January 22, 2010
I joined Jamie and the crew at Pipiriki having gone from a balmy 20C in Auckland to a rather chilly and damp 13C! Luckily Sunday we woke to blue skies and were treated to an adrenaline pumping Jet boat ride with Ken from www.whanganuiriveradventures.co.nz. This was a jet boat ride that gave more than just [...]
Categories: Cynthia, Jamie Fitzgerald, N12, North Island, Pictures | Comments [5]
January 21, 2010
An epic leg had taken place in the wilds of the Whanganui river!
We were joined a week ago by Phillip, Craydon, Matt and Scott, who have taken up the challenge from the sunny Hawkes Bay to head down the Whanganui river. We met up with the crew at DaKune lodge in Ohakune, gear was issued [...]
Categories: ANZ, Cynthia, N12, North Island | Comments [1]
January 11, 2010
I’m not entirely sure if the weather knew what it wanted to do today, so it just picked a little bit of everything it had in its repertoire and threw it at us. The wind, rain, and sun came in patches, combinations or even all three at once but North Island Leg 11 took our ‘hard-pills’ [...]
Categories: Cynthia, Jamie Fitzgerald, N11, North Island, Video | Comments [1]
January 10, 2010
The start of a new leg is always a challenge, meeting new people and getting to know the way The Big Walk works is the toughest part of the journey and today was no exception. This leg started with some goodbyes, first to our last lot of students, second to our instructor Liss who is [...]
Categories: Cynthia, N11 | Comments Off
January 10, 2010
The final day of another leg, who knew time could rush so fast?! We woke up this morning at Waihaha hut, in gorgeous bush with only a tramp to the vehicles to top off an awesome few days.
We pulled off an epic record this morning: tents down, breakfast in bellies and walking by 0710. The [...]
Categories: Cynthia, N10, North Island | Comments [2]
January 8, 2010
A new leg began two days ago now, at the Poureora forest campsite south of Te Kuiti. A car load of our new students arrived, and with six of them crammed into the van we were starting the biggest leg yet.
Tents were pitched and it was introductions all round as we taught the team [...]
Categories: Cynthia, Jamie Fitzgerald, N10, North Island | Comments [1]
January 6, 2010
Here are some pieces written by leg nine participants Jason and Robyn:
Wow two days down already of my four day leg supporting Jamie walk the length of the North Island and man has it gone quickly, my fellow trampers and I have achieved so much in just two days I am very proud of how [...]
Categories: Cynthia, Jamie Fitzgerald, N9, North Island | Comments Off
January 3, 2010
Spending the night indoors was great. We woke up to some low cloud but nothing too daunting. Despite having no tents to pack away, we jumped out of bed at 0600 to have a look at the Managatawhiri dam just a few hundred yards up the road – the steep hill seemed to wake us [...]
Categories: Cynthia, N8 | Comments Off
December 17, 2009
This morning we had Breakfast TV coming to catch up with us and see what The Big Walk is all about. In preparation for this it was an extremely early start for us! 5.30 should be a time left to the very tough and Chuck Norris (who could roundhouse kick the **** out of 5.30 [...]
Categories: Cynthia, N4 | Comments [2]
December 17, 2009
We all slept well last night, having completely worn ourselves out through use of the awesome waterslide created by Dave at Campbell Park. Nick was the overall victor in all speed races; his technique was the most effective. Negative points to Jamie for his interpretation of the “Ready, set, go” rule, he got off to [...]
Categories: Cynthia, N4 | Comments Off
Youre on the home stones now Jamie! Im sure youll be looking forward to Kate's home cooking and a snooze on ...