PORT HILLS MEGA-WALK, 10 MARCH 2024
Kath had asked us leaders to put more trips on the calendar, so... I advertised a 'Mega Walk' on the club Facebook Page.
I had devised a cunning 11.5 km route that follows no less than 18 off-road walkways, steps and bushy trails ... with about 500m of elevation gain. Right in the heart of old Nelson. No carbon emissions necessary! I believed it to be a masochistic endurance trek, but little did I know how keen the punters would be! Or how successful my marketing efforts were.
March 10 finally arrived, and so did 45 enthusiastic walkers! (This may be a club record for number of attendees?) My poor wife and I had our hands full, trying to register 11 members plus 34 newbies. Maps were given out, along with a Quirky Quiz I had created to slow the punters down, get them thinking, and introduce them to some of Nelson's early history. The challenge was half physical, half mental.
Teams set off at intervals, so as not to crowd the confined concrete pathways and footpaths.
A couple of women bailed out, (one was pregnant), and so did David Cook. The other competitors had little trouble locating the blue signs, the gnarly little staircases, and answering my 14 quiz questions.
The prize winners were Hannah Gross (of Collingwood) who teamed up with our Eva Creevey to return to Pioneers Park in 2 hours, 29 minutes. A trio of women were hot on their trail, followed by three dudes who had done my devious deviation down the firebreak to the top of Emano Street, to collect an extra point. Only a couple of teams guessed correctly the number of steps above Tamaki Street = 355.
After 5 hours hanging around Pioneers Park, I was still sitting there, all alone, drinking copious amounts of thermos tea, wondering where the heck Astrid had gone to? All other competitors were accounted for; most had gone home. I had mentioned that there were watering holes along the way (and de-watering holes too.) Certain unnamed club members had decided to stop for drinks, some folks even stopped at Raglan Roast for a coffee. Eventually I heard that Astrid was delayed on a social visit, and arrived last at 1pm. Hmmmm...
Watch this space (and Facebook) for next year's exciting perambulation to test your knowledge and your summer fitness levels :-)
