no more training ........ just 3 days to go!!!

Kia ora koutou! We are well and truly on the downward slope to the start line now - only 3 days to go and the excitement in the air is palpable! The whole team including our wonderful support crew met for a meal together on Good Friday to iron out the last bits of admin and our final training walk was a jaunty 25km on Easter Sunday. All of us have now invested in Nordic Poles, which may make you look like a bit of a dork when striding about the streets of Auckland but certainly make a huge difference in reducing the strain on leg joints! I have been religiously doing my stretching and strengthening exercises for a strained calf/achilles and the progress made has been good - last physio appointment on Friday morning.
We expect to leave Auckland about 1pm and (thanks to Kathryn) have a place to stay at 5mile Bay on arrival in Taupo. Registrations and briefings close at 9pm on Friday night so we should be there well before that. Our start time is at 7am on Saturday morning, the second wave of starters.
Sincere thanks to all of those people who have sponsored us already - it's a fabulous cause and we really appreciate your support. For those of you who have been thinking about it, it's not too late! We have raised 72% of our total so far, thats about $1800, but still need another $700 to make the total required.
If you would like to folllow our progress during the trailwalk, we have signed up to use TWACK with which we can send SMS messages from our mobiles to our Oxfam page. So to see where we are just logon to the Oxfam Trailwalker HOME page (http://www.oxfam.org.nz/oxfam_trailwalker/) and enter LOOSE COVERZ (with a Z not an S) in the space on the left hand side where it says 'FIND A TEAM'
For any of you who may have had a 'windfall' of late or just be feeling mighty generous, we also have about $1300 worth of costs in vehicle hirage, petrol etc. If this sounds like you, please send your donations to 03-0228-0315180-000 and if you would put your name in the particulars and OXFAM in the reference we woudl be most grateful.
AND THEN.........no, it's OK, I'm not going to ask for any else, other than your prayers and good wishes for our team on the day!

Arohanui
'the team'

PS - if you get the Central Leader there's an article about our team on page 2, Friday 2nd April.
PPS - Don't forget to circle April 24th on your calendars for our 100km celebration party!!!