Go Bush

As if running the 19.4km of the Tongariro Crossing wasn’t enough yesterday we had another 20km run planned for today, although this time over very different terrain… New Zealand bush!! Steve had planned for us to run deep into the Kiwi bush to reach a remote lodge 15km from any sealed roads. Once there we could relax and in the evening enjoy a Maori meal cooked in the traditional Maori way - Hangi. This is where meat, vegetables and even deserts are steam cooked underground using wet blankets and hot rocks. Sound odd? It didn’t disappoint. It was delicious ;).

The run in the morning wasn’t as early as the day before, around 9:30am. It was interesting to note as we set out that we had already finished the Tongariro crossing by that point 24 hours earlier and were on our way to the hot pools. Everyone was running, except for myself on the mountain bike and our guides - Callum and Abel (Callum’s 3 year old son) on the motorbike and Barry on the quad. We set out over the undulating course which included three river-crossings and some treacherous downhill and uphill (as evidenced by our guide Barry turning the quad bike over!!). The track we were traversing was set-up for mountain bikers (the 42 traverse) and was one of the best tracks I have ever been along (although I haven‘t done many). For around 40minutes I put the hammer down as I tried to catch Andrea (after giving her a 12 minute head-start) and had a blast storming down the track. Something I’d love to do again, but probably not great for my life-expectancy.

We reached the lodge via a flying-fox across the river before we settled down for the afternoon to relax and have a look around. For our evening meal our Maori host, Danny, had prepared our Hangi. A mix of chicken, wild boar, pork and beef along with a variety of vegetables and home-made salads. It was awesome!! We even had a traditional Maori desert which is something like a bread pudding in the UK.

As usual everyone was whacked in the evening so we were in bed at around 9:30pm. Another fun-packed day on our KiwiRun Journey.


One of the many bush views on our run


Hangi before...


and after


Our bush lodgings.