Races and Photos

The only thing that beats sitting in the sun during afternoon smoko is sitting on the couch with a beer looking out at the harbour. These two times are in a category of their own, when you just sit and let life drift by, like you need to sometimes to keep perspective.

My office looks north out onto the ground level of a 3 storey giant white wall. I have had brief Banksy moments where I contemplate creating a metaphorical hole for myself to escape through, with only myself to benefit though, and the presence of several giant sized metaphorical holes in my head, the investment seems unneccesary.

Banksy shows the sea to the West Bank

We have been escaping recently by indulging in races. First up was the Winter Classic the iconic hard man orienteering event this year run in the wilds of Karori.

We rough and tumbled through the scrub and possum trails of Wrights Hill reserve, popping out occasionally onto the well loved mtb trails of Salvation and Deliverance, appropriate lines of weakness for our jungle adventure. The old guy with the trophy is Penny's Dad Neil. Winner of the prestigious Wayne Cretney Memorial Cup for the M40 grade...Neil can now run M65!

Last Saturday our adventure fix was the Mukamuka munter. 3 hours worth of Orongoronga grunt and suffering. The first two hours were fantastic, running the wild south coast past Tutaekirae head and through into the land of quad bikes, fishing shacks and craypots, turning up the eroded Mukamuka valley and cranking up the gravel that evolved into boulders, into scrambling, into relief as South saddle was reached on the side of Mt Matthews. But was it worth the grief at limping down a beautiful single track just right for powerful strides with crippling cramp in both hamstrings?

Bryn looks good as he starts to drop me

Other recent highlights have been a descent with Brent of the Karapoti gorge on our new inflatable canoe (many of missions to come)....grade 3 in flood still a little bit bony and a few log jams but great times!! ....And the recent publication of Jonathon Kennets new Tararua Adventure Guide, with the most bad taste cover photo ever chosen...;-)

Penny continues to work and study hard with exams now confirmed for February/March and bus drivers provide me endless entertainment and challenge. I am now in a small team managing 500 of them. What else to say? Maybe I have to start getting political again!

Oops one last photo for the records: Aaron, Jamie and Brent, Arrow adventure race 2004, how come it looks like the 1980's?