Biking in Canberra

Rad^Sick!!

Winter Solstice madness

Every year our office has a winter solstice party called the Poultice. It involves a quadrathlon around the bay over to the small aquaculture site for some refreshments and then back to the office for a party. The quadrathlon starts with a kayak down the bay, followed by a bike ride to to Mahanga Bay and then a run back to the office and finally a walk around the carpark and buildings. There is also an indoor quiz and other shananagans! Each year there is a theme - this year it was Shakespeare - who wrote a line

So we organise team and dress up - half the fun is in the costume making and dressing up. We were The Scottish play witches - with beards! My friends little daughter Neve, kept telling us that grownups don't dress up and was quite stunned by our messing around - although she was very happy to inherit her mother's witches outfit afterwards!


Anne-Laure and Jo getting dressed in our witches outfits. (Neve in the middle is wearing one of the party hats)


Brodie's Beer-ded Bedlams - Sadie, Becka, Jo, Niamh

Some people twist the theme ......


Shake-your-spear - Sam, Trevor, Amelia, Michele


Many different types of vessel used for this leg down the bay. Canadian canoes, open top surf ski's, outriggers, home made wooden boats, and our Betty - probably the most conventional of the boats.

This year I did the bike leg and flew around the course on my broomstick

Bearded witch Helen on broomstick!

I'm sure you all knew I was a witch.

Cheese making

Well Wellington winters are cold, wet and windy - doesn't really inspire outdoor activity and weekends also seem to coincide with the southerly storms. So you come up with a few different ways to keep entertained. A few weeks ago I did a cheese making course with my friend Barbara. I have always thought that cheese making would be really tricky and that is why no one really does it other than commercial enterprises. Anyway it turns out it is not so tricky and only requires a couple of ingredients - milk, citric acid/culture, rennet, salt (to taste at the end), and a few pieces of equipment - big pots, cheese cloth and most critically a thermometer. However it does require patience and confidence - something we would not have had if we hadn't seen it done in the course.

So finally Barbara and I had a free weekend when the weather was foul - so we got together to make some cheese - three different types of cheese - feta, mozzarella and ricotta. For our first attempt at making cheese it was very successful. We made all three cheeses in about 3 hours. Other than the feta the other two cheeses are ready straight away. So we made dinner of spinach and ricotta canneloni and we tried some mozzarella for an entree. I am not sure that it costs any less than buying the cheese - it cost us about $30 for 14 litres of milk and we made 4 slabs of fetta and 4 balls of mozzarella and 250g of ricotta. However, it was really fun and a huge sense of satisfaction and the cheese even tastes like it should. I think this might have to become a regular event over the winter months. I have several friends ask if they can join in the fun next time.....

Will take some photos of the cheesiness next time.

Tip Track

Thursday, Bec and I got up stupid-early and went for a ride up the Tip Track on the way to work. Helen stayed in bed and slept in. I was out of the house by 7:00AM to meet Bec and the bottom of the Tip Track at 7:30AM.

It was probably the coldest morning we have had this year. A southerly had been blowing all week and the skies actually cleared Wednesday night. This meant that it was about 5°C (41°F) when I left the house. Down in the valleys there was frost on most cars and some lawns. In some places there was quite a lot of fog as well.

The sun hadn't risen high enough yet so we started the climb in the shade. This isn't necessarily such a bad thing as it is pretty steep and you get pretty warm just from the exertion of trying to ride up it. It didn't take long before we were high enough for the first rays of morning sun to hit us. We could then see the harbour completely fogged in with the top of Mount Victoria just poking through.

Mount Vic just poking through the clouds.

The view across to the Orongorongos was amazing! Island Bay was completely fogged in. The highest point on the skyline in Mount Mathews, which we climbed back in March.


Island Bay and the Orongorongos

Bec had to be at work a bit earlier than I expected so we had to boogie down the hill and didn't get a chance to ride a couple of the better singletracks up on the ridge. Oh well, next time!

Mount Holdsworth

After a few weekends of terrible weather we decided we needed to get out of Wellington - even if it was only for a day. So when the weather forecast was for no rain or southerly gales we decided to take a chance on a day walk up Mt Holdsworth. Bec has not been walking in the Tararuas yet - so this is one of the nicest day walks as the track is in good shape and not too steep/muddy/rocky/rooty. It has been quite cold lately, so we were all dressed and prepared for bitter cold and wet. As it turned out, we got sweaty as it was a bit muggy on our ascent.


Aaron, Helen and Bec at Rocky lookout - with Mt Holdsworth behind (under the clouds)

As we got up to Powell Hut, at the tree line, we started to see patches of snow. After lunch at the hut we headed up to the top of Mt Holdsworth and there was a lot more snow, and the temperature definitely dropped a couple of degrees. It was, however, surprisingly calm, cloudy - with no views to speak of, but the sun did try to break through a couple of times.


Near the summit


On the edge


Mount Holdsworth summit trig and the sun (well sort of)

We got back to the car park at 5pm, a little tired and sore. The walk is about 17 km and over 1000 m of ascent/descent. We had a nice dinner in Upper Hutt on the way home - it was great to get out of the house and do something... needless to say we will spend the rest of the weekend recovering.

Easter

Despite having been up at Taupo the weekend before for the trailwalker, we had booked a bach a few months earlier just south of Taupo for the Easter long weekend. We took along a couple of our friends who have just arrived in Wellington. The day before the long weekend, we had the first wintery blast - with a very cold southerly blowing through Wellington. It obviously affected the whole of the North Island as on Friday we were greeted with snow covered volcanoes as we set off to do the Tongariro Crossing. It was very pretty - like someone had sprinkled a thin layer of icing sugar over the mountains. However this did mean that is was very cold - much colder than I think any of us had anticipated.


Ngauruhoe and the Central Crater

While our friends who had not done the Tongariro Crossing previously headed over Red Crater and down past the blue lakes, Aaron and I headed up Tongariro. When we did the Tongariro Crossing a few years ago (2003) we also walked up Ngauruhoe. We then headed back down to the cars at Mangatepopo to shuttle them around to the other side to pick up the others.


At the summit of Tongariro

The next day we had a more cruisy day. Bec, Viv and I headed off to Kinloch to check out some climbing crags that are very close to the lake and about 1 min walk from Kinloch. We dropped Aaron off on the way as there is a mountain bike track that ends right next to the crags. So he cycled over the headland and met us.

It is a while since I have climbed on real rock. It takes a lot more thought as there are so many more options and not always obvious options for your hands and feet. Bec led 3 sport climbs and Viv and I then seconded them. I have to admit I struggled with the harder climb we did - I could still do the individual moves, but I just don't have the stamina to string them altogether, so I had to take a few rests on the way up. It was a sunny day and we had fun, despite the sore fingers afterwards!!! On the way back through Taupo we headed to the hot springs on the Waikato River to relax.


Climbing at Kinloch

On Sunday we headed up to Rotorua to go mountain biking.
Pictures to follow - we haven't got them from Bec yet.

Then before we headed home on Monday - Aaron and Bec headed out for more mountain biking around Wairakei, while Anne-Laure and I headed out onto Lake Taupo for a paddle.


Betty on Lake Taupo

Taupo Oxfam Trailwalker - Kath and the J-walkers

A few weeks ago some friends of mine from NIWA who had signed up for the Oxfam trailwalker asked me to be one of their support crew. None of them or their partners had done any long endurance event before, so they thought that I might be able to help as I have a little bit of experience - although always on the side of the participant rather than support crew.

The Oxfam Trailwalker is 100 km, which has to be completed by everyone in a 4 person team in under 36 hours. The girls had been training, but mostly short and hilly walks around Wellington. The actual course around Taupo is not too hilly and a lot flatter.

The event starts at 6am in the morning. It was very cold as we listened to the traditional Maori prayers, haka, waiata before the start. Off they set and the support crew went back to bed - well at least I did for another hour.

Jill, Jo, Kath and Jeni waiting for the 6 am start

The first check point the was a bit of a disaster. The support crew couldn't find each other and we were a long way from the check point. But by the time we got to the 2nd checkpoint we had it sorted and by the final checkpoint Gavin and John could put up the green pergola in just a couple of minutes.

Check point 2 - the support crew of John, Gavin and Glenn setting up

As it was such a nice day I decided that I couldn't let them enjoy this lovely walk on their own. So I joined them for a steady stroll on the W2K track around Lake Taupo. This is a mountain bike track and it climbs gently up to a headland before heading down into Kinloch. Although most of the track is in the bush, there are quite a few points where you get some fantastic views out across the lake.

Views of Lake Taupo from the W2K track.

Walking Leg 3 - around Lake Taupo

After walking the first few legs of the event at a speed of 4.5-5km an hour they slowed down a little after half way, 50 km, and as it got dark. The 4th leg was the longest leg and they started to show a few signs of fatigue..... They were a little worse for wear and not coping too well at the 4th checkpoint. So I decided to join them again on the 5th leg, which was a short 7km through the forest. I guess you could say I was their entertainer... I tried to keep telling random stories and jokes to keep their spirits up and stop them thinking about the blisters and pain they were all now starting to experience.

The checkpoints during the night were hard work - we had to make them eat and drink as they didn't really feel like it. It was also very cold (the support crew were wearing a lot of clothing and ice formed on the ground) and they were experiencing a few little cramp-like twinges, and quite a few blisters. At each checkpoint we were re-bandaging up the feet. I had also brought along our walking poles and they were all being used as the knees got a little sore!

But they all kept on going.... they never said they didn't want to continue.

I had a little sleep between checkpoint 5 and checkpoint 7 and then joined them once again for the last leg down to Lake Taupo and along the foreshore to the finish. The last 7 km were along the edge of the lake and seemed to take a very long time, and the km markers seemed to pass very slowly.

Finally they reached 100m to go - where Gavin was waiting with their fancy dress costumes in the back of the truck. So a quick change and they shuffled to the finish line......

Dressed in fancy dress for the last 100m - RV Tangaroa and and ARGO float

The Finish - 30 hours 45 minutes!

They had made it.....Great team effort girls! They were all very tired and emotional, but I never once heard them bitch about each other or talk about giving up. They stayed together as a team the whole way and looked out for each other.

If you want to donate to their team fundraising efforts go to - http://www.oxfam.org.nz/events/teams.asp?a=show_team_pages&eventid=23&teamid=3663

Official statistics

The fastest 4 person team finished the 100 km in 13 hours 48 minutes - a new record!

77 of the 278 teams had one person or more drop out.