Maaike and I headed to Lake Coleridge this weekend. It’s a funny time in NZ – season wise, as the snow is mostly gone, but it’s not really nice enough to bank on tramping for the weekend.

Anyways – headed away on the Saturday morning – stopping at the Horarata pub for pies. Now I know you might be thinking it’s only a pie, what’s the point in commenting. But really, they are very good pies. Not so sure about the dog carrier though…

We stayed at the Lake Coleridge lodge and went for a short walk to the lake on the Sat evening – enough to whet our appetite (food was delicious)

Next day walked up Peak Hill. Slightly redundant title for a peak, or a hill, but anyway.. once at the top (only a 600m height gain) it gave the most stunning views.

It was pretty slippy on the way up – and even more so on the way back down again. But completely worth doing.

I’m going to put up two panoramas which I took when up there. I suppose with internet speeds these days it’s not an issue – the first one is 2.3megs – and the second 6.3 megs (if you want to see the high res shot).

and

Finally a video from the top too (no sound)

[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BROWJSxahg0]

Hmmm, not a very wordy post this one. Still, that probably keeps most of you happy ;)

Finally – a picture of the Rakaia with sun on it – and me sitting beside the Wilberforce river. There is a book (Under the Mountain – Maurice Gee – Kiwi Author) that I have been reading Maaike. It was made into a BBC mini series (seriously terrified me as a kid) and has also been made into a film (not released yet I believe).

You’re wondering what the point of that was? Well, the evil creatures (slug like – want to turn the galaxy into mud.. basically ,bad folk) are called the Wilberforces. So it seemed fitting to drive 20K to park at the end of the road and finish the book. So we did.

… but a slightly savage morning.

So my 83 year old landlady just died. Wonderful lady. She chose this poem, set to music, to be sung.

Trees

I think that I shall never see
A poem lovely as a tree.
A tree whose hungry mouth is pressed
Against the earth’s sweet flowing breast;
A tree that looks at God all day,
And lifts her leafy arms to pray;

A tree that may in summer wear
A nest of robins in her hair,
Upon whose bosom snow has lain;
Who intimately lives with rain.
Poems are made by fools like me,
But only God can make a tree.

Joyce Kilmer

So on the Sunday – the mighty midgets went off for a mighty feast.. and left us poor, lonely, used & abused support crew to our own devices. *

So, Steve and I decided to head up (well, Steve decided, and I grudgingly gave in) to go up Mount Haast. And I must admit, I really enjoyed it (once back at the car).

Basically a 4 hour return trip up a steep hill. Good views though. And saw some leaves eaten by bugs too. The joys of having an entemologist on the scene. Actually one does learn a lot. And it was good as Steve would just lift up boulders to see what was underneath – which gave me enough time to catch up. So unfit.

And a pretty good panorama from the top.

* may not be true

Maaike Michelle and Amy have (not) been training hard for the Spring Challenge multisport event for months now.

It’s a rafting & biking & running event – with 12 and 6 hour events. The Mighty Midgets decided to go in for the 6 hour (wise move).

It was a pretty stellar day really – seeing as it had been hailing just two days before. Steve and I headed up to join them as their support crew on the Friday night.

There was plenty of packing and organising – including a fine t-shirt given to both of the support crew.

Unfortunately I don’t have a map of the event – but it started with the rafting.

And here’s a video of the mad dash of a thousand testosterone oestrogen fuelled competitors.

The mighty midgets were actually in second place – for at least 10 minutes.. by the time they’d made it round the corner and were entering the river they’d fallen back to about 10th (still bloody impressive actually… frankly it was frightening seeing all these rafts and hearing ONE, TWO, ONE, TWO… honestly.. don’t mess with them).

While it’s easy to complain about other people.. they entered the river in 10th – and came out about 40th.. and it seemed to Steve & I that there was quite a bit of bad luck – and possibly slightly inefficient handling by their raft guide. Not that it matters.

Here’s a video of the only rapid we could see them take. Ok, so I’m not being massively supportive.. (it was funny)… but still – you can see the good line at the end.

So that took a good hour and a half or so?. Then it was through to checkpoint one.. Basically the team arrives – throw off all their old gear – we feed them food and water and generally take care of them – and then they run away. Without so much as a backward glance. So used. Such is the lot of a support team ;)

And here’s a picture of a friend Charlie – who was support team for Berit and Co who came third in the 12 hour event (bloody good effort).. and who has also been organising poker evenings (I’m a natural ;)

There were some great costumes too..

Then it was on to biking and hiking and biking and hiking and orienteering – before finally making it to the finish – 6 hours and 53 minutes later.

And they want to do it again.