BIG WEDNESDAY Walk

Gina and Mariska upped the anti last night by increasing their BIG WEDNESDAY walk from 16Km to approx. 21Km. Achieved in 3hrs15mins! Well done girls! The previous two wednesday walks were from Auckland Hospital (where they work) to Te Atatu Peninsula (Mariska's house). Last night they headed to West Harbour where Gina's parents live.

A big thank you to Gina's parents Linda and Trevor for use of hot showers, the provision of a yummy, hot roast chicken dinner & dessert, plus further donations to the oxfam cause. Thanks also to Matt who kindly met them at West Harbour and drove them home.

Fundraising Efforts

Well slowly but surely we are collecting some sponsorships! We have in the last 3 weeks raised $240... only $1760 to go! Not bad since its the month leading up to Christmas!! Not only that, many companies have offered us cheap products to buy, and we even had a whole box of Peanut Bar chocolates donated to our Cause by Whittakers- which truely are the best chocolates in NZ! And I believe this is soon to be followed with a delivery from Sealord... yummy tuna!! You can start bidding for those anytime you like! Also many people have offered to be part of our support crew- we hope their offers still stand when they realise they will be listening to a group of grouchy sore walkers after a sleepless night! We are extremely grateful to everyone for their support and good wishes.... Without you all we certainly would not be able to do this!

THANK YOU!

Aucklands Coast to Coast to Coast - Sat 15 Dec 07

More sore feet and blisters... but its all in aid of a great cause!!

From Aucklands east coast to west coast and back again- approx 30kms! And it took us less than 8 hours... YAY! We are getting somewhere!

After the really long day we had last Saturday we decided to head off nice and early! Yip! At 7:15am we were headed off from Ginas house(on foot of course) to downtown Auckland... to meet Craig a colleague of Gina and Mariskas who came along for the fun!

Now, most people would not even think of heading into downtown anywhere for a days walking, but we rekon you would be pleasantly surprised to know that Auckland can safely advertise this beautiful walk! For those of you who dont know Auckland, its a very 'squashed ' city with both the east and west coasts easily viewed from various mounts scattered around the city and beyond. We spent most of our day walking from park to park... climbing both Mt Eden and One Tree Hill along the way! Now this walk is actually only 16kms one way... which is why when we finally reached the west coast we headed back after lunch along the same route! We finished the walk in 7.5 hours, well above our target of 5km/hour ... and were eternally grateful for the delicious hot food Gina had waiting for us at the end!

Craig it was great having you come along on Sat... see you at another walk soon? We would like to add that if anyone else is interested in coming along in the future- just let us know... and be prepared for the pace!

Inbetween weekend walks

Whilst Andre has decided to swan off to the other side of the world on holidays... the rest of the team are hard at work... training for this marathon challenge... or should I say 2.5 marathon challenge??!

A definite hats off to Mariska and Gina who have have started a ritual of walking home together from work once a week... now that may sound like an easy enough task... but after a long hard days work would you manage a 17km walk?? Yip thats right! A good long way to travel... first time it took 3 hours, and second time only 2.5 hours. And they are now contemplating extending the length of this midweek walk- Go Girls! Go!

Other evenings during the week all the girls have taken to walking or in Avrils case jogging to get their fitness up. What a team!! Now we just gotta try get Andre back...

Just Kidding Andre- we would all like to wish both you and Lorraine all the VERY best for your wedding day...Obviously it wont be as special as it would have been with us there... but the team have taken this sacrifice to stay on track and we promise to get you on track... (the right non-muddy one) as soon as you land back in Kiwiland! XXX

Te Henga Goldie Bushwalk - Sat 8th Dec 07

16kms.... SURVIVED!

Mariska, Gina and Avril set off on a walk determined to increase the distance and the challenge in the Waitakeres near Bethells beach...

A coastal walk that leads along a 'dramatic coastline' something the walking guide quoted along with a short mention of a 'steep climb followed by a more gentle incline at the end'. Hmmm... not that much written about all those huge inclines inbetween, or the very rugged path!! It was a very interesting day... walking and staying on the clifftop trail was one challenge... another was trying to stay on the trail which sometimes disappeared into flax bushes twice as tall as we were... another was trying to fight our way through thick gorse bush which cut into our bare legs very quickly! You think we are exaggerating? Take a look at poor Gina in the photo above at the end of the day. :-(

Not sure what to write about this walk really...The scenery was spectacular when we were able to take our eyes off our feet! And we were really pleased when we got back to the car! We were all exhausted admittedly unprepared for the difficulty of the walk, but were well chuffed that we survived- even if it took all day!

A very special thank you to Avrils parents who fed us so well with a fantastic BBQ and salads... food we desperately needed after the long day!

Our First Walk: Okura Walkway- Sat 25th Nov 07

So having decided we(Mariska and I) were definitely doing the Trailwalker Challenge, we thought we had better go for a walk... Gina was off doing her big 80km cycle... so who better to persuade to come along than Andre and his soon to be lovely wife Lorraine?! And since we were still trying to persuade him to do the event we decided to do a walk that he could choose...

Oh dear! That was our first mistake! We headed off to an area north of Auckland for a lovely coastal walk- about 8km in total! The first part was straight forward enough- some gentle up and downs along the path which wove through the native bush. We completed the first 3 hours quicker than the guidelines, so stopped for a leisurely lunch at a cottage(historic for something!). Once well rested and fed we set off again... deciding to take a flat coastal route rather than the huge hill we saw ahead was a good idea thought by all- after all we were still trying to digest our lunch- werent we?! Once we rounded a bay we could see the finish in our sights... just straight ahead!! Somehow straight ahead seemed like a good idea at the time...(didnt it Andre?) and before long we were 'in too deep' to contemplate going back! Yip quite literally we were squelching our way through mud all the remaining 3 kms back... It was quite amusing... for all those safely on solid ground watching us...!!

Question: When Andre said he wanted to do the Trailwalker event with us later on... was that our next big mistake?! ;-)

Ginas Story...

Have you ever said yes to something without really thinking of the consequences? It was Monday 17th November, 2007, early morning. I was sitting at my desk, getting into work mode for the day when Mariska arrived at work. Standard weekend gossip was exchange with mention of “Grey Lynn Park Festival-Oxfam Tent-Andre-100km walk in 36hrs-need another team member”, to which I automatically said yes. Why I said yes I’m still not sure about. The following weekend I cycled 80kms as part of a relay team in the Wattyl Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. As I crossed the finish line, a little voice in the back of my mind was saying “80km is an awful long way on a bike, and I’m planning on walking that distance plus an extra 20km, am I insane?!” I think the answer is a definite yes, and I know it’s going to be a huge physical and mental challenge. However, it’s for a great cause and with you guys supporting us, I know we will make it

Andres Story...

What was I thinking?

It all started when we wandered past the Oxfam tent setup at Grey Lynn Park. I thought I would throw out the challenge, not thinking that someone would take me seriously!

But someone did! See Avril's story below, on how I have found myself on this webpage.

Mariskas Story...

ANDRE!

Avrils Story

It was a lovely sunny afternoon in Auckland- a perfect day to visit a fair or catch up with friends! Which is exactly what I was doing a few weeks ago not long after returning home from a rather extended time overseas. Little did I know that Andre would throw a huge challenge out on me/us- to do the Oxfam Trailwalker 100km in 36hours challenge. Initially my reaction was ‘Yeah right! As if anyone would be so stupid…’ but slowly as more time was spent thinking about it, the more the idea of this challenge sounded interesting and the cause so very worthwhile. And before you ask… Yes I am blonde!! So after a long hard think... Mariska and I had decided YES we would definitely be doing it and Andre had bailed out!! Typical Male- full of good ideas until they are actually gonna happen! And YES before you ask Mariska is Blonde too!! So we started asking around for more interested parties to join our team... and Gina was recruited on first request... no she is NOT blonde... just a young fit sports fanatic who happens to work with Mariska... One found one more to go... until Andre heard we were still planning on doing the walk...!! Being the typical 'not to be outdone' kinda guy when we said we were still gonna do it... he just couldnt be the one to miss out! At this point in time Im starting to wonder if we were just saying yes to see if we could egg him on...??! AAARGH! What was I thinking... 100km in 36 hours??? I dont even know how far that is!!