Around the Bays

Today it was "Wellington Around the bays" day.....

7km run along the bays together with lots and lots of other Wellingtonians, +12000 to be exact!
I got up at 07:00 so I could have myself a good breakfast and some coffee before the run and still have time enough to get to the start line in time to get a good spot with the 09:20 runners.
As a good Dutch man I got there way early.... All our Wellingtonians are a lot more flexible with these times and actually show up mere minutes before the start :)
09:20 the runners left the start lines and damn it was a blast to take off with the runner bunch!! First time ever for me to run something like this with so many others... interesting to say the least :)
I did very well for the first 2km and then my legs started to feel like bags of sand.. slowly but surely I was being taken over by whole hoards of people and I got the feeling that just about everyone that participated had passed me...
Kept on running and the closer we got to the finish the more people I started passing, even finding people stopping and walking instead of running. I really tried to make it my mission to keep people running and encourage them to the finish. It is amazing what a good feeling it is if you can motivate someone to not give up ... especially crossing the line and finding these people coming up to thank you hehehe :)
Spent another while running up and down the last 500 meters of the track enouraging more and more people that were SO close.... I had a great time.

Then it was time to run back.... :) Did that too but took my time as my legs now truly felt like....lumps of concrete.


Lets see what the newspaper says about my time tomorrow :)
Alright..... this is rather embarrassing..... 451st (30 minutes 12 seconds to do 7km... not Really bad but not good either) ha ha ha
Goal for next year... Finish in the top 100!

Its been a while, about time I tell you about Tora!

Nelson and I decided to go to Tora last weekend.
It was a quiet weekend and neither of us had any plans so we decided to fill up the van with some gear, hook the bikes on the back and head out there.
Let me give you an idea about where Tora is;
Looks far but it is only about 2 hrs driving from Wellington so very well doable.
To get there we had to cross the Remutaka mountains and drive right through Martinburough, just that part of the trip is already well worth the effort. And the good thing about this is that you can do it for a day trip too.
Once we got to Tora we drove all along the coastal road from North East to South West in the van to scan the coast and to find ourselves a good camp spot.
If you have read parts of this blog or the 360dg north blog you will probably start to get a little tired of me saying how gorgeous everything is and I am sorry but.... It SO IS!
After a while driving we found a spot for the Van and we set up camp just in time for late lunch.
We had some lunch (freshly baked buns, brie, tomato, avocado, chili and some salt) and got changed to jump on our bikes.
Since we were unsure of the actual tracks in the area we had to go and drive around to see what we could find, e already seen most on road stuff while driving the van and it did not look like there was much to ride except for a lot of private lands.
We drove North East and found the end of the road with a farm where they were not so keen on trespassers so we decided to turn around (I MUST be getting old :) )
We drove a few km and found a mountain road going up into the spreekwoorldelijke mountains and we decided to try it out.
We peddled long and hard to only end up .... at the end of the road with no where else to go, but it was an awesome workout :)
We enjoyed the ever so quick downhill and continued our journey South West only to find that the fences we found closed on our trip along the coast in the Van were now opened.

Wicked!

We seemed to be in luck because fence after fence was either opened or did not have any signs saying "STAY OUT" so we kept on going.
The landscape just got better and better with fewer signs of human life with every km we crossed.... it was time had stood still at some places and the surroundings were simply stunning!
Before long we were biking right through hordes of seals.... HOW WEIRD!!!
It is 23:30 and time for me to catch some sleep, tomorrow I am running "Round the bays" at 09:20 with some 11000 other people so have to try be at least a little fresh :)

Alright, Sunday just an hour and a bit before the run starts, back to the story at hand.

After we had finished this ride and got back to the Van we jumped off our bikes right into the ocean for a well deserved cooldown/cleanup and we started preparing for Dinner.
When you do rides like this it is really important that you eat well and hydrate constantly, which is something I most willingly oblige to :)

Because of our spot on the rocks and surrounded by water we could make a camp fire without causing any havoc and so we did.... Out door life, SO nice!As you can see, I am busy hydrating :)
Once we sorted our meal we had some more beers around the campfire and retreated to get some sleep as we were planning on checking out the area to see if we could find some tougher mountain bike trails.
We got up nice and early and had ourselves a perfect breakfast out in the open. We packed up the car and started driving towards a point we passed on our way up to Tora that said "4w drive track" which sounded exactly like what we were after.........
Once we got to the track we were greeted by the Lady of the land who looked somewhat baffled that we actually wanted to do the 12km track on a mountainbike :)
Normally it was 40$ per 4w drive and since we were with 2x2wheel we had to pay 20 each... fair enough. Obviously she did not have a money machine and we didn't think about bringing too much cashh so after searching through our gear she accepted our 15$ total as a fee for the both of us he he he :) SO nice of her!!

The ride itself was hellish tough and we had to walk a good few km's but the end result was well worth it. We actually ended up on a ridge that looked out over the very coast that we crossed the day before..... Well done men! :)
Driving back to the car was quite a mission since it was bloody warm and humid but we made it in one piece.
We found a river and had ourselves a nice "bath" SOoooo nice to cool down and refresh.... :)
Had a quick lunch next to the river in the shade and drove back to welly.....

Another wicked weekend!

Silence

No replies to my emails, no sms's, no snail mail, no phone calls, no comments on my blog or gallery.... if I would not know any better I would think I am being ignored!!!

Grmbl

And so another weekend comes to pass

Amazing.... January is nearly under the bridge!!

Had quite a nice and relaxing weekend, spent some time Friday night working out the Google Adword strategy for Ngala and got into studying some CSS in the process.

More studying Saturday morning and then out for a ride on my "old" bike together with Chris.
We rode up the Brooklyn hill towards the windmill, continued to Hawkins Hill and then dropped down towards Red Rocks.
I had meself a flat tire on a spot with some awesome views so I ended up mending my tire with a big smile on my face :)

After we got off the beach at the start of Red Rocks we drove to a nearby cafe and had ourselves some much needed lunch, and DARN did it taste good after that hard work!! Chilled for a little while longer and got back onto our bikes to ride along the bays to get back home.
Driving through one of the bays we found whole bunches of people kite surfing, great spectacle to watch, we stopped for a few minutes to enjoy......

Chris cooked some awesome roast and afterwards the boys went into town, I stayed home to do some more studying.
The gents dropped in at 08:00am!!!!!! this morning, I got up 30 minutes after that hahaha OMG I am really getting old LoL.
Did some more studying and left the house to go and visit Willy and Leo, two darling friends that I had the luck of meeting when I just got to New Zealand.
Had some coffee and cake with them and a wonderful chat, always a pleasure to see and hear them, the bring all the best out in me :)

Some more studying (I am starting to get the hand of the CSS concept, might come in handy in the future) and then a gorgeous lasagna by Robs brother Paulus....

So, nothing to interesting to read about I guess :)

Writing it up like that does make me realize how lucky I actually am..... my life and everyone / thing in it, is good!

Picked the wrong bike

Yesterday after the ride with Chris I was not completely happy with my bike but did not think the world of it, I reckoned it was just me....
By the time I had been at work for a few hours and had some off hand discussions with people who are serious about their biking I decided to go talk to my bike guru Hadley.
(Hadley is the bike mechanic at the shop where I always buy my gear, he is a real cool dude a die hard mountain biker and I always have a laugh with him....)
Hadley knew this was coming and he was awesome about the whole thing, he was very keen to make me a happy guy and he went out of his way to make things right.
He was not there when I bought the bike (he is off on the weekends) and as he said, he would have never sold me anything that was lighter than the bike I had before that.
The deal is now that I take back the xcr and Hadley will try and trade me that for a similar spec'ed and priced All Mountain or Downhill bike as he beliefs that is much more appropriate for my riding style.

Going to be very interesting, he is taking me on a test ride next week with a test bike..... I am very curious!!!

Easing into the week

Work has been MAD this week, lots of stuff happening but that is good. Starting to get the feeling we are getting a bit of traction on the project.
Ready to do my Motor Cycle License but I have not been able to get out and go there yet, what ever happens I will have it before the end of this week and that's that!
The gym and the bike workouts are starting to get more frequent and I got a partner in crime now making it more fun and easier two as you can make each other go harder, faster and further. Not only that but you also have someone to push you when you are having a hard time to get going.... superb!
Today Chris, Nelson and myself did a round on Makara, a 1hr and 30 minute loop of mostly uphill, Chris is already improving since his last ride so he is going to be hard to keep up with I am sure :)

All three of us had some pretty full on crashes but we all got out reasonably fine, that the name of the game!!

Hahaha :)

Lazy Sunday

Went to bed nice and early on Saturday (Damn I am getting old :) ) and did some motor cycle road code studying. Woke up this morning round 10 to find the most amazingly gorgeous day outside, the weather really is stunning at the moment, we are having one of the best summer in the last decade on our hands, life is good :)
Did some laundry, woke up the rest of the house with my too loud dire straits but then again, it was time and worth it so no one was cranky about getting up.
Had breakfast with freshly made fruit juice in the garden and then we decided to go out Kayaking in the bay.....
We got one twin sea kayak and two single "ontop" kayaks.... fun stuff!




Now we off to Southern Cross for Salsa classes and some food and drinks.... life can be so cruel!