Viva la New Zealand!!!

Ok crew....what up, and a sunny Gday after a couple of weeks in the land of the long white cloud! Providing my computer plays the game, this blog will be pretty much be a daily summary with photos of shortly before and during my little jaunt over in NZ! YES! I know there is a lot of scenery shots but I hope that you can get a glimpse and enjoy a little the time we had in NZ! RIPPER and here we go!

22/10 - AM - 5.03km sandals.  5.28km barefoot.  15min stepper.  Barefoot run with Pria.
Standard, non eventful.

23/10 (Dads Birthday) - AM - 10.01km sandals.  5.14km barefoot.  Barefoot run with Pria.
Hella windy and a little lethargic but good tail wind home.

24/10 - AM - 11.3km hills at the Hummock with 2 x grass repeats each loop, sandals (this is just a nice steep section for added flavor!)  15min stepper.  Barefoot run with Pria.  PM - 7.54km tempo run at Bundy Road Runners in sandals.
A good solid effort at the Hummock and then a quick run at Road Runners with an average of 4.31min/km.  Stoked in the strong wind.  Got paid a great complement by a guy I passed to...he said, ''Gees you run quiet.'' I said, ''The lighter you are, the quieter you are, the less impact!''  Then I shot off!  Good times!

DUNEDIN, New Zealand

The veiw of Dunedin from our Bed and Breakfast

25/10 - PM - 7km barefoot run.
Arrived in Dunedin and checked into our Bed and Breakfast.  We were up the top of a 2.4km steep hill climb so that was a nice little ditch at the end of my run!  Shoulda seen the looks I got barefooting in NZ!

The view from our Bed and Breakfast in Dunedin
looking toward a small township across the bay. 
Good climb up!

26/10 - 10year Wedding Anniversary - AM - 10.03km run sandals.  PM - 300metres up and down the Worlds Steepest Suburban Street in Dunedin.
Drove down the hill and ran around the harbour and into an industrial area of Dunedin.  Was a nice easy run after yesterday.  Went to visit the Steepest Street in the afternoon and couldn't resist running up and down it!  Good times!

A cool building in Dunedin I found.

View of Dunedin from the Peninsular.

 27/10 - AM - 30.01km sandals.

War memorial at Dunedin.

OMG, was hella windy and ran down the peninsular to the 'beach'.  The only problem was I then had to run back up, through the country side, up the peninsular!  And what a climb it was!  Brutal, about 5km of steep constant incline!  I then finished my run around the city of Dunedin.  All up I did about 7-8km of steep climbing on this run!  Tough effort but loved it!

28/10 - AM - 15.02km sandals.
Calfs were a little sore from yesterday but had a beautiful run through Dunedin and then some magic time in the Botanical Gardens.  So beautiful.



Beautiful sunrise at Dunedin Harbour

Trail along the water at the Dunedin Botanical Gardens

Week total - 106.3km with 30min on the stepper.

TE ANAU, New Zealand

29/10 - AM - 16km sandals.

The beautiful Kepler

After a few google searches and emails back and forth, I managed to get in touch with a bloke in Te Anau named Dwight.  He was a local and was keen to catch up for a run and to show me some of the local trails.  A long story short but it turns out that he was also a copper!  We met up and he was in Five Fingers and after much conversation we had a lot in common!  He took me on 16km of the Kepler Track just outside Te Anau and OMG!  AMAZING!  Beautiful single track, cool suspension bridges and an overall awesome time!  Hope your calf came OK Dwight and thanks for an amazing run!  The best memory of running in NZ!  RIPPER



Lake off the Kepler Track, Te Anau

A Motarau Hut on the Kepler Track





Suspension bridge on the Kepler

Poser

30/10 - PM - 11.02km
An easy run on the trail around lake Te Anau to the control gates.  Was a top morning and even got a good selfie in!


The control gates at Lake Te Anau



Poser again

QUEENSTOWN, New Zealand

31/10 - AM - 13km sandals.

The view from the top (almost) of Queenstown Hill

WELCOME TO QUEENSTOWN!  Decided to do some hills today and ran up Queenstown Hill!  Usually on hill day I use the Hummock in Bundaberg...just over 100m above sea level.  Queenstown Hill is 800-900m!  YES!  I got to what I thought was the top and couldn't find any more trail leading anywhere.  I did a bit of bush whacking and some down climbing but was still unable to find any other trail leading to the top.  I was a bit disappointed upon reaching the bottom and consulting the map to find out that I had just missed tagging the top of the hill...but still a good solid day of climbing!

Some cool gates on the Queenstown Hill trail

Queenstown

Cool stacked up rocks on the Sunshine Track, Queenstown

01/11 - AM - 17.15km sandals.
Ran a beautiful track around the Queenstown Botanical Gardens and then out the Sunshine Track toward Glenorchy and return.  Was a bit rainy but still very pretty.  Got a cool picture of some stacked up rocks too...I couldn't resist adding one to leave my mark on the trail.




Queenstown

Sheep in NZ...who would have thought

02/11 - AM - 7.01km sandals.
Ran a nice easy journey through town and then some trail on the George Road track.  Legs were a bit tired from yesterday but the scenery always alleviates that problem!





It SNOWED!!!

03/11 - AM - 25.03km sandals.


New snow on the mountains!

Huaraches in the cold!  YES!

Did a run around the water to Frankston and continued around on the Queenstown/Kelvin Peninsula Walkway.  It was COLD!  Man alive!  My hands were frozen and it rained pretty much the whole run, along with hella strong winds!  The thing that completely cheered me up though was that it SNOWED!  Only very light at the elevation I was running at, but enough for me to see white snowflakes on my gloves!  BEAUTIFUL!  And who would have thought, all in huaraches!  YES!

WANAKA, New Zealand.

04/11 - AM - 20.01km sandals.


Flippin awesome Lake Wanaka

Bloody cold run!  The coldest so far!  Was -0.3degrees when I GOT HOME from my run!  Cold!  But...ÓH WANAKA!  The view and the run along the lake was incredible!  I ran into town from our resort then onto a track along the lake.  After about 4km I was on a completely secluded gnarly track!  Had a massive laugh when I came around a blind corner with a cliff on one side and a sheer drop off on the other and I was confronted with about 10 sheep!  Scared the daylights out of me!  Hilarious!  Did some good climbing and descending on the middle half of this run and was sure fun!

Week Total - 109.2km.

Lake Wanaka sunrise

05/11 - AM - 10.12km sandals.
Nice easy run through the suburbs of Wanaka.

06/11 - 15.01km sandals.
My last run in NZ!  And it was beautiful!  I ran along the lake again but the opposite way!  Nice and flat, scenic trail!  Saw HEAPS of rabbits and snapped a good little selfie for my last jaunt.

Mountains at Wanaka

Last run in Wanaka

Back home...

07/11 - AM - 4.1km barefoot in the mornin.  15min stepper.  PM - 10.14km sandals at Bundy Road Runners.
Was a big shock to wake up at 5:30am today and it be complete sunshine!  Gone is the 7:30am sunrises!  Good thing, I was stoked to be back in the heat and daylight!  The barefoot smashed my feet after being in the cold dry conditions and I got a big blood blister from no barefooting for a couple of weeks.  Ugh!  Had a good little hit out at road runners with Melinda (my sister visiting from Melbourne) and Dad.  Good to see them and have a run together.

08/11 - AM - 19.1km sandals.
Good solid pace run with 5km with Melinda in the middle.  This run was so easy and I didn't really feel like I had done that far.  Love ones like this!

09/11 - AM - 9.25km sandals.
Hit the Bundy trail up...as short as it is and had a nice hot run with Melinda and Dad.  Feet a little better but still quite sore.

Summery - New Zealand was AMAZING!  I had a truly blessed, relaxing fun time with my dear wife with some beautiful running!  I am so thankful and grateful to have such an amazing wife to let me go on these adventures while on holidays!  Ripper time but it is good to be back in the heat and sunshine!  A MASSIVE thank you to mum and dad for having Pria too so we could have the time away, just the two of us!  You guys are amazing!

Well friends, I hope that you have enjoyed this little picture journey and that you are all ripper!  Keep loving life, hope to see you soon, and I will leave the last note to my new friend Ernie the Eel!  Run free friends...TattooRunner.


The eel has the final say!

http://www.lunasandals.com/?aid=4c7p5f3p