NZ - Day 4 - Lonely Mountain Sprints - Day 3

Monday, 27 January 2020

Today the racing was just 5 minutes from our house, so we had time to sleep in a little before packing everything up and returning the keys. It was quite a nice place to stay but it had a tiny kitchen which made cooking for 6 quite a challenge with next to no benchspace!

The relay today was a two leg format - Jon and I were running together in our class while  Julia & Jett and  Zali & Riley were competing in the MW16s class.  Jett and Riley were not looking forward to the mass start but they both said afterwards that it was fun - it certainly looked fun as they all came steaming around in a fast moving pack!  They were both within sight of the leader at the finish after a hectic 25 controls including some loops and many many twists and turns!   Riley sent Zali out in third place with Julia heading out just behind her. 

I went out a few minutes later in about 3rd place on my course after Jon came back about a minute behind our course leader.    I probably had my messiest run of the weekend but I was still able to get to the front and finish there. Along the way I almost cleaned up both Julia and Zali in seperate running-around-blind-corner incidents!   Luckily they managed to avoid me.

Zali and Julia both ran the 2nd leg really well, getting first and second fastest times on that leg. This meant Zali was able to get to the lead, and Julia brought her team in third! It was a great effort and I was so pleased that none of us mis-punched  as heaps and heaps of people did due to the excitement, the huge number of controls and the complex course. Yay us!

The other bit of excitement today was this...

Yes - it's Jon and his luggage!  We picked it up from the Airport on the way out of New Plymouth after the event - if we hadn't got it then I doubt whether it would have been able to catch us in Taupo as it took 4 days to get to us in New Plymouth!  It's great he's got all his stuff back but it does mean he won't be as instantly ready to go places as he has been!

After that we drove pretty much straight through to Taupo. I had originally entertained thoughts of going via Mt Taranaki and doing a few short hikes there but the prospect of arriving really late in Taupo scared me off in the end - it would have added an extra 2 hours to our 3.5 hour drive.  We did stop for lunch but I have to say it was at a spot which would have fitted right in on our European Trip - i.e. not that nice!

Arriving at our nice house in Taupo was good. We rested and relaxed before hitting the supermarket for dinner supplies. Well Jon and I did, the others continued with their resting and relaxing!

The rest must have revived them all as as I write this they are all outside in the park across the road playing on the play equipment! And I know they aren't just sitting their looking at their phones as none of them have any coverage or data. Amazing!

Tomorrow they'll get to sleep in as Jon and I are leaving at 5am to do the Tongariro Crossing which will be good fun.  We will be back to bother them with other tourist activities at lunchtime.