September 2022
Te ARAROA marker in Wellington!
This is an initiative completed by the Wellington Council, it is back to the orange triangles after Wellington city.
September 2022 - Progress and Thoughts
Hello Everybody
16 days to go at the time of starting this month’s summary
Well our New Zealand holiday is done and dusted, what a great time. We started in Auckland and worked our way down to windy Wellington as it is affectionally known. We then crossed to the South Island via the Interislander Ferry for a couple of days in Blenheim before moving on to Queenstown via Franz Josef and Wanaka, from there it was down to Te Anau before working our way back to Christchurch after a stay in Dunedin.
I was hoping to try posting a blog each day of this trip as a trial, however there was a technical difficulty that has taken me some time to sort out. I am attempting to complete these blogs over the next couple of days to confirm the Blog for my Te ARAROA adventure is successful.
Start Date: My start date remains the 07th October, most of my preparation is complete now.
a. Flight to Auckland
b. Accommodation in Auckland
c. Bus to Kaitaia
d. Motel in Kaitaia has agreed to pick me up at the Bus Stop when I arrive.
e. Accommodation in Kaitaia
All that remains is to get from Kaitaia to Cape Reinga on the 7th, this is still an un known
Progress:
· Web Site: Pages Published
o Equipment: Gas and Cooking Gear64
· Facebook Pages that will be used
o Te ARAROA 2022-23 (909 members)
o Te ARAROA Trail angels (5300 members)
Equipment:
As D day if fast approaching I thought it would be all too late to start adding detail relating to equipment, I will review my equipment at a later date.
· Training:
o Grounds used – 4
o Kilometers – 64
Thoughts: Whilst spending a lot of time traveling in a car during our recent holiday I had a chance to put some perspective around what I am about to attempt. We travelled some 2500 Kilometres and a lot of the way I was able to track our position using the TA app against the actual Trail, looking out the window at the Mountain Ranges that I will be travelling in the months to come. We stumbled across the Brass TA markers that Wellington council have placed in the sidewalk, well that started the hunt, we only found a further 3 makers and they were all at Twizel.
A Tramper from a previous year (Mathew Gordon) said in a presentation to people who were thinking about doing the TA that just by getting to his presentation they had done more than a lot of people will ever do, how simple and profound!
The Excitement continues to build !