Training Continues

Last Thursday I did a 40 min paddle at the wharf. This made the ribs hurt!

On Friday Barry, lea and I drove to Amokura and hiked up the track and hung a left at the first summit. We ended up in some nice country, but involved a lot of climbing. We climbed a couple of times to 340m.

This was followed by a team meeting and companionship with the A Team at Hunters Bar over a few beers. We invited the A Team to join us for our Saturday evening jaunt which we have just completed.
We met at Margs and dumped our MTBs and then drove to the Ohiwa Harbour where Barry, Lea, Trevor, myself, Hedley, Teleri, Destry and Hilton kayaked onto the very windy harbour. This was Hilton's first time in his boat so he promptly fell out. I felt very unstable and in one lunge to stay upright I hurt my ribs. This blew my confidence. I offered to stay in the reasonably sheltered shallows aned look after Hilton while the others could have a good paddle.

I soon gained my confidence and balance and began to enjoy it a little more. Unfortunately, Hilton had 2 more spills. Twice a large stingray surfaced beside my paddle and gave me a hell of a fright. This also happened to Hilton, which made falling out even less attractive.

After about 40 min Hilton had had enough so I headed off by myself to find the others. Unfortunately as I headed south around the island they were heading north around the other side so we missed each other! I eventually turned around and headed back in the increasing darkness and was met by Hedley and Destry in the double kayak coming to look for me. We all had a good 90 min paddle and I was feeling better near the end, though the pain killers didn't seem too effective.

We then drove back to Margs where we got on our MTBs and headed off into the darkness. We charged up Paerata, down Verrals, up Waiotahe Valley, almost to Challenge Rd, the returned via Browns Rd (the steepest hill in the area!) and flew down Paerata to Margs. Trev was a mad bugger and set a cracker of a pace.

Marg was having a dinner party when we returned and kindly brought us a beer down to have in the garage as we debriefed - a bit like an Upstairs Downstairs scenario!

When I got home at about 9.00pm Kurt and Hine were there for tea. They have finished their house and had moved in the day before. Their house looks great and they will be great neighbours.

Tomorrow I head to Auckland for a week to explore Transitions From School. Should be a chance for my ribs to recover.