19 k’s for 19 days – a COVID-19 isolation odyssey

Date: 1 – 19 April 2020
Distance: 362.5km
Time: 52:56
Elevation: 8970m

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In the weeks leading up to the Level 4 lockdown in New Zealand, when everyone was stockpiling on toiletpaper and flour, my thoughts were focused elsewhere – to come up with some sort of physical challenge that would reflect a small part of the pandemic. And since running and walking is my preferred exercise, the plan would have to involve one or both. With 2019 being the year that the virus was first detected (hence COVID-19), nineteen had to have prominence. To just run/walk 19km is no challenge. Any abled body can do that, even if it takes you all day. The logical next step was to try and repeat the 19k for 19 days in a row, and just like that, the challenge was set. To make the challenge just a wee bit more challenging, I decided to try and do every day’s 19k in under three hours. That is rather swift walking if you are not a speedwalker, or a couple of kilometres had to be jogged. Continue reading

Taihape Gumboot Gallop recce

Race day is getting closer, and I was keen to experience the course myself first hand before the event. Curious to know what the terrain would be like underfoot and how hilly the hills actually are. We were also in need of elevation maps. The plan was to walk the whole course, which I figured should take me around three and a half to four hours. I ended up jogging two to three kilometres. Continue reading

Powell hut and back

5-6 February 2020
Distance: Approximately 18km out-and-back

At short notice we, together with friends, decided to make the trip up to Powell hut, spending the night and walking back down the next day. Since Waitangi Day was on the Thursday, we decided to make a midweek outing of it, hoping to have the hut to ourselves. This turned out to not quite be the case. Continue reading

Marshalling on Mt Holdsworth (Jumbo-Holdsworth Trail Race – 25 January)

24 January: Powell Hut via Gentle Annie, Totara Flat, Pig Flat and Holdsworth Track

The month of January is not even finished yet and I already felt like I needed a holiday. Luckily we had the prospect of the two days back in the Tararua Range. Since our tramp over New Year I’ve been keen to get back in the mountain, but on “easier” and more “human friendly” terrain. Continue reading

The treacherous Tararua Peaks Circuit

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Apart from running the Jumbo-Holdsworth Trail race in 2018 we are for all intents and purposes Tararua virgins. We have never ventured into the Tararua Ranges in the almost ten years that we’ve been living in it’s foothills at the northern-most part. This was mainly due to being scared senseless from all the news items of people who die in the mountain, and sometimes following a rescue mission with varied outcomes. Just last year a gentleman’s body was found only after eleven days of searching, after he fell down a waterfall in the Arete stream. Continue reading