Big walks in Dunedin!

Christmas wasn't spent just sitting around eating and drinking.  No sirree!  With a view like this from my sister Kate's house in Highcliff, Dunedin, and the weather being amazing how could we not go on some nice big walks? 

Our first walk was down the road to Larnach Castle and back, then we took a track down to McAndrews Bay.  After a brief fish and chip stop (how could we not indulge in some good old Kiwi fish and chips by the sea?) we walked it off by climbing back up the hill!  A bit of a tough climb it was, but great hill training, and we worked out it would have been about a 16km round trip.

A couple of days later, the whole lot of us (6 adults, 3 kids and a dog) took a walk up Flagstaff.  The weather was amazing and it was a pretty easy walk.  Had a picnic at the top.  Here's the view:

A couple of days after that we took a trip down the Buskin track to the coast.  Normally you could get right to the beach but it is Yellow Eyed Penguin breeding season so it was closed off.  Still, some great views on the way down.  It took us about one and a quarter hours with a nice climb back up the Paradise Track.  This is Anton near an old hut:

The last walk was a quickee up the hill at the back of the kennels.

We have realised from doing these walks that we need to do:

A) More hill work!
B) Longer walks (will build up from 2-3 hr walks to 6-7hr walks)

That's all for now, roll on 2012 and more training and fundraising!  6 months to go!!

XXX
Helen