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!

Long Weekend

This weekend is to be a long weekend, Monday is something like Wellington celebration day which implies everyone is off :)
Rob, Chris, James (Chris his longtime Whangarei friend who is staying with us for a couple of days( and myself decided to go up to the botanical gardens and enjoy the summer sessions. Every year they organize 1 to 2 hr concerts in the botanical gardens for 3 weeks in a row, for free!
I had never been there so we checked it out completely not prepared.... there were loads and everyone was picnicking.... it was real nice. Very cozy feel to it and the gardens are lit with all sort of beautiful colors to enhance the colors of the garden, that combined with some nice jazz was very pleasing indeed! Next time we have to make sure we come earlier and bring some gear :)
After that we decided it was a good idea to go to the Matterhorn to have some Caiparihna's.... when I walked in the bartender recognized me and he was new what we wanted :) The good thing was that we had explained to him the way we wanted our Caiparihna's made and he remembered.... they were divine and as a result we had quite a few :)

Had to wake up in time this morning cause I had another tattoo appointment.... had some issues getting up and I ended up being late but Manu is very relaxed so it was all good.
We did a couple of hours on my right leg and it really starting to come together now, will see if I can make a decent picture of it tomorrow. Still a long way to go tho.....

The boys just did some shopping and watching some doggy Sly Stallone movie, after that we will have ourselves a barbie and some more Caiparihna's ..... no one makes them as nice as when you do it yourself :)

The Police!

Today my flattie (Nathalie) took me to a "Police" concert in the stadium!!! It was totally awesome, I should have brought my camera :( She got us tickets for my birthday and you know what..... we were like 15 mtrs away from the center stage hahaha superb spot! First we had some "what ever" band on followed by Fergie.... she surprised me with the fact that it does not even sound THAT bad live, it was no playback or anything.... chapeaux!

And then the police..... amazing how a bunch of guys that have been around at least twice as long as I have can look so your and alive... their concert was totally awesome.
The played all the oldies and a few new songs, mostly just the stuff everyone wanted to hear so that was just perfect :)

Kinda strange that the whole floor was filled with plastic chairs in front of the podium.... you would expect a bit of dance space for a Rock Concert I reckon.......
Was funny because the people who tried to found themselves a spot to dance got told off and to get back to their seat HA HA how orderly :)

BedTime

Just another working day

Good day at work, mad busy and we had one of our most important new customer come check out the lab we built for them.
We all worked hard to get the lab in good shape and thankfully everything worked like a charm when we led them through... Awesome.
Now we can focus on their actual network :)

Did a nice bike ride together with Nelson today, we did a Red Rocks trip but as opposed to normal we kept on trucking this time and continued all the way to the WWII bunkers... GOD what an amazing sight, I wish I had brought my camera but that gives me a good reason to go back I guess :)
The weather was stunningly beautiful, no wind, not a cloud in the sky and not too warm.... like I said, stunning!
Once we wanted to take the downhill towards red rocks to head back we found there was no path for down hill, just very very steep rocks :)
We started going back to where we came from uphill when we spotted a "track" sort off.... going down and we decided to take it.
Once we were going downhill on this "track" for a good bunch of minutes we found that it led straight into a mini waterfall going to the valley and it was next to impossible to use ....
I assume you can understand that we were not too thrilled about that but not so keen on walking back either so we decided to push on. Like two jungle George impressionists we arrived almost exactly where we would have ended up had we taken our normal downhill so nothing lost, in fact we only won!! GORGEOUS views, great work out and an OFF off road session.... what more can you ask for hehehe

Took a little over 3 hrs and I am extremely tired, so off to bed.

Nothing New

Started my Spinning classes in the whee hours of the morning again... forgot how crazy tough that can be.... I am shattered.

Picked up my bike today after I had to bring it in for service after Karapoti..... They had to change all wiring (to the derailers) remove 3 chain links and fix both shocks.... tough bike huh? :)

Took it for a spin just now and everything is just working like a charm, so nice, easy and percise.... wheeeeee!! :)
Tomorrow for our weekday ride and Chris joining us for the first time and on our new bikes, should be good fun!
Hope I can stand after todays workout!

Funny name.... Push Bike :)

Today Chris did a wise thing.... (for a change :) )

After having a look at his 12 year old bike, weighing it against the way he felt and the way the bike stopped him from performing a 100 times better on the Karapoti track yesterday and off- setting that against the possibility of him ever getting back on the bike to join me.... he bought himself a new bike!!!



I am glad both Chris and I now have wheels that force us to get out there and have fun :)
These machines leave no excuse NOT to perform cause...... if anything... the slacking part in the equation will most likely be us, not the bikes he he


Chris wanted a hard tail cause he prefers uphill as he feels he can make more of a difference there as to the downhill (cause he is rather lightweight) and I wanted more of an all-round cross country type bike on which I can lock the shocks for my morning road rides and uphills and use full suspension on my tomba la bomba downhills..... totally awesome!!!!


besides all this goodness, back to the gym with my mate Pete so normal life is taking its course, work is totaly mad busy so..... it's all good :)

We DID IT !!!! (Chris, you are a Hero!)

It is official.... Chris, Nelson and Bo have done the Karapoti Clasic!
It took a grand total of 5 hours and 20 minutes to do 47.6km through an absolutely stunning forest.... DAMN.
This ride is done by the pros in 2 to 3 hrs and most recreational riders do it in anywhere from about 4 to 8 hrs depending on skill, weather, site seeing, bike issues and stops they have.
As soon as we got out of the van it started raining and when we drove off it was still doing just that, this implies that the tracks were very slippery and mud kept on being replenished in our eye beds.
The rivers we needed to cross and all the mud pools made our trip quite a bit slower but I won't put it down to that :) We just need lots more training.
First part was easy with some tough parts until we got to "The Rock garden" this was more like riding through a rock stream that would end up in a massive waterfall, quite a tricky downhill.... but very very cool!
"The Rock Garden" was directly followed by "The Devils Staircase"
The name pretty much explains the story, an un-ridable lengthy uphill that cost heaps of energy to climb.
The DS was sort off like the RG with the only difference being that we had to ascent the DS and descent the RG.... Rather ehhh Hellish :)
Then we got some absolutely WICKED downhills whereby you could literally FLY down through the corners, jump and bounce all over the place, magic!
But THEN!!!!
We thought the DS was the bad uphill and we had mentally sort of prepared for a last little uphill and than 15km of sweeeet sweet downhill back to the car park.
That turned out to be a bit of a misconception.... DAMN that hill was steep, and LONG... it just did NOT want to end, every time you got back on your bike, around the corner was another hill.... Good grief that took a massive chuck of effort!

I will add my workout histogram with the times, ascents, descents, heart rates, speeds and the rest of the numbers..... for your enjoyment!!


Even the downhill after that seemed to be tough work as the battery was now on the low side.
I got to the car a little before Nelson and Chris and as it was still pissing down I changed in the Van, by this time I had already been on the road for a good 7 and a half hours and I was hungry as you can get...... I did bring some carb paste and my camel pack was filled with water and special salts an nutrients but I forgot to pack some actual FOOD.
As I got in the car to change I noticed that Nelson had brought some food in a see through container, home made wraps with ham and cheese and some salad and some sauce...... HOLY COW that looked good and it too a LOT for me not to accidentally shove them down my throat :)
I managed though and when Nelson came back he offered me on of the two.... DELICIOUS would be an understatement :D
I took a few bites and saved the rest for Chris as he was still not back and I was getting a little worried. Nelson felt the same way and after a while we decided it was time to have a look.
As I was already changed and dry and Nelson was still in his wet and dirty gear he got on the bike and rode back to see if he could find Chris.
I was feeling rather guilty because I had suggested the whole ride and now I could not even go out and fine my mate so I walked up to some off road bikers, told them the story and asked them to wrap him on the back when they found him :)
After a while I could not sit still anymore and decided to take the van as far as I could to see if I could help out somewhere in Chris's direction.
The track we did starts off as a 4w track so I decided to give it a go.....
After about 10 minutes driving I got to a river with a 45 degree angle out off the water on to the dry and once I stood in the river with the van, the van would not go forward or back anymore cause it was all rather steep.
NICE ONE Mr ENGELS
Now Chris was still not back and had managed to get the van stuck, in a river that was coming up due to all the rain, in the middle of no where ........ Sweet.
I decided that my best option would be to rock the car forward and back to gain a bit of momentum so it would be able to get out of the river, and it worked :)
With a bit of rocking (and 4w low) I managed to get it out of the river backwards and I started driving to the car park backwards again cause no one would be helped with a van stuck in the river :)
Before long both Chris and Nelson arrived at the van and we all got our gear together and took off. First stop........ gas station...we ......neeed...... PIE!!!!!
Hmmmm PIE, that was the oldest and dryest pie I have eaten in a LONG time yet it was perfect and gorgeous and lovely and soothing...... herreGUD!!! :D :D

Got home, cleaned all the gear, had a beer, ate some and now...... now I ready to go to BED, I am a little tired :)

Gnight

Karapoti!

Today is the big day, Chris and I are getting ready for the big ride after a rather trying night.
Rob decided to have his own little party and was making Caiparihna's until 01:30 in the morning, the banging on the kitchen bench for the crushed ice left no one untouched and both me and Chris lost significant sleep over it.
We got up and Had brekkie with coffee, eggs on toast, some fresh carrot apple juice and some rather loud music :)
What goes around, comes around!

Off to fill the van with our gear and will TRY to post something when we get back.

Another good day in Welly

Today started with the weather looking mighty horrid but as the day progressed the weather picked up its game.
Chris and I went into town to go Kayaking but due to the wind they were not renting out and kayaks so we ended up getting some brunch at dockside.
After this we decided to cruise through town and gather some goodies we figured we would need for our monster bike ride of tomorrow, the Karapoti Classic!

Chris needed some gloves and I basically did not need anything but we got out with quite a bit more gear......

I then had to move cause I had my "Basic Handling" course and test which you need before you can start riding a bike in NZ so off I went to the motor cycle school.

We did about 2 hrs of turning and breaking, accelerating and all sorts of other basic things and they tested us afterwards....
I passed :) Now left to do is go to the theory office, sit a test and get my learners license.
This implies you can ride a 250cc from 10am to 0700pm without passengers with a max speed of 70km/hr (Oh and drive around with this massive yellow plate with a massive L
One needs to have this license for 6 months before you can go for your restricted license.
This one you may still only ride between 10:00am and 0700pm on your 250cc but you can use the actual maximum speeds.
If you do a special test after this restricted license you can go for your full license 3 months after you have gotten your restricted and after that you are a real biker :)

In between all this there are loads of tests and fees to try and scare you off but I said I would have my license before the end of the year and I will make it so!!

Time to continue the preparations for tomorrow!!

Surf Casting

Gorgeous day today, left work and hooked up with Chris to go do some fishing off the beach... I am not much of a fisher and the beach lost its apeal to me a long time ago but I must say the the combination of those two topped with some nice company make a good package deal!
Need to get a little better at casting, and at figuring out where to cast to or what to do when you think something is on your line, or when there might be nothing on your line or how to put your bait on or what bait to put on and so on and so on :)
Other than that it was a gorgeous experience on the beach in Island Bay, seeing the sun go down leaving gorgeous colors in the sky.... and finaly total darkness with stars as far as the eye can see, i even spotted the milky way...

Another superb day, off to be early cause we got a sea kayak trip on the program for tomorrow morning :)

Waking up

DAMNZ it is SO hard to get back in to the getting up early routine..... I used to wake up at 0500 without too much of a problem but haven't been able to drag myself out of bed before 07:15 yet......
SLACKER.

off to work

Makara Ridge Line

Today Nelson made me get back on the mountain bike and DAMNIT am I glad he did!!
It is always so tricky to get back into action after a bunch of days doing nothing (even though deep inside you know it will make you feel good, and you tell your self.....) but I got out there and did it, and there is lots more coming!
We did a combination of tracks @ Makara
Koru, Sally Alley, Missing Link, Aratihi, Ridge Line, Swigg, Starfish....
About a 1 hr and 20 minute ride without pushing it, quite entertaining for a years first!

Fell flat on my face 3 times of which 2 on Ridge Line.... that's some tricky track :)
Remembered the "put your saddle low" trick and after that it was all sweet. Makara has some sweeeeeet sweet tracks, right through the bush... Wicked, must go there more often!!!

Came home and made myself a massive carrot apple juice..... LIFE IS GOOD!

Time for a shower cause I smell like dirt :)