Run Like You Stole It!

From Rotorua

On my birthday, I felt inspired and signed up for the Rotorua Marathon, which would be my first international marathon. After a couple of weeks of rest from our South Island adventure, I had only five weeks of training until the marathon. I laid out a five week training schedule and worked it around our other adventures. It has been challenging getting in my training, while traveling, but it has also been a lot of fun. Parker runs with me when I need the company or if I was not motivated. We have ran on beaches, capes, tracks, country roads, major roads, around town, around lakes and on volcanoes.

The marathon challenges Lake Rotorua, the course circles the whole lake.'Take on the Lake' is the slogan. It is NZ's biggest and toughest 42 kms. I went to the start line, as always, with full respect of the distance ahead and ready to accept the pain that I was about to literally run into.

I met Varsha at the start with the 4:30 group. It was her birthday and her first marathon. We became instant running buddies and ran 15k together. After assessing my first hour, my legs were strong and I decided to pick it up a bit and separated from my 4:30 group. My ultimate goal is a sub 4, my PR is 4:09 and I coach at 4:30. With only five weeks training, I was hoping for anything between 4:30 and a sub 5 hour time.

Parker and the Silver Bullet followed me around the lake and cheered me on the whole way. They say that the race doesn't begin until mile 20, 32 kms. I got myself to the 20 mile mark, then I really dug in. It hurt but I felt great. I had a solid run and a strong finish at 4:20:25. 42 kms is no joke. What a long run.

Rugby, Paddling, Surfing, Dancing and Volcanoes: Oh My!

Highlights:
* Our first Rugby Game
* 5 days on the Whanganui River
* Surfing in Oakura and Crusing Surf Hwy 45
* Mexican Night and Ladies Night in Palmerston North
* Tramping on Volcanoes




No Pads, No Helmets, Just Balls. - T-Shirt
As soon as we hit the North Island, our friend Jack promptly introduced us to rugby. We have been following it for over a month and finally went to our first game. We have been rooting for the Chiefs and watched them play against the Bulls in Hamilton. It was a great game but our team was defeated. The Kiwis love there full contact rugby and I love watching those boys - I mean, wow what a sport.

5 days on the Whanganui River
This was our first time in a canoe since our debut in the Texas Water Safari, last June. Parts of the river reminded us of the race and the lower Guadalupe river. Of course, that's minus the snakes, the alligators, the heat exhaustion, the non-stop paddling for 95 hours and the sleep deprived hallucinations.

It was a wonderful 5 day river trip. We paddled by waterfalls through the rainforest and beautiful gorges. We paddled about 20 miles a day. There were over 200 named rapids, some were bigger than others but there were enough to keep us entertained. We stayed in the canoe the whole trip due to our mad paddling skills. It was a nice change of pace from our tramping but we did manage to get a training run in for me to the Bridge to Nowhere (the bridge was built for a settlement that was deserted as soon as it was built).

The paddling came back to us naturally. We both miss the river. There were a few comments about me steering and Parker being at the bow. The power should always be infront especially if you are racing. Which also means that Parker gets to fish and I have somehow become his unofficial guide (funny how that works out for him). The Kiwis, even our outfitter, have never seen this switcharoo and were impressed. I told them that this is how we do it in Texas!

Surf Hwy 45
We headed east to legendary Surf Hwy 45 for a week of surfing. We chose the quaint little surf town of Oakura, the safest breaks on the coast. We enjoyed our couple of days surfing in Maui and have been looking for the opportunity to have another go at it. Turns out the weather had other plans for us. Summer in NZ is over and Fall has settled in. We waited out the rain by the beach for 5 days. We didn't mind too much as we sipped our drink of choice and read 3 books each. Finally, we decide to go for it and rented long-boards and wet suits. It was a riot. The water wasn't too bad but the air was chill. We both managed to stand on our boards. It was pretty challenging because our feet were frozen solid and it became dificult to balance (we never claimed to be real surfers). We were bruised, battered and utterly exhausted from our full day of extreme long-board surfing. I am sure we entertained a few people, we certainly had a good laugh.

Mexican Night and Ladies Night (+Parker)
After Oakura, we went south to Palmerston North to visit Brooke, an old friend from high school. Parker and I have been craving Mexican food so we did what we could with the limited Mexican food selection in NZ and had Mexican Night. Also I was due for some booty shaking so the girls took us out dancing. We had a blast. Thanks Brooke and Jenny for showing us Palmy!

Tramping on Volcanoes
So again, the weather has turned. On top of our N. Island list was the volcanoes. We kept shifting our plans around and waited for the weather to clear. Our innitial plan was to do a 10 day tramp around the three Volcanoes: Tongariro, Ngauruhoe (Mt. Doom) and Ruapehu. That was quickly adjusted to a 5 day tramp and in the end we were only able to do one full day. The tops were still socked in but a snow storm was forecasted so we took what we could get. We went to Red Crater, the highest point on our tramp, and got a few seconds glimpse of the volcanoes and the red crater. Even with our limited visibility, it was still amazing to be playing around on the active trio and smelling the volcanic gases. It did cross our minds a couple of times about all the siesmic activity currently going on around the world.

It has been a very busy couple of weeks for the Silver Bullet. We are currently in Rotorua for the next week resting up for the marathon on Saturday. We are also trying to sell the Bullet. We are sad to let her go but we can't keep her. We have less than two weeks left in NZ. The countdown begins but until then, the adventure with the Bullet continues.

Touring the North Island in the Silver Bullet

How we became proud owners of an '82 Civic, in less than 2 hours:

1) Parker found the ad on the internet.

2) I called to set up a meeting asap.

3) Dude picked us up 30 minutes later.

4) Test drove the car and got a crash course on NZ rules.

5) Made an offer.

6) Went to the Post Shop to transfer registration.

7) Gave the previous owner a ride home!

We call her the Silver Bullet. We are the 10th owners. She only has 85k miles and wasn't driven for 10 years. She has to be choked in the morning (like a lawn mower). She creaks and moans up hill but hasn't failed us. The only minor inconvenience is that she only has am stations on the radio! We are finally getting the hang of driving on the wrong side, always looking right first, round-abouts and the crazy right of way rule. Kiwis drive very very fast on their tiny tiny swervey roads. We have cars lining up behind us at times. The young kids always give us the look when they finally get to pass. I just look back and think - dude, this car's older than you.

We have 50 days on the North Island with our Bullet. The N.I. has 3 million of the 4 million residents of NZ. Now we can cruise around and behave like proper tourist. We have met up with our hiking buddy Jack in Paihia (we met on the Appalachian Trail), at the Bay of Islands. Paihia a beautiful bay town popular with tourist and Kiwis. The Bay of Islands has a cluster of 100 islands and we have a great view of the sailboat races. After some much needed R+R we have gone on a few nice tramps. The tramp to Cape Brett was challenging and superbly rewarding. We spent 5 days around Cape Reinga and hiked on 90 mile beach, played on giant sand dunes and camped by the ocean.

Parker continues his fishing quest and has been hooking some very interesting fish out of the ocean. He purchased a surf-caster and switches it off with his fly rod. We have several tramps on the list around the N.I. volcanoes, a little paddling and some surfing. And of course we can't leave NZ without seeing a rugby game. All this while I train for the Rotoroa Marathon, May 1st. So much to do, so little time. Thank goodness for the Bullet.