Route : Ararat,  Stawell,  Horsham, Dimboola,  Gerang Gerung, Salisbury, Nhill, Mt Elgin, Bordertown, Cannawigara, Murray Bridge,  Gawler,  Clare,  Crystal Brook,  Port Gerkmin,  Port Augusta, Alice Springs  Map please press  HERE

Sunday – St Patricks Day in Stawell. Monday 18th Horsham.

Tuesday 19th >  Gerang Gerung

Wednesday 20th > Kaniva

Thursday 21st > Bordertown

Friday 22nd > Banealla

Saturday 23rd > Culburra

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Thurs 14/Mar from Geelong to Elaine 53km

Wed 13/Mar from Queenscliff, start of Australian mainland to Geelong 32km I loved running with three members of the Geelong running club, they also treated Michael and me to dinner as well as arranging for the Quality Hotel to give us comfortable rooms and breakfast. What a start to the mainland

First day on the road in Tasmania I managed only 38km. I was tired as I had not slept much the night before while overnighting in Melbourne en route to Hobort from Christchurch.

 Australia is the most expensive country on the run.

Just an idea. I had a couple hundred New Zealand dollars left and was charged $10, discounted from $12 in the airport bank..

Michael Gillan, my support driver for the mainland leg met me in the airport for about an hour as we sorted out my gear for the Tasmanian leg of the run. I was shocked that the car park charge for two hours was Au$24!

The US$ and Au $ are almost identical. Let’s just say on a couple hundred dollars the difference between the two currencies would hardly pay for a coke.

That first day I stopped for a pot of tea in the Richmond Maze Tea Rooms Cafe in a small Victorian town called Richmond.

They also had all day fry up breakfasts. Pat and Peter Seekings being the friendly owners, Pat from Wales while her husband Peter a real nice jolly chap from England. We got friendly when I told them what I was doing and straight up asked for a 50% discount, no problem they seemed only too happy to help. I sat for a while with Peter, a very skillful calligraphist.

He wrote ‘  Tony Mangan Running Around The World ‘ in beautiful Gothic handwriting on an a4 sheet of paper. I was wondering how I would keep it nice and clean, then he offered to laminate it. I wrote my Irish address on a large envelope for him to mail it to while all the time aware of my poor hand writing having witnesses his beautiful writing.

I had a late start from the airport that day along with many stops so it was dark when I finished.

Just before I finished I heard a noise from a field to my right, then a small animal make it’s way through a fence before running across the road about 50 metres in front of me. It happened so fast and in the darkness I couldn’t figure it out. Then the animal bounced its way up a steep mountain, about a 60 degree slope and out of sight. Later I was told this was a wallaby, that week I was to see dozens of dead wallabies on the road, hit by passing vehicles.

 I slept that night in a field, a bit terrified I might add about all the snakes I have been hearing about, not only snakes but insects as Australia has more dangerous creatures than anywhere else on earth. Tasmania more snakes per kilometre than anywhere else on earth! Just about anywhere else people will tell you just to make noise and you will as the joke goes ‘ be lucky to see a snake ‘ Australians never say that, they rarely reassure you instead telling you they are everywhere and talk about friends in Queensland that have snake proof houses

That first morning on the road I jumped out of my bivy stone cold awakened at the sight of an ant, later I realised it was probably a fire ant and not a bull or Jack ant whatever they are as I had been told though not dangerous I would best not meet them! This is the only reason I am carrying my bivy here.

Yes folks we are going to have fun here. Those first few days I rarely left the pavement for a pee and as I ran many times my mind was playing games with me as I ran past old pieces of blown off tyre, rope, tangled branches and bungee cords all playing havoc with my mind. A tired ultra runner often zones out for a while. Always aware of my safe passige as I run in the decent two metre shoulder towards the traffic, always aware but with eyes slightly closed, sweat pouring into my eyes only to have a sudden jolt back into reality by such sightings.

Those first days I also saw many charred trees, evidence of the recent burning fires in this area. Next day another poor day only 36km, for I have made many stops, time just seems to slip away so rapidly. I am having to hump my pack as I run as I can’t find an Aussie sim card. I need a phone number to be able to successfully send the pack on by petrol stations as previously described. It’s also a lot hotter here than it was in New Zealand’s South Island.

No peace at the cafe I stopped in today in a place called Coolbeck.

The guy there told me to watch out for the Tasmanian tiger snake!

He said one passed down a side road only last week. Many older people here and in New Zealand often talk in the imperial system, miles, feet etc.

” It was about 5 or 6 feet long as wide as your arm and had a head the size of a big fist! “

Gulp!

Then he added. ” They say it’s the third most dangerous snake in the world. “

I was told to read an article on the wall, obviously written by a snake lover, must be a Green!

The article read something like this: Snakes are the farmers best friend since they attack rodents and other farm pests. The tiger snake hunts in daytime and lives on rodents, it often swallows a whole family of rats in one go, having long fangs it gives a deadly bite. The rats fight back biting the snakes scales which later heal from resulting maggots. They also fish in shallow lakes and streams and can co-exist happily with the copperhead snake ( what another one) as the copperhead has a completely different diet of mainly toads and other defenseless creatures.

Then this absolutely joyous person went on to write…. ” Due to modern farming machinery taking the farmer out of the fields the threat to farmers is significant reduced…. ” Blah Blah! Blah! Snakes are seriously misunderstood as the last person to have died in Australia was in the 1940′s ” Every time I mention this to an Aussie they laugh their heads off!!

What would you like to wrap up in a box, wrapped in Christmas paper for this joker! Yes a tiger snake, see how much he would love it… Here mate, I think you will love this present, you will never guess what it is!! 

That day I made it to Oatlands, everything closed very early, like a ghost town that Friday night. Perhaps one of the deadest towns I have been in in my life. I stopped in an expensive restaurant called The Stables. Once again I negotiated a small discount, this time about 25% with a pot of tea thrown in. I was starving, so got no choice. My braised lamb was delicious but far from substantial. I got to carry more spare food with me but I have noticed that petrol stations don’t seem to sell fruit, biscuits, muesli bars or other convenient snacks on the road, only crisps and chocolate. A couple of people eating at the restaurant  suggested I find a spot down in a local park to crash out but I had already noticed a cafe bar called TKO. It was closed, I guessed technically knocked out with all the fun in that small town that night. I had noticed that TKO had a veranda with tables and chairs left out, as nobody was about I could place about 4 cushioned chairs up against a wall and roll my summer sleeping bag out, also charge my phone up for I had also noticed an outside socket. I was still operating on my New Zealand sim card.

At last a decent days running still with my pack I slugged out 48km.

On the way a doctor stopped. I think he said his name was Matt. He told me he was an ultra runner who lived in my destination Campbell Town that night and remarked that he had stopped because as he put it ‘ you looked a bit hard core! ‘

 Unfortunately he was going to Oatlands (surely not for a fun night! ) otherwise he said he would love to have me as a guest in Campbell Town. Before he drove off he gave me $20 for dinner.

 In Campbell Town once again everything was closed very early. I checked the door of a restaurant called Jewel Diner. It was locked but I could see there were people inside cleaning up. The owner a nice man called Glenn and his wife Jo Staples brought me in and gave me a burger and a pot of tea on the house. Glenn said his two young boys Mathew and Ben about aged ten and eight were in bed asleep but as he put it he went to wake them up to show them the special guest they had that night. As the two boys wiped the tiredness out of their eyes I heard myself giving the ‘ old grandfather speech ‘ about how all things are possible in this world with just a bit of motivation, hard work, dedication and honesty.

I was just leaving for I don’t know where for the night, such things don’t worry me as they always work out for the best. Glenn offered me his pickup truck to sleep in that night as it had a camper shell which he used when he went hunting.

But before I went out he tried his best to give me nightmares by telling me that it’s a mistake for drivers to run over snakes ( I am thinking perhaps he wrote the snake article!) then he says the snakes can move so fast up off the road and get up into a car engine! That he himself has had four snake encounters and listen to this, he says that in Queensland (glad I am not going there) there is a snake which is the pit bull dog of snakes – it’s called Taipan snake as it will come at you for the sake of it

Then he brought out a blanket and pillow to his car. Glad he doesn’t run over snakes letting them get into the engine!

 I pounded out another two days, 49km each day and arrived in Perth. That first day a man called Les stopped on the highway to see if I wanted water, I thanked him for two 600ml bottles, refused the offer of a lift some 20km to Perth but he offered to transport my pack to the Caltex petrol station there. At the petrol station the owner Michael Geeves gave me a massive welcome, just as warm as the day had been.

 He told me I deserved as much help as he could possibly offer, how delighted he was to have the chance to help after how far I had been, I deserved help as he said. I asked if I could lay my sleeping bag out around the back on some old pallets and cardboard,

 ” Sure you can Tony, Anything you want, here are the keys to the toilet and in the morning come in and I will give you a breakfast and lots of coffees for the road! “

I happened to tell Michael about the hassle I was having getting an Aussie sim card, so he pulled one off a shelf.

Next morning he spent over an hour online trying to activate it while I ate the massive breakfast of about 3 large sausages, 6 rashers,  eggs, tomatoes, toast and 3 cups of coffee.

When I got up that morning I had noticed a $20 bill there on the pallet and didn’t know how it got there till Michael produced a handwritten note that he found in the yard from Les to me. Les had taken my pack there the night before.

The note read. ” Your next big feed is on me Tony! Good luck with the rest of the run. “

 I met Les a couple of days later on the road when he pulled up beside me on his motorbike.

Then he told me that he had stuffed the money and note into my sleeping pad, so I guess I didn’t notice it that night when I rolled my blue sleeping pad out, I was lucky it was not a windy night.

I felt strong that day after such a hearty breakfast making it to Delorraine. Once again everything closed including the Shell petrol station where Michael had managed to find someone to send it on with. I didn’t wait till he found a person as I figured it would be easy and right enough a lady called Linda slowed down and shouted across the busy highway that she would leave my pack in the Shell station. A few doors up from the station there was a small cafe called The Thirsty Camel which was closed for business but a couple of painters were painting the walls.

 I was starving as it had been a long day since breakfast, I had found nothing on the road for all the small towns were bypassed. There were sandwiches which were not priced, nor a price list so I obviously couldn’t buy these as I didn’t know the cost. Instead I just bought two chocolate bars and a litre of coffee milk which were priced leaving the exact change along with a business card on a counter with the painters. I guess I must have looked a sorry sight as I sat there because two men later came in to buy some ice creams and were refused. I didn’t go far that night arranging some cushioned chairs under the veranda of the cafe before settling down in my summer bag.

If that parrot opens his beak in the middle of the night I will strangle him!

 At 5am the lady comes to open the cafe long after the painters have departed. I pretend to be asleep. I manage to lie there for another hour till eventually she sends a big tattooed man out to say..

” Wakey Wakey Matey Matey! “

 ” Good morning, you the owner? ” I ask.

 ” No but Tammy asked me to see what the story is with you! “

 ” No worries mate, I will go in and tell Tammy over breakfast. “

I retrieve my pack in the Shell station telling the staff there what I am doing. They don’t seem to catch on. I asked their help to find a driver going to Burnie, my finishing point in Tasmania which is two days away. I wonder why I even bother with my pack. I really just need my small summer sleeping bag which I have in a water proof bag in a satchel, a small light weight top for the evenings, don’t need much. The staff there give me a coffee and tell me I would be better going down the road to a roundabout and stopping the drivers. I notice a book on a shelf, a self help book about chronic fatigue. A lady comes in. I think she was called Dianne. She says she saw me on the road and asked me what I was doing. I told her, she asked me how I was feeling. I pointed over at the book and started off..

” You see that book called chronic fatigue over there?… “

” Oh yes Tony that’s my grand daughter that wrote that… She had chronic fatigue and it’s all about her battle against it and how she overcame it and now she has so much energy… “

I just stopped myself in the nick of time. I was just going to make a comparison between my daily fatigue and the terrible condition which is real chronic fatigue. I obviously would never intend to offend but I never really thought it in the manner of two types of chronic fatigue, those that actually have a huge supply of energy, that can recover and crash again, just like me and those that just have no energy at all.. Interesting subject. Just then Dianne went in behind the counter, I asked if she was an owner, she said she was a partner and then got the staff to take care of my pack for me! I left a couple of business cards with Adrian with my new phone number scrawled on them and told him Burnie in a couple of days time would be fine. Next day he texted me they had a courier taking it along to Repco Auto Parts, 106 Wilson Street, Burnie after 4.pm and good luck with the rest of the run. The courier would drop it off with their other delivery. Nice people!

That was a long day on the road, 51km, I had been dreaming of a snack place and couldn’t believe it when I rounded a bend in a place called Salssafras. The Caltex station there had chips, bananas, delicious homemade soup and sweets, yes a real oasis

Eventually I pulled myself away from there and made a run for Devonport where I could have very easily have gotten a ferry to Melbourne and the mainland from. Instead I decided to finish Tassie one further days running up the coast road as Tasmania’s toughest and most famous ultra runner Vlastislav Skvaril lives there. Burnie is also the hometown of my old buddy Phil Essam. I have known Phil for about 7 or 8 years having exchanged thousands of emails. He has been of great help and strength, an advisor of sorts during my competitive career and now here during the world run. He was also a co-coordinator of my friend Jesper Olsens first world run www.worldrun.org  He knew I would eventually start this run after years of talk about it. In fact that is how I got to know Phil, it was because I offered to crew for Jesper across Ireland. I offered to meet him off a flight to Shannon in the west of Ireland and crewed him across Ireland in a few days.

 Jesper had originally planned on flying from New York to the UK and bypassing Ireland. I emailed Jesper and got him every night and meal sponsored in Ireland.

Myself and Phil who I felt I had gotten to know very well over the years had not even talked over the phone until a couple of days ago!

On I ran that day towards the port town of Devonport. It was another tough hot and humid day in which I passed many dead snakes, rats and wallabies on the road. I was wondering about where to sleep there. Phil had texted me to suggest a couple cheap hotels and a hostel on the west bank of the river. A cheap hotel here would still be $50. I think the most I have paid on the entire run for a single night is $26. I didn’t see the backpackers and followed the road for the ferry terminal. I figured I could sleep there. I stopped in a 24 hour cafe on Tarlton Street called All Things Nice. All things nice included the nice lady there that allowed me to lay my sleeping bag out on the floor when the cafe quietened down for the night. I got about five or six hours sleep that night, not much especially as I had only a couple of hours the night before, still I was fine. As I packed up my stuff around 6am another lady that had come on for the day shift had heard ‘ the story ‘ and gave me four meat pies and two battered sausage rolls for my breakfast! I saved just one meat pie for the road and gobbled down the rest.

So it was another 48km to Burnie.  A tough and sometimes hilly run. About half way Vlastislav or Vlastik as he prefers to be called came out to meet me in his camper van. We had  a nice chat about races and runners we both know so well from competition. Especially Yiannis Kouros the most prolific ultra runner of all time, light years ahead of the second greatest. In a class of his own. Some of his incredible world records will probably never be beaten. In this race the Colac 6 day race Yiannis went out from the start as he always does like an express train. He usually slows down after a few days but still manages a decent pace. Here Vlastik is helping Yiannis in this classic race when he hit a bad patch. Yiannis went on to break his own 6 day world record. Unbeaten in competition for over 25 years, the holder of every ultra record for 24 hours or over, well except two! To be honest he couldn’t be bothered with a treadmill and for some strange reason he never bothered with an attempt on an indoor 48 hour track record. That is till I set the new world record in 2007 in Brno. The luckiest break I ever got in my life, (and I have said many times on the blog how luck I am)

was the following year Yiannis entered the Brno 48 hour indoor race to have a go at breaking my indoor 48 hour record but finished 17km short as he had a bout of flu! This is the first time I have ever mentioned that in public. The man is a legend and we all trail in his wake.

Vlastik drove on ahead, parked and ran back to run with me to his camper where we would take a break for a while, slow progress, but so what.

Vlastik is from former Czechoslovakia, now the Czech Republic from a town near Brno, a city as many readers will know will be close to my heart till the day I die

He is now 73 having started running when he was 57! I always thought runners were stupid, then I started running!

I asked him how he ended up in Burnie and this was his story.

” Living in  former Czechoslovakia was terrible, we had not much food, meat was rationed and potatoes were scarce. I was a cheese making technician and wanted my family to have a better life. I wanted to take my wife Jo. sons Vlastislav and Peter to Austria as there were many Czech people living there.

” The people in my country were protesting, the Russians were not happy and invaded the country in 1969.

But because there was so much opposition to the Russians it took a full year for them to get total control.

” In the meantime I found out that if I had an invitation I could visit Austria, so I wrote an invite myself and made up an address and remember in those days it was not so easy before internet for the Russians to check every address.

” I waited till I knew someone going to Austria and I got them to post me back my letter.

” I thought the Russians would let me take my whole family there, but no the bastards only let me go saying the rest of the family could go when I returned. Of course I returned after 3 days as I had only $20.

” A few weeks later I replied and they refused me as they remembered me. So I waited a few months just before the permit which expired after 12 months was almost out of date till I tried again. Luckily that time I managed to get the four of us to Vienna for our short visit to see our fictitious friend. A few weeks later the Russians had complete control. I don’t think I would have gotten out after that. We did not get independence till around 1989 and to be honest we would have been much older and not have bothered, besides with independence it would not have been necessary for us to escape like we did.

” I found out Australia had a shortage of workers and my profession was in high demand so the government gave us residency visas and paid our fares.

” I had no certificates for my profession but the people could see I was good at the job even though I couldn’t speak any English.

I was a dairy technician and didn’t even know the English words for cheese or milk!

I was living in Adelaide and another man from Czechoslovakia was the boss of a huge cheese processing plant here in Burnie. By that time I could speak English and this man was keen for me to work for him so that’s how I ended up in Burnie. The cheese factory employed a lot of people in this area at that time, so it was very important. “

Vlastik got into ultra running by accident more by his love of trail walking.

“I loved walking a trail route, eventually I decided to run a race event on my favourite trail, the Overland Track which is an 85km trail I used to love walking so much. Just to train for running after I had heard about the Sparthatlon race in Greece on the National Geographic television station. The Sparthatlon  is a tough 246 km race from Athens to Sparta. I was mesmerized by it. That’s why I did the race over the Overland Track because the Sparta entry requirement said you had to be a famous runner in your country. So after running the Overlands I made a lot of phone calls before finding out about the Australian Ultra Running Association. I entered one of their races in Adelaide and because there was nobody of note running in it I finished second to some girl, I was the first man.

I asked the organisers if they would sign my Spartathlon form saying I was a very famous ultra runner in Australia! And they did.

I finished the Spartathlon in about 60 or 70th place in about 35 hours – even though I was an old man and usually only 33% of runners finish as they have 75 tough cut off points when you have to be through by a certain time. The race is over several mountain passes.

Speaking of Yiannis Kouros and the Sparthatlon that was the very first race he ever ran in his life. He was obviously an unknown who turned up to run when it was easy to get an entry. He absolutely destroyed a world class field finishing something like three hours ahead of the next runner. He finished so far ahead of the expected time that the mayor of Sparta who was supposed to greet the winner was still sleeping in bed when Yiannis finished. Nobody could believe Yiannis ran this incredible time. He was labeled a cheat, not given his prize and disqualified. He did not race for another year till he turned up at the Sparthatalon the following year. This time a car followed his every step and what you think happened? Well he broke the record he set the previous year! So everyone had to apologize and eat humble pie for an extraordinary new talent had now been born in the sport of ultra running.

Since then Vlastik has run many times across Australia and Tasmania. Sometimes on a push scooter as he did when he went from Darwin to Adelaide

 He always did these events as a fundraiser for children’s charities. Young Australians living with cancer. Smiles for Children is one of his catch phrases.

Yes we had a great old chat before I splashed into the Bass Straits to finish off running Tasmania. Part of Australia has been run.

I spent three nice days and nights in Vlastik and Jo’s house.

Vlastik gave me a much needed haircut before parting for Launceston where I will stay for the night with another ultra runner called Davo originally from Nottingham in England.

 Davo came out here for the fun of it almost 50 years ago and has not been home since, He is married to South African born Anne who also came here when she was very young..

 Tasmania will surely be literally a warm up for the real thing on the mainland. I can hardly wait, right through the middle, through Alice Springs, the real pioneer route. No woosie beach routes up the coast, yes I can hardly wait, snakes and all.  :)

As Davo said the ten most deadliest snakes in the world live in Australia.

 Queenscliff, Ballart,  Ararat,  Stawell,  Horsham,  Dimboola,  Bordertown,  Murray Bridge,  Gawler,  Clare,  Crystal Brook,  Port Gerkmin,  Port Augusta, Alice Springs

 Map please press  HERE

Sunday morning the owner of the tavern brought me out a bowl of cereal and coffee before I finally got going at 11am. I had a slow start before picking it up after my only stop that day  for a monster ice cream in a supermarket in Hampden. The guy there just kept piling the ice cream up the cone, a triple scoop of course, goes without saying. It took me 20 happy minutes to eat. That kept me going till I clocked out for the day with 45k I finished in a small town called Palmerston where my host a tri-athlete called Andrew arrived at a conveniently placed finishing sign for the day.. Dunedin 52km sign was photographed, I would be dropped back here in the morning, a back track of about 14km.

Andrew and his wife Cherie are a nice young couple who know how to enjoy life and the great outdoors. Despite my monster ice cream a bit earlier I had no problem in polishing off a delicious plate of chicken, rice and savory vegetables.

As Andrew works in a school in Dunedin my destination the following night he agreed to take my pack forward and give it to his colleague Heidi who was to be my host there the following night.

Well the start sign said Dunedin 52km but my route was along the longer breath-taking coastal route. Andrew suggested I stop for a second breakfast when I ran by the end of his road, so I did and Cherie loaded me down with bananas for the road.

On the coastal route I met Dave and Pam my friends from the backpackers hostel in Kaikoura about three weeks ago. They just pulled up and asked me what I was doing on that road, so I just said the same as you, taking the more scenic route. I meet so many people that I sometimes have problems putting names to faces, my head is in a spin by all the encounters I am having. We had a pleasant chat then they gave me mints for the road before driving on.

Back onto route 1 before turning left at the next village and over a back breaking Mount Cargill pass. More stunning scenery, more stops and then it was down, down, and down all the way to Dunedin on the left I ran by and not up Baldwin Street.

This was at km 54 of today’s 55, yes I ran by the foot of the ‘ worlds steepest street ‘ aka Baldwin Street. 161 metres long it has a 1 in 3.5 gradient and at it’s  steepest section is a 1 in 2.5 gradient. During the towns festival there is a race up and down the hill called the ‘ gut buster ‘

 

Next day I regretted not running up and down, hey 320.4  metres out of my way even if I did run an extra three to avoid the motorway into the city.

So, I got to the Botanical Gardens which Andrew suggested would make a good finishing spot for the day and called Heidi. I knew they lived up the top of a very steep mountain a fair bit out of town, so after my long day can you imagine how I felt when Heidi would have her Derek husband run down for me and I am thinking I would have to run up there. Any taxi service in town I am thinking, now that I have finished for the day! Then Derek runs down the road wearing a green tee-shirt and barefooted. I am thinking he is a tough runner but then I realized he brought his car and thankfully Heidi meant run down in his car

Many people here in New Zealand walk around barefooted. It has been this way for over 20 years I have been told, nothing to do with the recent very popular barefoot running fad. I am told it’s always been that laid back here. I never see a ‘ No shoes no service ‘ sign.

I very much appreciated the effort Heidi and Derek made as they literally have their arms full with their three month old baby Luca.

We had a laugh or rather Derek and Heidi had a laugh because their bathroom has a strange door lock and despite Derek showing me how to open it, old man here with his last remaining brain cell run out of him manages to get locked in the bathroom.

So I holler and holler till eventually they hear me and a laughing Derek releases me.

Next morning he tells me they were in stitches thinking the noise was coming from the baby alarm.

” Derek is that Luca shouting?

” Well Heidi he was only three months yesterday and I don’t think he can talk yet! ”

” But what’s that Derek? ”

” Heidi our baby doesn’t talk with an Irish accent… Is there something you haven’t told me!! ”

Next day no fear of me getting locked in a bathroom as I finish at a pretty lake in Waihola. I stop for a pot of tea at a tavern. No  where to stay here, it’s looking bad, no shelter. I find a children’s playground and roll my sleeping bag out under the sheltered platform of a slide, a new one! Still the soft pebbles were more comfortable than concrete. It looked like it was going to rain but it never did.

In the morning at the petrol  station a nice man gives me free coffee and two meat pies for my breakfast

I also find someone who can drop off my pack in Balclutha 43km down the road. She is only too delighted for she said she heard me on the radio a couple of weeks ago. Around lunch time I ran through a place called Milton which is famous for it’s kink in the middle of it’s main street. Apparently there are two debated reasons why after several straight as a die kilometres the towns main street does a swerve and moves over one street block. The first explanation is the towns folks wanted to preserve a big tree and routed the main street around it… Too boring an explanation, even the Green Party wouldn’t do that!! Well perhaps they would!

The explanation I believe is that two surveyors when plotting out the streets location sarted at opposite ends of the town from each other. They were both reading off the same side of their surveying sticks and made a huge boobie! Yeah! That’s more fun!  Can you believe I ran through there and didn’t even notice huge kink in the road. To me this is just gimmicky tourist attraction baloney, still I would have stopped for a photo had I noticed!  To my slightly cynical mind tourism people would do anything for a gimmick – the amount of times people have asked me did I not stop and look at such and such an historic bridge or beautiful lake is amazing.

Balclutha town is small but spread out. Speaking of historic bridges, which I mostly ignore… I ran over a large bridge. This time there was a decent pedestrian path. It’s an old bridge opened in 1935 at a cost of 1,400 pounds. Interestingly someone called DH has scratched their initials in the concrete rail when it was wet in 1934 and nobody bothered to remove it, I felt it added to it’s authenticity and great grandeur.

I made my way through the town stopping in a petrol station. I bought a litre of milk, heated a cup of it up in their microwave and added a couple of coffee bags. The friendly lad there gave me a meat pie, seems to be an area for meat pies. The backpackers hostel was closed down. I looked around for a place to stay. Noticing a gap of a metre between a wall and the Presbyterian church was tempting. I am sure I could have gotten some cardboard from the petrol station. I gave it a miss, must be getting soft!

After a bit of wandering around I discovered the fire station. Some of the volunteers were just locking up the office, so I asked for permission to sleep under a covered area for the fire trucks, sure go for it, I was told.

‘ Go for it ‘ is a very popular phrase here in New Zealand. I love it… Visions of everything is possible. I wonder why a sports shoe company doesn’t use it for a trademark.

I pulled out a few old carpets from a pile against a wall and settled down. Then I pulled out a fireman dummy and used his leg for a pillow. I woke up in the middle of the night and said.. ” Mister.. Did anyone ever tell you that you have a bony leg! ”

Then don’t laugh… I climbed up on him and used him as an air bed… Nice and soft till I threw him aside when I fell between his legs in the middle of the night!! Yes I did say… Don’t laugh

Next day I ran with my pack the whole day. I ran into Clinton and I could hear that voice say.  ” I did not run with that woman! ”

Yes Clinton is a small town here and astonishingly the very next town up route 1 is called of all things Gore..

Whats the chances of that ever happening and not named after President Bill or vice president Al Gore as I had wondered. These towns are as ancient as any of the others I have run through with all their war memorials on display dating back to the First World War. From Clinton I took the Old Coach road and didn’t get to see Gore. I had a decent 10 hour slept in a field under a nice clear sky. 54km that day.

Only two big distance days till I reach the Pacific at the end of New Zealand. I got off to a nice start that penultimate day enjoying my run all the way to Dacre. I had an invite to stay in a small village off my route called Wyndham. Brian, my host is the cousin of Alan Knox whom I stayed with in Auckland. He and Rose picked me up on the road in Dacre 20 km past Wyndham for I need the extra few kilometres to finish at a respectable time tomorrow.

Next day I took a rest day, My first in 36 days, a record for the run.

It was a glorious nice warm Saturday afternoon. My destination that first easy day was Blenheim some 28km away further on down south on state highway 1.

Suddenly a car pulls up and a man gets out. His name is Doug from Adelaide in Australia. He tells me that a mutual ultra running friend Sarah Barnett also from Adelaide had sent him a message saying I was in this area.

Doug who described himself as a rocket scientist for the Australian Intelligence Service, or more excitingly as a spy to me! He told me he was about 150km away and when he heard about my run he just had to hire a car and come out and run with me! I am honored! Amazing

So he drove on ahead and then ran back to me till we reached his car and did this for about an hour till we reached Blenheim. On the way he told me he would love to stay in the backpackers hostel with me but had to go back and feed the cat! Some spy I laughed. He explained that he had done a house swap with some people who are staying in his home for a week or so while he stays in theirs. This is a common enough arrangement by people that want a base for an agreed period of time. There are websites for house swaps if people are interested. Often the people agree on using each others cars etc. However Doug was a bit scared to use the one left at the house he swapped for because it was ‘ a big fancy and expensive job! ‘ Instead he preferred to pay US $200 for the hire car.

What a man! He also went on ahead and found the backpackers for me, stopped in a wine store and when the attendant asked what he was up to that day the attendant mentioned that his boss Clive Mc Farland who owns a cafe called ‘ The Store ‘ would love to meet me. So I was given Clive’s details with the promise that the attendant would email Clive. It was 66km away, an awkward distance if I didn’t get an early start.

I never did get that early start so decided to run to the Store in two days, a waste of a half day but I got to make the best of whatever opportunities present themselves to me.

So I just ran 26km that day as there was a backpackers in Seddon. That would do nicely as I can run the other 40 tomorrow.

It turned out that the backpackers hostel was officially closed down, but a nice man called Al let me stay on a mattress on the lounge floor. Al seemed to be a long time resident/caretaker while he worked in the grape picking farms in the area. He cooked me a dinner and breakfast before leaving for work next day. The night before he pointed out the Southern Stars in that nice clear sky that night. It was my first time ever seeing the.

When I did eventually reach The Store in Kekerangu that day it was closed. The number I had just rang out. I went hunting for Clive the owner. First stop was a house across the road.. A nice couple having a bar-b-q around the side of their house pointed me up a steep hill where Clive lived. They gave me a tasty Frankfurter for my hike up the hill.

As I guessed Clive hadn’t been informed by his employee about my arrival. The sky was darkening and it looked like rain that night. Fortunately he realized I was not a loony tune and offered me his workshop out around the back of his farm. That would do nicely for me, so I just pulled over a couple of sheets of plaster board and settled down.

Around 2 am he came over to the workshop, told me he had managed to fire up his computer and check out this website, I was told I was doing well and he felt sorry for the ‘ poor bastard ‘ as he put it that he had condemned to a night on his workshop floor. So I just left my things there and climbed into his pickup truck. Clive drove over to his house and gave me a spare bed for the night, pair play to him for getting out of his guilt ridden bed in the middle of the night! He told me to drop over to the cafe for breakfast in the morning on my way out of town.

So I did the nice staff there took photos and gave me coffee and a muffin. To be honest I was starving and really needed to eat but as Clive was a kind of a host I was a bit embarrassed to order an Eggs Benedict off the menu.

Thank goodness for Donna’s three sandwiches which I ate yesterday!

I stopped to tell a couple in a broken down camper my story. They were a nice young hippy type and gave me chocolate and bread. If only there were some shops, this patch had taken me by surprise. That day I stopped at a campground. The shop was closed and when the lady saw my disappointment she gave me bananas.

I tell you the people of the world are honest to good decent people, nobody will ever try to ram it down my mouth we live in a bad world, it’s just the so called bad apples we just keep on hearing about from the media.

I think people who are mean-spirited are sad people who should be pitied.

That night I stopped at Ohan Stream Point and knew there was a backpackers in Kaikoura, some 24km away.

At my finishing point there is an area where baby seals gather for the winter, I will check it out in the morning when I return.

I hitched a ride from a tour guide who pointed some snow out to me high up on some mountains. I have never seen that before he told me, the climate is changing here, strange things are happening and you know we have no ozone layer here over New Zealand. There is a huge hole in the ozone layer.

In the backpackers I met a nice Australian couple called Dave and Pam. They had not heard of the baby seals and when I told them they said they would check them out in the morning and drop me back at the same time.

So they did and I ran a lazy 24km that day leaving my pack in the hostel which was called The Lazy Shag that day, I would stay another night. I bought a load of pasta in the supermarket and when I got back to the hostel I just started eating chocolate and biscuits not really bothered to cook, I just fried my steak as Dave gave me a plate of veg and potatoes  so I gave them the pasta, sauce and all.

Back in my dorm, which was mixed there was a girl who seemed to be upset. She told me she was too sick to get up that day and had spent the day in bed. It turned out she was upset about her boyfriend changing his Facebook wall and had an argument with him on her mobile, I tell you some people have problems!

Another couple of good days to make up for recent slackness saw me pound out 50 and 54km.

I had stopped for water at a closed down for the day cafe called Mainline Station Cafe in a village called Domett.

The owner, a man called John gave me a sandwich before I left. He asked me did I want to eat it there or take it away. I said I would eat it there and  figured he would offer me one also for the road, correct, I been doing this too long!

John was a runner so I asked him to join me for a while on the road, he said he was busy but only ten minutes down the road his wife dropped him off for a ten km run with me saying she would pick him up later, I said I would pick my pack up from her when she returned!

On the run John told me about the Christchurch earthquake of 22nd February 2011 in which 160 people died. He said his wife Ester had contractions just before the earthquake struck. They were on the way to the maternity hospital in Christchurch. There was chaos all around, most people were leaving the city. They couldn’t phone the hospital as all the communication systems were down. He managed to drive up behind a police vehicle and drive very close and fast. The cop didn’t know or seem to mind. Eventually just 2 km before the hospital gridlock meant they could drive no further, so they parked the car on the verge and walked to the hospital! Young Seth will always be reminded of his birthday that eventful day, that’s for sure.

John suggested that when I reach Greta Valley that night to check out the tavern of the same name there as the locals are good people. I had stopped so many times that day that I arrived very  late. Indeed the people there were very nice Darron and Jo ran the tavern. They gave me sandwiches and 20 year old  Ricky who is a truck driver gave me a bed in his apartment next door to the tavern.

So while I ate my sandwiches and drank tea he told me how much he loves his job and will always be a truck driver, he is delighted by his NZ$20 an hour pay (about 13 euro)

He works M-F and is also a volunteer firefighter.

Next day I finish a 45km day at a cafe bar called Castle Park. Instinct told me to stop for the night so I did and after talking to the owners Malcolm and Linda they tell me I can sleep on the covered deck on  a sofa they pulled outside while I showered in the staff changing room. I am just 40km away from Christchurch now.

I reach a village called Belfast, or rather reach a bypass for I never saw the place. Instead bizarrely I met two cyclists one from Co. Down and the other from Belfast in Northern Ireland of all places and at this time, the only northerners I can remember meeting on the whole run, timing is everything! They are travelling very light, so many cyclists are overloaded and as the man said.. ‘ You only need one pair of socks! “

I run on towards Christchurch and see the signs of the earthquake damage. Buckled roads, cracked and broken away pavements, swamped over cycle ways  signs warn of the damage. I am told the city centre which suffered badly is a sad place. Most of the victims were in the CTV television building when it struck at ten minutes to one that fateful afternoon. I was told had it struck ten minutes later that so many more people would have been back from lunch and the causalities would have been much greater.

I had a contact in Christchurch, a friend of my friend Alan Knox from Auckland. Her name is Valmai. A kind-hearted woman who has fostered about 25 children over her lifetime. I was told she would gladly foster me for the night and when I returned after running the country awaiting my flight to Tasmania.

Yes indeed Valmai was like my New Zealand mother, so many mothers I have collected over the course of the run, it’s amazing. She could not do enough for me it seemed. Spoilt me, did my washing and allowed me to have some stuff sent here including my 32 pair of shoes which I ran out of her drive way with the next day.

Two men also were staying there called Dave and Phil. Dave went down to the supermarket bought some pasta, tuna, bananas and cereal bars for me for the road. He then cooked up two pasta meals putting them into plastic containers for me to stuff into my backpack.I will be back after I run the last 610km of my 18th country of the run.

Christchurch has suffered a lot due to 2 relatively recent earthquakes in recent years.  In September 2010 a 10 minute rattle of the city caused much damage but as it occurred in the middle of the night miraculously nobody was killed. A second earthquake occurred in February 2011 in the afternoon which unfortunately took the lives  of around 160 people. This lasted just 18 seconds and caused significant damage to the cities infrastructure and peoples homes.

So obviously people are still dealing with these issues. I saw much of the damage on the run into the city.

I am told there are about ten fault lines here, nobody realized the area was such a high risk zone.

I didn’t get far that day for it was a late start, then I walked around the centre of Christchurch to see the earthquake destruction and to pay my respects. I made 28km finishing at a BP station in Rolleston where I rolled out my sleeping bag on a picnic table around the back

Then at breakfast in the station next morning a nice couple offered to drop off my pack in Ashburton, that was 61km away and just as well for it was a tough plod.

On the way I ran over New Zealands longest bridge, over the Raika river. It was a tight squeeze as I hugged the rails on the very narrow 2km bridge which had me sprinting between the gaps of heavy traffic. This was pretty scary stuff as often I had to jump off the bridge and onto the half meter pedestrian footpath whenever a vehicle approached. The fun started when trucks came from the front as well as the back. Everyone was in good spirits, the only honk I got was a ‘ good on ya matey ‘ honk from a trucker that held back from behind to let an advancing truck pass. I couldn’t help reflecting on those terrible drivers of southern Peru. Had this been there I would have been blasted off the bridge!

Over the bridge and into a cafe I went for a double one, no not whiskey, an ice cream which I felt I deserved. I had been fairly worried about this bridge and many others in New Zealand, this one in particular and this was the reason I did not take Nirvana with me across New Zealand.

I ended up sleeping in a park under some fir trees with some low lying branches. I have always found fir trees offer decent shelter and the pines are nice and soft to lie on.

That Wednesday I stopped in the Chequered Flag Cafe Bar in Rangitata just for a snack. The Dutch and English owners Cor and Linda are both avid Harley fans. They offered me a bed for the night.. It took us a while to get talking but once we did I made more new friends, so many decent people I am finding in this great world of ours. I had breakfast with Cor and Linda before running out of the lives of the latest people I have made friends with.

A 53km day was rewarded by sleeping under a covered area at the side of a church that Valentines night in Pareora..

On and on I ran towards to bottom of New Zealand another marathon before this road runner decided enough was enough stopping at Jeff and Glenda’s Elmwood Farm in Moreven.

Nice people after frightening the life out of them they took me inside for a bed for the night, fed me a delicious dinner when I stopped by just before a rain shower to ask if I could sleep in their barn.

Jeff told me he is a dairy farmer working 15 hour days, seven days a life. I asked him why dairy cows don’t make good beef cows and he told me it was because all the protein is milked out of them. His boss has almost 2,000 acres of land, his job is to keep the grass growing and as he called himself ‘ the old maintenance fart ‘ of the farm.

 

I run on, many people stop me to talk and take photos, I always stop but it’s so time consuming. I run over the 45th parallell half way between the equator and the South Pole but in a way it’s meaningless as I also ran through it in South America also on my way south. In many ways New Zealand is an extra country on the run or at least from Auckland to Christchurch because if you draw a line over from South America on a map I could well have started from Christchurch or even Sydney in Australia, making a huge corner cut, not my style as many readers know.

I finished with 46km to show for the day in Maheno.  There was a tavern in this small hamlet called the Maheno Tavern. A glance over the premises lasting barely a millisecond told me it was a great place to bed down for the night as it had a covered decking, was in a quiet area off the road. The bonus that Saturday night was there was a 60th birthday party going on, and that meant FOOD to me

In I walked in my scarecrow outfit headlight on my head, more instant friends pointed me over to finger food table which I had barely taken my eyes off despite two renditions of my route, that’s starting to sound like a highly polished song these days.

At the bar I ordered a pot of tea and detected an eyes to Heaven for they were busy but of course nothing is a problem to the wonderful smiling Kiwi people. A large pot with extra water was served, I even went back for a refill to keep my three platefuls of the tasty finger food company. I talked to many runners at  the party that night before they all eventually left and I could settle down on a cushioned bench out on the deck.

 

As I approach the Australian Outback  while also having one eye on a forthcoming very cold Chinese winter I am delighted to announce and so proud to be offered a new clothing sponsorship by a company which takes its research and quality of products very seriously. The company is called UVU. Irish ultra runner and polar race organiser Richard Donovan is an ambassador for the brand, having helped develop its cold weather range. UVU is also the title sponsor of the North Pole Marathon.

UVU is a high end brand that caters specifically for the ultra runner or competitor in extreme environments. The name UVU means ‘U versus U’, i.e., the mental and physical battle that takes place during an ultra, where the mental must always win!