Snowcraft Fitness Training - Part 1

Text taken from the club newsletter.

SNOWCRAFT FITNESS TRAINING - PART 1

Matthews South Saddle Circuit by AIMEE PATERSON

My day started at 5.30 am in darkness. After rolling out of bed, putting on my tramping clothes and picking up my pack, I scuttled down a Karori road to meet Amanda who was giving me a ride to the railway station. The drive down was probably the quickest I’ve had since living in Karori. No one was silly enough to be on the road at that time of the morning!

We rendezvoused with the rest of our bleary-eyed group at the railway station at approximately 6 am. I don’t think anyone was ready to talk at that time of the morning so we stood around looking at the concrete. We had enough vehicles that Amanda and I could leave straight away without taking anyone else. We headed to Wainuiomata and along Coast Road to our destination — the Orongorongo Station Carpark. Once there I decided it was a civilized enough hour to get out my breakfast, but no sooner had I done that than the van rolled up and we had to jump out of Amanda’s lovely warm car and into the salty storm outside. I squeezed in the van still with my cup of cereal and milk, and Richard drove us back to the Catchpool carpark, where we finally started to see some daylight.

Our first leg was the Orongorongo Track. I had been on this track a handful of times before and it is very nice to walk on. There is a slight rise to it at the start but after that it is fairly flat. There is one small detour at the moment around a broken bridge, which makes for about 30 seconds of off-track adventure. The group naturally began to split and Elodie, Yen Fei and I plodded along together. We arrived at the big arch bridge by the Orongorongo Stream at 8.35 am. It had started to spit a bit so we huddled under the bridge and regrouped. There had been some talk of walking up the river, but we decided to stick to the track as it was more sheltered from the rain. Us three ladies started off again together, ahead of the others, but were soon overtaken by the speedy ones. The rain stopped and started over the next hour and a half, as we continued our plod along the Big Bend Track. There were a few more ups and downs on this section of the track than on the Orongorongo leg, getting us ready for the climb to come. There was also another bit of off-track adventure as we had to step over some tree fall between Haurangi Hut and the end of the Big Bend Track. We regrouped again just before 10 am at the Orongorongo River valley. Photo Yen Fei

As luck would have it, the moment we got out of the van and tried to get ourselves organized, it started to rain. This did not bode well for the day. Everyone rugged up

Pre-race briefing. Photos Aimee in their rain jackets and Amanda gave a short pre-race briefing, which included Richard being nominated as tail-end Charlie. The rain had stopped by the time we launched ourselves into the soggy day at around 7.30am.

end of the Big Bend Track in time for some morning tea. Most of us had normal size muesli bars to chew on, but Mike, being somewhat taller and perhaps requiring more energy because of it, pulled out a giant-sized muesli bar called the ‘primal slab’. We all marveled at the size of it. It looked like excellent tramping food, if you could be bothered carrying it.

From the track end, we struck out across the Orongorongo River. I tried to follow the elegant foot

Pro tip - match your shoe laces to your longjohns for awesome compliments steps of Amanda in front of me, but could only manage a baby elephant impersonation through the river, resulting in wet feet. It was at around this time the heavens opened and dumped a whole lot of hail on us. I wanted to hide under a tree but there were none near. Above the crackle of the hail I could hear poor Megan’s crazed laughter from somewhere behind us—most likely a mixture of tiredness and exasperation at the weather!

The Mount Matthews track begins with a wide stony river bed, funneling off the Orongorongo River. It is well marked with orange triangles. There were a few more tributary crossings, ensuring that my feet were thoroughly wetted before we began the climb up Mount Matthews. Megan gave us another pre-race briefing before the climb in earnest, suggesting that we may need to turn back if the weather didn’t improve. Then off we went up the mountain. I tried to keep up with the speedies, but soon fell to the back of the pack. My stomach had decided to protest at such exertion early on a Sunday morning, making walking difficult. Megan and Richard were incredibly patient while I stopped and started, stopped and started, all the way to the turn off to South Saddle. There we regrouped with the speedies. The super-speedies (Amanda, Graeme and Fons) had taken off well ahead of us. We found a wee sheltered spot for some lunch, and Henry very kindly shared his hot tea with me as my lips had started to turn blue. Megan then began to reveal the snack store she had brought with her, starting with a can of Pringles. I couldn’t eat any at that time as I was afraid of upsetting my stomach again, however I made up for it later in the day when she brought the second can out!

After lunch, we saw some patches of blue sky and decided it was calm enough weather to keep going.

Mukamuka Stream

The next section of our walk was down the Mukamuka Stream. It was steep to start with, although there were plenty of trees and shrubs to hold on to. It leveled out fairly quickly and the stream got wider and more rocky. After perhaps half an hour, we were in a river bed as wide as the Orongorongo, and it only got wider from there. Along this patch we came across some messages scrawled in the sand from the fit group. A ‘Hello Megan’ and a ‘looking good!’

Stormy coast

Seal pup disturbed mid-nap

Funny little house

Nearly there

We spread out along the stony river bed as the wind pushed us this way and that, and I struggled to maintain any sort of conversation as the wind whipped the sound away as soon as it left my mouth! The river bed got wider and wider, and eventually we arrived at the coast. Here we regrouped on the grass next to a herd of friendly cows and mentally prepared ourselves for the last part of the walk. It was the longest section, and although the ground was flat and the sea views were serene, my legs were well and truly done! But we just had to keep putting one foot after another to make progress along the coastline. Luckily we were provided with some good distractions, such as a little seal napping right in our path, and the signature of our evil twin cousin club marked in the sand.

About halfway along, we stopped for Megan’s second can of Pringles, and Mike managed to polish off his monster muesli bar. Revitalised, we pushed on. As the track began to get grassier and the sheep became more common, we passed a funny little purple house that was well-provisioned with wooden seats. Had this not been the longest walk of my life, I would’ve gone over and knocked on the door, in order to meet the elf who lived there. However tiredness had drained all the curiousity out of me, and I could only turn my head sideways, acknowledge this silly little hut, and plod on.

Just as the sun was setting, we turned the corner of the coast and could see the lights of a distant car pulling away from the Coast Road carpark. We were almost there! Everyone in the group seemed to gain energy and marched on ahead, however even the oh-so-welcome sight of the carpark couldn’t make me move any faster— my legs had one speed by that stage and it was go-slow! Nick kept me company and we talked about all the awesome food we were going to eat, and how good a hot shower would feel, and then—we were there! Plonking myself down in the car, my legs were finally given a well- earned rest. On the way back to town we chatted, but the predominant mood was one of satisfied exhaustion. I was sweaty, smelly, wind-blown, sun-burnt and sandy—but also quietly chuffed at having achieved such a big day on my feet. PS: the food and the hot shower were as good as imagined. Trip statistics (credit: Richard) Start Catchpool carpark: 0730 hrs Orongorongo Bridge: 0835 hrs Bottom of Matthews Stream: 1000 hrs South Saddle lunch stop: 1140-1215 hrs Ocean Road Beach: 1440 hrs Orongorongo Station carpark: 1735 hrs Total distance: 31.2 km Max elevation 575 m Time taken: 10 hours Average speed: 3.1 kph