Day 1: Zero day in Auckland city
Day 2: 15km to Onehunga, train to Pukekohe, then another 2km to our friends place. 17km total.
Day 3: Zero day in Pukekohe for my 30th
Day 4: 16 km from Rangiriri to Huntly
Day 5: Bus to Hamilton City
Total days on the trail: 32
Total 758km out of 3000km
So I turned 30 this week. Big event made bigger by the fact that we are currently walking the length of the Country. Pretty cool life story though. The timing of it was quite perfect as we have had a great week filled with familiar friendly faces and of course more food as we came through our hometown. We slept amazingly in our hotel room in Auckland City and the next morning was nice and lazy. I showered and even combed my hair as I was popping into my old workplace to visit for a couple of hours. That was awesome to see everyone and be able to talk about the trail with people who were actually interested! Loads of questions and encouragement later, I had lunch with my bestie Candice (just like old times) and then reconnected with Glen to do some planning for the afternoon. He had also managed to meet up with his old work mates for the morning too. Perfect little morale boost thanks guys!
The next day was mostly enjoyable. We walked the Coast to Coast Walkway which takes you right through the city of Auckland out to Onehunga. Its very cool walking through parts of Auckland we have only ever driven through before. Plenty of interesting people around too. The only negative was a moment in the domain where I had a weird shortness of breath attack. I had had this a couple of times last week in the Mangawhai to Dome Valley section and had put that down to my fitness climbing mountains, but this was on the flat! And I have been walking consistently for a month so my fitness should be good! I left it, wondering whether I could have asthma or whether it was some kind of panic attack...Once at Onehunga we had a quick lunch then had an adventure catching the train from there through to Pukekohe. There is something very wrong with the train system as we had to change trains twice just to get to Pukekohe, which is really not very efficient. From Pukekohe we had another couple of kms to walk to our friends house where we were staying the night.
Once our friends Ben and Glen (or Bean and Coxie) showed up, my Glen announced we were going out to dinner for my birthday eve. Awesome surprise! We drove down to the restaurant and ate our little hearts out. There was even going to be a cake, except Bean managed to forget this part of the plan....he made up for it though by suggesting we get Ben & Jerry's ice-cream instead. That stuff is pretty amazing! After dinner we had a tour of the Christmas lights on their street and then it was off to sleep.
The next day, being my actual birthday, we decided to keep it chill. Our other good friends Mike and Stacey agreed to take us home from work with them in the afternoon to save us walking from Mercer to theirs. That meant we had the whole day to relax at Beans and Coxies. The first half of the day was good, but then when I was having a phone catch up with my parents, they got a bit concerned about the weird breathing i had and suggested I see a doctor. As we were in a town with access to one, we ended up going in to the emergency clinic. The doctor was concerned too and suggested I get a blood test to see what my iron levels were like. It was either that or I have adult onset asthma induced by pollen! Would have to wait to find out for sure. So after walking on my day off, getting a blood test on my birthday and taking home my first inhaler, I was feeling like I turned 30 and literally fell apart. Is this what it's like to get old?!
We got back to Bean and Coxies just as the sky opened up again (phew managed to miss us once again) and did more chilling until Mike finished work and could pick us up. A short drive later we were pulling into their driveway, unloading our packs and being pounced on by two little white fluffs. We had met Winston before and he was still a little unsure of us, but Lulu is the latest bichon addition to the family and she was happy to have cuddles with us! Stacey toiled all evening cooking me nachos for birthday dinner. As I had missed out in the Dome Valley, I was super excited about this! And it was delicious of course! Then just as we were about to head to bed after such a good day, Stacey put the icing on the cake...literally...she got me a cake! Candles and everything! Best. Day. Ever.
Unfortunately we had to continue on our adventure the next morning. We said goodbye and managed to walk the section from Rangiriri to Huntly with no issues. I had to wait another day or two before my blood results would come back, so I spent a lot of the day trying to work out what, if anything, was wrong with me. The walk was good, not so far we couldn't handle it and it was all flat through the farmland next to the Waikato river. Stopbank, stile, cows, stopbank, stile, cows, was pretty much how it went. This time the cows were mostly friendly and some even started following us as they were interested in us!
We arrived in Huntly relatively early and got a room at the Essex Arms. It was as good as it sounds...just as we were getting a second lunch from the bakery the doctor called. Turns out my iron levels are below 6! Normal levels are between 12-15. This is almost anaemic and rather worrying....ooops...this explains my shortness of breath and the level of fatigue I have been feeling amongst quite a few other symptoms. All of which I had put down to me just not being very good at hiking! Seems that's not it yay! Literally in 3 weeks of hiking, the exercise increase and diet change caused this much of a drop. I started on the iron tablets he prescribed straight away and we got giant, bloody steaks for dinner. We will also spend time in the next few days looking at other food options/supplements we can take to fix this.
We slept surprisingly well and for about 10 hours...but I woke up feeling awful. I was sweating when doing nothing, shaking and felt dizzy. I have had this a bit in the last week and now I know what's causing these symptoms, but it still doesn't help me feel better. We were about to start our walk to Ngaruwahia, but decided to bus to Hamilton instead. We will take 2 days there to eat as much meat as we can and give the tablets a few days to build up in my system. Glen has been just as tired as me each day, which is why we just thought we were bad at hiking, but he will take a dose of the iron tablets too as I am pretty sure he will be low as well.
Another rest section after barely walking the last few days anyway brings on quite a strong feeling of guilt. But health comes first and I would rather not continue hiking feeling the way I have been if i dont need to. Hopefully after this little hiccup it will be straight into the wilderness again, climbing mountains and fording rivers and feeling healthy and strong! Bring it on!
Day 4: 16 km from Rangiriri to Huntly
Day 5: Bus to Hamilton City
Total days on the trail: 32
Total 758km out of 3000km
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| Cornwall Park |
The next day was mostly enjoyable. We walked the Coast to Coast Walkway which takes you right through the city of Auckland out to Onehunga. Its very cool walking through parts of Auckland we have only ever driven through before. Plenty of interesting people around too. The only negative was a moment in the domain where I had a weird shortness of breath attack. I had had this a couple of times last week in the Mangawhai to Dome Valley section and had put that down to my fitness climbing mountains, but this was on the flat! And I have been walking consistently for a month so my fitness should be good! I left it, wondering whether I could have asthma or whether it was some kind of panic attack...Once at Onehunga we had a quick lunch then had an adventure catching the train from there through to Pukekohe. There is something very wrong with the train system as we had to change trains twice just to get to Pukekohe, which is really not very efficient. From Pukekohe we had another couple of kms to walk to our friends house where we were staying the night.
Once our friends Ben and Glen (or Bean and Coxie) showed up, my Glen announced we were going out to dinner for my birthday eve. Awesome surprise! We drove down to the restaurant and ate our little hearts out. There was even going to be a cake, except Bean managed to forget this part of the plan....he made up for it though by suggesting we get Ben & Jerry's ice-cream instead. That stuff is pretty amazing! After dinner we had a tour of the Christmas lights on their street and then it was off to sleep.
The next day, being my actual birthday, we decided to keep it chill. Our other good friends Mike and Stacey agreed to take us home from work with them in the afternoon to save us walking from Mercer to theirs. That meant we had the whole day to relax at Beans and Coxies. The first half of the day was good, but then when I was having a phone catch up with my parents, they got a bit concerned about the weird breathing i had and suggested I see a doctor. As we were in a town with access to one, we ended up going in to the emergency clinic. The doctor was concerned too and suggested I get a blood test to see what my iron levels were like. It was either that or I have adult onset asthma induced by pollen! Would have to wait to find out for sure. So after walking on my day off, getting a blood test on my birthday and taking home my first inhaler, I was feeling like I turned 30 and literally fell apart. Is this what it's like to get old?!
We got back to Bean and Coxies just as the sky opened up again (phew managed to miss us once again) and did more chilling until Mike finished work and could pick us up. A short drive later we were pulling into their driveway, unloading our packs and being pounced on by two little white fluffs. We had met Winston before and he was still a little unsure of us, but Lulu is the latest bichon addition to the family and she was happy to have cuddles with us! Stacey toiled all evening cooking me nachos for birthday dinner. As I had missed out in the Dome Valley, I was super excited about this! And it was delicious of course! Then just as we were about to head to bed after such a good day, Stacey put the icing on the cake...literally...she got me a cake! Candles and everything! Best. Day. Ever.
Unfortunately we had to continue on our adventure the next morning. We said goodbye and managed to walk the section from Rangiriri to Huntly with no issues. I had to wait another day or two before my blood results would come back, so I spent a lot of the day trying to work out what, if anything, was wrong with me. The walk was good, not so far we couldn't handle it and it was all flat through the farmland next to the Waikato river. Stopbank, stile, cows, stopbank, stile, cows, was pretty much how it went. This time the cows were mostly friendly and some even started following us as they were interested in us!
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| Crossing the bridge over the Waikato |
 |
| The calves we walked through |
We slept surprisingly well and for about 10 hours...but I woke up feeling awful. I was sweating when doing nothing, shaking and felt dizzy. I have had this a bit in the last week and now I know what's causing these symptoms, but it still doesn't help me feel better. We were about to start our walk to Ngaruwahia, but decided to bus to Hamilton instead. We will take 2 days there to eat as much meat as we can and give the tablets a few days to build up in my system. Glen has been just as tired as me each day, which is why we just thought we were bad at hiking, but he will take a dose of the iron tablets too as I am pretty sure he will be low as well.
Another rest section after barely walking the last few days anyway brings on quite a strong feeling of guilt. But health comes first and I would rather not continue hiking feeling the way I have been if i dont need to. Hopefully after this little hiccup it will be straight into the wilderness again, climbing mountains and fording rivers and feeling healthy and strong! Bring it on!
Happy birthday! This is a nice birthday way of celebration. Thank you for sharing this with us. Sams
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