Auckland

Auckland

So far we’ve slept a lot, drank a lot, and ate fish & chips at the oldest pub in Auckland… And bought an iPad…

NickyDay one in Orc-land.. I don’t remember too much about arriving. Me brain was a mush and it felt like someone had stuck some Rohypnol in that Lamb Curry. And so blurry eyed and greasy haired we stumbled our way through BioSecurity being meticulously checked, not for explosives and red or blue wires, but instead we were frisked and inspected for terrifying things such as soil and ham sandwiches… I have my suspicions I may have hallucinated the whole thing…

And when I’d started to take in the reality that we were suddenly revealed to be on the other side of planet earth, I opened the curtains of the hotel room to be confronted by an Independence Day style space ship casually parked up in the middle of town… No one seemed to be batting an eyelid, and so I returned to my previous theory of sleep deprivation, ignored the impending alien invasion and collapsed into a comfortable coma on the bed.

Note to self: Never fall asleep to a background movie of 28 weeks later, if you’ve gone without sleep for more than a day. It’s a sure fire way of vividly experiencing being eaten alive by your co-workers and friends. You won’t know what the f**** going on when you wake up.

Big Breakfast

Big Breakfast

Bungle in the Jungle

Bungle in the Jungle

CookieWe didn’t expect to be fighting our way through thick jungle today, only went to find the local DOC (Department of Conservation) office! Word of warning to anyone else using google maps to find it, this is where they’ve put the pin and there’s certainly no office here..

Frame ‘n’ ek!

Frame ‘n’ ek!

CookieGot a feeling there’s going to be a lot of funny signage as we make our way across New Zealand :)

On our way to Kaitaia (The Far North)

Tiny Plane

CookieTiny little plane that flew us up to Kaitaia, check out the view from my seat here, never actually seen the pilot in action before.

Sound advice?

Sound advice?

Nicky Some words of wisdom spotted outside the vets in Kaitaia. He clearly has to handle something more formidable than your average rabbit. Picturing a caged lion in there getting a root canal or something!

So now we’re finding it quite poinient on our last night before the big day ( being dropped off at the remote tip of a country in the wind and rain! ). So wish us luck… We might need it :)

In a way I guess you could say we’ve run away from the world for a bit. But as the big drop-off day draws closer I think the alternate meaning is resonating more ;)

Surf ‘n’ Turf

Surf ‘n’ Turf

CookieOur last proper meal before starting the first section. Beachcombers in Kaitaia has sorted us out with two fine meals during our stay here, we’d highly recommend. It’s a bit north of the town centre, on the main road.

Weekly shop

Weelky Shop

CookieThe first section of the trial isn’t very long and pretty flat, mostly walking along 90 mile beach (which is more like 90km), most people will do it in 3 or 4 days. But we haven’t had time to do any warm up walks yet.. So we’re going to take it pretty easy and do over about 7 days.

This is what a weeks worth of food looks like, fortunately once we’ve un-packed it all into zip lock bags it looks a bit less bulky! Although water may determine how fast we walk along this section as I’ve read it can be pretty dry..

What’s your poison?

poisonous meths

Action Hero Steven Sea-Gal

Steven!

More on him later ;)