From Australasia to asia

  Sydney, Australia
Wednesday, March 12, 2008

Who would've thought a four hour layover could be so enjoyable?
 

Here's how the trouble started...

I'm at the Sydney airport right now and after a riveting two-hour long game of Wii against an Irish kid I met on the plane, I've decided to take advantage of the free internet and sum up my last few weeks in New Zealand.
 
First off, I ran the marathon!!!  And it was awesome... but more on that later ;)
 
So I got back from Argentina and was immediately picked up by Pip, my housemate, and driven into town where I met everyone for lunch.  Since Random left, I've been living with Pip and her husband Eric, two of my good friends from the shop. I had gotten back just in time for Eric's last day at work so Pip and I spent the afternoon making arrangements for the festivities.  We invited everyone from the shop to meet there at 8pm, an hour before closing, and advised everyone to bring plenty of beer.

This is where we decided to leave the shop

We kidnapped Eric during his last hour and brought him down to the bike shop where we dug into the beers... a few hours later one of the more responsible kids in the crew decided we should probably stop drinking in the bike shop well past closing... given that we had started to try on the downhill body armour and were seeing just how "well" it protected.  And so began my first night back in Queenstown...
 
After that I decided to take a little break from drinking, given that my marathon was now a week away and the

Climbing "the mission"

longest distance I had run to date was 13 miles... if I wasn't going to be well trained, at least I'd be sober!  Stu and I decided to spend my last week of training by doing a roadtrip up the west coast of New Zealand and exploring parts we hadn't seen before.  We took a tent and a map and packed the car full of fun toys... we were off.  The first day we found a cool climbing spot and hung out for sunset before pitching our tent for the first time. The next day we went caving through this 600 meter long cave. Everyone there had full-on wetsuits and gear and we show up in our chacos and shorts.

what a playground

The water was freezing and besides not being able to feel your legs, it was probably my favorite part of the roadtrip.  The flash makes it seem like there was plenty of light but as you can imagine, 600 meter long caves are pretty dark.  After that we went up to the northern most part of the island and did a two-

Caaaaaaving!

day, 50 kilometer trek along the beaches. It was different than most hikes I've done, pretty flat and well, beachy, but we were rewarded by the coolest camp spot ever just on the beach. And a long drive after that and we found ourselves back in Queenstown, just a day before the big race.
 
So it went infinitely better than I though it would (which may not be saying much since I wasn't even sure I'd finish).

Stu and I just before the Coast Track

Two of my friends ran too and Stu volunteered to drive us over to the start at 5am.  I don't think we could have thanked him enough.  The course itself was unbelieveable... huge mountain ranges (that we crossed) and river crossings that went up to thigh deep.

I said the hike was beachy....

Ahhhh, besides the fact that my sneakers were wet the WHOLE time, it was really incredible.  My only goals were to finish without walking and to break five hours--keep in mind it's off-road, hilly and there are rivers, so it takes a bit longer than regular marathons.  I ran across the finish line to be greeted by friends who had come out to watch, ten minutes *under* my goal and with sore legs from running the whole way... maaan it felt incredible. 

Kelera and I just before the race

Fast forward a few hours to a large pizza and a six-pack of Monteiths Black, my favorite kiwi beer, and I was one happy camper.
 
The few days that followed included lots of beer, pizza, and hanging out with my friends before taking off.  Needless to say, leaving was very, very hard, but I know I'll be back soon.
 

I did it!!!

And now I'll start my world travels again. I don't even know what part of the trip this is, but let's call it part 5. Part 5, here I come... :)