Happy 80th Dad

Mum and Dad at Snells Beach

My Dad turned 80 and we all reaped the benefits with a weekend celebration to remember. See my awesome wife's blog here for the details.

Very thankful and have some cool memories. Thanks to my amazing family and happy 80th Dad.


Matakana - we stayed minutes away




Venison an Juniper Berry Pie...mmm!

Roaming musicians at the Matakana Markets



Glen Osbourne - Mean Maori Mean!




The Flaming Birthday Cake - 80 candles!

The Northern Crossing

Have you ever given any thought to traveling from one side of our country to the other? And under your own steam - Not by car! You may have heard about the Coast to Coast which is quite famous - and CRAZY!

From their website

The Speight's Coast to Coast traverses the South Island of New Zealand from Kumara Beach on the Tasman Sea to Sumner Beach on the Pacific Ocean. Over either two days (individuals or two person teams) or the one-day event (individuals only), competitors cycle 140 kms (three stages of 55km, 15 km and 70 km), run 36 km (including a 33 km mountain stage that crosses the Southern Alps) and kayak 67kms of the grade two Waimakariri River through the Grand Canyon of New Zealand, the Waimakariri Gorge.

And after all this they still have the energy to crack open a very well deserved Speight's – New Zealand’s finest beer.

The closest I thought I would ever get to this great Southern Crossing is cracking a Speights Beer with my Dad after helping him dig holes in his gargantuan gardens. That was until I heard about The Northern Crossing.

• Run One - Hokianga South Head to Opononi (8 km)
• Kayak - Opononi to Rawene (18 km or a contingency triangular buoy course)
• Cycle One - Opononi to Waipapa (81 km) (for non-kayakers)
• Cycle Two - Rawene to Waipapa (74 km) (for kayakers)
• Run Two - Waipapa to Kerikeri Basin (8 km)

I may not ever to the Southern Crossing; The Coast to Coast, and I may have missed this years Northern Crossing, but all going well I'm definitely keen for next years event.

What an amazing country that we can cross from one side to the other under our own steam in less than a day. Enjoying all the spectacular views and scenery New Zealand has to offer.

I'm keen!

Any other mad people out there wanna give it a crack with me next year? One whole year to train!!??

Bare Feet or Nike's?

I like to run.

The more fit you are the more fun it is.

Unless...the dreaded injury occurs. I've had an ongoing niggle for a while now, so I decided to do some research to help remedy the problem.

Research tells me that most runners will experience some form of running injury during their running career. And that most injuries are due to doing to much, too fast. Check...that's me right there.

Lots would argue that you have incorrect shoes and you need to splash out on the latest $200 + Nike's to wrap your precious feet in a protective air cushion that will have you bouncing along to your hearts content.

Others would argue that you should run au naturale - barefoot just like you were born.

Now there is much debate and little concrete evidence either way so rather than bore you with links to articles and blogs, I think giving both a fair crack is the way to go.

I've run in well cushioned shoes for ages, but now have switched to barefoot running in the park across the road - and so far it's awesome !

Basically in modern running shoes you land on your heel, and with bare-feet you land more on the ball of you foot. Landing on the ball is supposed to engage all the anatomical stabilisers and shock-absorbers that the heel just doesn't do.

However...the jury is still out but just for fun check out some of these pics below:

Someone who has never run in shoes!

Note the wide splayed toes. Try fitting those puppies into a pair of trainers - NAH! Mind you, check out the pic below of a chap who has always shod his feet in 'comfy' shoes.

Feet forever confined in shoes.

Note the toes all squashed together, and the formation of hammer toe - Ewww!

I think my feet are a happy medium. I must admit I like to roam barefoot and even tried to board a plane to Fiji with naked feet. Alas I was turned away and had to borrow my wife's Uncles aqua-socks as all my shoes were stowed away - shame :)

I do know of two people who are hardcore barefoot nuts and their feet are pretty much like the top photo.

Hmmm, well what about road running or rocky terrain? You feet will get cut up.

Introducing the Vibram Five Finger shoe - MEAN!

Nike - who basically invented the raised heel cushioned soul are even hedging their bets with the Nike Free range.

To be honest those shoes above remind me of ape's feet, but I would like to try a pair out. Alas they are also $200 +

So whether you run in flash trainers, old sand-shoes, bare-feet or ape-feet...

RUN FOREST RUN!

and stay injury free.

From Winning to Survival to Stokedness!

I feel like the man who ran behind the car felt...exhausted!

My first official Triathlon is over. Kai Iwi lakes put on a stunner for the Carters Kumara Tri 2011.

My event was the Adult Short Course - Super Sprint distance (350m swim, 10km bike and 3.8km run)

I am sure the people who designed the course were trying to see how many hills they could fit into one course - it was crazy.

I'd been nursing two sore knees and a sore back after my training regime (Bull-at-a-gate Training). I was nervous and a bit scared that I may not be able to finish. In the above picture I think I was a bit worried (pre-race). My attitude had quickly moved from:

"I'm going to have a crack and win this thing" to "I just want to finish this thing in one peice"

The evening before the race my Dad and I checked out the course. Those hills were steep and long!

I must thank my Dad and Mum for treating us to a lodge only minutes away from the starting point of the triathlon - spoilt eh? Oh, and the bacon and egg brekkie - mmm, fuel for the tank.

0930 hrs - Race briefing and 5 minutes later - the Start.

I was envisaging us emerging from the cold Kai Iwi lakes blue lipped and numb. It was however, a beautiful day and the water - surprisingly warm! Still I think I would have preferred being towed behind a boat on a wake-board - Glass!

The hooter went and I took the plunge, sprinting into the depths. Lead from the front is what the triathlon books I'd been devouring had told me!
You can't win the race in the swim, but you can lose it there.

P.S Highly recommend:

Can't Swim, Can't Ride, Can't Run : From Common Man to Ironman by Andy Holgate

Emerging from the water - I can't believe it - I'm first! YeHa! All those lunchtime laps of the hospital pool had paid off.

There aren't any pictures of me on the bike leg. It was tough. Going up some hills I was quoting scripture:

'When I am weak - you are strong!'

I did this to a cadence that kept me going when all I wanted to do was stop and walk.

WARNING - GROSS PART - After slogging up and down these hills my mouth was so dry that my spit had no moisture. Instead of flying gracefully to the side of the road - the highly viscous blobs coated my cheeks despite my best efforts to propel it further! Eww.

Exiting T2 (after the bike) much to my surprise I was still winning. A fact my awesome wife pointed out at the top of her lungs. Thanks my love.

Alas I was in for more hills, the clay beast below being but the first of many.

Still in the lead, one of the race officials directed me the wrong way costing me about 1 minute of precious time and 1 place. I was now in second place and really just stoked to be still going strong. Lesson learned - Don't believe the 'race official', trust the race briefing and directions given then.

I finished!

(see results here)

My attitude had gone from Winning to Survival to Stokedness!

Thank you Lord.
Thanks Jackie.
Thanks Mum and Dad.
Thanks to my encouraging sister for her hard earned Julia Creek Tri singlet!
(all the best for your upcoming one Jul)
Thanks to everyone who prayed for my knees!

Wassup with gaming?

When I was a young boy growing up in Whangarei, New Zealand, I remember vividly being mesmerised by gaming. Of course back then we called it 'Spacies'

I would absolutely love going to 'amusements' which was the then only 'spacies parlour'.

Back then all games were 20 cents and when I walked into the James St Spacies Parlour I was in heaven.

• Space invaders
  
• Defender
• Galaga
• Frogger
• Moon Patrol
• Gyruss
• Xevious
• Tube Panic

The list was endless, alas, the pocket full of 20 cent pieces was not. You would dread some fellow addict coming up to you and muttering those fateful words...'Gotta 20?'

Mostly I would say 'Nah' and walk away trying not to rattle my pocket of money :) I apologise that my own addiction overcame my generosity.

It was about this time that handheld games arrived. Among the first I experienced was the Casio mg880 game / calculator - O for Orsum! or should I say 'n'

If you don't get it you haven't played the game and have sadly missed out IMO.



I have no idea where the original one went but I managed to pick one up at a garage sale for $2.00
After the nostalgia wore off in the first few days I flicked it off on TradeMe for $160.00

I have still got this bad boy though. The mg200 - PSP, eat your heart out!


The only bummer is you can't turn the sound off - but who would want too dampen the sound of a raging Ferrari engine roaring down the highway. Hmmm - I wonder what it's worth on TradeMe?

Another classic I was blessed with as a kid was Grandstand's Astro Wars. Wow my very own arcade cabinet with a real joystick! Albeit on a slightly smaller scale.

I remember when my Puppa (Grandfather on Mum's side) got a computer. The mighty ZX Spectrum. He tried to instill in me a head start into the computer programming industry. Cool Puppa - look you can play games on it. The game was the classic Brick Game - mean as!

I eventually inherited this forerunner of PC excellence and did progress with my knowledge. I actually met someone else with one and we joined a computer club run out of the local community college. Whilst the knowledgeable amongst us talked machine code I was busy dubbing all their games on cassette - I know! Sweetness.

My favourite was the Horace series...Horace and the Spiders Rocked my pre-pubescent world!

Alas all young boys grow up, and when we do we buy our very own Sega MegaDrive 2. Sonic was the new king...

... that is until I discovered RoadRash 2.

By some brilliant discovery and some cunning button sequence on start up you could get unlimited NITRO to boost your superbike to oblivion!

John Mellencamp summed up the next period of my gaming life in his song, 'Hurts so good'

When I was a young boy
Said put away those young boy ways
Now that I'm gettin' older, so much older
I long for those young boy days

So after marriage I put away those young boy ways and gaming was no more. I'd pick up old consoles at garage sales, anything from NES, Sega Master Systems, mega drives, Sony PS1's and I'd sell them all for a small profit. I often imagine the set up I would have had if I'd kept all the various consoles and games over the years.

However sometimes the memory of the way things were is so much better than trying to relive the 'Good old days'

Now I don't want to end on a sad note so let's go back to the future.

Yesterday my cool brother-in-law brought over his latest acquisition. An XBOX 360 Kinect bundle.




So much fun.

My kids have got it way better...or have they?







Yes, yes they have!


BUT... I still remember the absolute joy I had with the Casio handheld games and 20 cent spacies. That would be comparitively lame now, but the magic and joy is still the same!

I may not have my gaming consoles, but I've still got the JOY!

And some serious skill - Haha!