December: Otanewainuku Trig

Happy Birthday to me, happy birthday to meeee....................

My off tune singing keeps time with my footsteps as I struggle up to Otanewainuku Trig.  It's drizzling lightly, which I think always brings out the best in New Zealand native bush.  I think Otanewainuku is a slice of history captured the way it used to be.  It's so lush and....... green.  Green, green, green.  Where would you rather be on your birthday, than running up a hill in the rain, getting wet and muddy?  It's been a good year!

Otanewainuku plays an important role in local Maori legend.  The beautiful Puwhenua was in love with cheifly Otanewainuku, and so spurned the love of a nameless hill.  The hill asks the patupaiarehe (creatures of the mist) to take him away from Puwhenua so he may drown in the ocean.  However, the sun rises and the patupaiarehe disappear back into the forest, leaving the nameless hill at the entrance to the harbour, now named Mauao, 'captured by the rising sun'.

It's definitely misty today, and easy to imagine the patupairehe, hidden amongst the ferns.  I think I read my girls too many fairy books......

I head off from the car park and decide to warm up on the Rimu Loop track, which I've run before.  This time I make it around without faceplanting, which is an improvement.  As I cross the road and take the trig track, I try to estimate how long the loop will take me if DOC recommends  1.5 hours return for a walker.  I have a theory that the lazier a DOC worker is, the more extreme the track estimates are.  Firstly, when he/she walks the track in a leisurely way, it take longer.  Secondly, they don't want to be called out on a search and rescue for some walker who has underestimated the timing, so they add a bit of time to make sure everyone is back to their cars, and the DOC officer can stay tucked up in bed.  Tom worked for DOC on Farewell Spit when we first started dating, and his brother has a long history, so no disrespect to the DOC service intended.  :)

In our (younger, more spritely) university days, we used to halve a DOC timing, then race along trying to get to a hut before nightfall.  Now, with small children, we're more likely to double it, sometimes taking ten minutes to walk 100 metres, stopping to look at interesting rocks, leaves, holes, puddles........

I don't know how long it took, but every time I thought I was heading up to the trig, I was sorely disappointed.  There was a considerable amount of walking during this 'run' and I plodded uphill, with my chest wheezing, contemplating if Clare's diagnosis of Whooping cough could possibly be correct.  She reckons she got it as a teenager, and never coughed, just couldn't breathe when she ran.  This Wednesday she confirmed that the whistle in my throat as I struggle to keep up with her at Summerhill, sounds just like it.  I reckon I'm just getting old and she needs to start aging with dignity too so I don't have to chase her so hard.

Anyway, Rimu Loop Track, and Otanewainuku Trig, 55 minutes total including some leisurely walking.  Trig #3 bagged, still on track for 12 in 12 months.  Hoping to hit another trig further afield before the end of December, as we head down to Wellington for a week's holiday.

Photo to come when I manage to send it from my old phone which now has no sim in it.  Thanks to Mum I have a new phone with a camera that may actually take a recognisable photo.  It will also have some basic GPS when I work it out........  :)

Merry Christmas everyone!