ANZAC Day Weekend

ANZAC Day (the NZ equivalent of Remembrance Day) fell on a Thursday this year so taking the Friday as time off in lieu from work made for a proper long weekend. We set off (VERY) early on Thursday morning to a part of the North Island we hadn't yet explored - Taranaki. On the West Coast, Taranaki's motto is 'like no other' - which we thought was kind of apt. Stunning surf beaches, with the backdrop of Mount Taranaki makes it a beautiful little part of NZ.

We had two nights at a beach side campsite in New Plymouth, attending an ANZAC Day service on the Thursday as well as visiting some of New Plymouth's beautiful parks, and the really brilliant museum (perfectly timed for the showery weather).

War Memorial on Anzac Day

First torii gate we've seen in a while -
a gift of New Plymouth's sister city Mishima

On the Friday we did a fantastic hike around Egmont National Park - getting a good way up the central volcano - Mount Taranaki (we decided to listen to the Department of Conservation Ranger who 'strongly' advised us not to try for the top given the conditions!)

Hazy views

The clouds did finally clear

And we got to see the top!

After an epic BBQ and an even more epic night's sleep in the van we spent the morning running the 10km coastal path before packing up for the next part of the adventure...

Prepping for the bbq (aided by a drop of red)

A sunset walk

Hot coals

Flicking through the Lonely Planet we stumbled across a mention of the Forgotten World Highway - a road linking Stratford to Taumaranui. The LP described the road as 'winding through hilly bush country' with a stepped back in time feel - it turned out to be one of the highlights of our time in NZ so far. The road was beautifully isolated, with several historical sites en route giving a feeling of the pioneer days when the road and railway were built and the first settlers started to farm the hilly land.

We had a quick stop halfway at Whangamomona - a self proclaimed republic (they declared independence in the 80s when a Council re-organisation split the district down the middle) - enjoying a pint with a combination of the locals and several scary looking leather clad bikers.

Matt wanted to get his passport stamped

We decided to stay for the night in a campsite just beyond Whangamomona - perched on a hill the campsite has the best views of anywhere we've stayed so far.

360 degree views - just like this!

We shared the small site with a German family of mum, dad and two daughters aged three and five. They were on a cycling holiday and were carrying everything between the two of them - the picture below gives you an idea of how ambitious this is!

A little laden - but they were happy!

Luxurious camping accommodation in comparison

What a spot!

Fantastic sunset again

The next morning we opened up the back door of the van and were treated to a completely new view - the clouds rolling in were stunning.

Above the clouds

Pylons popping up into the distance

We left reluctantly to carry on the forgotten highway and before too long back in Auckland.

Amazing road tunnel carved through the hill

Autumn colours (and Carrie the Van)

Tawharanui

One of the best things about living in Auckland is the Regional Park network (thank you Auckland Council!) We are the proud owners of camping passes which means we can stay for free in all those parks with campsites - including Tawharanui, a stunning peninsula in the North of the region. Tawharanui is a pest free reserve with Jurassic park style gates to keep the nasty mammals (dogs, rabbits, possums etc) out, allowing the bird life to flourish. 

In the dying days of summer, what better way to spend a weekend than parking up, settling down, trail running, sunset watching and reading. Lovely!

The Quickest Year of Our Lives

Wow - time is flying by... Sorry for being so rubbish at keeping this blog up to date lately. Summer is now coming to a close, the nights are getting dark and the mornings cold. They're also selling poppies for the upcoming ANZAC (Remembrance) Day and Sarah keeps experiencing waves of Christmassy feelings. Surely it's Christmas in a month or so right?!

It's been just over a year since we waved goodbye to you at our wedding/limbo championships - and what a quick year it's been. To celebrate our first wedding anniversary Sarah and I took advantage of the last long weekend of the Summer (Easter!) to head down to a little place to the South of Taupo, called Turangi. Turangi is the springboard into the volcanic mountains at the centre of the North Island, a mountain range which has a celebrity - Lord of the Rings' very own.. Mt Doom (Ngauruhoe to use it's official Maori name). The Lonely Planet, which is always full of superlatives, calls The Tongariro Alpine Crossing through this range to be one of the best day walks in the world. Who can turn that down as an opportunity?

Day packs loaded, minibus transport booked to and from the trail ends, and up and off at about 6am while it was still dark, with the hundreds of other walkers...

Getting to the trailhead, we powerwalked the first mile to get ahead of the crowds - well worth it! With a hilly 25km ahead, and a minibus picking us up at 4pm it was time to get a wiggle on anyway...

Heading up into the volcanoes

Sunrise

Before a sharp climb to the first false ridge, and rewarded with a spectacular view of the low lying cloud in the valleys and plateaus we left behind

A sea of clouds

But, onwards and upwards to the base of Mt Doom. Cue lots of (extremely funny) sexual innuendos about Sam and Frodo...

Precious, my precious!

A pretty confusing view

The landscape was ever changing - following bubbling streams, crossing lava fields, scrambling up dusty climbs and then these beautifully flat plateaus. Here's Mt Doom in the background - no time to climb it today unfortunately!

Epic.

And then the big scramble to the lookout over the volcanic lakes, the busy turnaround point for people on the circular daywalk. Luckily for us we were on the crossing walk - so after sharing the path with hundreds, we then saw only a handful of people for the rest of the day!

Hard work coming down...

From being a pretty cool walk, it suddenly stepped up a gear with the volcanic lakes and craters coming into view.

Decided not to swim in it. Clever.

But just to remind you why the scenery is so spectacular (and smelly), there were some pretty scary signs. Sarah was very impressed when I stopped to take a photo. All in the name of a good blog, people...

Noted. 

From the ridiculous, to the sublime...

Pretty special

With the crowds left behind, the scenery was ours to enjoy on our own...

What we think was a valley filled with lava...

Before heading, down and round, down and round...

Still epic.

Heading between massive rocks that had been ejected from the nearby volcanoes. Cover your head...

MR FRODO! Where are you?!

There you are...

A long day, the sun's starting to get lower and lower behind us...

Snow! Snow! Best come back in the winter to do some skiing...

Our last view of the picture perfect Ngauruhoe

Al Lovell - Earth Walker returns!

All in all, a fantastic day. Topped off with some good kiwi hospitality at the minibus... a chilly bin filled with ice and free beer! Nothing better.

Perhaps not the most romantic/traditional way to spend Easter/our wedding anniversary, so we headed North to Taupo to scout cycle half the Ironman course. As you do. It was flat, boring, windy and lonely! Still, the day got better with a visit to an English pub and a good old pint of Pride...

As Caleb would say: Appy.

And watched the sunset over the lake

The site of the Ironman swim!

And on to the next pub for dinner - Sarah didn't have all of this to herself. Honest!

Deep fried everything.

And on to our last night of the long weekend, staying at some hot springs in the middle of nowhere... For some resting and relaxing in hot pools! Another great weekend away - with winter looming and no Christmas to look forward to... Oh!

Hot stuff!

The Big One - The Auckland Half

Some of our 'fans' might remember a blog a wee while ago about our first ever triathlon back in December. Things might have got a little bit emotional there what with competing in my first ever multi sport race alongside my hubby.

Not ones to rest on our laurels, having enjoyed the endless Kiwi summer (and fitting in a bit of training in between long weekends and the day job) we knew we needed another challenge. Somehow having completed just one triathlon - Matt reckoned this put him in excellent shape for jumping straight up to the half ironman distance. So he entered the Auckland Half with about a month to go. I held back - were we (me) getting a bit big for our boots? Wasn't 70.3 miles (1.2 miles of ocean swimming, 56 miles of hilly riding and a half marathon to top it all off) just a little bit, well, much? 

Having held back for a couple of weeks I obviously caved and entered. I couldn't resist. I'd just been offered a promotion at work, the sun was still shining, I was ocean swimming at lunch a couple of times a week - I was definitely up for it!

Matt's number -
worringly low number of participants...

Race day arrives and I am regretting this whimsical decision big time. What had possessed me to think I was capable of such a feat? Setting up in transition and I have the following incredibly sensible concerns:

1. The sea is very choppy - I might drown
2. Where do toilet stops fit into the schedule?
3. I last ran a half marathon in October and was shattered afterwards - how am I possibly going to be able to polish off 13.1 miles after an epic ride?

Too late to back out of course (by this point I am lubed up in wetsuit, amongst many serious looking tall people). The gun goes and we're off!

Well at least everyone else is - I hang back to avoid the fabled washing machine effect and soon see Matt disappear off with the other serious looking tall people. I am happily amongst the lovely old and nervous people and then soon enough, I'm on my own. Oh dear - somehow I have drifted a bit and proceed to spend the remainder of the swim right at the back zig zagging between the buoys. Yes - I was last out of the water (even behind the lovely old and nervous people) in 1 hour, whilst Matt was long gone after 45 mins of awesome swimming.

Strangely, all of my nerves had disappeared by this point. I had a mission to complete and the first job once on the bike, was getting off it and stopping at the public loo at the end of the beach. 30 seconds lost but it was definitely worth it. From there the ride got better and better as I soon realised that getting out of the water last led to the fun experience of 'taking down' some of the competition as I clocked through the miles on the bike. Truly, the ride was fantastic - the sun was shining, the scenery majestic and my head (and the little voices inside it) under control. My high point was giving Matt the 'go team cope' salute as we passed each other with the turn around point on the out and back course, between us. 

The miles clocked by, and the next thing I knew I was back at Kawakawa Bay having completed the ride in under 4 hours, arriving at transition 45 minutes after Matt. Running shoes on, another toilet stop and I'm off. 

Where my biggest worry had been the do-ability of the run, somehow my legs did me proud. I got into my groove and found I could run (when many others were walking) and enjoy it (at the same time). Adrenaline definitely had something to do with it - but the voices in my head were on my side and willing me to complete the race. The end was in sight for both of us (Matt nearly an hour ahead by this point), my fellow competitors were willing me on, the school kids with the cups of water were doing me very proud and I just kept on going.

So we did it - Matt completing in an amazing 6 hours 15 minutes (finishing halfway up the field for his age group!!) and me in 7 hours 8 minutes.

Me crossing the line (smiling on the inside, I promise!)

What a speedy husband!

Shattered

Still shattered - a glass of wine will definitely help...

...or maybe not

Emotional? Yes and no. Probably the most mentally intense thing I have ever done, and it goes without saying that everything hurt (a LOT) the next day. I guess there wasn't room for emotion at the end of it all - just a thirst for more of the same.

Which takes us to our plans for 1st March 2014 - yes, you've guessed it - we've entered the full Ironman. 11 months to get fighting fit for a massive 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile cycle and 26.2 mile run. Team Cope says Bring It On.

Look who flew in!

Look who's come back to his homeland! (We all know he's a Kiwi really; he says chur. Fact.)

Amidst a crazy month at work and our Half Ironman training, it was brilliant to ditch work early one day and pick up this smiley chap from the airport - fresh from a 2 week South Island adventure with his brother, doing every adventure sport possible...After a drive up through South Auckland, we headed up to the top of Mt Eden for an amazing view of the city.

Tourist stuff to one side - it was then beer time. Fresh, cold beer in a desert of self-imposed clean living... Catching up with Gus and his friends over some cold ones was great - we even met NZ celebrity extraordinaire, the Nek Minit guy. The guy famous for being on camera talking about how he left his bike outside a dairy (corner shop) and nek minit...! Oh New Zealand. Still - Gus was proud of his photo stood by his side!

Trufflers reunite!

Followed up by some amazing Japanese food, then losing badly at blackjack in the casino, before heading off for some cocktails and then bed... Great times - we don't party in Auckland enough!

Thanks for stopping by, Gus - we're looking forward to partying more in August!

The Mum and Dad Files

A bit of an odd post; not in the sense it contains three people from Lincolnshire and one from Norfolk - but that it's not really in one place or doing one thing. Like every other post!

So this is a post full of photos I like from my parents visit to NZ, from mid-January to late-Feb. It was brilliant seeing them - and took me back 7 years to picking them up at the airport in Japan. I think they were both thankful this time to not be facing a holiday of foreign language and a diet of rice and fish!

The highlight of their visit was walking the Routeburn and visiting Milford Sound with them - but those photos won't make it into this collection. Here are the more informal ones that did...

The Airport Taxi Service
(unfortunately our vehicle is a 2 seater van!)

The best way to cure jet lag? Walk the 16km Coast to Coast
on their first day!

Lunch with a view...

Trudging down One Tree Hill to the end of our walk

A treat for Mum and Dad - an all you can eat buffet
at the top of the Sky Tower

Every dessert at once... happy days

Settling in weekend over... time to get them out of
Auckland and enjoying the van.
Here's a pretty big Kauri!

And waving goodbye to my parents and the van - before they
set off for 4 weeks in it... Thanks for the lift to work!

And 4 weeks later... We joined them for a trip to the Northlands

Camp diving

And to our Bach (holiday home) we hired for a night... Here's a
timed photo that Mum was running for... And ran into the glass door!

She remembered the door this time...

Your average Kiwi beach

Ta ra!

Being a kid again...
Who said Sarah's got me by the balls?!

Dad's dream shed... We spent quite a while staring at this!

The holidaymakers...

Thanks for coming to visit -
we're glad you loved it as much as we do!