Rapaki track

The Rapaki Track is a gravel path that runs from the bottom of the port hills on the south side of the city up to Summit Rd. From home to the top of the track and back is about 10K. Gareth has run this route heaps of times. I've done it twice: once while 6 months pregnant, and this morning. I think this track would be much easier when not 6 months pregnant or pushing a baby buggy...

Gareth ran to the track and I drove there with Q. I was still sorting out the buggy and other baby accessories when Gareth caught up with us.

And then we were off! Gareth ran, I walked with the buggy.

The trail goes UP. It's not a terribly steep incline, but when you're pushing a buggy, you notice it. And the gravel just created more drag, making it even harder. I had hoped to make it to the top, but soon decided it wasn't going to happen. I told myself, Just reach that green bench and then you can turn around.


If you click on this picture to embiggen, you can probably see it's engraved, "rest and be thankful". I thought that was nice. The view looking back down was rather nice too.

And then a lady passed us coming the other direction, looked at me struggling to push the buggy uphill and said, "Wow, you must be very dedicated to exercise! Good job!" Well, I had to keep going after that.

You may have heard there are sheep in New Zealand.

We saw some sheep.

This is the part where it gets really tough. You can see the end now, and it's all up from here. But the end is so close. Must keep going!

Because when you make it to the top, here's your reward:

This is the view from Summit Rd, looking over to the other side of the port hills toward Lyttelton and Diamond Harbour. I love this view.

As Q and I were about to turn around to head back down, we saw Gareth running toward us. He had been covering other trails in the hills (he's a madman, you know).