Walking Up and Down

 Mac and I have been talking about walking for years. When Mac finished working full time, the talking increased, but still nothing. Other than occasional walks on the beach, we have not walked the talk. I finally decided that we needed to do it while we could still actually manage something longer than a trip to the mailbox. A friend climbed to the top of Mt Kakepuku, and I was inspired. She told me that there were a lot of steps, so I decided that we should pop down the road every couple of days for a couple of weeks to do the Bridal Veil Falls walk as a training exercise. We did it once.

Three and a half weeks later, I decided that the time had come, even if we hadn't trained - if we waited for that, it would never happen.

 At the top, after a painful trip up the last bit which consists of a lot of steps - my left knee troubled me for the first time in about three years, and then favouring the knee led to my right hip bothering me for the first time in a year and a half. Still, the view out towards Mt Pirongia made it worthwhile.

 I love this:
"To those who visit our sacred mountain
May peace be widespread,
may the sea glisten like greenstone,
and may the shimmer of light ever dance across your pathway."

The pongas are much bigger than those in our bush - a different variety, I assume.

 Halfway up....

 or halfway down.

Native clematis right at the top.

Te Awamutu - Mac's home town once upon a long time ago.

The upping was hard in an aerobic, sweating, panting, heart pounding kind of way. The downing was vicious as my legs developed tremors and I really thought they would collapse under me. But we made it, and since then I have been exercising so that the next walk won't be so bad. Mind you, the next walk will be flatter - I'm done with mountains, even small ones, for a while.