I met a trail runner at the trig - thank goodness he came after I had had time to catch my breath, because I was a damn mess! Like, how the f@#* do people run up tracks like Mt. Tawhiuau and not die? Are you even human? My quads took two days just to be able to sit on the toilet again without feeling like I’d just finished a killer squat session. It was my first hike after almost a month in lockdown, so it wasn’t surprising that my fitness levels were pretty low.

Hiking up Mt. Tawhiuau the weekend after coming out of lockdown was probably quite ambitious on my part, but hey, I survived. The track to the trig is approx. 9km with an elevation gain of over 700m, so I knew it would be hard yakka anyway. I was very happy with my decision to bring my hiking poles, especially on the way down.

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