I blame Loren. She’s got me into this mess. But Hello, I am achieving things. I’m even starting a bucket list.
Remember how I am part of BBM, or Buttabean Motivation? On Sunday, a portion of us met at the Brownlee Ave carpark in Ngaruwhaia to encourage James, a Hamilton #BBM crew member, to tick off one of his goals – to climb the Hux. He’s the big guy in the white singlet in the photos.
The Hux, or Hakarimata Mountain, can be divided into two portions. There’s the relatively easy walk to the site of the 1922 dam (nice waterfall is just past this) or the more strenuous climb to the summit. No points for guessing what we did. 1K almost straight up, 1349 stairs. Kudos to the Department of Conservation team who maintain the track!
Being honest, I have to admit that by the halfway mark I was pretty much done psychologically. My calves HURT despite frequent stretches and I was sucking back water. Also, being girly, relying on my Evian facial mist to keep me cool. Si was carrying the backpack luckily so we weren’t really limited. It was at this point we kind-of ditched the main group. One of the wall quotes was the Henry Ford comment – Whether you think you can, or you think you can’t, you’re right – and I took that on board. If I knew I could finish, I would.
Mase had run on ahead with Normo (a fellow westie) and Wayne, Zac following but I needed to pace myself. Si and I broke it down to 2-4 sets of steps, stretch, another 2-4 sets & encouraging each other along. Poor Si had run almost 25k the previous day, refereeing at the last day of the Tongan Tag tournament, so his legs were pretty tired anyway.
It took us the better part of 50 minutes to get to the summit; surprisingly the recommended time. I thought that I would have held us back. The view – stupendous. It was an almost perfect day (on a totally clear day you can see as far as Ruapehu, one of the Central Plateau volcanoes).
It took another 40 minutes for James to make it up. The majority of the group was with him, and we all gave him a round of applause and a high-five gauntlet as he came thru the last portion. You could see it meant a lot to him, to have achieved his goal, and that made it worthwhile in a lot of ways.
So next on my list? The Rangitoto climb. Pinnacles, Tongariro Crossing, the Auckland version of Coast-to-Coast. Round the Bays (at a walk). Waitakere’s Slip Track, and from Bethells up to Scenic Drive. I think that of those, probably RTB and Slip Track will be the easiest to implement.
sewscrapmuse 