Friday, December 25, 2015

Merry Christmas

Was supposed to be doing the Routeburn track but I ended up screwing up my ankle. So I dropped Beth and her parents off at the trail head and made my way to Te Anau.


Friday, December 18, 2015

Sock modeling to laid up

These are my S'more socks that I received from my Secret Santa during our friend's Christmas from earlier this month. Unfortunately, I'll not be wearing them any time soon. I've received what I think is the worse ankle sprain I've ever had. That is a pretty bold statement from a person who has had numerous sprains and a few brakes over the years.

 So what happened? I've been climbing a fair bit since moving to Taupo. So last weekend I was at the climbing wall doing some lead climbing when I slipped and fell between 3-4m crashing into the wall/hold. I knew instantly that something wasn't right. The pain was intense causing my leg to shake. I was lowered to the floor, where I raised my leg. Got ice and compression going within the first couple minutes. The swelling was already starting. Mike dropped me off at the Emergency Room and then went out to pick Beth up, as we only have one car and I had it. I was seen fairly quickly after filling in my paperwork. The initial diagnosis was a bad sprain. I had to come back for an x-ray the next morning. The x-ray only showed old injuries, but nothing new. I've started going to Physio to get back into action. It  is about a week since it happened and its still looking purple, but a gross green has started to appear. I still have a lot of lower leg swelling, but I have pain to the touch up the shin close to my knee. Below you can see where I pushed my fingers to my shin and the amount of swelling that is still there.



The swelling is down but not gone after a week. The shin just above the ankle is super tender and the bruising is below the calf. There is still tenderness along the shin up to almost the knee. I have to spend 30 minutes in the morning doing stretches and band work in order to walk normal. While doing these exercises I've had my ankle lock up and then pop. This doesn't feel pleasant at all. Oh and to run it in my face, the quick draws I ordered have been delivered. Won't be using them anytime soon.


Wednesday, December 2, 2015

Still not used to it



Another year living in the Southern Hemisphere and I can't get used to Christmas happening over Summer. Its going to be a busy festive season. 2 weeks ago, Beth and I were in Queenstown to run a half/full marathon. I ended up twisting my ankle pretty good at about 15km in. I ended up finishing, but probably shouldn't have. This past weekend I did the Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge, a 160km road ride around Lake Taupo. This weekend, my office is having its holiday party. So we are heading up to Auckland for that as well as a friends Christmas. We are doing an outing at Snow Planet, an indoor snow park. Then afterwards we are having a potluck at Banu's new house. I've made mini-choco-pucks, pumpkin pie, and ginger cookies. We are also taking spinach, cilantro, and salad greens from our garden. The following week, Beth is getting her vision corrected and its her work party, so we'll be back up in Auckland. The week after that, Beth's parents arrive and Star Wars Episode 7 is released. We are doing a few things around the North Island before heading to the South Island for another Great Walk. Once that is complete, Beth and I and our friends James and Helen will be heading to Fiji for a diving holiday. The following weekend I'm doing the 80km Timber Trail with the Taupo MTB Club.
There is much more that we have planned and we may be looking at going to India in February as our good friend Shiv is getting hitched.