Tramp

This past weekend we headed out for a good tramp in the Richmond Ranges.

For those that don't know the Richmond Ranges are between Nelson and Blenheim. They aren't glacially formed, so the hills are steep, the ridges are up and down and the valleys are tight.

We left town on Friday night, and drove over to the Wakamarina Valley. This valley is just behind Canvastown, which was a gold mining town way back when. We walked for about an hour into Devils Hut where we spent the night.

Saturday

We were up at 6, and walking by quarter to 7. The track headed down briefly to the river, then straight up to Mt Royal. We'd only been walking for about 25min when I noticed some moisture coming out of my pack. I opened it to find, one of the beers I was carrying had burst. Bastard. It went all down the back of my legs, sticky! Adam finished what was left of the can.

On arriving at the top a fantastic view greeted us. We could also see the routes that we would be traveling along. They didnt look to bad from where we were standing.

We headed off after a quick munch along the untracked ridge to Mt Fishtail.

Arriving on top of Mt Fishtail at midday was good timing and lunch was very much enjoyed. We could see the next ridge where we would be heading and it wasn't looking so friendly. Plenty of bluffs and lots of up and down.

Mt Fell-where we are heading is the tops in the distance.

The hut on Mt Fishtail was the only place that we could get water, but unfortunately getting to it would involve a descent and a further climb. Ged talked us into it, which ended up being a bloody good thing. I stripped off and cleaned the sticky beer off my legs and shorts.

We left a bit of skin on the scree slopes getting off Mt Fishtail. It wasnt long before we were descending and climbing as we traversed the ridge. It didnt take much longer before people started getting tired. Breaks became a bit more frequent and there wasnt a whole lot of talking.

After pushing through some tight scrub and climbing Mt Fell we arrived at the hut.

Ged with Mt Fishtail in the background, and the ridge we walked along.

Unfortunately there was a father and his 2 children there already. This meant 7 people and 6 bunks. Adam, Brent and I managed to share 2 and a bit bunks but it wasnt particularly comfortable!

We did enjoy beers, steak with blue cheese, a cous cous salad and a green salad. Not your ususal tramping tucker.

Sunday

The next morning we were greated by another great day. We were on our way by 7:45. A quick climb out of the hut onto Mt Fell and we began our descent towards Pelorous River. We negotiated one rocky gut, and Adam just avoided getting his legs taken out by a falling rock.

Shortly after we were met with a fixed wire. The wire is so you can descend a narrow steep gut and ledge. Below both is a big bluff. It was a little hair raising.

The rest of the tramp was mainly downhill with one reasobable climb. By the time we arrived at the Maitai Dam my quads were toast!

All in all an awesome weekend. Saturday was about 12 hours on the go, with 3400m of climbing. While Sunday was 9 hours on the go and 1500m of climbing. Good times.

Musselman

As I said, I'm catching up with posts.

This sunday I raced the Musselman. Its a great event put on each year by Chris James.

The race goes from Picton to Nelson,

• 10k paddle
• 41k road bike
• Lunch stop
• 40k mtb
• 8k run

The paddle went well, John and Dan were off. Trevor and I worked together, we got a bit of a gap on everyone else.

The road bike started well, I had a good first transition. Trevor got held up by cramps and I got a gap. I had planned on working together through to Pelorous. The ride was going well and I had brought John and Dan back from over 2mins to 30s. However I got a flat, and this prob cost me about 7 or 8 minutes.

After an awesome lunch that my flatmate, Freya (she also did the race) put together. We headed off on the MTB. It was raining and cold at Pelorous Bridge, so I wore a jacket. (big mistake)

George Baxter took off, sprinting away right from the start. I stayed as close to him as I could, pretty quickly it was down to George, myself, Trev, and Dan. We starting heading up the climb, and i started getting hot! The clouds were clearing and the sun was coming out. I took off my cap under my helmet and promptly dropped it. It took me quite a while to catch the others.
About 2/3s the way up the climb, I got a gap. It sort of happened without me meaning to do anything, so I just kept riding. Getting to the top of the hill, I zipped up my jacket, pulled my top and thermal down (I had them up like a midriff top, FOR THE LADIES!).

Barring one mishap where I ended up unclipped lying on my seat superman styles the downhill went well. I hammered down the road from the dam and then proceeded to sprint the last run down to the finish in town. I was on the limit the whole way down. Sitting here now, 3 days later I still have heaps of fatigue from that last effort.

In the end I finished 1 minute behind Trevor. Its always a fun race, and I really enjoyed the challenge of trying to chase back after the puncture.

Freya ended up in third place in the womens, a good result for no real training!

Abel Tasman Weekend

I'm a bit behind with posting so I'll do a few individual posts.

Two weekends ago Elin and I went kayaking in the Abel Tasman. One of the guys here in town lent us his double hypernova.

I headed out for a ride first thing in the morning. It was a bit of a miserable ride as the first half was uphill into a light headwind. Second half was a bit more fun though. Put it in the big ring and ground it out on the way home.

Once i got home we had a big lunch loaded the car up and headed to Kaiteriteri. On arriving at Kt we had a half hour nap, then got into it.

We were lucky enough to strike the only bit of bad weather the whole weekend. The wind came up quickly and we were not making much headway at all. Elin got cold very quickly. When we stopped on Adele Island for her to warm up, she was up to her waist in water in the kayak!

The wind passed quickly and it began raining. We were treated to a great rainbow. Elin also saw her first penguins. We stayed at Te Pukatea Bay. Very nice.

Next day was beautiful. We had a big breakfast then paddled out round Tonga Island. Plenty of seals, some big boys out there! We stopped off in Sandfly bay for a lie down.

The final paddle back to Kaiteriteri was great, we had a howler of a tailwind. It took us very little time, catching heaps of runners. I was pretty ruined as we turned into Kaiteri, trying to pull a laden double over the backs of waves isnt easy.

Great weekend...where training meets romance!