Noah's ARC

Danny- Milford Track

This week, I did something I've never done before - I was on the support crew for a 12-hour adventure race - the "ARC" (Adventure Racing Coromandel).  http://www.arcevents.co.nz/arc-adventure/

 Each of our boys was on a team.  Mike and I volunteered to be on the support crew and were assigned to support Noah's team, along with another dad named Geoff.   

We drove 5 hours to arrive at our campsite about 3PM.

When camp was set up, everyone went for a swim.  

Most of the details of the race were kept secret until the official race briefing at 7PM.   After getting details, each team went back to camp to plan their routes.  

Noah's team planning their routes

Each team was given a series of maps with checkpoints worth different points.  Some checkpoints were mandatory and others were optional.  Teams had to decide whether it was worth the time to go get the optional checkpoints.  

Oak's team

Race start time was set at 6:30AM, so we were awake by 5:00AM.  

Early morning - sleeping bags in MAVY

First event was a raft-building and riding competition, about 30 minutes of hard paddling/swimming.

Then came a bike ride up the coast.

Here is a photo of what the support crew was setting up while the team was biking.



Competitive teams try to keep their transitions to about 3-5 minutes, so it's a mad scramble when they arrive - changing shoes, re-filling water packs, eating as many calories as possible.

Next came a trek/run along the beach and up and down some foothills, about 2 hours.  Another transition point (provided by the support crew).

Oak's team in transition

Then a bike-ride into town, including a spin around a mountain bike course and a stop for some rifle shooting.

Danny and Calum take off on bikes

Then another trek/run into a gorge, with a rope across the gorge and some checkpoints that required swimming in the river.

Noah's team

The gorge provided one of the more exciting moments of the race.  Several adults were walking up the gorge to see if we could see the ropes course, when George, one of Noah's teammates, came running back down the trail toward us with a torn shirt, yelling, "Something terrible has happened!"  We all imagined the worst, but thankfully no one had broken a bone.  The team had taken a wrong turn due to some ambiguity on the map, and instead of backtracking on the trail, they'd decided to ford the river.  It turned out to be steeper than anticipated and gave them a good scare.

They came down the cliff on the left (unpictured).
They had to climb up the bank on the right.  

The last leg of the race was a bike to a trig on top of a mountain.  Very long ride up and then a glory ride back down to the FINISH LINE!

Noah's team

This is what Joyce and Sage did most of the day...

Rolling around like puppies

Mercy was buried in Fablehaven 4 during the race day.  Despite her lack of direct attention to Saturday's race, the boys reckon that Mercy will be a "boss adventure racer" when she's their age.

A memorable moment was watching Calum's leg's cramp up over and over again at the end of the race.  You'd have to know Calum to know why this was so memorable - he's larger than life already.

Danny and Calum

The first cramp was a crack up, with Calum's exaggerated faces and Calum-only sorts of noises, but when the cramps kept going on and on and on and on, and then switching muscles, and then back to the first muscle, etc, etc, it was terrible and funny all at the same time.

Several other kids had hilarious stories of what happens when you get a leg cramp while clipped into your mountain bike.

We got back to camp about 7:30PM and prepared a big dinner.  These aren't the type of people who choose to go out to eat.

After packing up camp the next morning, we got to listen-in on an adventure race de-briefing.

Highpoint?  Lowpoint?  What did you learn?
The adventure racing coach is the man on the far right.
We are very thankful for him and the excellent program he has created at New Plymouth Boys' High/Girls' High.   

We missed WOMAD to go to this adventure race!  I can hear the bass beats coming from WOMAD even as I write this!  Here is a link to WOMAD movie that Mike made last year.  WOMAD is a big deal here in our relatively small community of New Plymouth.  

WOMAD 2014 

  

Books of the Week:

Jane Austin's Pride and Prejudice, the Servants' Story.

Thanks, Jen!

 We listened to this in the car on the way to and from the Milford Track.  Reminded me of Peace Like a River by L.Enger, but on a YA scale.  Nice ending pulled everything together.  

Thanks, Stacy!

Other noteworthy events...

The last few weeks were bookended by once-in-a-life trips.  Mueller Hut with Mike...

And then the Milford Track with Mike, Danny, Oak, Mercy, and our friend and district president, Harry G.  

Between these momentous events, we enjoyed more normal happenings, such as....

...Saturday-night parties,

..."sprint" runs on Monday nights for FHE,

The boys run fast and try to beat their friends.
We girls come along a little slower...

...and watching Noah's volleyball.

It's been a big month, and I'm very grateful for all we've experienced.  I'm also grateful now to settle in to a more regular routine!

Pukeko Babies

Youth class (12-18 year olds) in our New Plymouth LDS branch, taught by Br. Coward

We have pukekos living in our yard.   Maybe a ruru, too.  They have similar night calls.

This isn't my photo, but this is really what they look like!

I felt lucky to see a mother pukeko with three little chicks coming out of the bush one afternoon this week.

Another friendly moment with a wild thing...

Joyce finds a friendly butterfly

Sage

Noah and Oak make doughnuts.
Danny makes no-bake cookies...2 batches this week so far....

I found a note from my secret pal on my pillow one night...

Not an unusual occurrence.  I feel very thankful to have been receiving love notes from kids fairly constantly over the last 15 years, or since the time that Noah first learned to write.  It's a happy way to live!

Book of the week:

I read this because Danny is reading it for his English class.  It's a dystopian novel with a  New Zealand connection, which seems important for school teachers here in all different disciplines. 

Goodbye, Opa

  

We will miss you, Opa.

Gail B. Duncan

First day of school for the boys...

Oak, year 10

Noah, year 13, received his tiger jacket on Wednesday...

and Friday/Saturday, went on the first adventure team training of the new school year.  

I love this picture!

Noah is the tall guy..."what a boss!"  

Meanwhile, Danny, year 11, hosted a big party, got braces, and he also got a lot of piano practicing done.  He's working on the Ravel Toccata and Waldstein Sonata.  

Seminary started this week.  6:30AM at the church.  Yours truly as the teacher.  6 registered students this year.  It feels like the beginning of a long trek - I'm excited for the great views along the way.

Books of the Week

Read-aloud for the girls - their favorite so far.
They cheered at the ending.

Interesting to read about a world before sunscreen and before politically correct roles for girls and boys...!

Thanks, Nana and Gramps! 

Before reading this book, I had never once considered the intersection of Mormons and Mao Tse-tung- era China.  

Mercy

Mercy's Piano Recital

 audience:  Hannah, Tiffany, Gaastras, Hockeys, Jocelyn and Judy, Meera, Sukena and sisters, Webers, Sagens, Mom and Dad on Skype, Cardalls, and our family, including Noah who fell asleep standing up (caught on video in the background during Mercy's recital) because he was dealing with 12-hour jet lag.

We had a birthday party for Mercy later in the week.
Mercy told me that the girls she invited to her birthday party would dress up unless we told them not to, and she was right.  All the Kiwi girls were dressed in darling party dresses.  The only two girls that came in casual dress both have American moms!

Oak organizes a game for girls in party dresses

Happy Birthday, Merce!

Freedom Camping

It seems like the world would be a better place if everyone could have such a glorious last week of summer...

Looking north from Kiritehere toward Marikopa

We took a road trip up our own coastline - freedom camping.

Kids in front of our tent, waiting for dinner to cook

Highlights...

Boogie boarding,

Sage learning

Eating raw kina from a Maori guy on the beach

Driftwood fires at night.

A beautiful waterfall - Marikopa Falls - with a rainbow that encircles you as you approach.

Oak and Mercy

Playing on the beach.

Mercy

Noah missed it all, as he was in Germany with friends having his own adventures.

Thank you, Familie Schmitt!

He came home to our new manu platform and a daytime job at the YMCA.  School starts next week for him.

We ended the week by going with Mike to a speaking assignment in the Manaia branch, and meeting a small group of happy, solid saints.

I know it looks like our life is a lark, and it mostly is, but writing this update definitely makes our life look more easy and glamorous than it really is.  I could let that stop me from writing, but I decide to continue.  Good times are interspersed and underlined with responsibilities for the upcoming school year, decisions to make, concerns about kids' schooling and physical and spiritual well-being, as well as the many sand fly bites on our ankles.  

Book of the Week:

Interesting, but didn't live up to Ann Patchett's recommendation on NPR, in my opinion.

How to Pop a Manu and The Great Divorce

Epic 5-day canoe trip down the Whanganui River 

Traveling companions: Sue and Jamie, their two boys (Cory and Calum), and a friend named Jack.

Whew! Sue and Jamie are fast paddlers

Traveling companions from our family were Mike, our 3 boys, and Mercy.

(Sage and Joy stayed home with Hannah.)  

just missing Oak

Mike sterned my canoe and proved especially good at getting us dumped in the rapids, on the first day in particular.

He learned quickly

Stopping to explore a cave - not the mud cave yet

We paddled 145 kilometers total, which is a lot of paddling, but somehow the boys and Mercy still seemed to spend half their time poppin' manu's...

or jumping off high places in one way or another.

There are 16 different definitions of "manu" in Wikipedia, but none of them is the definition used by teenage boys (and Mercy) in New Zealand.  

planning the manu

on the way to...

a mean splash

A good manu has a certain ker-BOOM sound and a very high splash.  Supposedly, one must break the water with one's heel, then quickly lay back quickly on the water to create a kind of vacuum.  

The manu is the gourmet version of the water bomb and takes practice.

After all that paddling, I came home feeling like this-

wish I looked like this, too

Oak said, "I feel like my shoulders grew two sizes this week!"

Book of the Week:  "The Great Divorce" by C.S. Lewis

Our neighbours told us that they almost got a divorce going over the first rapids on the Whanganui, but that doesn't have anything to do with this book.  It's about the divorce between heaven and hell, joy and misery.

My copy was published in 1946

Here's a picture of the newest edition, with its unfortunate cover art-

I re-read this book every year over Christmas holidays.  It's my all-time favorite book, hands down, despite the unfortunate cover.