Club time

Tonight, we walked along the rail trail. Completed 6km in total.

I love that the weather is causing us to have a beautiful day with warm sunshine and it is lasting till after 6pm

Walking

 Rarotonga is the largest of the 15 Cook Islands in the South Pacific, even though it is a small island. A 32km round the island road is the only way to get anywhere. Add in that the speed limit is only 50km/hr and majority of locals drive mopeds, then you can see that island time kicks in very quickly and no one is in a rush to get anywhere. Rental cars make up at least 75% of the traffic on the road and yes, you have to go as slow as the mopeds!

There is a bus that goes in each direction every hour, but seeing as you are on island time, there is no rush.

Obviously, I was not prepared to give up my walking whilst here and seeing as the main road around the island is all flat, then apart from the heat, it is easy to go for a quick 5km stroll. It would take you over 3 hours to actually walk all the way round the island, and maybe I will come back in the cooler months and give that a go one time.

So, on the first morning, I got up and took myself off for a little walk and just a moment of peace in the surrounding environment.

Who can resist a view like this through the trees.

Crisp Morning Walk

 Today's Sunday walk was at a reserve near the zoo. A place that I had not been to walk before. I have been to the zoo but not the surrounding area. Like yesterday that started icy and extremely fresh, we had the same today and it made for a spectacular scenery.

I truly appreciate the nature of the world and even after 50+ years on this world, I am still in awe of the spectacular natural beauty that we have to appreciate.

Winter is well and truly here, although the blue sky and sunshine make for the day to be lovely, once the sun warms it up, but sadly, once it goes down about 5pm it is cold again. I know we only have about another month of this before suddenly it will be heading towards spring and winter will be passed.

I actually have an overseas trip coming up in 3 weeks' time to the sunshine paradise of Rarotonga, Cook Islands, only for a week, but enough that it will get me through the cold and boast my stores of sunshine to get me through the winter and spring ahead. Sunshine is definitely my enthusiasm boast and keeps my body running.

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

Winter Walking with Fog

 The Sunday walk today was to a small lake just north of the city. We have so much countryside, that agriculture lakes are all over the place and also, several trusts or donated pieces of land have been developed into reserves for the public.

This one, known locally as Lake D (yes there are ones close by called Lake B and Lake C) is about 3.1km round and has a great gravel path to follow. It is easy to wander round or run if you are inclined to do so!

Today, a typical winter morning, blue skies, cloud and fog. Cold enough that you still need a jacket and layers but beautiful enough to be breath takingly spectacular.

My friend was determined to get out her camping chair and use it, even if it was just for the last 5 minutes before we left! (it was new)

She looked like the queen sat there, viewing the lake and the world going by.

Walk finished, all accounted for and off to breakfast at a local cafe.

Friday Home Time

After a long week of work, a walk home in the fading sunlight, despite the temperatures getting cooler, is still enjoyable.

What makes it even better?

An ice cream

Sunday Walk

 As you know, I am part of an amazing running/walking club.

Our Sunday activity this week was out at Raglan. It is on the West coast of New Zealand and has some amazing beaches and cliffs. Thereby making for a pleasant walk/run that can be up and down the hills or flat across the beach (at the correct tide times)

We call it the 'Reindeer Run' and then we go to coffee afterwards. The weather obliged fully and it was amazing being out there in the sunshine, alongside the beach and seeing some amazing views.

However, despite what it looks like with the bright blue sky and shining sun, that water was bone arse freezing cold, like ice. Obviously, we haven't had enough warm temperatures quite yet to make the sea water warmer.

Round The Bridges

The city has many bridges. This is due to the large river that runs up the center of our city. Obviously, we have to cross over the river if we want to get to the 'other side'. There are only 5 bridges in this city crossing the river.

Doesn't sound like a lot to some of you, but in a town of a population of only 180,000, whilst we have some traffic jams at home time, it clears very quickly.

One main thing that is done each year is a run/walk around some of the bridges. You can do a 6km course that goes across one bridge, down to the next and then back across to the start line or you can do a 12km course, which follows the same line as the 6km but instead of crossing back over the next bridge, you continue to the next one south, and then cross over and come back up to the start line, but via a slightly long incline hill!

I have done this event a couple of times now in the years that I have lived here. I have done the 6km twice and the 12km once before back in 2017 in a time of 1hr 40 mins

This year, it was a pleasure to do the 12km again, and in the company of my running club (even though I am a walker)

There were 7000 participants across the two courses. The sun was shining bright with blue sky the whole day. There was music around the course at different locations entertaining us as we passed and so many high vis vested marshals that allowed no one to get lost or in danger whilst walking on the road.

A bridge that you do not get to usually walk down the middle of the road. It is usually very busy with traffic.

And then a dip into a tree lined path that gives us some much needed shade.

Finally over half way, always a great feeling when you know you have less to go that you have already done!

Encouragement along the way, even if it is just counting down the kms

Hot and happy

In a time of 1 hr 50 mins (just 10 mins slower than 8 years ago) I finished and achieved a great event. It was so nice to finish and mingle with friends from my walking/running community and offer and receive praise for all that we committed to and achieved.

Next year, I think I will offer my services as a volunteer, they are always looking for hands to help. I like helping to keep events running so others can achieve them.

Jigsaw 20 - Bees and Honey

 This one was loaned to me by a colleague and was trickier than I realised it would be. The colour was all the same so made for some harder parts and difficult to sort. Although it was nice to have a challenge for a while.

Recovery is going well, but finding walking hard some days as my abdomen muscles are definitely telling me that they are not happy about being chopped up and then put back together!

Verdict

 The results are in, the plan is set, and we are all go

Today was the surgeon appointment and he confirmed my findings (😀) my gallbladder is coming out.

Now I just have to wait the 5-6 weeks until surgery time but at least we have a solution, although he did say it was only a 50:50 chance of it fixing the problem! A chance I am prepared to take.