Smiles Walk 100km: 2012

Wednesday, 4 April 2012

Oxfam Trailwalker 2012 (6)

Good memories and bad - including the field of swedes.

Night time arrives and the team keeps walking.

Oxfam Trailwalker 2012 (3)

Contrasting scenes. Clean and green, then we pass by a construction area as part of the trail.

Oxfam Trailwalker 2012 (2)

Steep second leg of Oxfam Trailwalker 2012! Keep those legs moving...

Oxfam Trailwalker 2012 (1)

Great work Team Smiles - clocking 25.5 hours for 100km Oxfam Trailwalker 2012.

Hope everyone recovered - my knee is still misbehaving, needed to stop halfway walking up stairs at work... but otherwise all well.

Here are photos from the event! :)

6am start means an earlier wake up time. Woke up to what sounded like a fire alarm! Must have worked with everyone looking so bright and perky.

This are the 'Before' photos at the start of the trail.

First leg not too bad, with scenic checkpoint 1.

Friday, 30 March 2012

Oxfam Trailwalker Weekend!

The weekend fast approaches.

After a drive to Taupo today, it is an early start as Team Smiles start the 100km Oxfam Trailwalker at 6am.

Twitter updates on the right - will update it during our rest stops.

It will also be posted on the team page:

Go Team Smiles. :)

See you all after the weekend.

Monday, 26 March 2012

The last five kilometers of the walk has traditionally been known for the crazy and creative costumes. This weekend we gave our little feet a break and hit the mean streets of Petone in search for our costume to fame.

Team Smiles searched far and wide and finally decided upon mimicking some happy crayon colours which always brings a smile to people.

Our attempts in re-creating this began with salvaging cardboard outside the Stationary Warehouse. Cutting shapes and adjusting corners. If you use your imagination... Teo is almost a crayola crayon!

With incredible speed, we set up a sweatshop in Stefan's garage and painted the four happy colours of Team Smiles. Team break for dinner and we had pasta galore.

We then went on and got a little bit high from spray paint for final touches...

We have yet to assemble anything as the wait for things to dry is the longest and most important part... We may have underestimated the difficulty in walking 5ks with these mammoth cardboard creations...

See y'all soon for our final product :D lyd

Tuesday, 20 March 2012

Round The Vines

One fine sunny day, in a small town called Martinborough, Round the Vines happened.

Team Smiles took up the challenge, cool as a cucumber.

Fresh air, great scenery, sweet grapes, and fine wines - can't really ask for more.

Olives? They go with martinis - but let's not get distracted.

We hiked through farmland and saw all sorts of wild beasts, mainly cows and a burly chap in a dress.

Surrounded by grapevines, we kept going - knowing that at the end, we can indulge in the fine cuisine offered by Martinborough. (Not the sober driver, though)

As we passed more and more vineyards (and hydration stops for drinks and ... wine tasting),

we knew why they looked familiar - we took the same track a second time for good measure. (Measured at 21km)

Towards the end, we increased our walking pace - so we were not left behind by 'Team Snails'.

Finally reaching the good old Martinborough school, who planned this awesome event for a good cause.

Good work Team Smiles. Till another day.

Saturday, 17 March 2012

Oh hello Korokoro Dam and Belmont Trig

On today's sunny breezy Wellington afternoon, Team Smiles trudged up, through streams and mud around the Belmont Regional Park once again. This time clocking 15 kms around the Korokoro Dam & up to the Belmont Trig. We had a special guest Peter Kim who added extra spice to our walk :D