benefit of her experience doing this same trailwalk last year!!
We had our first 'meeting'of the team and support crew over a bbq on Sunday night and managed to sort out a few things, like who would be bringing the Rum and whether they could fit in a quick nine holes while they were waiting for us.(Don't fancy our chances!! Ha!) No...Our support crew actually looks really fabulous of course and are already well onto making their prep in readiness for April! The support crew are Kathryn's husband Polisi and her friend Jan (she obviously feels she needs lots of support! ...... just joking Kathryn, yeah, I know I need to change my attitude! :), my brother Kevin, and Brent's son Sam....an awesome crew!(photos to follow).
We have had an awesome response from friends and family in support of this madness and once again we'd like to send out a big thanks for your contributions and words of encouragment!
Here's the link again if you missed it last week......................
http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=24&teamid=4064 .
Don't forget to keep the 24th April free for our 'post torture' celebration.
That's all for now folks - Have a great week further!
Ka kite ano.
We had a brilliant suggestion from the lovely Ellie ter Haar to wrap our feet in lambswool to prevent blisters, which we tried on Saturday, with great success. We are all sold on this idea, so huge thanks to Ellie for the benefit of her experience doing this same trailwalk last year!!
We had our first 'meeting'of the team and support crew over a bbq on Sunday night and managed to sort out a few things, like who would be bringing the Rum and whether they could fit in a quick nine holes while they were waiting for us.(Don't fancy our chances!! Ha!) No...Our support crew actually looks really fabulous of course and are already well onto making their prep in readiness for April! The support crew are Kathryn's husband Polisi and her friend Jan (she obviously feels she needs lots of support! ...... just joking Kathryn, yeah, I know I need to change my attitude! :), my brother Kevin, and Brent's son Sam....an awesome crew!(photos to follow).
We have had an awesome response from friends and family in support of this madness and once again we'd like to send out a big thanks for your contributions and words of encouragment!
Here's the link again if you missed it last week......................
http://www.oxfam.org.nz/
Don't forget to keep the 24th April free for our 'post torture' celebration.
That's all for now folks - Have a great week further!
Ka kite ano.
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