The Things You See While Walking!

Passed this in Hokitika the other day.

For those not old enough to remember - this is what BMW's looked like when I was a lad. In those "olden days" this was called a bubble car. It's a two-seater.

How things change!

The Kindness Of Strangers

When we arrived at Hokitika the other day, a small package was waiting for us. The contents are pictured above. Two small New Zealand badges and a message from Denise of Alexandra “ To Vic and Gay. A couple of NZ badges for you both to wear on your walk. So you know that your NZ friends are walking with you. Denise”.

How kind is that? Denise owns and runs the Alexandra Court Motel in the town of that name. It is ludicrous to call her a stranger now, but she was just that only a few years ago. Over the years we have stayed at the motel she has become a good friend. She is immensely kind, always plying us with goodies from her extensive vegetable garden. When we left her a few weeks ago she sent us off with a huge box of plums which kept us and our next hosts going for some time.

We are always knocked out here by the kindness of people we have known for only a few years, and we marvel at how many of them have become such good friends. Lyn and Selwyn Cardno in the Catlins not only packed us off with a box of muffins, they had already taken us out for two full days and fed us more than once; next year we are going to Stewart Island with them for a week. Denise and Robin of Oxford have become much more friends than service suppliers. Tracy and Shayne in Oamaru were away when we arrived so they left us a voucher for a free meal at Filadelfio’s. Adele and Brian here in Hokitika welcome us with open arms. Jan and Ian, their children Sophie and Felix, and Jan’s parents Robyn and John, are far more to us than the family of ayoung woman who once trained at the same running club in UK (and who gave us an extensive briefing before our first trip to NZ, 15 years ago).

There are others. Most of our friends in New Zealand have supported Vic’s Big Walk by donating to Pancreatic Cancer research through my blog.

And none of them are strangers now.

Driving On

Exactly 5 months today, on 23rd July, my 70th birthday, and after walking 30 kms a day for 70 days, I should be finishing Vic's Big Walk outside the house where I was born 70 years earlier.

After one night in Christchurch, we crossed the Southern Alps today to Hokitika. We were reading only a few days ago that, because of known tension in the Alpine Fault, New Zealand (which has earthquakes every day) will suffer a huge ‘quake of at least 8 on the Richter scale sometime in the next 50 years (could be today or any time from then on, but it will happen). If the energy release is northwards, Hokitika will be among the town completely flattened. So we have our fingers crossed.

I realised soon after posting the last item about my failing eyes, that I had better explain why I am still, at the moment, able to drive, before somebody sees me at the wheel and declares me a fraud. I was not quick enough. When Adele and Brian, our hosts for the next 6 days, were greeting us, Adele asked me the question.

It is my central vision which is affected, quite severely already. But at the moment – and I am sure this will change – my peripheral vision can “see past” the problem and I have no difficulty – or not too much of a problem – in seeing things which are further away. So I can drive a car, although I would falter if you asked me to read a number plate. As soon as I believe the eye thing is making me unsafe, I will hand over the reins.

Going Blind

So the body is doing fine, on the whole. But what, I am asked, about the recent news that I am going blind (yes, I have come to terms with it and have started using that phrase, because that is what is happening to my eyes)? Yes, I may have to have a white stick, to wear protective goggles and to learn Braille.

I will completely lose my central vision and will be unable to read. There are further eye hospital appointments when we get back to France, to measure the rate of attrition. I know the rate is significant because there are things I could do only a few months ago, which I am not able to do now. For instance, I recently snapped the high E string (the thinnest) on my travelling guitar. Try as I might, I could not thread the string through the hole in the tuning peg. And yet only in November or December, I snapped the same string on a guitar at home and managed to replace it myself. This time I had to take the guitar to a music shop and get them to replace the strings. Bad news because of what it signifies about my eyes.

How is it affecting my walking? I have already mentioned that I can not see the walking tracks on any of the maps (total cost 700-800 Euros) which I have bought for the trip. Also, I am having a lot of trouble passing over rough ground or up and down steps, because my foot-eye coordination has gone to pot. In addition to that, I have to wear dark glasses to protect my eye condition from the sun. When passing in and out of light and shade, especially in wooded areas, I am having a great deal of difficulty.

As to whether the deterioration will be rapid enough to have even more effect on the walking and on VBW itself, only time will tell.

The Body

I get asked how my (almost) 70-year old body is standing up to all this walking.

The answer is mainly pretty good. I get a bit tired sometimes, towards the end of a 30 kms walk, but sometimes I sail through it. Sometimes I wonder whether I should go at like a bull at a gate, as I do, or whether I should take it in stages, having a rest perhaps after each 10 kms. But my natural inclination is to keep going until I have finished the day’s walk. I start pretty early and like to get it all over by lunchtime.

By the next morning my body has usually recovered and is raring to go. Strangely, if I have a day off, usually because of weather or other commitments, it is on the mornings after such a rest that I feel stiff and a bit battered. This normally is forgotten after a couple of kilometres.

I have had one or two scares with the same knee which stopped me running, but have managed to exercise my way through it each time. X-rays show no damage to the bones – in fact they are in remarkably good nick considering what I have subjected them to as a distance runner for most of my life. It must be a ligament, tendon, muscle problem.

So I am hoping that, barring accident, injury or illness, the body will manage to get me through 70 days of 30 kms average until I arrive at the target. In a few days over 5 months it will all be over. And I will be wondering what to do next.

And I am still baffled as to why I have put on 6 kilos while all this has been going on. My eating habits have not changed. My input has not increased. My output is definitely more, so I would have expected to be thinner, not fatter (and it is fat, mainly on my belly). One of life’s mysteries.

Albatross

Today we are rained off. It seems that it will continue all day so we have decided that comfort rules, OK. As I have frequently said, when VBW starts – in 86 days time – I will have no choice – I will have to walk every day, rain or shine – but at the moment I do have the luxury of staying dry..

On Saturday we drive back down to Dunedin to meet friends Rod and Caroline King for the day. They are on a cruise ship which is in port from 0830 until 1630. They will catch a taxi to the magnificent Dunedin railway station, which is definitely worth a look, then if the weather is fine we shall whisk them out to the albatross colony before dropping them back to their ship.

Albatrosses are amazing creatures. Not only are they huge, but their lifespan is similar to that of humans, they can fly at 80 mph whilst barely moving their wings. Their maiden flight is not a training run – they depart from here to Chile and around the world. They stay away for years, then return to find a mate, marry for life, raise a chick, then separate for two years of roaming. At the end of this period, they return to the nesting ground separately but on the same day!

They are wonderful fliers, but sometimes they get it wrong. One wonders what happened to this poor creature we found on the beach in the Catlins last week.

Only 89 Days To Go

Sorry for the lack of communication but we have just emerged from a week at Kaka Point in the Catlins area of New Zealand. Without driving some distance into a town we had no Internet connection and no cellphone signal, hence no posting on this blog.

As previously mentioned, we were staying at the splendid accommodation provided by Lyn and Selwyn Cardno (ably assisted by their schnauzer dog Otto). This is excellent accommodation and we can not recommend it highly enough. Over the years we have become very good friends with Lyn and Selwyn and frequently have days out together – two days this year, one touring much of the Catlins and the other in Dunedin. The picture shows Lyn and Big Walker comparing notes at the amazing Gypsy Caravan, full of all sorts of Heath Robinson and Emmet- type crazy gadgets.

Gay and I got in plenty of good walking between Kaka Point and the Nugget Point Lighthouse, a round trip of 20 kms. I haven’t totted it up yet, but we managed well over 100 kms in the week.

Today we drove through Dunedin and back to Oamaru, which we left two weeks ago today.

In exactly 3 months I shall be taking the first steps of Vic’s Big Walk and will then be committed to an average of 30 kms per day for 10 weeks until I reach the house of my birth and the finishing line.