All Systems Are Go

The tickets are booked. Our house went unconditional yesterday so I've booked my flights to Invercargill.
Thanks to Fly Buys and Airpoints I didn't need to spend any actual money for the flights!

We move out of our home on Friday 4th November and I fly to Invercargill on Monday 7th November, next step is to book the ferry to Stewart Island  for the start of a 3 day tramp. Will then cross back to Bluff and the real start of the walk.

My last day at work tomorrow Friday 23rd September, who knows when my next paid employment will be.

I am in Tauaranga all this weekend at a Postcard Fair and then tramping in the Urewera's with a work, or by then an ex, work colleague from Monday to Thursday. One of my friends asked me why I was getting helicoptered into a remote part of the Urawera's to go tramping. When I told him that you can do that sort of thing when you are retired, his response was instance, "fuck off!"

Moving On

6th September 2011

Wadda you think of the logo?  Thanks to Kerrin Meek from LIC (the company I have worked for, on and off for 40 years) for designing the logo for me from an idea suggested by my daughter Naomi. I am hoping to get this logo screen printed onto my pack and tent etc.

Well here I am 2 months later and things are now starting to happen, my last day at work is 23rd September. The good news is that, subject to a builders report, our house has sold. All going to plan we move out of our home of 13 years on 5th November.  Once the house has gone unconditional (21st September) I will book  flights to Invercargill for the week 8th November. My first little adventure will be to spend 3 days doing a walk on Stewart Island. The bird life there is said to be remarkable so I'm looking forward to that. Once back on the mainland the walk proper will start from Bluff.

So what have I been doing the past two months in preparation. Most weekends I have been out walking, Hamilton river walk,  Te Uku wind turbine walk, Lake Karapiro, Tairu & Hikuai etc etc.

On one of the river walks I walked for 5.5 hours with 16 kg's of bricks in my pack. This led to a small incident. Half an hour before arriving back at my car I was feeling quite weary as I'd walked for 5 hours with just a 5 minute stop so decided to hide my pack behind a tree near the Hamilton East Cemetery. Later I drove back to collect it only to find  lots of young people standing all over the road and I had to drive around them in order to get to where my pack was. It was dark by this time and I couldn't find the pack, thinking all sorts of bad thoughts about young people in general and  that crowd in particular I moved the car closer and the headlights helped me to find the pack. When I tried to back up however my car was stuck in the wet grass and no amount of revving helped to get it out. No option but to seek help from the younger people I had only moments before had dark thoughts about. However when I walked back down the road to where they had been all their cars were still there but no sign of the people! I still have no idea where they had disappeared to in the dark. Eventually a car with three young lads appeared and they gallantly pushed me out. Lets hear it for the younger generation.

I recently purchased a book of maps showing all the camping sites in NZ which has proved invaluable in helping plan my camping spots. Thanks to all the people who have offered me accommodation, brilliant. I now have 16 different locations where I wont have to sleep in my tent.

Now that I have a tentative date for the start of the walk I can now start to approach sponsors for equipment and storage. I will also now record regular updates on this blog.  Speak to you again soon.