The boys get to decide

Well, after dragging Mike and Xen all the way to Queenstown just to drive us to our marathon and cheer us in at the finish line, Shelaine and I decided that it was up to the boys what we did on Sunday. The only prerequisite: that it didn't involve too much walking!

Lucky for us, they chose dirt biking. We found a little rental shop close to Cromwell and just a few kilometres from the Nevis Valley. After playing on the meandering gravel roads, fun little off-tracks, and several stream crossings, we all had perma-grins.

The Nevis Valley was surprisingly desert-like.

N.V.B.C. stands for Nevis Valley Bowling Club. Not quite on the same level as Mt Cook!

My trusty steed. We all had the same bike, in different colors.

We saw some cool rock formations...

And some interesting relics from the area's settlers.

It wasn't all hard work...

Splash!

Happiness...

It was pretty much a perfect weekend!

Marathon madness in the South Island hills

At 4:30am, Saturday, March 12, Mike's phone alarm chimed into life with Eric Hutchinson singing "Okay, it's all right with me. Some things are just meant to be." Hmm, even a good song, no matter how philosophical, can't make that early hour any easier.

We're in Queenstown on the South Island. We have 30 minutes to get up, get dressed, grab a coffee, and meet Xen and Shelaine at our rental car. It's dark. It's cold. And the nerves are fierce.

It's marathon day!

After an hour and a half of winding South Island roads, Mike and Xen drop Shelaine and me off at our shuttle stop.

Fast forward 45 minutes and a bus ride, and we're at the registration desk.

And at 8am, the gun goes off. Into the hills we go. 42.2 km of offroad running on farm track through pristine hills, private sheep stations, and some of the most picturesque scenery we could ask for.

The first 30 km took us up, up, and more up. Was I ever relieved to reach this spot!

The last 12 km dropped us right back down again. Going down sounds easy, but on tired legs it's just about as tough as going up. The marathon organizers did their best to encourage us on.

Although our respective knees tried to put a stop to our efforts with some fairly painful protests, Shelaine and I both made it to the finish.

500m to go...

Rehydrating at the finish line...

We're all done! Time for a beer to celebrate.

Thanks Shelaine for the inspiration to give it a go. Same time same place next year?

And huge thanks to Mike and Xen for (yet again) cheering us on. Your support makes all the difference.

Soggy camping, alpacas and Sting, and lots and lots of running...

Yikes, how can it be March already? The last several weeks have flown by, and we've been busy. 

Aroha Island
Mid-January we returned north to our favourite Aroha Island for a surprise birthday party for Gareth. Unfortunately, torrential rain dampened our plans (so to speak). We awoke to find our tent securely pegged down in several inches of water! A good waterproofness test...we were essentially sleeping on a giant water bed, but no water leaked its way in.

Party time despite the rain...

Campground turns into mini-lake...

Tussock Traverse
The next weekend we headed south to the Tongariro National Park, where Shelaine and I were running the 26 km Tussock Traverse (a training event for us as we get ready for the Motatapu marathon in March...yikes again, that's this month). More bad weather prevailed, and we ended up running roughly 24 of those 26 km into a stiff headwind. It was even hard to make headway going downhill!


Our bus to the start line, stuck in the sand...

Finally underway...

View at the top of the first hill...25.5 km to go...

Getting close to the end – and running downhill on formed paths (bliss!). A very kind participant snapped my pic for me...

Crossing the finish line...

Happy to be done...

We weren't the only ones at our hotel who'd run the muddy course that day...

Revisiting some of the course the next day...

Mike checking out the waterfall...

Cool kiwi statue we saw on our way out of town...

Mission Concert in Napier
A couple of weekends later we headed south and east on our bikes, again with Xen and Shelaine, bound for Napier. We had tickets to the famous-in-New Zealand Mission Concert, this year featuring Sting. The concert was good, but the highlight was definitely our homestay. When we booked it we had no idea that it was an alpaca farm. I dream of having an alpaca farm one day :).

Up close and personal with the alpacas...

So cute...

More cuteness...

You guessed it...more running, this time at the top of Te Mata Peak. Even on holiday the training can't stop...

That's some serious helmet head...

Nope, no photos from the concert...left the camera at the homestay (oops).

Training on the Islands
And the last two weekends have seen a couple of trips over to Rangitoto and Motatapu Islands for some training runs. The first was a long (36 km) and hot expedition for Shelaine and me – our longest marathon training run. The second was a comparatively gentler (21 km) event with Jean, Mike, and Sara, with plenty of breaks and socializing at the summit.

Pretty views...

We made it!

Phew, I must admit it was nice to spend this weekend primarily at home, catching up on sleep!