Bronze Whaler on Wheels: A half marathon and a tramp

We have rain. Nice gentle, soaking in type rain. And it isn't cold either which is nice. There are more flies about though and the little beasts get in when we go in and out the fly screen. We hardly had any over summer as it was so dry. Now that it is warm and damp they are about.

I went on a tramp on Sunday to Mt Pureora in the middle of the North Island. There were lots of stairs on the way up, which made it hard going really, even though they are there to help. Very pretty bush. It was foggy at the top, so we had no view, which was a bit disappointing. On a clear day you can see to Mt Taranaki. The trees disappeared at the top and the vegetation was more alpine. It's quite a contrast to the rimu and totara lower down. After we had conquered the mountain, we set off to find the geographical centre of the North Island, but it wasn't to be. We were on logging type roads with not a lot of signage, so we gave up and did a loop walk by a DOC camp ground instead. Very pretty too with lots of rimu. It's probably why it was called the rimu walk. Ha ha

Kokaho Stream, Mt Pureora

Walking up Mt Pureora

There were a few board walks. Nice to walk on

On Saturday, we went to Cambridge and bought a kit set shelf, which Eddie put into the linen cupboard yesterday. It makes it much easier in there. There was no shelf just the cupboard, so it was always untidy. We also bought the last 2 blinds that we needed., 1 for the kitchen window and 1 for the large bedroom window. Next job is new vinyl on the floor and we will be all pretty.

Two weeks ago I did a half marathon on Motutapu Island and Rangitoto Island. They are joined by a bridge. Who knew? No one I have spoken too, but there you go. It took my friend and I took 5 hours, 7 mins and 19 secs, which is the longest I have ever taken to do a half. It was off road and quite hard at times. I was really glad Shona was with me, as she took my bag for a while. I was only an hour behind the lady in my age group, who won our division, so that didn't seem so bad after all. I wasn't last in my division either. Hooray! So I achieved all the goals: not last, not injured and finished.

The two islands are such a contrast to one another. Motutapu is a beautiful farm and Rangitoto is all bush and lava rocks. Motutapu is going to be returned to bush. The tree planting has begun and pests have been removed. We got checked for rodents several times by the rodent dogs.

Some of the marshals dressed up, which was entertaining.