Greetings from the other side of the world - or the other side from where I usually write this, anyway - and from Monday evening. I am in beautiful New Zealand, and my weekend consisted of a wonderful, tough, muddy trail half marathon through the vineyards of Hawkes Bay. The Hawkes Bay marathon festival consists of a full marathon, a half and a 10k walk. All are point to point - starting at different points but all finishing at the Sileni vineyard. And what better prize could here be on crossing the line than a medal and a bottle of limited edition Sauvignon Blanc from that very vineyard? Mind you, I certainly felt I’d earned it - a 24 hour flight and rather severe jet lag do not make for fresh legs, and the rather strong headwind most of the way didn’t help. But it was a wonderful experience - beautiful scenery, cheery marshals and supporters and, well, that wine ... I’ll be writing a lot more about it anon.
But in the meantime, a day later and the wind and rain had given way to glorious sunshine, and since then I’ve run along the coast, and headed down to glorious Queenstown to explore some trails. And heavenly it is too.
So over to you - what has the weekend held for you? Have you got off the old familiar roads and routes and explored something new? You don’t even need to go to the other side of the world to do that, or so I am told ...
