Wednesday, November 14, 2007

Cycling, Jamies latest thing

I've been getting into cycling a bit, as in the road racing variety, have done 4-5 races in the last month or so and am really enjoying it and doing quite well. I feel that I get better reward for my aerobic fitness in cycling than I do in running where my size and biomechanical inefficiences slow me down a bit...and its something new and fun. Don't have any cycling pics but this mtb pic is from the recent Motu challenge race which I did in a team with some friends, we finished about 4th or something, good times.

Arowhana

Well have a bit to catch up on, first is a walk we did last weekend up one of the highest local mountains Arowhana. This rugged peak is on the Eastern edge of the Raukumara Forest Park and provides awesome views of the vast hinterland of Gisborne. It is somewhat of an epic drive to get there, accessed from inland Poverty Bay via the Mangatu Forest, one giant hill climbs from 200 metres above sea level to 900m a pretty big hill by New Zealand standards. Once the carpark was attained things probably got easier. The hill was steep but the "track" was open and reasonably straight forward, great to see the typical sub-alpine vegetation associations which we miss in our regular travels in this region. After about an hour we had reached the summit and lazed around looking at the view for a bit. Penny was feeling adventurous and made us go down a different more exploratory way via some thick leatherwood and steep forest, good times though in a very seldom travelled part of the country. On the way back we visited the famous Tarndale Slip, one of NZ's most eroded places, was pretty amazing/devastated landscape. And helps you understand why the rivers around here are so silted up. One of the biggest hazards in the Gisborne area is the threat of locallly sourced Tsunamis from undersea landslides just offshore from all the silt that has been pumped out by the rivers.....a tragic legacy of short sighted farming practices combined with cyclone bola.