The essentials of life.

It's been *almost* three weeks since I last blogged.   I'm trying my best to keep up!  But sometimes life gets "normal" and there's nothing to blog about.  Outside of work, I've basically just been up to the essentials of life--- running, eating, drinking.  It may sound boring, but I do have some pretty pictures of it to share!
2.5 weeks ago was the St Clair Vineyard Half Marathon.  An annual event here in the Marlborough region where 25 or so families open up their property (mainly vineyards) to let 2000 runners/walkers stroll on through.    I've been training for about 3 months now, so I thought I was ready--- until the week before I found out that Ipods weren't allowed.  Eek!   Running in silence?   Not my forte.

My neighbor Denise has been training too, so she was great inspiration.  Her husband and friend came along so we had some cheerleaders along the course!

Here's Denise and me at the start (even though it says "Finish")-- look how fresh we are!

Did I mention it was a trail run?   Yes,  my first.  No real roads.  All grass, mud, dirt, rocks, puddles.

And vineyards!   There were still a few grapes on some of the vines.  No time to pick and eat however.

Denise's husband George was my paparazzi man.  Here I am running along a bank to the next vineyard.

Thumbs up, only 8 more km to go!

Woohoo FINISHED!   2 hrs 6 mins.  Not bad for my first trail run with no Ipod :)

The best part is they don't waste money on medals.  They give you a bottle of champagne instead. 

We were so tempted to shake it up and spray it everywhere.  :)

Afterwards, Denise, me and our fantastic cheerleaders decided to get a drink at Moa Brewery.  A girl's gotta hydrate post-race, right?

 Moa is an edgy craft brewery right here in Blenheim.  I've been dying to check them out because they just released a breakfast beer!

A wheaty blend with a hint of Marlborough grown cherries.   A bit contraversial--- one of Moa's owners appeared on the morning news in a Point/Counterpoint debate with some Addictions Specialist saying that "Beer for Breakfast" is a bad idea.  Personally, that wasn't the point.  The beer was refreshing but nothing special.  I'd prefer coffee for breakfast and leave beer for the rest of the day.  :) 

That afternoon, once I showered off the sweat and mud from the course, I decided AGAINST taking a nap (and probably end up asleep for the rest of the day) and instead biked to my local winery for a late lunch.  

This is the view from upstairs of the tasting room.

See that beanbag?  I sat there by myself and enjoyed a relaxing lunch.

Anise encrusted tuna, chicken satay skewers, and courgette (zuchinni) with roasted pepper and grilled haloumi.  And a glass of pinot noir.  Beautiful and delicious!

And this was my view, as I ate my tapas and sipped my pinot... and rested my tired legs!

In other everyday life, it's STILL been raining here.  But at least the sun peeks out every now and then.  The day after the race, I saw FOUR rainbows!   Rainbow Number One was so unexpected I didn't have my camera (gasp!) and unfortunately didn't get photographed.

Rainbow Number Two, photo taken from my driveway:

Rainbow Number Three, at Ward Beach:

And Rainbow Number Four, at the lone cafe/gas station/post office in Ward:

Check out a closeup!  The pot of gold is probably RIGHT behind those clouds.  Quite groovy!

Rainbow Day was spent with my pal Marty, a Blenheim local.  He was the one that showed me Ward Beach.   On the way home, we made a sidetrip for this....

My brother saw this picture and thought I went to a crackhouse.  WRONG, bro!

We were at Dominion Salt Limited, at Lake Grassmere Saltworks!

To make a long story short, the breezes over this lagoon at Lake Grassmere have perfect conditions for evaporating water.  So they pump seawater into this lake, the warm winds blow over, the water evaporates, the salt forms on the bottom, and machines like this harvest the salt.  Neato!

Heaps and heaps of salt!    In 2005 this plant produced half of New Zealand's domestic salt requirements.

The piles were taller than me!

They also make salt licks here for animals.  And for Lindsays.  :)

So, food, drink, exercise, salt, rainbows.... they're the essentials of my life here in NZ.

Cheers til next blog!



Mountainbiking in NZ's Sunniest Region... or not

From this week's Blenheim Sun newspaper:
"Marlborough didn't shine much during April.   Normally, Marlborough can expect 160 hours of sunshine during the month of April.  This year the region only saw 85 hours, the third lowest since records began in 1947."

Last month, my favorite Hawera veterinarian came to visit me on holiday (vacation).  In planning this excursion, I asked if he preferred relaxation or adventure.   He chose the latter.   And boy did we have one!
We decided to mountainbike the whole length (71km) of the Queen Charlotte Track, a multi-day track that gives spectacular views through the Marlborough and Kenepuru Sounds.  Once again, in typical New Zealand fashion, organizing/planning is a breeze.  Arranging transfers and booking campsites can be done at an information center in a matter of minutes!

 The track is outlined in red on the map below, from Ship Cove (far upper right) to Anakiwa (lower left).

 We started our journey Friday morning in Picton (middle bottom of the map above), pictured below.

 Here's smiling Steve and our boat, which took us (and our bikes) from Picton to the start of the track at Ship Cove.

 People in the bottom, bikes up on top!

Bye bye Picton!  See you in three days!

Cruising through the Marlborough Sounds....

An hour later, we reach the dock at Ship Cove.   So peaceful!



Look at these bright-eyed and bushy-tailed bikers all keen for a 3 day adventure!!

 And we're off!

The track was originally designed for walkers (aka hikers), with recent invitation to bikers, so some (more like a LOT for me!) of the track was super steep, requiring a lot of pushing the bike uphill.  But the views from the top were great.  (Especially on Day #1)

 This is definitely the nicest, cleanest, driest photo of our whole 3 days (45 mins from the start)  :)

They were so many beautiful spots for photos! 

 This little bird here is called a weka.   They're common on the track and endemic to New Zealand.  It tries to eat EVERYTHING, including bike reflectors.   They were cute, at first.

Look at how hard the track was here!  We had to bike UP a waterfall!

 Then a nice cruisey descent down to the beach.

(I hope you didn't believe that waterfall bit, I was just posing)  :)

5.5 hrs of biking later, we got to our first night's stop, Camp Bay!



The cool thing about this track is with your ferry boat pass to/from the track, you can arrange pack transfers.  Which means you don't have to lug all your gear on your back or bike--- the boat will deliver it to your preferred destination each night!    We had to pick up our packs at 5pm from this little dock.   

Talk about an honesty system, eh?  Tons of packs, just lying there for the taking.  Luckily everything arrived (and it was dry, too!).

Steve claimed he wanted an adventure, so I booked us a spot at the campsites instead of the flash hotels at the stopover points.   High-roller non-adventurous type people can take a boat to just about any stop and stay at a nice ritzy resort, take a short 2km stroll and still claim they walked the Queen Charlotte Track.  Not us!

Our humble abode for Night One.

But we did splurge and have dinner at the resort's restaurant.   This beer on the dock was one of the most refreshing and rewarding drinks in my life.  

We got a little rain that first night, which led to a slighty soggy breakfast.   Note weka on picnic table.  He and his pals already stole a loaf of bread from INSIDE our neighbors' tent.  Cheeky little thing--not so cute anymore!!

 Day Two started out wet.

Some more pretty views

Soggy, but still smiling, bikers :)

And then it really started pouring.   No more nice green sounds and blue waters... everything was a shade of grey....

...and brown.   We were COVERED in mud!

By the end of Day Two, we were absolutely drenched, the rain was still coming down, and we had mud from our helmets to our toes.  We checked out the campsite (one big puddle), and decided to give in a little, book a small room at the Portage Hotel, treat ourselves to warm showers and a dry night's sleep.

The highlight of Day Two was showing up to this pseudo swanky hotel covered in mud.

The hotel doorman used the hose above to literally hose the mud off of us.   I felt like an elephant at the zoo, getting a bath!  But the heavy water pressure was a must to get off the caked-on mud!    The hosing-down was surely a site to see for the clean, dry, swanky hotel visitors :)

We showered up and got our packs (thankfully dry again!) and had a nice dinner at the hotel.    Heaps better than a soggy campsite!



Day Three was definitely an Easter I'll never forget.  

Luckily we had a nice warm dry night of sleep and were ready to face the day...

....or were we?

 It started raining cats and dogs again.  The trail conditions were one big mudfest.

The downhills and switchbacks were absolutely treacherous, especially for a newbie mountainbiker like me!  I was slipping and sliding and falling off my bike like it was going out of style.  I was all sorts of banged up (I can show you the bruise photos on special request).   I was getting real discouraged, then I even slipped and fell while pushing my bike up a hill.  I was a mess!

And then, my bike broke.

Yes, like beyond-repair level of broke.  My derailler (aka the gear changing part attached to the frame) cracked off.  The bike was unrideable in its current state.   That was the straw that broke the camel's back.   I tried my best not to cry the whole trip, even in the toughest uphills or after wipeouts, but I had had enough.

I was so lucky to have such an understanding bike companion who helped me through my meltdown.

As we sat at the top of a hill, and I wiped up the Biking Day from Hell tears, look what I spotted in the grass!

(sorry so blurry).... A four leaf clover!

It was *totally* a sign.

So I wiped up the last of the tears, got a big hug from Steve, and we were off!   We were still 16kms from the end, and we had a ferry to catch in four hours, and I'd be pushing my bike that whole way. 

Steve was a GREAT sport and pushed his bike too, even though it was in perfect working condition.

We came across a man who tried to help fix my bike to at least work in just one speed, but the chain snapped 50 meters after the fixup attempt.  At least after the chain snap I was able to cruise the bike for the downhill portions.

What a good sport Steve was :)

After a good 3.5 hrs of pushing the hills/flats and cruising the downhills after the bike mishap, we made it to Anakiwa, the official end of the Queen Charlotte Track.   Adventure COMPLETE.  (thank goodness!)

We cleaned off Day Three's mud by bathing in the Queen Charlotte Sounds (yes we hopped in the water, clothes and all, people looked at us funny but heck the dirt had to come off somehow!)

There was a glorious coffee cart at the end of the track in Anakiwa.   We each had some joe to warm us up as we waited for our boat ride from Anakiwa back to Picton.

Yay mud gone, yay coffee!  (but still wet and a little cold).

Pushing my boo-boo-bike to the end of the dock where our return ferry boat awaited.

So there you have it, our Easter Adventure on the Queen Charlotte Track!   Full of hungry wekas, muddy trails, broken deraillers, snapped chains, blood, sweat, and a few tears... but a ton of memories :)

Cheers from not-so-sunny Marlborough!