Rotoiti Training

Show day down in Christchurch a month ago was a perfect excuse for a training weekend up in the Nelson Lakes, made all the more exciting by the Nelson OY on the famous Rotoiti Map on the Sunday.

Thursday night we headed up in some nice warm weather, camping in Deer Valley up by the Lewis Pass. Overnight it rained so our plans to cruise around the hills near by was quickly canned and instead we headed straight to St Arnard....where the sun was shining. Lara, myself and Tim had a race up and down Mt Vernon in Christchurch the Wednesday before so we were feeling a bit tired and a lot sore. Anyway we headed up to and unnamed peak which Georgia decided to name for her self on the St Arnard range. Then in some pretty strong wind cruised along the cool knife edge like ridge and down a spur that looked nice and enticing. Turns out there was a trap line down he spur so we smashed it and ourselves going hard down the steep slope pausing only briefly to do some yoga and allow the girls to catch up. Surprisingly only Joe and Myself were keen on getting in the lake at the end. It was a nice relief for my legs after a long run!

Next day it was Lara's mission to destroy us all. We headed up to Mt Robert Ski area and then back via a different track. Tim the hard man of the day decided run an extra 8 or so k's back to the bach (what us Southern South Islanders call a crib!). I took the opportunity to use the lake for some leg therapy once more and got attacked by two huge Swans who flew in to gate crash my little paddle in the water. Then while we all sat around and cooked dinner Lara took Matt out to smash him Mountain Biking in the evening.

So then came the Sunday, the day we were all looking forward too. Rotoiti. Its a special map like none other in NZ. Go fast and your likely to get smashed by girls...which turned out to be true for some of us. Smithson was very smooth and beat us all by a good margin, Matt stuck in there and only just beat that damn adventure racer Nathan Fa'avae...Lara was pretty close behind him and the rest are just not worth the embarrassment of mentioning!