Back to Papamoa and finally climbing Mauganui

Our first whole day back on Papamoa Beach (Sunday) was perfect. It was pretty warm and we drove the 8km into Mount Maunganui (Maori name: Mauao) to climb the extinct volcanic cone. The views from the ascent and the top were breathtaking.

The sun stayed with us on Monday and we took an two hour walk along the beach, picking up shells and playing a game where we write an activity (do 5 star jumps, recite a poem) on the sand and Liam follows the instructions. That night the rains returned and it was torrential by the time we left our little house on Tuesday.

Staying Lost

I have to mark the final episode of Lost. Cliff and I stuck with it for 6 seasons- and Cliff pretty much watches no tv, so that's really saying something. It was brilliantly written, complex plots and believable characters and whilst we didn't find out the answers to all the mysteries, it was worth the loyalty we reckon.

We made sure we didn't sleep in the van tonight; we needed a tv that WE controlled and a nice sofa to curl up on to watch it. We made our way back to Papamoa Beach where we rented a beautiful garden villa for the whole long weekend (buy two nights get one free). If I could move the villa back to the UK, I would be very happy.

The only let down was the sheer number of ads; at one point it was touch and go if the ad break would be longer than the bits in between. Thank goodness for the BBC.

And the series finale? I only cried twice, okay -maybe three times.

Napier

Napier is an unusual town (sorry, city) as most of the architecture is Art Deco. In 1931 there was a massive earthquake which practically levelled the place, the ensuing fires did the rest. The rapid rebuilding that occurred, despite the Great Depression, was clearly influenced by the architecture of the time. Each February they have an Art Deco weekend organised by the Art Deco Trust who have been keeping it going 20 years and there are lots of shops in town selling art deco momentos and clothing.

We visited the museum; they have a really good earthquake exhibition - quite moving. And we visited the Ply-Ability exhibit, all about ply-wood but strangely worth seeing.

One day we drove to Hastings; Napier's sister city, passing a fish and chip shop called The Frying Dutchman - hopefully in homage to the Simpsons. We also passed Cape Kidnappers; where there was an attempted abduction from Captain Cook's ship in 1769. We would have liked to have stopped and looked at the gannet colony there but unsurprisingly it was tipping down with rain.

Taupo

It rained for four days straight when we got to Taupo, we pretty much couldn't see the lake at all. But we went to the hot pools (in the rain) and went up to the Craters of the Moon, also in the rain. Back in the 1950's this large area north of Taupo began emitting steam. It turned out that the lowering of underground water pressure by a local geothermal power station caused superheated water to rise to the surface, finding any vent to escape. The whole place is full of bubbling mud pools. The wooden walkways are regularly moved to avoid new vents that appear and it's dangerous to stray off the path.

Hamilton

A quick stopover in Hamilton to try to buy some warm jackets, lots of clothing stores there but mostly all really expensive, as is pretty much everything here. We passed the Riff Raff statue again (it's on the site where the Rocky Horror Picture Show was born and where Richard O'Brien worked in a barber shop). Richard O'Brien is in the news a lot here at the moment because under current NZ immigration law, he isn't able to retire here. He was born in the UK but spent his formative years in NZ and the country pretty much claim him as a Kiwi.

Glow worms, ostritch eggs and more hobbit holes

We got up to the caves nice and early for the 9am tour (supposedly the best of the day) and still managed to miss it! We hung around in the gift shop and joined the next tour, which was fine as there were hardly any other visitors. The new visitor's centre had just opened and all the big bosses were down for a visit.

The Waitomo glowworm, Arachnocampa luminosa, is unique to New Zealand. Thousands of these tiny creatures radiate their luminescent light in the caves. We've seen glow worms before but never in this quantity or brightness.

Later in the afternoon we went up to the farm at the end of the road that was advertising ostritch eggs for sale. The lady keeps nine ostritches on her property and we met Victoria, a beautiful, long-lashed female. They didn't have any full eggs to take away but we did buy some that was frozen (about 4 hen's eggs worth). We made some very rich-tasting omlettes with it. We would have liked to have bought one of the empty shells, but couldn't see us getting one home in one piece.



On the way back we drove into Woodlyn Park that has some 'unique' accomodation; hobbit holes, a plane, train and a ship.

Kiwiana and the kiwis

We left Cambridge after a couple of nights and booked into a site about 600 metres from the Waitomo Caves, we drove up to the Caves and bought some tickets for the first tour for the following day. We then headed back up the road to Otorahunga - the Kiwi House and Native Bird Park feed their Kiwi birds at lunchtime.

The kiwis there live in nocturnal enclosures and are pretty amazing birds. They have really long beaks that they use to burrow down into the earth for worms and insects. They are the only bird known to have nostrils at the end of their beaks. They lay eggs that are massive in proportion to their bodies (around 15-25% of their body weight) and for most types of kiwi the male incubates the egg. Although they only lay one egg per season. Once bonded the male and female tend to live their entire lives as a monogamous couple. Although females are known to leave their partners for more desirable males. And they are really fluffy and cute. Unfortunately, their numbers are on the decline.

We also fed the ducks.

Otorahunga is the Kiwiana capital of NZ. The town has lots of quirky tributes to Kiwiana - murals, corrugated iron Kiwi sculptures and a whole gallery and arcade of Kiwiana displays in the Ed Hillary Walkway in the centre of town. There are 14 Kiwiana display modules there and another 10 in shop windows up the high street. They offer a snapshot of New Zealand’s popular culture, icons, heritage and heroes, including Buzzy Bee, pavlova and Aunt Daisy.

Even the town’s public toilets get a look-in; the exterior is sign written with traditional and Kiwi slang names for toilets - wc, loo, bog, wharepaku, powder room, can, throne, lavatory, long drop, privy, etc.

Cambridge

We headed south from Auckland towards Hamilton and decided at the last minute to stay in Cambridge. It was only a short distance from Hamilton but the tiny road and lots of diversions meant that it took ages to get there.

Cambridge is very 'English' (Victoria Street, Shakespeare Street) - it's known as the Town of Trees. It's also famous for it's dairy herds, thoroughbred racehorses and antique shops.

We took a walk down to the Te Koutu lake reserve - Cliff and Liam walked around the perimeter while I attempted a bit of meditation - but I was thwarted by the extremely loud and active ducks.

Orewa

After our snow adventure, we drove up to Orewa. Again, the site was right on the beachfront. Orewa is a nice little city with a tiny farmer's market on the Sunday where we bought lemon olive oil and gingerbread loaves.

Fun in the snow

No, there's no snow here just yet but we headed 20 minutes up the road to just outside Orewa to Snow Planet, a huge indoor ski field. It's -4 degrees inside. Liam and Cliff had snow boarding lessons and I had a ski lesson (the last time I'd been skiing was when I was about 5). Then we spent most of the afternoon on the slopes. It was brilliant fun and we'll be back!

Happy birthday mum!

Here's wishing you a very happy birthday mum! Sorry we couldn't be there for it but we will be around for the big 8-0 next year.

Mount Eden

Today we climbed up Mount Eden, I went all the way to the top this time. Last time we were here, I rested on a bench halfway up. Mount Eden or Maungawhau in Maori is a dormant volcanic cone (the last eruption was 15,000 years ago, so we were quite safe) and is Auckland's highest natural point. The crater is 50 metres deep. There were lots of Chinese tourists at the top so it was pretty difficult to take uninterrupted photos and and it was cold and windy.

Takapuna

We headed out, past Auckland to Takapuna, a 'city' just north of the harbour bridge. It was a great site, right on the beachfront, with clear views of Rangitoto Island.

Cliff and Liam spent the mornings hand feeding the sparrows all our bread.

One morning we took a walk along the coast and saw a huge well-like hole which had once held a huge Kauri tree. During a past volcanic eruption, lava would have flowed around it, creating the surrounding rock formation. Luckily it has a cover, so no-one fell in.

Miranda

Remco recommended we try the hot springs at Miranda, about 45 minutes from Hikutaia. We headed up there and taking advantage of their 'pay for two nights, stay for three' deal, we ended up staying for four nights. The hot pools are 35 degrees, bliss when it's cold and wet outside. Although the mineral water did tarnish my white gold ring to a bright yellow gold. I was thinking about where I could go to get it back to normal and it changed back all by itself in a few days, so that was a result and I pledged to take it off when we used the pools in future.

Hikutaia

Today we visited Arnica and Remco, the couple who's house we will be looking after in June. We had a lovely lunch of soup and homemade bread and were taken on a tour of their property. They have cows, alpacas, sheep, chickens, cats and a dog so we'll be kept busy. We'll post some pics when we get there in four weeks time.

Papamoa

Papamoa (locally known as 'Pomamoa' due to the high number of Brits living here) is a beach community in the shadow of Mount Maunganui. It's a bit unnerving to hear all the British accents in the shops. Apparently there are 100 families moving into the Bay of Plenty every week, so it's a growing town (although towns are called cities here). The beach is beautiful though, deserted but for a couple of dog-walkers and the sun was shining. There's a really good library too. We spent two nights here, at a park right on the beachfront.

Matamata, home of the Hobbit

Although we visisted the town of Matamata back in 2005, we decided to go and take another look at the Hobbiton movie set, bearing in mind the prequel to the Lord of the Rings trilogy is being planned with the Hobbit. And that's just about all we can say about that. No really, we had to sign an agreement that we wouldn't share anything we saw or heard at the site. Let's just say there is activity there and it's all looking good. Oh, I think I said too much.

Afterwards and as part of the tour, we went to the wool shed to watch a sheep being sheared and then we got to feed the little ones.

Marathon Day!

Cliff's marathon
I'm normally a bit nervous before a race. I don't know why, it's not like it's the Olympics, but I get the whole lot - butterflies in my stomach, dry mouth, jelly legs etc. But today there was nothing which was somewhat surprising as this was my first ever marathon. We got to the start with about 10 minutes to spare, just time to answer a quick call of nature, slip on my trainers and say goodbye to Elaine and Liam before hopping over the barricades into the queue to join the masses of eager runners.

I hoped to finish with a time of 4 hours or less - the equivalent of running 26 and a bit 9-minute miles - but an experienced local trainer told me that the hills made this a demanding course and that I might want to adjust my target by 15 minutes or more.

The start was quite exciting - a Maori haka and cannon fire set us off on our way to "take on the lake" with the added assistance of a light shower.

The first few miles were pretty good, the rain faded away and the weather alternated between sun and clouds with a strong breeze for the rest of the course. The route took us away from the lake and it was fairly flat. At about 6 miles I had to take evasive action when the guy in front of me ran into a traffic cone and sent it flying into my path! Somehow I sidestepped it and carried on my way. Roughly 8 miles in on a climb was the first real full on view of the lake and it was something else, it certainly took my mind off the aches and pains that were starting to take over my legs. After about 10 miles I was feeling the effects of the hills but my pace was inside the 4 hour target, but I could feel the resurrection of a nasty blister on my one of my toes (it's the toe next to my big toe on my left foot. Do toes have names? I'll call it my index toe for now). Unfortunately the hills kept coming and I slowed a bit (with the help of a toilet break). At the halfway stage my time was 1hr 59 min, but the 4 hr pace group was 2-3 minutes ahead, still visible thanks to the yellow balloon tied to the lead runner but increasingly unreachable!

Just about everyone has heard of THE WALL, that invisible barrier that lies in wait, ready to ambush marathon runners somewhere out on the course. I stumbled into my wall at about mile 16. For a couple of miles my vision got a bit blurry, and I was starting to think "oh God, I'm going to pass out, please don't let me pass out!" I've seen people in races passed out or receiving oxygen and it's not a pleasant sight and I wasn't overly excited at the thought of joining them. I was starting to regret not bringing a tube of M&M's, a staple of my long training runs, and I was getting more and more jealous of supporters handing out solitary bananas to their mates. And there wasn't anybody giving out sweets! After quite a long descent (which was of course, preceeded by an equally long, arduous climb) I was in the finishing straight - only 7 miles to go! The 4 hour balloon was still in sight but my legs were disobeying orders. "Speed up" said my brain, "No!" said my legs. Come to think of it I don't think they even bothered to respond, and I'm not sure they could.

At this stage of the race, a lot of people were taking walking breaks, and it was quite tempting to join them. But I didn't. I kept running. What a hero. Actually it doesn't matter how you do it, if you set out to do it and you do it, then my hat is off to you.

About 4 miles left and I got my first sweets! Hooray! And they kept on coming after that (thank you to everbody who handed me sweets). I can't believe what a difference it made, I got faster after that although any hope of running under 4 hours was long gone.

The last mile or so was heavenly. I knew that (barring a major catastrophe) I was going to finish. I was passing people left and right so I was finishing relatively strongly. Then in to the finishing straight, I heard my name broadcast over the PA - "And here comes number 1672, I've heard about this guy already, that's Cliff Purtell from Lancing. I think that's in Western Australia." What? Everyone knows its in Western Sussex! Outrageous.


As I flew down the finishing straight, I spied Elaine and Liam in the crowd and slowed down to wave before I crossed the line. And I felt okay, I could have kept going but I definitely didn't want to. And the blister I mentioned, it was so big that when I got my sandals on it wobbled when I walked. And they gave me bananas and tea and coffee and blister plasters and a finisher's t-shirt and more sweets. But no medal. I wanted a medal! Turns out they only have medals every 5th anniversary and this was the 46th race, so I missed out on medal by a year. Maybe I'll come back in 2014 for race number 50. Or not.



Here's the St Johns people looking at my blister, they've never seen one quite as big.



By the way my time was 4:11:42 which I hope to beat in Brighton in 2011. They give out medals too!

Elaine's 5k
When Cliff realised he really was not going to be able to do the Brighton marathon, he immediately got online to see which one he could run in NZ. It was either the Rotorua on 1st May or June in Christchurch. As we won't be on the South Island until at least July, it looked liked Rotorua was the favourite. They were allowing late registrations and he also noticed that they were running a 5k event. I've done a couple of the Races for Life so I knew I could probably do it but that had been years ago and I wouldn't have much time for training and I didn't have any running shoes or gear. Well, we were in Hong Kong so shopping for running shoes was not a problem (I got the running gear cheap in Hamilton) and I resolved the issue of not being able to do much training by not doing any at all. This I'd not recommended in any way. It was hard but clearly not as hard as the marathon that Cliff was doing at the same time. Put it this way, I will probably do another although it might be a long while before I extend to a 10k. My time at 46.27 was slightly longer than the fastest men in the field (17 mins) and the women (20 minutes) but I can live with that; I didn't stop and I didn't walk although I was overtaken on a couple of occasions by people who were walking the course.

Liam's 5k
Saturday morning - not really the day to be getting out of bed at the crack of dawn to compete in a 5k race. But that’s ok because 5 kilometres is not a very long way, especially compared with the marathon my dad is running this morning.

On the starting line, the rain’s dripping down onto my head, I’m waiting anxiously for the big boom of the starting cannon. I’ve been waiting for 30 seconds, it feels more like 5 minutes. The cannon is off I’m running. Fast. But not too fast, I’m preserving my energy for the rest of the race.


I’ve been running for ten minutes now. Probably. I daren’t look at my Nike ipod timer for fear of losing my precious momentum. Then up ahead I see the volunteers handing out water and rethink my ten minute theory as I remember on the map I saw earlier the water station was very near the finish of the 5k, and ten minutes would have to be a world record of some kind. The water’s throwing me completely off my stride and I’m feeling like my momentum can’t get any worse. I look at my ipod: 32 minutes, I was aiming for 30 but under 35 would be just as good, so using my last morsel of strength I stampede on to the finish line and am awarded a satisfactory time of 34:14.

I did not find it very hard ( I've run a 5k race before) and will be taking on many more in the future.