Date: 1 September 2018
Distance: 28km (14km one way)
Time: 4:22 (approx)

At the start of the walk at the i-Site – just the two of us.

Not sure whether to wear a windproof jacket or a warm jacket, Gerry stopped to swop his top layers.

The sea of orange shirts up ahead.

Wharite Peak covered in a thick cloud.

Soon the orange snake were behind us, as well as ahead of us.

Young and old came out to support.

Early on the gravel road the gradient was still manageable.

Until we started to climb considerably.

The windfarm remains quite a sight from up here.

Up, up, up.

The snow-covered Mt Ruapehu in the hazy distance.

Almost there!

Finally at the trig.

Running downhill is so much easier.

Tracey in the middle, only a few hundred metres from the top.

Going down is fun, until afterwards when your quads are minced.

A narrow bridge we all had to cross on the way out of town, which was insanely busy.

We recently found out about a young Palmerston North woman by the name of Tracey, who was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis a couple of years ago. She received a grant from the Mastering Mountains charitable trust to walk the Inca trail to Machu Picchu, and is currently in training by Massey Sport and Exercise student Arbie Hong. In an attempt to raise money for the MS charity, as well as creating awareness about the illness, she organised the Woodville to Wharite Peak walk. Not only did she organise the walk, but also participated to see how she would manage and ended up walking the full 14km up to the peak in only 3.5 hours. With Woodville at about 92 metres above sea level and Wharite Peak at 920 metres, it is a tough uphill and no easy feat. Continue reading →