Saturday 28th January dawned crisp and clear. Into the car at 5.15am for the drive from Rotorua to the Chateau Tongariro for my second year of the Fix Tussock Traverse. Last year this was definitely one of my top 3 events - despite the fact that it was right up there as one of the very hardest.
Why was it so hard...
Well firstly, it is at the end of January, first event of the year for me and we all know what happens at the end of December and January (too much food and drink is what).
Secondly the course is pretty tough with a 2km climb at the very start of the race.
Thirdly: it was made more so with a wind of between 60kmph and 70kmph right into our faces for about 12km of the last 18km.
So I battled around last year in 3 hours and 29 minutes and could barely stagger to the car at the end... my aim this year, to take about 15 minutes off last years time.
So anyway, arrived at the Chateau just after 7am, there had been a frost (right in the middle of summer) and it was a bit cool. Picked up my registration pack with my Tussock Traverse cap and a cool number - 777.
We then all (nearly all) piled onto buses for the trip around the mountain to the start line. No drama this year on the Tukino Skifield link road to the start line (last year we had at least one bus get stuck) and everyone quickly lined up for the Portaloos. 364 runners this year, up from 197 last year.
We all tried to listen to the safety briefing from Dave (right), while at the same time eyeing the hill behind him that we had to climb.
Total Sport run these events very very well and had everything planned and plenty of marshalls on course (every 2 km of the race). Caught up with my mates Keith Crook and Steve Neary before the race started. That was the last time I saw Steve until the finish line as he beat me by about 25 minutes.
Keith blitzed me on the hill (left), but had a few problems after that which were definitely not the kind of problems you want in the middle of a race in the desert... 'nuff said.
The hill is a killer way to start the race, but it does spread out the field quite a bit which becomes more and more necessary as the years go by and the field gets larger and larger.
After plodding up the hill there was a nice downhill over rocks which was my kind of terrain as I am pretty comfortable running down rocky hills and made up lots of places of the next few km's of gentle downhill.
The first 10km were just east of north and over a variety of terrain... although a lot of it is sand and there were a couple of 'nice' sand climbs. There are stream and river crossings and quite a few up and downs through valleys.
Just after the 10km mark you join the trail from Waihohonu Hut and head left starting the trail back to the Chateau Tongariro. This is where things change on 2 fronts.
Firstly the wind, nowhere near as strong as last years gale force, but still the prevailing wind is right into your face for the next 10km and, as 8 of that 10km are a steady climb, it was not surprising that both I and my legs were feeling very flat through this section.
Secondly, there had been lots and lots of 'upgrades' to the trail. Lots of boardwalks, steps and gravel paths packed so firm they were like a road. While this sped things up quite a bit, it was disappointing for me as I consider myself a 'wild trail' runner and this was in places like a highway. However the scenery and the environment are still fantastic and you still had to work up the hills!
Once I got up top, parallel to Tama Lakes, my body decided that it still had something left and I got a 'third wind' and started to push a bit harder... about this time I realised that if I went for it, I had a chance of breaking 3 hours which would be a real buzz after 3 and a half the year before.
Down past Taranaki Falls... didn't have time to stop and enjoy the view, pushing hard and actually passing a few people.
Pushing hard can hurt though, while passing one competitor I took my eyes off the ground and next thing I was visiting the ground... CRASH!!! Adrenalin got me up real quick, bloody hand, hole in knee of my skins and rather sore, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me getting in under 3 hrs... so on I pushed.
2 hours 57minutes I crossed the line elated (that's me, the big orange one in the pic at right - thanks Christine Crook for pic).
On checking the results most of last years runners in my category improved between 12 and 15 minutes on last years time... a combination of the new trails and lack of strong wind. As I improved 32 minutes I was very proud of myself and have made a tough time for next year.
The Tussock Traverse is a must-do event if you are a trail runner. It is well run with some of the best scenery in the world - you can tell your overseas friends you ran around Mt Doom! Total Sport make everything run like clockwork, right down to a beer and a sausage at the end.
Oh and a big thanks to St John for cleaning up all the blood at the finish line.
Here's the Garmin link... Tussock Traverse 2012 by mike3950 at Garmin Connect - Details
As part of my job I regularly travel around the Bay of Plenty and Waikato in New Zealand's Central North Island. So, of course, I am always looking for a run on the way home from my meetings. As they are mainly morning meetings I generally have lots of time.
I have struggled to find much to run on the way back from Hamilton to Rotorua... there is a nice trail on the link road from SH5 to Putaruru, but other than that I usually have to detour over to the Kaimais to find something.
However between Tirau and Rotorua, about a kilometre on the Rotorua side of the big passing lane, I had noticed for a while the sign in the picture to the right.
It kinda looked like there might be some kind of trail, but I guessed it was probably just a hunters track, however I decided to go for a run and see what was there.
After the first 200 metres or so, I wasn't holding much hope, overgrown with grass and just a trodden path that looked very 'un-trail' like.
Then it reached the bush and cleared to a 'real' trail and a sign (left) to confirm it. A Loop Track... yippee... love loop tracks.
So about another 200 metres down the trail comes to a 'T' junction. As I nearly always run clockwise I turned left and set out. Turns out the decision was correct, next visit I ran right and after about half a kmit reaches the road just up from where you parked... so left is the way to go! The main trails was a nice wide trail with the odd boggy patch and of course the ubiquitous orange triangles.
A bit down the track you run through more grassy area with signs of the old mill railway that the track was built on in many places.
The grass trail is just that... a grass trail, so some care is needed as the grass covers some unevenness in the ground and you could easy roll an ankle in this stretch. However it is only for a couple of hundred metres at most before you head back into the bush.
All in all the first 4km or so is pretty cruisy with not much in the way of hills and just nice running - which suited me as I had the Tussock Traverse coming up a couple of days later. However at about 4km the trail starts to head down, being a loop trail (I thought), I could either head down or double back.... I hate doubling back, so down I went.. and down... and down.
At the bottom was a lovely waterfall and river... and a dead end to the trail!!!
There were vague signs that the trail may have gone further in the past, but no way that I could see to get through, so back up the hill (slowly though, to conserve energy for the race) and I retraced my steps back to the car.
At just over 8km all up, this was a nice run and one I will repeat. I will also take the right turn at the T-junction next time and see where that takes me and possibly update this blog then.
So if you are looking for a nice wee run between Tirau and Rotorua... keep an eye out for the 'Light no Fires' sign on the left hand side (heading to Rotorua) about a kilometre up from the big passing lane.
Garmin link: Woods Mill Track by mike3950 at Garmin Connect - Details
Heather Andrews and Andrew Shelly posted the following in the Trailhunters Facebook Group on the 29th December...
"Andrew Shelley
and I are doing the following route on Wednesday 11th January.
Starting at Mangatepopo carpark up to South Crater, drop down into
Oturere (cross country), Northern Circuit trail across Rangipo Desert,
cross country around the Southern side of Ngauruhoe to join un marked
trail back to Mangatepopo Valley.
Social/Run/Walk/Crawl/or Grovel what we can!! Let me know your thoughts :)
Time TBA."
As founder of the group, this was the first outing posted that I was available for and it sounded very interesting, especially as I was entered in the Tussock Traverse a couple of weeks later. So after a bit of to and fro everything was settled and even the weather came to the party with the first fine day in about 10 days.
So we met at the start of the Tongariro Crossing at 9am, bright-eyed and bushy-tailed and ready to take on the world - well this small part of it anyway. Planned time, about 7 to 8 hours... well that was the plan!
Lot's of others doing the Crossing that day, with it being the first fine day in a while, but we started out at a steady jog passing many as we went. We stopped early on at the Mangatepopo Hut for Andrew to fill in the Log Book as we were going 'off-trail'.
I was very surprised at the quality of the Crossing track, it was more like a 4-lane highway with wide trails, boardwalks and the runners favourites... steps!
There are plenty of steps, as those who have done the Crossing will know. But we set a pretty good pace, working our way past trekkers from all over the world, stopping for our first food break just shy of the top of the steps.
We worked out way up to South Crater and a bit above - about a 600m climb - on this great walkway... then the fun started. We just went down the cliff on the right side of the trail - as you do!
The picture at left show Andrew and Heather descending from the trail into the valley, you can see how careful they are being, firstly because it was quite soft and loose and secondly (and probably more importantly) it was bloody steep!
At least at this stage we thought it was steep, we encountered worse later... but that can wait for now. We made it down to the bottom with no drama and were rewarded with the fabulous view back to where we had come from, with small figures still on the trail just visible (pic left).
This bit of cross-country was fabulous, we avoided the natural plants as much as possible and the going was great with us able to jog steadily for most of the way surrounded by the scenery direct from Lord of the Rings.
Andrew had entered waypoints on his Garmin for the expected route and we worked our way towards the first waypoint and straight onto the Northern Circuit Trail - exactly where he expected it.
We followed this trail to the Oturere hut where we stopped for more food and drink and for Andrew to enter the info in the Log Book.
We bumped into 3 blokes doing the Northern Circuit here who happily took our picture... they were the last people we encountered for about the next 8 hours. We left on the Northern Circuit Trail and proceeded at a good pace with a few climbs and descents thrown in and having an absolute ball!
When the time was right, Andrew's waypoints told us it was time to leave the trail again for the traverse across the saddle next to Ngauruhoe and back to the start. Somewhere around here things went ever so slightly wrong....
We went down the next valley and started traversing around the corner on some rather tricky side slope. We passed a post on the top of one of the crests and headed off down the other side of the crest... for quite a way. At this stage we did what all blokes should do and listened to the 'gut-feelings' of the only lady in the group. Heather didn't feel we were in the right place and that maybe we should back-track a bit.
And a good decision it was, we back-tracked to a saddle down further South, expecting to be able to slide through the saddle into the correct valley. We got to the saddle and straight away could see where we should have gone... but there was no way we could get down into the valley without a parachute or a helicopter!.
So now what? rather than head several km's back in to direction we had come from and then climb back into the correct valley... we decided to head on up and try to traverse around the range keeping as high as we could above the vegetation line. This worked really well for a while.... even when we first hit the vegetation it was mainly mosses and ankle-height scrub and was no problem... until we got around to the north-facing side.
That was a double-edged sword... we got to the northern slopes and the first thing we could see was the carpark, clear as a bell a few km's away as the crow flies. Unfortunately we were not crows and there was now some serious undergrowth between us and the carpark.
Time to 'Bush-Bash'... well, that was an experience I am not in a hurry to repeat. Undergrowth so thick that we often couldn't see the ground - I disappeared down a couple of holes - so thick that we had to stay in sight of each other. We climbed through, over, under and around heavily intertwined scrub for what was probably only 400-500 metres and took longer than a 10km training run.
At the bottom of the hill when we finally made it the going was quite a bit easier - but not easy as such - and we worked our way along next to the stream and then up the hill on the other side, which, being south facing, was not as thick.
At the top of this hill it looked like we had one more downhill through the thick stuff and I was just investigating potential routes when Andrew discovered a trail, old and not much used recently, but definitely a trail. This lifted spirits and away we went down to where it met up with the trail from the Tongariro Crossing trail to the Chateau. You can see me celebrating at right!
After that it was a simple walk back up the trail, stopping at the Mangatepopo Hut to sign back in and head to the carpark... 10 hours and 47 minutes after we started.
As with all such excursions... once finished it became an adventure! I can truly say that although we at times struggled through some very very difficult terrain, I never felt in danger. We had phones with coverage and with our Garmins we regularly contacted Paul Charteris who became our 'outside contact' with our position coordinates (thanks Paul). My only worry was the embarrassment if we had to be airlifted off... which fortunately did not happen.
We had adequate food and all the first-aid equipment, exposure blankets etc and clothing required and I would never venture into an unknown 'wild' experience without that equipment. The only thing that got tight was drink. I ran out with only 1.5L in my backpack and took a risk and took some water from a grassy stream. This is not the best solution, however I don't seem to have had any backlash and it is now 4 days later.
My companions were fantastic, Andrew has a cool calm head and Heather stayed pretty calm in a situation that none of us were comfortable with at times. We discussed options often during the trip and made decisions (not always the right ones) that seemed right at the time. You will notice that there are no pics on the second half of this story, as taking pictures stopped being a priority, however at the bottom are some more pictures from during the day, thanks to Andrew for some of these.
Now, looking back, I would not change a thing. I learned so much more from the mistakes we made than I ever would if we had cruised around with no problems. If it had all gone to plan we would probably have finished in a bout 7 hours and I would have decided that 'this cross-country stuff' is pretty easy. It's not, even the best of plans can go astray and I truly believe in the saying "what doesn't kill you, makes you stronger".
Thanks Heather and Andrew for a fantastic experience which will be one I carry with me and treasure for the rest of my lifetime.
Pushing hard can hurt though, while passing one competitor I took my eyes off the ground and next thing I was visiting the ground... CRASH!!! Adrenalin got me up real quick, bloody hand, hole in knee of my skins and rather sore, but there was no way I was going to let that stop me getting in under 3 hrs... so on I pushed.
