Whakatane Trig - FAIL Redwoods Trig - FAIL

Me:  I'm heading to Whakatane MTB to head up to the Telecom tower and grab the trig up there, who wants to come?
Clare:  Me


Clare can always be counted on.  She's so dependable.  Always willing to give an adventure a go.  Our adventure racing team is called "Bilbo & Gollum". 

I'm SO Gollum.  Friendly and bubbly one minute and vicious and dangerous the next.  And I have this peculiar love hate relationship with running.... or with any exercise based on training rather than fun.  Clare is Bilbo to a T.  Calm. Dependable.  Even tempered.  Laid back.  Loyal.  We make a good racing team as I get over excited and make mistakes while she balances that with the time taken to ensure we get it right.  While I live the highs and lows of good and bad decisions, easy and tough sections of a race; Clare can be counted on to approach everything with the same good natured, positive outlook.  Think roller coaster vs dodgem cars. 

Anyway, on this Tuesday,  I pick her up.  Someone stole my Bilbo. 
"I can't believe I'm going to Whakatane, I HATE that hill."
"I REALLY hate that hill."
"I should think about things before I agree to do them."
"I've always hated that hill."

With my pleasant Gollum face on, I dutifully ignore her, figuring she puts up with my whinging often enough and I guess it must be her turn.  Trying to make polite conversation, I say "Oh, better not forget to turn here, or we'll end up in Rotorua instead of Whakatane"

"Good, then we could go to the Redwoods" she says.....................

Gollum executes a swift U-turn and with the Earth's balance restored, happy Bilbo is taken to the Redwoods.  A quick bit of advice from the MTB team in the car park, and we head up to the top of Tawa Road, at 759m one of the highest points, and apparently sporting a trig.  Unfortunately, while it has a full complement of radio aerials and weather stations, it doesn't have the Trig Beacon, which is really what I collect.  %%$$#!!!!!

A nice downhill section of Billy T follows..... which is actually not that nice with a freshly broken finger making it possible to either grip the handlebars, OR apply the brakes, but not both.  I muddle my way down somehow, with one foot unclipped and generallly resembling a nana.

Unfortunately my Trig research was limited to Whakatane, but I think there's one on Moerangi.  So up we go again, to 734m........  the mtb trails don't go to the peak so I ditch Clare for some bushwacking but return untriumphant and frustrated. 

Riding Split Enz out to the car park, nearly makes up for missing the trig.  Nearly.  Bilbo's happy though, so that's a relief.  ;) 

Heading Down Split Enz

A5Y9..... you do what you have to do...............

My last post was April, and said something like "How on EARTH am I going to manage to get any trigs during the hockey season??"

June = Trig A5Y9

Seeing as Tom has deserted me to go mountain -biking in France (I mean, on his important work trip) I had my two little helpers with me for this one.  Tweedle Dum and Tweedle Dee.  The walk was a major effort for them on this cool morning.  Apparently it smelt like cow poo, the grass was wet on their ankles, and their legs hurt.

We have a saying in our house:

If your legs hurt, it means they're getting stronger.

That doesn't stop them whinging about it.  I think I might need to introduce "What doesn't kill you only makes you stronger".  It may be even more effective to move to "If you don't stop whinging I'm going to........"


Anyway, here they are, happy as Larry at the end of our epic adventure.

 And one of me to prove I made it too.

I'm pleased I didn't have my Garmin with me to show how far and how fast we moved...........  because this trig is only about 50metres from the carpark on Somerville Road, East Auckland.

A small problem.....

Hockey season has started.  So now I spend my Saturdays travelling the BOP playing a sport I love, which is great.  But I can't then expect to be gallivanting around trigs on a Sunday can I? 

How on Earth will I manage a trig a month??

The Plan....

The Plan......

6km of pristine bush, secluded bays, golden sand, with the added adventure of timing a tidal bay or having to wade.

I will follow Nga Tapuwai O Toi - the footsteps of Toi, a great chief of Ngati Awa, from Whakatane to Ohope via Kohi Point Lookout.




The Reality (Toi's reserve tracks all closed due to extreme fire risk)

Straight into 2km of uphill, no warm up, on a main highway, on a stinking hot day.  Followed by a dusty gravel road with no shade.  The views from the trig were nearly worth it.  Nearly.  Redeeming feature was ending right on the beach for a swim.

 Whakatane No 2.  AP8Y

Interestingly is the resited trig after Whakatane 20 was disturbed by the Edgecumbe earthquake and had to be resited.  

MUST get out of this pattern of having to find a trig on the last day of a month!

Much cuter than a trig.....

Not a trig, but still a run with a sense of adventure.

After our dying calf escapades recently, we were happy to set off on the same track and plan for an uninterrupted circuit of the Otawa lower loop.

Less than 2k from the car, I hear something moving through the scrub.  This isn't unusual, and I sometimes catch a glimpse of a rabbit or pheasant, although more often it freezes or disappears before I work out what it is.  This time, the little creature neither freezes nor disappears, and keeps time alongside for a good 5+ metres.  Curious, I stop and turn to see the most gorgeous fluffy grey kitten come bounding out of the scrub.  Followed shortly by 3, 5, 6, no make that 8 brothers and sisters.

I immediately fall in love with a grey and white tabby.  There are a few black ones, grey, a creamy gold, a very distinct black with greyish stripes............  I must start running with my camera.

After standing dumbfounded, then being enthralled by the little furballs, we can't think of any other option than to continue with our run.  Clare's big dog, and my recently adopted three legged grouchy cat, are unlikely to be as impressed as we are.  We jog down the hill, followed by two happy grey kittens.  Back up the hill to deposit them with the crew, we turn and race away.  I'm a few steps in front of Clare, who stares straight ahead and pretends she can't see the kitten which has decided she looks like a good mum.  It's a close race for a while, but her longer legs see her draw ahead and we stop a couple of corners away, where we can still hear him wailing!

We had to run home by another route to avoid a repeat, luckily running in to the farmer.  He agreed they had probably been dumped and showed a softer touch than us in planning to go and collect them.  Hopefully they are re-homed.  I spent the rest of the running trying to work out how I could have my little grey friend.......

WHAREOTETARAKEHO Trig

By the skin of my teeth......

There are only 28 days in February, so I only just nabbed this Trig in time.  Although, I did log two trigs in January, so could I have called one of those the Feb one??

I've hijacked Wednesday night run with Clare.  This is a tradition nearly a year old now, and we were contemplating tonight that it's been very successful.  It's planned, and calendared, and we both rely on it, which means we drag our sorry arses there, even when we don't feel like it.  And we never regret having gone.  Last year we ran right through winter, on the easier trails at Summerhill, with our headtorches and by the light of the moon.  Summer running contends with the heat, which is harder and not half as exciting!

We're on a schedule tonight, so we drive to the end of Reid Rd to get a head start.  The plan is to run along the paper road, cross Te Puke Quarry Road, through the paddocks, lower bush loop, bag the trig, and be home in time for swim squad.  Unfortunately the best laid plans fall to pieces when we come across a poor calf, in a bad way, lying prone on the track.  This results in the 'mad rabbit' run which you'll note on the Garmin. 
We can't work out where the farmhouse is which works this land, and we're indecisive about the best place to go for help.  This leads to a couple of kms of running back and forth, showing our worst emergency management skills, trying to work out where best to go for help.

We end up at the Looking Glass Gardens, where the lovely lady is more concerned about our health than that of the sick calf.  I guess we look a bit haggard after racing down the road.  She promises to ring the farmers, and we leave feeling not quite certain she has the right location or urgency to match our own.

We head back up the hill, but can't just abandon the poor creature so Clare goes Grizz Wylie and breaks down some branches to try and create a sun shelter.  We even endeavour to share some water from our bottles, but still can't get the calf to respond.

Our second hill repeat is from running back down the track to the road, hoping to show the farmer which way to come.  We give up 10 minutes later, and go to half heartedly bag the trig.  Running past the dying calf twice more is heart wrenching.

As we run back to the car, uncertain we've been any help at all, we notice a couple of vehicles in the paddocks.  We decide to try once more to get some help.  There is a man attending a cow, and I exclaim "Are you a vet???" then notice his overalls and long gloves, just removed from the cow.  Not my finest moment.

Anyway, two weeks later, we run the trig again, full loop as intended.  It's only 6.4km, but we enjoy the gradual inclines rather than some of the gut buster hills we hit down at Summerhill.  It's nice to hit our stride and maintain a run pace rather than our accidental run:walk.  We have heard that the sick calf was put down, but that we also got to see a tiny calf, freshly arrived and resting in the sun.

You win some, you lose some.

WHAREOTETARAKEHO   A4JK