Team Meeting Wednesday 24th March 2008

What a fantastic effort put in by everyone! The whole team and ALL the support crew managed to finally get together for the very first time! With loads of food supplied by everyone after a potluck dinner we settled down to buisiness! There was lots to discuss and plan, but we managed to organise just about everything for the big day in as Lorraine informed us '10 days' time!
A really BIG THANK YOU from the team to our fantastic support crew.....

Easter Weekend - Independent training

Well with only 2 weeks to go and a whole 4 day weekend to go out walking we still were not able to gather for a team walk... so it was up to each of us to do our own individual walks! Besides a short walk out in the east on the Friday, Avril and her support crew and friends decided to head over to Rangitoto for a walk on Easter Monday. Rangitoto is a small island right off the coast of Auckland- another volcanic hill! It is an iconic sight from most of the east coast.... a beautiful sight seen by most Aucklanders on a daily basis.... but rarely visited!

It was a perfect day... with lots of cloud, but remained dry! Why is cloud perfect? Well on Rangitoto there is mostly dark volcanic type granite rock which when the sun is shining radiates heat from below... thus making walking twice as hot!
We headed over to Rangitoto on an early morning ferry and made a day of it bringing picnic lunch and swimming costumes too! After an hours walk up to the top of the hill and around the summit we headed another hour out towards Islington Bay before stopping for lunch. Those braver souls ventured into the cold water for a swim, whilst others headed over to the adjoining island to see what it was like! But being conscious of time constraints and meeting ferries we all decided to head back to the ferry port via the coastal route! This was a much rougher path and obviously less travelled, but had some very beautiful views out to little bays and across to Auckland city.
It was a lovely day out that was enjoyed by all who came!

Round the Bays 2008 ~Sun 16th March 08

Well it was our last attempt at back-to-back walking training. With Round the Bays being the main reason for going out walking with thousands of other Aucklanders! It was a lovely day... not too hot, not too cold and not wet... we all hope it will be like that for the big trailwalker event in 3 weeks time! But hopefully it wont take us as long to reach the start line!!

Joined by friends and support crew it was a great excuse to go out and enjoy the day.

With training still in mind we all did something extra...

Avril waking early to walk to the Round the Bays event from home so she could enjoy her afternoon off with family, and,

Mariska and Gina enjoying a sleep in, and going walking after the event to do the Eastern Bays Point to Point walkway again.

Walk along the Waikato ~ Sat 15th March

Appox 36km along the banks of the Waikato through local farmland!

It was once again... just the girls off tramping again! With Andre away in SA we were left to find yet another walk to keep ourselves challenged with! This time we headed off to do yet another of the Te Araroa walkways- this time down in the Waikato Region.

The walk started near the Dragway in Meremere in the local farmland. With an early start, the grass was still wet from the night time chill, and needless to say it was not long before we too were wet from the knees down! (and were aware of a whole new aspect to walking.... walking with wet shoes on!) Before too long the air warmed and the sun dried up the grass... and us! The scenery along the walkway was beautiful... following the wide Waikato river along most of the way! We ended the walk in Rangiriri for lunch before turning around to return back the way we came.

When we werent admiring the scenery we were:

-entertained by the local livestock... loads of cows in many different paddocks... and a few random sheep,

-trying to avoid rather large mud puddles by taking extended detours,

- trying not to get lost in gorse bushes, and,

-trying not to get zapped by the electric fences that were everywhere!!

It certainly was a beautiful day, and a good effort was put in by all with the pace picking up considerably on the paved flat sections! Well done girls!

Nihotupu Tramline Walk ~ Sun 9th March 08

The Oxfam Water For Survival Nihotupu Tramline Walk just had to be experienced! This is the only time the entire Tramline trail in the Waitakere Ranges is open to the public, so we decided to make the most of it! It was an easy-going stroll that took a couple of hours through magnificent native bushland, past the splendid Nihotupu Falls and through six Rainforest Express Tunnels. It was fun walking and ducking down low in these tunnels with torches looking out for the glowworms and wetas!

This walk was done as a fundraising effort for the team... THANK YOU to all who came for your support~ we hope you enjoyed the stroll and if it was too easy just let us know we can arrange something a little more strenuous for next time!

Waitakere walking~ Sat 8th March 08

Green Bay to Huia. Approximately 21km... over 5 hours?! Sounds like we are going backwards!
Actually if you take into account we were back in the Waitakeres... it wasnt a bad effort! And for Mariska and Avril it was an awesome effort... as they were deserted by the rest of the team... who had other walks and activities on instead! We started in Green Bay and walked through the back streets admiring the houses in Titirangi before heading into the Waitakere bush. Most of the route was purposefully chosen to be gravel roads and paths... after all the rain that has fallen over the last 2 weeks we did not fancy slipping and sliding too much in the mud and slush on some of the bush tracks... too much training has been done to date to risk an injury in the last month before our big walk! Thats not to say we did not encounter some mud... over which we carefully slid...(or tried not to) with Avril only landing once on her backside! Definitely a beautiful walk with some fantastic views. We sat beside the Lower Huia Reservoir Dam for lunch before continuing on into Huia where we were gratefully picked up by support crew member Finnuala-Avrils mum. We had planned to walk back to Green Bay too, but Avril called it short, with a pulled muscle in her back?! Sorry about that Mariska!

It was great to meet another trailwalker team out walking in the Waitakeres... Team Hodgson Supermums... we hope you enjoyed your 10 hour day of walking!

Non walker in Thailand...

And while 3 trailwalkers walked over all those Auckland volcanoes, team member numer 4 (Mariska) had the excuse of a meeting in Phuket...

Walking Aucklands Volcanoes - Sun 2nd March ~approx 32kms

An 8am start for only 3 members of the team... with Mariska away trying out the sunshine in Thailand! Our plan was to walk in a circular route around Auckland... to do a bit of hill training on some of the Volcanoes that we live so close to and never visit!
It was yet again a dull overcast day... only slight drizzle early on, slowly clearing as the day progressed... thankfully no major showers or rain to dampen our spirits! we started at One tree Hill and headed westwards, climbing Big King first, then shortly thereafter up Mt Roskill! From there it was a beautiful walk through a park most of the way to Mt Albert... when you walk with us you soon learn that the direct route is usually less interesting, if there are parks along the way! At Mt Albert we took a quick 10 minute snack break before continuing on to Mt Eden.... a rather extended route to follow a lovely treelined walkway we discovered!! Mt Eden, now a very familiar sight, was as ever, very busy with busloads of tourists, so we pushed on into town for a walk through the Domain(and a nosey at the Teddy Bears Picnic Event that was going on) and Newmarket Park back towards Andres flat where our fantastic support crew member Lorraine was waiting with pasta salad, the lovely quiche that Avrils mum had made, and all sorts of yummy treats to feed us up for lunch! it was hard to tear ourselves away from all of this to continue on our way... but SOME of us were completely dedicated to the training and perservered!
Andre, you only got away with it because you made the trekking up volcanoes look so much easier than it felt! Lorraine you have an excuse to not be support crew now... you obviously distracted Andre far too well from the walking plan at our stop!
From our lunch stop we had three more volcanoes to climb... Mt Hobson, Mt St John and finally One tree Hill. By this time the weather was brightening up and the views of Auckland becoming clearer and more beautiful!! After climbing all 7 volcanoes and covering about 32km we felt we had done a good days walking and exploring!

Top effort from Gina, freshly back on the weekend walks after "injury time out" who walked to the start point at One Tree Hill for an hour from home!

Fundraising Madness

With the big event of Trailwalker only a month away now you could certainly say we are eating sleeping and thinking Oxfam at all hours of the day now! If its not training its fundraising! If its not planning a walk... its sending out emails trying to encourage support... its thinking up new ways to try and raise some money! We are slowly finding ourselves to be good Sales people...

by SELLING...

~ oxfam unwrapped gifts

~ hundreds of fundraising chocolates

~ our donated chocolates from Whittakers

~ our donated tins of tuna from Sea Lord

~ Ginas homemade muffins... are going down a treat up on the 12th floor of the Auckland Hospital
~ Fundraising BBQ with colleagues and friends

~ Avrils Easter eggs... are selling so fast she and her mum cant bear the thought of Easter still being a whole 3 weeks away!

If you bought something from us we would like to THANK YOU for your support, and if you havent bought something from us yet... BEWARE you will probably be cornered very soon!

A special THANK YOU to Finnuala, Avrils Mum, who has spent a huge amount of time helping make Easter Eggs... all 70 plus of them... and still going strong?!!