Training

Well, I've recently been doing quite a bit of training (so what's new?!) for the next 24-hr race. Danny & I have been out night kayaking, trekking and biking a couple of times each in the last 2 weeks. It's good fun at night, especially when the sky is so bright stars. Kayaking becomes much more interesting when you can't see, not nearly so boring. And I reckon I work harder picking my feet up running on the trails because I feel like I'm going to face-plant over some tree roots most steps.

We tried to reach a trig point last night in the dark but got lost in a farm paddock and after 45 minutes realised we were climbing over the same gate we'd been at before - we'd done a full circle...quite amusing. We're going to run the Kawerau half-marathon together on Sunday, although I'm not expecting to be half as fast as I was in the Phoenix Rock-&-Roll one...I don't think I can repeat that again!

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Plans (vague...but its a start)

So here's the plan for the next 6 months. Its kind of rough, but its a start...

I'm leaving good old Whakatane in less than 3 weeks and heading up to Auckland for a tennis tournament with the kids I've been coaching. Then I fly to Christchurch for a week and a half to catch up with friends there before I leave the country. Back to Auckland at the end of July for another 24-hr adventure race (the Arrow Series) - I know, I think I'm addicted, but they're really fun :) I plan to fly to Australia shortly after that, probably into Melbourne and make my way up the East Coast.

I'll spend about 2 months travelling in Oz, hopefully meeting up with a few different folk along the way :) Then I'm going to fly out of Brisbane to Singapore, and make my way up through Malaysia. At some point in Australia and Asia I'll meet up with Patrick and spend some time travelling with him too. Always more fun than by myself :) We plan to visit Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam and Thailand but haven't quite decided on the order yet. Climbing in Thailand (Krabi) is a must, and Tien is going to join me in Vietnam (YEAH tour guide!!) which will be great fun.

I'll be home by Christmas (home?? where's that again? i've been a nomad for the past 7 years I reckon)...really looking forward to that, and seeing family and friends again. Fun times to be had for sure.

So thats it - an outline anyway...i'm sure i'll manage to wing the rest :)

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Recent adventures :)

Patrick (otherwise known as PD :)), my Irish friend from Christchurch, came up to visit this past week. He was on a "working" holiday - I'm not sure if anyone has managed to define the term working holiday better than him...I think his boss must fancy him.

Anyway, we had a good week - although I really did have some work to get done :) we still managed to get out and do some fun stuff. On Saturday we went to Mike's leaving party (an Irish guy I work with) at Ray & Eddie's place (regulars at The Craic). It was great fun - there was tons of great food, a pool table, and plenty of liquor. I am now known as Nutcracker for destroying the garden while trying to break open about 50 macadamia nuts - cracking them wasn't a problem using the hammer, but picking up the pieces which flew everywhere just wasn't as much fun.

On Sunday we went to the golf driving range - a first for PD, and I was really impressed. Of course with my vast knowledge of the game I was able to give loads of good tips (yeah right)....no seriously, he was hitting them pretty well. Then we went to the climbing wall in Rotorua (that is something I miss having nearby) but unfortunately I couldn't climb too much because my back's been giving me issues recently. We went to see Motorcyle Diaries later on - a good film, and really interesting.

I showed him all the great sights in Whakatane, which filled up at least an hour, and we had a nice walk round Kohi Point to Ohope. He got to see where I work - both the tennis club and the Craic, and met some of my friends from around here. All in all, a fun week.

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