Oxfam Trailwalker 2009

Special Event
Saturday 4 April 2009

The International Oxfam Trailwalker Event, Taupo NZ

On 4 April our team of four lined up at 5.30am in the chilly air of Taupo. We were certainly eager to go; promise of fine weather, and anticipation of bettering last year’s time had us fired up.

6.00 am Bang!

 Oxfam Trailwalkers: Brent, Jim, Carol, Harris There they go! A race against the clock for the next 100 km.
Along the river path, cross the Huka Falls bridge, through Craters of the Moon, on to check-point 1, a quick change of shoes for Jim, through a scoria quarry, over farmland, cross a couple of roads, walk up the hills, run down, run some of the flats, walk others, check-point 2, a quick ‘we’re ok’ with our support team and on to the Whakaipo-Kinloch mountain-bike track, a long climb up to the top of the peninsula, run some, walk some. Disaster! Jim trips on a tree root, hard down on all fours, quick roll over, jump up and carry on, disaster averted! Run all the way down the Kinloch side, hey, that was the 42 km marker, that’s a marathon completed. Into Kinloch check-point 3 at 45 km.
12.30pm, whew! Our support team has lunch already set out for us, but first a compulsory round of stretching exercises by taskmaster Jim.

Off again, and it’s the longest leg of the course with 20 km to check-point 4. About 6 km out from Kinloch. Disaster! Brent has a problem! I’ve, um, well never mind, but yes I have an urgency! An urge? Um, no, the urge is now an urgency! We find the necessary equipment to deal with an urgency and move on again. One more urgency a couple of km later and disaster has once more been avoided. We top up water bottles at a First-Aid station and keep the pace on to check-point 4, passing two teams on the way, that feels good. Check-point 4 at 4.30pm and 65 km behind us! Disaster! Support team hasn’t arrived yet with dinner. Disaster! We’ve lost Jim, no, he’s in the loo. What took you so long? Mind your own business! Support team arrives apologising for lateness, got stuck in traffic from a cycle race. Check-point 5 is only 7 km away, it’s still early, we will go on to there for dinner.

Mostly on farm and forest roads now, run wherever possible but not up hill. Carol has a fear of hills, somehow they slow her down. Hey you guys wait for me, we are a team remember, puff puff, how come you guys, puff puff, don’t puff on the hills, puff puff.

Harris is very quiet, you ok Harris, how are you going? I’m good. Harris keeps receiving cell-phone calls, can’t understand the Korean, but we suspect his better half is checking up on him.
We pass another team on the way. Great!
Check-point 5 at Huka Falls, and our wonderful supporters have dinner laid out ready. But wait! Taskmaster Jim orders another stretching session, fortunately all agree that the exercises are worth it. A half hour for dinner and time to get going. Umph! Running on top of a big dinner is not comfortable. Down to the Huka Falls bridge and cross the river again, up a steep climb and past the industrial area, more farmland and check-point 6 is in sight at the Taupo Gliding Club. The check-point is inhabited by what looks like a full surgical team. Ominous! A quick ok with support, put on a layer of polyprop against the cold night air. Next section is very rough farmland across the flank of Mt Tauhara, its dark now, slow down, no running, don’t need disasters here. The going gets better, we cross the Napier road and there is check-point 7 at 87 km. Only 13 km to go and its only 9.00pm! Team, we’ve got this in the bag!

Another quick ‘we’re ok’ with support, and it’s easy walking mostly on farm tracks or smooth pasture for the 6 km to the lake shore, now for the ‘easy’ bit, a beautifully-paved path all the way to the finish. Disaster! (not quite). Carol feels sick, do you have an urgency? No the opposite, I wish for an urgency, burp loudly, thinks she might heave, but all remains in place. Jim, slow down, how old did you say you were? We slow the pace slightly to be fair.

Turn the corner, there’s the finish! A brisk jog the last 100 m and across the line at 11.15pm. Whew!!! I can hardly believe we did that! 100 km in 17 hrs 15 mins! About 5 hrs faster than last year. We receive our medals and congratulations on our 6th team placing out of 289 teams. Three other teams ahead of us were not placed as not all four members completed the course.

Our thanks to the Support Team: Sharon Walt, Leone Morrow, Rosalie Morrow - without them this would not have been possible.

The ATC Team: Carol Exton (leader), Brent Rose, Harris Hwang and Jim Morrow (scribe).