Up Next: Pie Ride 2017!

What is this? Well we sold our house. I quit my job. I got a (temporary) sugar mamma. I've got my bike ride to do. I'll be riding from Bluff to Cape Reinga. This is the opposite direction of what is typically done. There are 2 reasons for this. 1: winter is a factor and I want to get over the Southern Alps with less chance of snow and cold weather. 2: my brother is going to join me for a segment of the ride. I've got just under a month until I kick off the ride. I'm busy trying to wind down work while getting my gear and route sorted. So here is what I've dubbed Pie Ride 2017. I plan on fueling the ride with pies the occasional slice while trying to find the best of both. Well maybe not too many pies. I am after all taking my tramping cook kit and a vegetarian on this adventure. Do they even make vegetarian pies? I don't know as I generally go for a nice Steak and Cheese or a choice Pork and Kumara.

First, I've brushed off the old touring post and started to review what I was planning to do several years ago. My tentative path has changed quite a bit. As I'm not leaving from Tauranga. Rather I'll be flying to Invercargill from Auckland and then riding to Bluff to officially start the journey at Stirling Point. From there I'll be biking back up toward Invercargill before turning off on the Southern Scenic Route through the Catlins with a stop at Slope Point (Southern most point of South Island) then up to Middlemarch. From there, I'll be riding most of the Otago Rail Trail before turning off towards Wanaka. Then I'll be riding down the West Coast. There are some tracks to get me off the highway, but I'll be on Hw 6 for long stretches. I'm still debating adding in Old Ghost Road, but I'll see how I feel and how my bike is handling the trails around that point. Otherwise its on to St Arnaud and then to Picton either via Nelson or Blenheim. I'm researching the pros and cons of each. There is an adventurous trail for mountain bikes from Picton that I was thinking of taking, but the reviews make it look hard as. Then you have to deal with crazy traffic with several one lane bridges. Then take the ferry back to Wellington. Stop in at the house and regroup and possibly swap our gear as needed.

I'll type up the North Island in the next post as that is a little more fluid once I'm past Auckland and prior to Taupo. This is because I don't know how long my brother is now coming over for and I want to show him some stuff off the bike as well. However, I do have to be back in Auckland the weekend of the 27th of May as we are running an obstacle course called O-Rock that weekend.

What am I riding? Well my disc trucker that I got from my friend Bri of course. I'll be rocking some new Soma Cazadero tires with 2 rear panniers. As well as the recently purchased handlebar bags from, a local Wellingtonian bag maker, Stealth Bike Bags. I have already picked up a top tube bag of his off of TradeMe prior to our cycle trip over the holidays and it worked pretty slick. I kept my wallet, phone, light, and snacks in it. Right now I'm revising my gear list and I've sent my brother several maps from Google with the course as best as I can determine. Then we have to finalize when he is going to arrive so I can make sure to meet up with him in Taupo. Then it will be back through my old stomping grounds.

Is it really almost March?

So a lot has happened since the last post. We went to the South Island for about a month. Bill unfortunately broke his leg the day before leaving. He didn't go to the doctor right away and instead was seen in Hawaii. So we had to rush around and make alternate plans for him. It being the busy season here, we were lucky to secure him lodging while we were busy in the bush.

Beth and I started our journey a little early. We had to look for a place to move to in the Wellington area. Beth's work was looking for her to transition from Kinloch to the area sooner than later. So we looked at a few places and they were pretty bad. We found a little place on the end of the street. Next to a cricket field and a multi-use track, that has just been completed. Almost every place we've lived in New Zealand so far has been at the end of the road. A few of them have been at the base or top of a big climb. However, now its a choice to ride to the top of the hill. Not a necessity to get home.

We boarded the ferry and tried to grab some sleep on the deck chairs. Not the most fun or the most sleep I've ever gotten. Our friend Gina can't keep her days straight and was on our ferry to the South Island. She had told us she would be on the next day's ferry. She had a couple friends from the UK over and they were road tripping it down to Queenstown. We didn't drive straight to Queenstown, but it was a pretty quick trip down as we had to pick up Beth's folks at the airport. We had one night at Fox Glacier, where we walked out as far as we could to see it. We then had one day in Queenstown to grab some supplies for the tramp and grab our hut passes and get a refund for Bill's.

We grabbed a ferry out of Te Anau Downs to the beginning of the Milford Track. Where we would spend the next 4 days covering roughly 53kms. The ferry ride is about an hour long with little detours and educational insights of the area. I was too busy trying to ignore the guided walkers, who pay a crap ton, talking about they should be fine because they run the occasional 5km. Their last day was 21km. The walk is luckily segregated based guided or self-guided with the huts being far apart from each other. The numbers allowed on the track are closely monitored and only some many people can be on the track at any given time. So we were with the same 40 people for the next 3 nights.

The first day was a short walk of just over an hour. We scurried to find a bunk and were able to get 2 tops and a bottom bunk that were close to each other. This being Christmas Day, a group actually brought in roast pork, pavlova, salad greens, and a can of whip cream. We played our new tramping card game 'Quick Wits' which I funded on KickStarter. The game is a lot of fun and we even introduced a couple families from Christchurch to the game. There are however some adult cards that should be removed before playing with younglings. Also there are cards directly related to the older generation as the kids didn't know who Chevy Chase was. The 2nd day we walked up a valley and towards the end had to walk over some large rock slides. There was a very refreshing lake at this hut. Beth and I almost got all the way in. It was colder than any polar bear dip I've ever done. There were sharp pin pain shooting into my feet and legs right upon entering. That night we started to get the rain that was predicted earlier in the week. We woke up later thinking that the rain might break in the morning. It didn't we left in the rain, but being in the bush the rain wasn't coming through the canopy as much as it could have been. This ended up causing lots of waterfalls to spring up along the valley walls and to have some water rushing across the track. By the time we got to the tree line, the rain had ceased and we were treated to views of the clouds receding and the waterfalls gushing down the valley walls. We had a little further to go before we started our decent to our last hut. However, we made a stop at the most scenic toilet in New Zealand and ate a quick lunch at the shelter it was next to. The final hut was about 18km from the end, where we would have to grab another ferry back into civilization. Then it was a couple hour bus ride back to Te Anau.

Back in Te Anau, we joined back up with Bill and we made our way to Bluff, where we would be boarded yet another ferry to take us to Stewart Island. Once off the ferry, we were picked up by the AirBnB host that was renting to Bill and she drove us to DOC to get our hut passes and to the trail head. We were warned of the knee deep mud by the DOC staff, but found out by a guy just exiting the track to expect only ankle deep mud. The first day passed quickly with a smattering of bridges over little outlets that dropped you on to a beach. It reminded me a little of Abel Tasman in that regard. The first hut on the Rakiura Track that we stayed at was Port Williams Hut. We were told that there were Kiwi around the area, but I only saw possums. If you were in dire need, there just so happened to be one spot that got mobile service. We happened to see the same woman going over there numerous times. I for one was glad to be disconnected for most of the trip. The track to North Arm Hut was a bit trickier to navigate than the previous day. We got some rain and the track was muddy in a lot of sections. I had opted not to wear my boots this tramp and instead wore my trail running shoes. I'm always running through puddles and mud in them so I know that I can just rinse them in the ocean to get them looking clean. My socks didn't end up making it through the tramp though. Some grit got stuck between my heel and the sock and wore a whole in my shoe padding and my socks. Needless to say I'm not very happy as those were basically new shoes. This evening was raining and the toilet was up a long hill. We just played games in the hut as the sand flies and rain kept us inside. There was an Irish couple that looked like the most ill prepared trampers ever. They were wearing jeans, stylish jumpers, and hand carrying a bunch of crap. Their back packs looked like it might fit a couple books, but not enough gear for 3 days out in the bush. They ended up having a full sized game of Monopoly. A special Cork Edition none the less. They also contributed the best quote of the trip: While staring at the bottle of wine she utters "Its a shame we have to drink this out of plastic glasses." Who brings 2 glass bottles of wine on a 2 night tramp? The Irish! They also carried a handled grocery bag with a whole roast chicken, but didn't eat it until the 2nd night. The next day was still muddy. Betsy's knee was really bothering her. We came across only a couple people walking into the track as we were exiting. The last bit of the tramp is easy going, but its not over yet. You have to walk back into town along the side of the road for a couple kilometers. Once back in town, we went right to the ocean to get the mud off of us. We also ran into Bill who had previously checked to see if the rooms were available. They weren't when he first went in, but now they were. We were starving so we went to a French Cafe down the street, where they wanted $50 per pizza to dine in, but only $20 for take away. So we ate back in our room.

Now back on the ferry heading to Bluff, we had a date with Middlemarch and tackling the Otago Rail Trail.We had a quick pie and then picked up Betsy's bike and then started our journey. We had about 60km of gravel trail to ride to get to Peter's Farm Lodge, located just outside of Waipiata. This ride was fairly flat, but we looked at the different little shelters and trail signs. These are things that the Hauraki Rail Trail could take a lesson from. There was also some little metal sculptures on the side of the trail. It makes it more of a destination rather than just come ride our trail. Upon riding up to his lodge, we encountered the wild sheep of New Zealand. Ok. Maybe that is an exaggeration as Peter's brother runs a farm next door and the sheep graze where ever. Including all around the lodge.
Unfortunately we didn't confirm the BBQ that Peter puts on and we cooked our own food. This did separate us from the other groups at the lodge as they shared sirloin steaks, salad, roasted potatoes, salted caramel ice cream, and apple cobbler. Granted Beth wouldn't have eaten much of it. Right after we ate, I ended up starting to get a fever and chills for the rest of the night. I woke up the next morning feeling awesome. Betsy not so much. She decided to spend the day with Bill. I put her bike on the roof rack and Beth and I set out to Lauder. This was going to be a trying day. We were bashed by a steady, cold head wind all day. While going up hill and occasionally getting hit with rain. By the time we pulled into a town for lunch, we were wearing all the clothes we had brought in the pannier. We even grabbed more clothes once Beth's parents showed up at the cafe. We continued on and got to go through a tunnel and over a really long bridge. It ended up taking us like 8 hours to go 64kms that day. Once again, shortly after getting off the bike I was hit with fever and chills. I ate dinner and then went to bed. The next morning I felt great again. So we set off for the last little bit of the trail. It was a quick ride, as we were treated with a sunny, windless day while mainly going downhill or remaining flat.

We proceeded to drop off Betsy's bike in a depot and then drove back to Queenstown. We had one last night with her folks. Then we had a few more things to tick off the list. After dropping them off at the airport, I decided with my recent bout of feeling like crap I wouldn't be running the Routeburn. Rather I would rest up for our 2 day Kepler adventure. Instead I ended up reading a lot of books. We drove back out to Te Anau prior to our 2 day trek around Kepler. We decided to go clockwise with the weather forecast as our first day had gale winds and rain along the ridge. Instead we took to the dense bush for the first day and saved a sharp climb and a long exposed ridge for the 2nd day. The sand flies were particularly bad here. We passed the first hut on the track  while a few day trippers turned around here. We pressed on for another several hours to the Iris Burn Hut. This hut was set up in a weird way and we had to jockey for table space as they had seats but no tables for everyone. The next morning it was a 3 hour switchback fest to get out of the bush. Then we had another 40 minutes to the first shelter. Then the rest of the day was basically spent on the ridge. We were treated to amazing views the entire day and I was glad not to be up there in high winds and rain. It did mean that we had a long day with lots of elevation. The final 5km we were doing the death march. We saw the campground and thought it was about over, but no. I ended up getting some wicked blisters on my little toes. I ended up switching to my hut shoes, a pair of slip on sandals. This made the rest of the walk more enjoyable. Beth unfortunately went really lite for the overnight and didn't take a pair of hut shoes. We were both hurting at the end of the walk, but we were also starving. So back in to Te Anau to grab something to eat before starting to head back up to Kinloch. We did this over several days where we had planned on camping, but it was unseasonably cold and wet.

The following week Beth started our shift to Waiwhetu, Lower Hutt. This transition would take us 3 weeks. For one weekend, Waitangi Weekend, our group did the Northern Circuit. Then it was the final push to Lower Hutt, but before we left we hosted a couple different sets of friends over for dinner and the MTB club did one last ride and said our see you laters.

Now we are in Lower Hutt.

Happy Holidays

It’s that time of year again, where our birthplaces are covered in ice and snow and we’re going into summer break. It’s been a great and busy year, starting with an end to our trip with my parents, Betsy and Bill, and a beginning of our trip to Fiji with friends Helen and James. In Fiji we spent a few days diving, went kayaking, and drove around the island. One of the great highlights was seeing a police foot chase right in front of our car. Guy ran out of the police station, which we were parking in front of as it seemed like a safe spot, with 2 policemen close behind. The criminal gave us a cheeky grin as he ran right in front of our car. Kaleb later spotted him in police custody again. Guess his escape plan was foiled despite the obvious lack of conditioning of the police. Despite diving with sharks, we came back alive from Fiji.

At the end of January, we were lucky enough to go diving at Whakaari/White Island, an active volcanic island. This was some of the best diving ever! We once again ran in to our friend Paul on this dive. He gets around to different dive sites as well. We swum through kelp forests, dove on shallow reefs with volcanic bubbles bubbling from the bottom, and did a night dive with countless eagle rays. The dive company wasn’t great and the boat was barely seaworthy, but there was great diving.

February, we went to India to see our friend Shiv (now a Kiwi) get married to Ravneet. Kaleb worked with Shiv back at the council in Thames. We flew into Delhi and headed to Karnal, our first stop for wedding festivities. After a great deal of food and celebration, we headed to Chandigarh for more festivities. Shiv’s sister and sister-in-law were nice enough to take me shopping so I had appropriate wedding wear. There was so much tasty food, we were never hungry. Shiv’s family was awesome and so hospitable. Kaleb even got to go see a wheel of death with a motorcycle rider and a car at the local fair. I’m not sure we can ever attend another wedding, as everything will pale in comparison to the 5-day Indian wedding. After the wedding festivities were over, we visited the sights of the Golden Triangle, including the Taj Mahal in Agra and Jaipur. We also survived a death defying bike rickshaw ride through Delhi with Dave and Sarah, before leaving for the now-seemingly excellent driver filled roads of New Zealand.

We started March by volunteering for Ironman New Zealand, held right here in Taupo. We were kayak marshals and herded the swimmers along the correct course. As we were on the water, my friend from Minneapolis, Angi, was landing in Auckland and coming to Taupo via bus. After she recovered from the flight for a bit in Taupo, we headed to the South Island, driving from Christchurch to the West Coast, down to Queenstown, and back up via the Eastern route. We stopped whenever we saw an interesting hike and had a great deal of fun.

In March, we joined the ninjas for a 4-day canoe trip on the Whanganui River for just over 100 kms. Kaleb and I paddled our kayaks, while the other 6 ninjas took up paddles in canoes. The water was higher than normal, as it had rained a lot in the previous weeks, and most of the nights we were on the river, though luckily it generally started after the tents were up. It was great fun and we managed to only have one canoe swamping, on the very last rapid. I think next time, we will look for better canoe parking spots so we don’t have to carry our gear barrels up cliffs.

Easter weekend, we hiked the Abel Tasman Great Walk (55 km). This time it was just the two of us, camping, rather than utilizing the huts, along the way. It was a beautiful walk, though a slow one as I was recovering from a hip injury and Kaleb an ankle injury. We made friends with a curious weka (native NZ bird), who hung out with us at our private campsite. We even had the beach to ourselves for a wonderful sunrise.

Over the winter months (summer for you Northern hemisphere dwellers), I did a lot of trail running and Kaleb did a lot of mountain biking. I ran a race in pouring sleet and decided to skip any future races where hypothermia is a guarantee. We did a few weekends away over the winter, but nothing major. One of the weekends away included a night trail run down in the bush of Wellington. We also did 2 fun relay races with the ninja team and even squeezed 15 ninjas in one house. A few of us joined forces again to run in the annual Lactic Turkey P6 Adventure Race.

On Thanksgiving we went to Hawaii to visit my sister and her family. My mom was also there, overlapping with our trip for a few days. We spent some time on Oahu and then traveled over to the big island of Hawaii. We were able to see some of the volcano, a green beach, and a black beach. We also went diving and saw some octopus and sea turtles. We even manage to sneak in a quick run on Ali'i Drive.

 

In March I left my job at Datamine seeking anything else. I worked on getting clients for my own business, 3 Sheep Analytics, and lifeguarded on call for the Taupo pools for 6 months. In October, I accepted a position as Chief Data Scientist for Quotable Value, headquartered in Wellington. I’ve traveled to Wellington and Auckland for work a few times, but will not expected to be in the Wellington office full time until February or March of the new year. Kaleb is still working for BCS doing BI development.

This month, we are heading to the South Island once again to meet up with my parents and do a whole lot of physical activity. The plan is to first do the Milford Great Walk (53 km), a 4 day hike through mountains and rain forest. After a day of rest and travel, we will start the Raikura Great Walk (32 km) on Stewart Island. After that, we head a bit north again to do a 3 day bike ride on the Otago Rail Trail (150 km). My parents will then head back to the states, no doubt needing a vacation from their vacation, and Kaleb and I will continue our insanity. Kaleb plans on running the Routeburn Great Walk (32 km), which he missed out on last year due to injury. We will then both do 2 days on the Kepler Great Walk (60 km). After this trip, we will have 8 of the 9 New Zealand Great Walks done. The last one on the list is Heaphy, which is a logistical nightmare because the end points are not connected by road. It is also a dual purpose trail outside of the summer season so Kaleb wants to ride it.

We’re loving life here in New Zealand and have only 540 days until we are eligible for citizenship. We welcome any visitors to our house and will show you around as much as we can. Hope everyone is having a safe and happy holiday season and will have a happy New Year!

P6 Adventure Race Recap

Its been awhile since I did a post, but we have been busy. Beth has taken a role as Chief Data Scientist with a company out of Wellington. That does mean we'll be moving from Lake Taupo in the future. We are trying to delay it until after summer though. Any way, not to bore you with pointless logistics of our daily lives.

Race Recap:

A wet morning greeted us while waking up in Auckland. We grabbed our few things and got on the road to Waitama Regional Park at 7am. The park is located about 45 minutes from South Auckland. The drive out was uneventful, but taking the curvy back roads just means slow drivers. We pulled into the park and there were a lot of cars already there. The Lactic Turkey RV was stationed by the registration tent and Shaun was running around with last minute prep. Some of the young kids were riding their bikes through the cars without their helmets while others were busy unloading gear. We parked our car and started to unload our gear. Mike and Paula arrived shortly after we did and pulled up right behind us. Beth and Paula went and got our registration stuff, which consisted mainly of advertisements and a chocolate bar apiece. The Ninja Tortoises would be #205 for this race. The day was broken down into the following segments:

 

Initial Puzzle:

She said a phrase starting with 'This is the cup game' while tapping the cup to her hand and table to a pattern. You had to be able to repeat it in order to get our score card.

 

Stage 1: Pedal

I believe this was by far the most challenging section for us. We quickly realized that the scale of the map was super small. We felt like we hardly went any where, but we blew past our predetermined course that we were aiming for. So we had to make some on the fly adjustments, which meant riding some of the track backwards and throwing our bikes over a few fences after riding through a paddock. Also I may have been a little short with Beth, but she was a champ with me yelling at her for check point descriptions while trying to hold a map, check point descriptions, attempting to shift, and riding a mtb. I believe it was her 4th time on a mtb. Also it was too big for her so it made getting back on it while on a hill impossible. When we do another, we'll invest in a map clip board that attaches to your bar in order to keep your hands free, but still be able to have the data at your finger tips.

On this stage we had a series of mandatory check points to keep the flow of riders in the same direction as there are actual mtb trails at the park with other users. These trails looked like fun and I wouldn't mind giving them a crack at some point in the future. However, there was one track I would be scared as hell to ride down. Super steep, very bumpy, switch back corners with no berms, and comprised mainly of clay. We spent about an hour getting the mandatory check points and a couple others before ditching the bikes. Beth also ended up taking a pedal to the shin during this stage. Giving her a bloody shin.

 

Stage 2: Plod

We dropped the bikes off at the cars, stopped for a bathroom break, and then got our new check point descriptions. We set out to a part of the course we hadn't been to yet, the beach. On our way down, we had a couple take a picture of us laying down in the shape of P6 to text to Shaun for some mystery points. This was comical as the woman didn't really understand English, but she managed to snap pictures with Paula's camera as Beth's camera app stopped working at that moment. So here you have 4 people laying down on the ground trying to contort their bodies into the shape of a P and a 6. The woman wanted to give us a good background, but just went with our craziness and snapped the photos. At the beach, we quickly performed the get the ball out of the pipe game. Then we proceeded up a big hill past a bunch of tourists that were probably jealous of us and wanted to play the game with us. The hills would give Beth's hamstring a fair amount of grief. She has been nursing an injury since our night time trail run in Wellington back in August. This section of the race probably wasn't her favourite, but we had some great views from the top of a couple different look outs. This stage had lots of up and down as we worked hard to get points and be back to the staging area for a quick Stage 3. Another mystery activity we did was riding the all-terrain Segways around a slalom course. Fast time got a 100pts but we got some for trying.

 

Stage 3: Plod

This involved us wondering a small section near the staging area looking for 20 small wooden spoons with a 2 character code written on them. All of them were found, but there were some tricky ones even though they were all located next to or on something. During this stage, we completed another mystery event: match the country outline to the country name. We grabbed a quick bite to eat and then head back out to do the coastal challenge. We also dig a physical challenge of walking with a 50cent piece between your knees for a short distance, but we lost points as someone kept looking at their knees and losing the coin just at that moment.

 

Stage 4: Plod (along the coast)

The coastal challenge was an out and back as the original way down to the start was closed off to protect some farming. So we had to descend a long hill that was pock marked with hoof-made holes. I'm glad I didn't see anyone twist an ankle during this section, but it was more than probable given the terrain. We made our way to the water and had to traverse the coast while other teams were coming back. This was made more dangerous with the narrow slick rock we were traversing really only allowed 1 person at a time in some places. All the while you were looking for letters along the course. We managed to find 5/6 of the letters so we were unable to decipher the scrambled word. 

 

Stage 5: Plod

We probably ate some more food at this point and hit the bathroom up again before setting out on the last plod of the day. Prior to leaving Paula grabbed us some points by completing the mystery activity of cup stacking. She got us over 30 points just for doing the activity in under 15 seconds. We then started off following the same course we took for Stage 1. Down the main road to the first check point then jumping some fences to pick up a couple more check points and a mystery activity before getting back on the road. For the mystery activity, we were able to solve 2/3 match stick logic puzzles and could have figured out the 3rd if she hadn't pointed us in the wrong direction for the last one. I could tell that soreness and pain were creeping in at this point and our pace slowed down quite a bit. We did manage to get better at judging the distances and looking at other key identifiers on the map later in the day. So we could get a pretty good approximate location by a glance. We started back to the staging with 45 minutes left thinking we would get the easy points from Stage 6, but with our slow pace we would have gotten back after the 6 hour cut-off and lost 30 points per minute. Instead we took a little round about way back and got 220 points, which appears to be 20 more points than people were getting for Stage 6.

 

Stage 6: Splash

So once again we didn't manage to get into the water. We bought these 4 inner tubes 2 years ago and they have been transported, blown up, and deflated multiple times, but never used for the purpose of a floatation device. Instead they manage to gather lint in our garage.

Looking at the results we tumbled from our inaugural Ninja outing of 1st to 7th (last), but we had fun with the event once again. We got lots of compliments on our costumes and managed to get our photos on the event FaceBook page right way. Beth and I tried to wait for the awards, but the event started late and awards were pushed back past 4. As we had over a 3 hour ride back and had to stop off for some food along the way we decided to leave early. So Mike and Paula were able to claim the one spot prize that the team won, a glow in the dark drink bottle.

Timber Trail recap

So I went out with the Taupo MTB Club and rode the Timber Trail, an 85km ride or tramp. For the recap you can read about it here. This is a new site that Beth has started dedicated to exploring the New Zealand Trails.

New Venuture: 3 Sheep Analytics

What is this new venture? Well its not exactly new as it was formed back in 2013, but Beth is focusing her efforts on expanding the business of 3 Sheep Analytics. This includes working on the branding, creating a web presence, and procuring all necessary software. As well as networking with the Not-For-Profit arena here in New Zealand. In addition to all that, she is also creating presentations to take to some of the local fundraising conferences. These will focus on the need for analytics and data insight for small and Not-For-Profit companies that currently aren't being catered to. 3 Sheep will provide anything from post campaign analysis to a reoccurring monthly full solution.    

Abel Tasman: 4 out of 9

Over the last year, I've managed to complete 4, Beth has done 5, out of the 9 Great Walks. These are the Northern Circuit, Lake Waikaremoana, Whanganui River Journey, and now Abel Tasman. I should have had 5 completed, but my little mishap climbing in December prevented me from doing Routeburn last Christmas. However, its looking like I might run it this Summer if my ankle is co-operating by then. We have already booked for Milford and Raikura for this summer with Beth's parents. We may even do the Otago Rail Trail while we are down there. Any way I digress from the story I was meant to be telling: Our tramp across the Abel Tasman.

It starts with us heading to Auckland on Wednesday evening and staying with our friend Shiv and his wife Ravneet. I worked from his house, while Beth got us Mexican food for lunch and went to Martha's. We then flew to Nelson on Thursday evening, where I worked from a hotel room on Friday. While I was busy coding, Beth walked into town and purchased our last few supplies. For the most part we had flown with our tramping bags ready to go, but we had to top off our gear with a fuel canister for the stove, some lunch snacks, and to fill our water. While checking our packs they were already weighing in between 12-14 kilos without a couple liters of water. They were a little heavier than we usually go out with, but we were carrying our tent and sleeping pads which would usually not accompany us as New Zealand has a robust hut system, but it being a holiday weekend the huts go fast. Like I said, we've already booked for Christmas on the first day that the huts became available and things were already filling up.

We were picked up by a crappy shuttle service and were charged a price that was more than we were expecting. It should be noted that there were a series of emails going back and forth and we were under the impression that since more passengers were coming in the shuttle that the fares would be reduced for each of us as per the emails were always talking about per person, but they only discounted our grand total by $35. A lot of arguing back and forth occurred over the phone and we simply said to charge to our credit card as the shuttle can only accept cash. If we were to stop along the way to get cash we would get charged. If we use the credit card, we get an extra charge. Lets just say there was a bitter taste in our mouth right away and we weren't even out on the trail yet. Love people's mentality, you're a tourist I can probably milk you for more money. We've seen it all over the place, but it still grinds my gears.

We were dropped off at the Southern start in Marahau and walked North to Bark Bay. We covered 23.9+ km the first day including a few side trips. One was to Cleopatra's Pool, I think it would be fun to ride the rapid slide, and the other was to a scenic overlook. We were amazed by the number of day walkers heading South with little or no gear. I'm talking about just basics like food and water. They also just seemed to flounder across the trail making it difficult to continue without stopping to let them past. The tramp wasn't difficult, but with my ankle injury back in December this was the first real test. After about 15km any downhill became excruciating. I was able to soldier on to the campsite, but needed some ibuprofen. We set up our tent right off the beach. Beth organized the sleeping gear while I went and prepared our dinner. We had either canned chicken or tuna with cheesy mashed potatoes with Fritos. This campsite was pretty booked and there were a few bigger groups that liked their alcohol. For one group, I counted no fewer than 8 bottles of wine and a couple of 2lt bottles of cider. This didn't include what they had at their campfire. We just managed to get into the tent after dinner prior to it starting to rain. Having had looked at metservice prior to leaving in the morning we were expecting some severe weather for Saturday Night. However, it was only a short light shower.

The next morning, we broke down the tent and had some breakfast, oats with fruit for me and a pop tart for Beth, prior to heading off to Anapai Bay. We left early knowing that we would have to wait at Awaroa Hut for low tide to cross and it would be a prime spot for lunch. My ankle didn't bother me during the morning section as I stretched it pretty good at breakfast. I did several sets of the alphabet with both ankles to get them ready for the trail. Once the again the actual trail itself wasn't difficult. They are wide, well graded, several sites that provide filtered water, have ample stocked flushing toilets, and for the most part devoid of any mud. This is a departure from the other Great Walks we have done where they are a little more rugged. I definitely wasn't expecting this, but it was welcomed departure from tramping grade tracks given my ankle issues.  However, it means that people don't go in being prepared for when things aren't handed to them on other trails. 

Prior to the hut, was the first time we actually ran into other people heading North. Mainly we were seeing people doing day walks after being shuttled around by a water taxi and heading South. The weather was phenomenal unlike the last year when we did Northern Circuit where we had frosts and a hard cold rain. We walked up and down ridges, across beaches, and across a few bridges. We had a good lunch, pulled out some wet gear to dry in the sun, and chatted with some other trampers heading North. We waited until about an hour and a half before low tide to trudge through the knee height water. However, we had a good laugh at a couple we decided to brave the deeper water to get to our side of the bay. They had to put their packs on their head in order to keep them dry. When they got to our side I could see what a water line high on their chests. Guess they were in a hurry to get to their final destination. After our crossing, we joked with the DOC ranger about forgetting something back at the hut. As he followed us over in order replenish the toilet paper in the flushing toilet opposite the crossing from the hut. We proceeded to make our way to Totaranui the last place to get filtered water prior to our campsite at Anapai Bay. In heading into Totaranui the track had a detour, because of landslide, which seemed to go straight up which wasn't very fun. The downhill section really hurt. I think I just shuffled as best I could as to limit the movement in my ankle. Still it was like an electric fence shock each step I took.

As I was limping into Totaranui, we saw a sign saying that Anapai Bay was over 4km away. We were expecting it to be around 2km, so seeing that sign took the wind out of our sails as it would mean we would be walking with our head torches for a long time. We saw our first cars as we walked through the campsite in order to top off our water and use the toilets. As we walked along the road to get back on the track, we passed another sign just outside of the campground that said 2.2km to the campsite. I like that DOC gives you signs, but when they are conflicting or inaccurate they really piss you off. Am I right Rachel? For the previous distances, we had a map with known points. However, Anapai Bay doesn't have a distance from a major point, so Beth estimated based on the known distances and referencing the map. We soldiered on from Totaranui and after about 20 minutes we were back in the bush and had to turn on our torches as it was past sunset. We walked in the dark with only our torches to guide us. After a long time, we started to hear the ocean, which to me represented the campsite, as all the campsites are next to the ocean. We were slightly concerned when we came to a beach after a long time and there was no sign for the campsite. After walking down another 100m we saw the sign for Anapai Bay campsite. Distance wise, we ended up doing just a little less than day before, but with a long lunch break in the middle.

We walked up the trail to the see who else we would be sharing the campsite with, but we found that we had the campsite to ourselves! This was drastically different from the night before or even the Totaranui campsite we passed hours before. We pitched the tent close to the beach and while making dinner we were treating to a large blood red moon coming over the ridge and illuminating the bay. I tried to take some pictures, but they didn't turn out. We did have a guest weka that night and next morning. We called him matmit after his cousin we saw earlier in the day while talking about timtams. So while discussing timtams a weka popped up around the corner and said "What's up Cuz?" This is part of the backstory for timtam, the weka, I created. He thought we were calling for him, as his name was timtam, not to be confused with the delicious Australian treats that come in a variety of flavors. Yours are on the way Bri. That story continued to evolve the next morning when matmit, you know like the Crimson Twins from G.I. Joe, was checking out our tramping gear. Anyway, Beth and I created a pretty good story about the cousins going by the time we reached Whariwharangi Bay. If only I had recorded this conversation, it could have lead to an epic cartoon series.

While eating breakfast and drinking my morning tea, I set up the camera to record the amazing sunrise that you can see at the beginning of the video. You might notice, that I keep learning more about filming and editing. I might end up investing in a gimbal so the camera isn't so shaky as I basically just shoot while holding on to the gorilla pod. Anyway, I hope to improve at editing the videos and pictures we take into something that is enjoyable for you to watch. Who ever you might be.

So the final day, we had roughly 13km to the trail head in Wainui. Our shuttle was scheduled for pick-up at 1:30 so we figured we would get out around noon and have some lunch as it isn't a short drive back to Nelson. We made our way down the beach with a short stop to marvel at some rock formations that looked awesome for bouldering. After about an hour we had our first South Bound travelers. We deduced that they left from Mutton Cove as when we got there we could see a fresh set of tracks with poles coming from the campground. There was a fair amount of movement at the camp for 8am. There were even a few kayaks, which if you read DOC's brochure you shouldn't go further North than Onetahuti Bay because of remote and exposed coastline. We decided to cut inland toward the final hut, Whariwharangi, instead of walking the coastline to separation point. That detour of about 1km was supposed to add an additional hour to our tramping time and wasn't accounted for in our 13km for the day. We arrived at the hut about mid-morning and had a snack. We also ran into one of the other passengers in the shuttle. She had just started her trip South Bound. We talked about her itinerary for NZ in general and found it to be very weird. She was zigzagging all over the place, but after she said she was flying to some of the locations it made a bit more sense and that she wasn't going to rent a car. That just put her at the mercy of whatever company was doing the activity she wanted to do. Like after doing Tongariro Crossing, she was heading to Auckland to catch a shuttle that takes people to Waitomo Glow Worm Caves and Hobbiton. Both of which are hours South of Auckland and hours North of Taupo. So she would have to pass them just to come back to them. All because she thought she couldn't rent a car here. You can if your driver's license is in English. It's just that you drive on the left side of the road and the steering wheel is on the right. Then again, I didn't drive for the first 4-5 months we lived here.

Leaving the hut, we got a big kick in the teeth, the dreaded hill that the hotel owner warned us about. It is 3km up and 3km back down. By this time, Beth had some pretty wicked blister on top of blister action that we drained and tried to apply moleskin to. It didn't help. So her paced slowed drastically. My downhill pace was even worse than hers. My ankle basically felt stuck and every rocking step down was a jolt of pain. I had minimal flexion and absolutely no rotation at this point. We kept making our way down. We were passed by a few runners heading out on the trail. What I would give not to be wearing a pack right now and running up the hill with a good ankle. It reminded me a lot of the track up The Mount, a fire road that is over-grown and a points just single track. We finally arrive at the trail head around 11:30. We take off our shoes and have a bite to eat and are eaten alive. We must have sweated off our sand fly spray as both our legs were savaged. Even after applying it, they would still land on you and your previous bites start to burn. Not much fun there kids. I proceeded to give our can of fuel to the first tourists that come by. They just happen to be from North America. I would say the US, but they also had a Canadian in their mix. The shuttle driver, the actual owner, arrived around 12:30 and we departed early. This worked in our favor as he had a bunch of stops to make on the way back to Nelson. The guy kept antagonizing Beth, who pretended to be asleep. The guy was/is a tool. We worked our way back to Marahau to pick up a couple families and even a couple of randoms who just needed to catch a bus less than 10 minutes down the road. They just so happened to be the remaining passengers on our way out. He charged them $25 a piece. We still had about 80 minutes before getting back to Nelson and we were surrounded by kids singing about doing cocaine, smoking weed, drinking vodka, and hitting people with the car. The parents didn't say a word. One of the kids started to feel car sick, so they said sit next to this stranger, Beth. We thought that at least on of the parents would have switched seats with their kid, but no. The shuttle dropped a family off on the side of the road about 30 minutes outside of Nelson and then dropped the other family off at the airport. I can't imagine the stench they brought on to the plane with them. Take an extra couple of hours or even a night to bathe before flying on a plane. No passenger should be subjected to trail hygiene or lack thereof. We were the last to be dropped off. A warm shower, a biscuit, and a hot cuppa tea greeted me at the hotel. Unfortunately we didn't plan well and had to walk to dinner that evening. Our feet weren't happy with us. I'm just glad there was a place less than 1.5km away that offered shuttle rides. We got them to drive us back as their driver didn't start until 6, but we were starving and were there by 5:30 as hobbled as we were.

So in review, we did 3 days of tramping for about 19hrs in total covering from Marahau to Wainui. We camped at Bark Bay and Anapai Bay. I highly recommend Anapai Bay as it was the highlight of our trip. It is just a very nice beach and the campsite has only a few spots. If you happen to be walking through or lucky enough to spend the night please say hi to matmit, but don't feed him. Unfortunately I have to say that so far that this is my least favorite of the Great Walks. There is a lack of variety in the scenery, noise from boats and water taxis, this includes the PA Systems, and the day walkers who don't follow any sort of trail etiquette. However, I would like to go back and see it from a kayak at some point.