Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Day 26: Hostel Relations

Today was our final night in a backpacker. Hopefully for quite some time. Don't get me wrong, I really enjoyed the living part of backpackers, always meeting new and interesting folks. But once you get out of the nature-loving, bed at 10, ultra-considerate personalities on the West Coast, it becomes increasingly difficult to sleep soundly. Something always creaks. Someone always grumbles in their sleep. And light always makes it's way into the room just when you're dreaming about dragon lairs, resulting in your premature roasting, your limbs flailing you back into reality. Good luck falling back to sleep...

Tonight was no different with a window behind the far bunk being slightly ajar and jostling a bit with each occasional gust of wind. Worst part was, it would happen just when you finished being angry with the last gust, finally forgot about the situation, and lost your previous resolve to close it "if it happens one more time".

Well, we hit the road early as we needed to take those pics at the lookout, get gas, and speed back to Picton to turn in the car and make our 1:10 ferry.

Everything went swimmingly and we even enjoyed some glorious sun on the deck of the massive ship (This time we had the latest and greatest, though apparently finicky ship). I didn't take any photos but it was like a nice hotel in there with mirrors and glass and hard stone everywhere. Wind was quite intense as we were making our way through the Cook Straight, and the captain exclaimed that we would be entering "less than favorable water conditions." The boat rocked enough to make walking hazardous, and there were a few sea-sick individuals curled up with little white baggies. I was uncomfortable enough myself to hold my tongue right now describing their faces. Got over it by lying down for ten minutes before getting up and enjoying walking through oscillations of weighing 50 and 100kg.

Let me say right now, Wellington is such a cool city.

• Nelson had great weather and a cute little strip but overall, I'd rate it as just a big town. Also, the population was generally older and less likely to be out or at least visually appealing on weekends.
• Queenstown is indeed very pretty. I could become a recluse and feed off the tourism out there. Lots of money and youth coming through but the excitement was lacking when I was there. Either way, definitely NOT a city.
• Dunedin kind of sucked. The waterfront was horribly industrious and downtown not very pretty. The school wasn't even that attractive to me. The fellas that took us in, however, were awesome! I had a great time kicking it with you guys.
• Christchurch was impressively lovely. Unfortunately, once you get beyond the numerous parks, gardens, and canals, it was like any other city in the US. Grid-like and no real high-rising buildings. In that sense, I can see it being pretty boring after a while.

Well, that's a pretty brutal breakdown of the cities I've seen so far. Let me definitively say they certainly beat most American cities I've been in (certainly beat Boston). But Wellington is awesome! Really stylish, exciting, and diverse downtown district, with suburbs that rise on sharp, steep, twisty-turny hills that tuck the city in. Great waterfront too! I think Cary made a great choice when he settled down there who-knows-how-long-ago.

Alex kindly picked us up from the ferry and we headed straight to practice.

Thought about just swimming but my achilles felt good, it was a circuit (not much running?), and I was there without option so I joined in. Actually turned out to be one of the most brutal... anythings... I've done since Bee Hill.

1 mile warmup.

3min uphill tempo "as far as you can go".

Tony set up a devilish set of cones, 100m apart, to sprint between, doing exercises at each end. Let's see if I can remember some.

20sec "press-ups" (push ups). sprint. ah, I already forget. sprint. Squat thrusts (mountain climbers). sprint. Something. sprint. 45s rest. fast feet in ladder. sprint. half-squats. sprint. 45s rest. v-ups. sprint. side crunch. sprint. burpies. sprint. high knees ladder. 3min rest

repeat 3min hill "tempo".

repeat circuit.

repeat 3min hill "race".

half mile cooldown.

5miles total?

Exhausted. Shower. Computer work. McDonalds with Shane. Computer work. Cereal. Computer. Take a dump from McD. Computer. Brush. Bed 2AM. Zzzzzz.