Malcolm's Blog
This thing is the brainchild of Tama Easton. What you do is ride from sunrise to sunset on the longest day of the year, because it is fun and to raise money for Arthritis New Zealand. Riding for 15 hours gives plenty of options. You could cruise all day between cafes and hang out places, or you could take on a do-or-die epic that could have you a sorry wreck, out of energy and out of enthusiasm a long way from home as the sun sets. Somewhere between these extremes is an honest ride with only a small risk of geographical humiliation. Living in Wellington, Andrew and I opted for a circumnavigation of Wellington Harbour, anticlockwise from Miramar and taking in all sorts of hills along the way - providing, as they say, views to die for. I tried to put off committing myself to the plan for as long as possible until a perfect weather forecast stripped away all the excuses I had conjoured up in my mind. I signed up for sponsorship and set about persuading my work colleagues that rather then just goofing off for a day's mountain biking, my day of pain had far more worthy merit. As the pledges came in, my resolve to make a decent fist of this ride grew. People seemed to think I was up to it, so there was no backing out. Gabrielle and Pip decided to get in on the fun, and they devised their own plan, mixing road biking up with mountainbiking, and we made loose plans to meet up for sunset at the top of Makara Peak.
I'm delighted to report that this re-kindled tramping lark is becoming something of a habit. While not that frequent, at least there is an element of regularity about our getting into the hills, with this latest foray being the fifth time Rex and I have convened the 'old firm' in recent months. This time we visited the northeastern Tararuas, specifically Herepai and Ruapai on the tops with overnight stops at Putara field station (Friday night) and Herepai Hut (Saturday night). Alan Ross was in town having just completed his season in Queensland as a field geologist, so he was along and the other member of the group was Rex's 'lad' Pete who brought a youthful element to this ageing cohort of trampers.
About this time last year, I consoled myself that even though I missed out on the Royal Society of New Zealand Manhire Prize for Creative Science Writing, after being shortlisted twice, I was at least on a hat-trick for being shortlisted. Well I achieved that with my latest effort - an essay on chemistry, submitted for the 2011 competition. Again I entertained hope of landing the big one, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe I need to change my pen-name under which these efforts are submitted... You can read my latest effort here.
Funny how you wait so long for something to come along and then it's over, done and finished in what seems the blink on an eye. I'm talking Le Tour here - fifteen days of cycling in France and with a brief foray into Italy, where the coffee is definitely better. We ticked off some big hills - Col du Tourmalet, Col D'Aubisque, Mount Ventoux and the legendary "Dutch Mountain" Alp d'Huez. Mindless repeats of Makara Hill prepared us well. We saw stage finishes, a start, the Individual time trial in Grenoble, hill climbing heroics and of course the final mad climax on the Champs Elysees. Cadel won us over (sort of) with an intelligent and deserving win, but we remain devoted fans of Andy and Frank Schleck, Jens Voigt, Thor Hushovd and Fabian Cancellara. We were gutted to see Vinokourov retire broken from the event and his career. Julz gave us something to cheer for and we Kiwi folk identified easily with the black Garmin Cervelo team bus - complete with the soft toy kiwi that the smiling driver would wave to us in response to our flags. Would we do it again? I think so - maybe when team Pure Black Racing lines up in (maybe 2015).
It has taken me 55 years to get into the Ruahine Ranges, so Friday night's drive north was laced with the extra anticipation of a foray into unknown territory. Red line! Rex and I have tried to go for a weekend tramp every three months and have settled on synchronising these with the equinoxes and solstices - for no other reason than they are quarterly and give us the full gamut of seasons in which to tramp. This last weekend was, of course pretty close to the winter solstice, so weather expectations were low. A heavy shower or two near Dannevirke reminded us of this but rain sounds so much worse in a van than in a car.
After a certificate/medal/result sheet audit revealed that I have in fact completed 10 solo Taupo challenges, my indecision as to whether to do the Huka Challenge (mountain bike race) or the road ride again evaporated. With 10 solos under my belt, I qualified for the Bronze Club and a swanky bronze edition race number to show off in the road peleton. With a fine forecast and the promise of a hot day, I was envious of the shade the mountain bikers would have, but lured as I was by the siren of elitism, I was content to have my appointment with suffering on the road provided I could do it in style. Imagine my chagrin when I collected my race number only to find that it was a vanilla number that made no acknowledgement of my previous efforts. That of course did nothing to diminish the task ahead as 160km of hot tarmac awaited my pleasure. The main aim was to get around safely and this year it all seemed a bit less chaotic and congested. My nephew Haydon from Brisbane joined us and we all managed to cruise around in good time, although it has to be said that Gabrielle was in the best shape of us all at the finish line.
The Manhire Prizes for creative science writing were announced on Wednesday and alas, I have missed again. Congratulations of course to the winners! I am already looking forward to next year and another topic. It reminds me of a challenge I read about once on a writers' web site - to get 30 rejection letters in 30 days. Looking on the bright side, I'm on a hat trick!
It was another weekend in the Tararuas for Rex and I, this time a jaunt up to Jumbo. Being Spring, anything could happen in the weather deparment - come to think of it last time I was there was New Years Eve 2009 and there was plenty of snow on the ground.
My entry for the Manhire Creative Science Writing Prize has been shortlisted again this year. Topic this year is the mind and my non-fiction entry explores the role of the amygdalae - specifically those of my lovely wife, Gabrielle, in the process of learning and extinguishing fear, in her case of bats. So sporting of her to allow me to write this stuff - but, such is her dedication to science...
It has been so wet this winter that the good people at the Meterological Service no longer consider "fine" to be a term worth retaining. The forecast for the weekend of 20/21 August was not surprisingly for rain - just like the three preceding months. The only hope the were allowed was in the wind being a mild norwester, rather than a bitter southerly. As the weekend drew nearer, the rain lost its prominence in the predictions and words like showers appeared. This was wonderful, because we were off to the Orongorongo Station to Join Brent and Sonja along with Peter and Caroline, and Grant and Kate.