Veronica's blog: Bring on some more hills!

I have been out and about quite a bit lately, both in terms of in my job and in my fun time.

With work I have had a presentation the other week in Napier. It was the first time for me in the Hawke's Bay area and I was fortunate enough to meet a fisherman, a local, who was more than happy to show me around. He taught me heaps about trawling as well and I am now ready to leave the city life for the sea..no,maybe not yet.

Charlie and I had a couple of cool boshing missions up hills: first in Banks Peninsula up Orton Bradley park to Mt Herbert and a week later to some peaks around Castle Hill in Arthur's Pass with Charlie's friend Ben. We had some really cool scree runs! It was a good opportunity to train for my BIG event the following week: TWALK

Charlie on the top of Mt Cloudsly

Ben (happy to be off the bike for a while after been cycling with his wife and kids for months in New Zealand)

TWALK

Last year in TWALK, I had a very bad cold and I struggled to keep up with the girls during 17 hr on the run. I was pretty useless then. I simply just focused on surviving and didn't contribute anything when it came to navigation. In the best case I could look for a control if the others pointed at which bush to look around.

Mama Cow (Sara Wallen)

This year I felt a heck of a lot better!! I guess we had to go a bit slower this year since Sara is about 5-6 months pregnant. It didn't stop her from moving pretty fast down steep banks in the middle of the pitch dark night and being a brilliant navigator.

Rachel as a delicious cake

Sporty Spice Thorbjorg with her team

Bonnie et al as fruit and veggies

The team consisted of 6 cows:

From left: Viv, Lara (mother and daughter), Penny, Myself, Sara (who made up the Viking component) and Jackie (the other Prince daughter) Jackie. We made up the team "Udderly Lost".

The event was held in Waipara hills and it was a beautiful surrounding with lots of hills, coll rock formations and many many electric fences to cross. I got zapped three times since I am such a wide cow.

Compared to last year I felt new born, full of energy and I actually managed to find a few controls. You get a clue which can be some kind of riddle (gata) which indicates where you need to look for the control with a clue. I often just said "Language barrier" as soon as I didn't get the riddle. I have only lived here for 5 years...:-)

I was pretty happy. We ended up 7th overall after approximately 20 hrs of walking. We managed to squeeze in 2 hrs sleep. It's amazing how much better I felt after that microsleep.

A navigating cow in action