| Article by Natalie Gallant Kiwi bloke on the Motatapu: ‘ Your as agile as a gazell mate!’ As appreciative as I was of the comment, in that moment I felt like a gazelle wearing gumboots! I’d had to ditch my beloved Joe Nimble trail shoes in Wanaka, ripped to shreds by the merciless rocky terrain of the South Island in only 4 weeks. Best thing I could find that ticked 2 out of 3 boxes I look for in a shoe (wide toe box, zero drop, minimal sole) were some ‘Barefoot’ Merrells. Considering I’ve worn nothing but totally minimal shoes for the last 10 years, place even the smallest amount of cushioning under my feet and I’m feeling slightly weirded out. I love feeling grounded and being totally aware of what’s happening under foot, dampen that sensation down and my proprioception goes a little awry. Imagine sticking little booties on a dog and how they walk funny lifting their paws high. To some extent that was me getting used to my new shoes. As you can tell from the picture below, it took a while! |  |
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You didn't ask for my advice, but here it is anyway. Let's focus on being as HEALTHY as possible. Including but not limited to: - Lots of good food incl. lots of vegetables. - Lots of sleep. - Lots of sunlight exposure incl. but not limited to vitamin D. - Plenty of fresh air. - Supplementing a healthy diet with vitamin C, fish oil, probiotics, apple cider vinegar and various fermented foods. - Lots of exercise. Preferably outside in nature. - Reduce stress and sympathetic dominance, and allow parasympathetic resting and digesting. - A practice of gratitude, or a daily routine or similar that allows you to create space for an amazing day/week/life. 
 Programmes designed to help you train for WUU2K.
The WUU2K programmes are a collaboration between RERE, James Kuegler Coaching and Run Wellington. Each programme includes a comprehensive 12 week training schedule to take the guesswork out of your training and will provide you with a structure for completing the event of your choice.  Article by Natalie Gallant
After back to back alpine ranges in the few weeks prior, the first stretch from Boyle Outdoor Education Centre (BOEC) left me feeling a little eager for more of where I’d just come from. Instead of high mountains I learnt to appreciate a different side of nature; big rivers, bush fire & sandflies. All three simultaneously in fact, on my final night before Arthur’s Pass. The logistics of the South Island are a little different to the North. Popping in and out of mountain ranges means it’s not quite as easy to restock food at a local supermarket. So I’ve posted ahead bounce boxes full of goodies; advice to my future self - make the boxes different in some way…if I have to eat one more pumpkin seed… BOEC are fantastic in catering to the needs to TA hikers, holding all our boxes and providing a ‘pizza, drink, laundry and shower’ deal. They also provided me with the magic Zip-tie to hold my back pack together for the next 100km before I could get it to Christchurch for a repair. In my last blog I mentioned my pack had started chaffing my back again, and upon closer inspection I discovered where the straps attach to the back had ripped at the seam, tearing a hole in the back and then loosing the straps. Changing the straps so the force then went through the higher attachment (which also started to rip) meant my pack sat much lower on my back and I hadn’t realised how much I had got use to this position and didn’t think anything of it…until I had the pack replaced! I’ll come back to that later…
Article by Natalie Gallant Running a 71Km Ultramarathon on the Queen Charlotte track 2 days prior to run/walking 50km with a 10kg pack on, followed then by 5 days of sitting and paddling a canoe through rapids WAS NOT A CLEVER IDEA!! Even physio’s can do the dumbest of things sometimes!! By far I found the Whanganui River the hardest part of my journey so far. With my upper body having little to do in the last 2 months my arms were feeling pretty puny; all my muscle felt like it had been gravity assisted into my legs, which doesn’t really help with paddle power so much. 5 days however of 7-10 hours paddling (yes you read that correctly) and I felt like Arnie. Without any mirrors to deny me of my Schwarzenegger physique, I’m going to throw it out there that this girl definitely had some biceps on her by the time she reached Whanganui!  Article by Natalie Gallant '3 in the van and the little one said move over’… with paddle boards, mountain bikes and camping gear packed there wasn’t much room left in Jamie’s Bongo for the 3 of us. Christmas Eve we headed south bound for Christchurch to stay the night with the lovely Dave & Meg at her parents home. An impromptu climbing trip to Cattlestop Crag gave us fantastic views over Christchurch and out to the coast. It felt great to get the body moving before more road tripping past the stunning blue of Lake Pukaki and onward into Mt Cook National Park.   Article by Natalie Gallant
I have a NeoAir sleeping pad, fantastic when I fall asleep but the seam has a teeny tiny hole in so 212am on the dot I wake because it’s deflated and then continue to wake every hour thereafter until I can be bothered to re-inflate it. Poor sleep is getting to me, my lack of ability in having any decision making powers was evident the morning after arriving to Taumarunui. I couldn’t figure out what I should do. (Also a clear sign of ‘overtraining’, which fits too with my recent wishes of being a happy recluse!) Do I skip the next 26km gravel road section between Taumarunui and Owhango because my feet are still reeling from their thrashing the day before? Or do I suck it up sunshine and smash out those km’s? Lots of TA hikers skip road sections because of time restrictions and boredom etc. So why do I struggle with contemplating the thought? Taking a day off clearly didn’t factor into my options, I couldn’t see the hedge for the trees obviously!- that saying I’m sure isn’t quite right but I’ll blame the head blanket. Rather than laying in my tent with a suffocated voice of reason I knew I had things to do, so I figured if I can’t make a decision now I’ll do what I gotta do and then see if my coffee grinds speak to me from the bottom of my cup…or tea leaves or something like that. A quick trip to the post office, one long black and 3 free biscuits from the visitor centre and I had a plan! I’d booked a DOC (Department Of Conservation) hut on the Northern Circuit of Tongariro and now that I had my excuse to skip the next road section, I had to get up that Volcano before the bad weather moved in. Just had the 42nd Traverse in between… and I was in no mood for ‘smashing’ that out. . Article by Natalie Gallant I’ll come back to the beautiful Timber Trail in a jiffy. What I didn’t mention in my last blog (and I didn’t mention much to be honest - so be prepared this might be a long’un) was that yet again the postman had left me in the lurch. It didn’t take long to see the postman was actually my knight in shining armour. I was cream cracked from blitzing 46km the day prior from Pirongia Forest Park through Waitomo forest and into the back of Te Kuiti, with the last few km of energy sucking steep terrain with ankle breaking dried hoof prints, a far cry from the mud of Pirongia! So, although my body actually felt great my brain I had left somewhere in Waitomo Caves…. in addition the forecast said there’d be 23mm of rain to fall right when I’d be tackling another muddy forest. It was decided, a coffee and cake day.  |
