EnZed Adventure!, part one

This might take a while to load because I’ve included LOTS of pictures, but it keeps the anticipation of the beauty that is New Zealand! A few years back I traveled to Costa Rica with Vacation Races, a company that is known for running half marathons around America’s national parks. They now offer global adventures, following their model, “Run where you play.” I have wanted to travel to New Zealand for years now, and when I decided to take some time, I decided I didn’t want my first impressions to be a solo venture. Their inaugural trip to NZ was a little more than a year away, so I signed up for it!

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Introduction

The trip was a long one, but I brought my sketchpad and Kindle, which kept me busy for several hours. On the longer flight from Houston I slept about five hours, so by the time I landed in Aukland on the north island, I was ready to go. There was a short flight to our first city of Nelson and a beautiful park nearby where I had a couple hours to draw the stream and other side of the bank. I grabbed a coffee until I was able to check into my hotel and talked to the receptionist about how the indigionous Mauri culture has newly impacted even schools and daily life for the people there, proudly nicknamed, Kiwis. That evening I met my roommate for the week and we had a dinner to introduce us to the runs and cities that we would be visiting throughout our stay.

Basic day

The start of our day typically began with us packing up all our belongings and meeting for breakfast with the rest of the team. There were about fifty of us runners and fifteen crew, who mostly hailed from the New Zealand area. They did a wonderful job of making sure that the buses arrived on time, photos were contantly being snapped, and action videos followed us through each of the trails. That is not to mention the months and months of preparing the schedule, the trails, meals, actvities, and hotels that we would hit each day. We ran a 5K-7K trail run each morning, about 3-4 miles. Then after grabbing a snack we would climb back onto the bus and drive for a couple hours to our next city. Usually there was an activity either in the midst or after our drive to the next town and most would participate. There were some activities that were extra, but the main ones were included in our initial cost. During most evenings we would meet at a predetermined location for dinner, catch up on runs or injuries, and get to know each other. As a general rule, most people outside of their party did not know everyone else, and several of us, including myself came as singles who were paired with another single roommate. Then several of us would either find a sunset to chase, gloworms to admire, or a path to follow before crashing around nine or ten at night. I got some reading and writing done during these times, but this was the beginning of my falling behind in my NaNoWriMo challenge!

RUN ONE: Nelson and The Centre of New Zealand Run

My afternoon in Nelson was an uneventful day, one of the last ones for the entire trip. There was a park with a beautiful walking path, often used by those who lived in that town. This was my first exposure to how often people biked, walked, and ran through the entire country, no matter which area we visited. I sat down for a plein air moment, admiring the nature and smiling at the curious ducks who didn’t want to take “no food” for an answer! Then when the time came closer to check in, I waited with my luggage and inquired which books she would recommend from New Zealand authors. After chatting for a while on why I came to New Zealand, she expressed her admiration that kids in schools learn the indigenous Mauri language and culture, being taught basic phrases and songs from a young age. I saw this throughout our entire trip, starting with that evening. Our VR leader, Cheri, talked to us about what to expect each day, weather conditions, and elevations of each of the run (a little off, of course, from her initial prediction). Then she invited a local man who began to speak using the Mauri dialect, sang with our crew, most of them also natives of NZ, and showed us what used to be a cultural tradition when saying goodbye to each other. This practice diminished since Covid, but it was a way to show respect, listening and understanding to the person who received it. The motion was similar to an Eskimo kiss, which included pressing both people’s forhead and nose together, expressing to the other person, “You are seen and heard.” This man explained it so much better using the Mauri-specific words, but I was never able to fully understand the language, even after several of the words were constantly repeated. The only one I remember from this first night is the greeting, “Kia Ora!” Which means hello. The next morning we ran in the Centre of New Zealand, a park with a mountain. The beginning was always full of music and a quick warm-up before jetting off, each person at their own pace. It reminded me of the Applalacian trail because it was in a woodsy area with lots of rocks and roots throughout. There was sufficient climbing at the beginning, which would become a theme the entire week. I did a combination of walking and running the entire week. At the end of this run I realized that I needed to carry my water, which they had told us at the beginning, but I misunderstood that they would not always have water for us at the end of the runs. We got on the bus and headed towards an Alpine Lodge in St. Arnaud. Before our final stop, we were taken to a nearby place for Waka paddling, which is essentially two canoe-like things strapped together and paddled with multiple people in each boat. This excursion was full of Maori words and information about the Wakas, used several decades previously for warriors. They taught us a chant where we raised our paddles at 1, 2, 3, 4, 5 and said he-he-he-he-ha! then gave our warrior face (picture included below, badly). We paddled to a little island/beach area and saw a place called “Split Apple Rock,” then paddled back, with a race on the last leg that our Waka boat lost completely because we were so tired. After a quick lunch of sandwiches, our second half of the activity was to get on a “water taxi” to watch seals sunning on rocks and swimming in an area that was protected. By this time my phone had no more battery, so I did not get pictures, but I will include later a few that I saw after our Westport run. I got to draw some of the birds in the area when we stopped by a sandbank and saw my first New Zealand “chicken”, called a Weka.

RUN TWO: St. Arnaud and the Brunner Peninsula Run

This hotel was probably my favorite out of all, though every place that we stayed was amazing! These had heated mattress pads, which in my opinion far supersede the heated blanket! The water was scalding, which was another bonus since all of us felt pretty gross from our first run and ride in the bus for several hours. I wasn’t yet sore, so got up early the next morning to write. The run the next morning ended up being closer to around four miles and not the five that were predicted. Then at the end I thought there was another turnoff, but I was already at the end. Several people wanted to do an ice plunge and I’ve never done one before, so I decided, why not? Another runner (who in the end claimed the fastest woman runner there) had already been in the water around eleven minutes when I got in, and after my five minute plunge –definitely enough for me– she had a total of seventeen minutes, her longest ever! Then we rode for Westport where we were going to be running at the beach, but not before stopping at a park area with a jetboat ride. I still think the capitan was a pirate and we could definitely tell that he enjoyed what he did. He made that boat careen back and forward and made sure that we got to spin some, adding excitement to an otherwise “normal” river tour. It was a blast and a great way to begin to chat with my fellow runners. Just a couple hours after we made it into Westport, my roommate and I chatted about our day and we collapsed into bed.

RUN THREE: Westport and Cape Foulwind Run >> Hokitika

The longest day in the middle of the week was five miles and I walked that one because it was at a gorgeous beach on the west coast, often titled “Wet” coast. However, despite predictions, our day at Westport was a sunny one with beautiful pictures of the waves, cliffs, lighthouse lookouts and even seals! My right shin was hurting, which was unusual because I had not experienced that sensation since I first started running. It told me how out of shape I was, but I decided to take it easy the next day and take pictures. I ended up running on downhill (my favorite pastime) and it was worth it! Then we had a picnic lunch as we entered Paparoa National Park for the Punakaiki “Pancake Rocks”, so named for their looks. To this day, they are still unsure about the formations, but it was fun to walk around the area and explore. Afterwards I bought my first souvenir shirt and we walked around the town a little before hopping on the bus to Hokitika. When we got to Hokitika, we could take a warm shower and made some plans with friends for later that night. My roommate and I met up with our group in the center of town. She enjoyed photography, so we chatted and she stopped to snap pictures every now and then. Our dinner that night was a traditional Maori dinner called Hangi, where the meat that they used for the meal had been cooking underground for twelve hours. Then the host and his family invited us to watch singing and celebration of the Maori culture. That evening several of us split off after admiring their jade to a beachside sunset, followed by glowworms in a nearby cave. Many things on my bucket list checked off today!