The first time I heard of the Gotthard Tunnel was on a remote island off the Auckland Harbour in New Zealand. Kt and I were spending yet another extended long weekend on Great Barrier Island. It was the end of covid-hit 2020, and we were still making the most of my reduced hours in the […]
Runaway thoughts on my first 100km ultra “Shall I fetch the doctor?” offered a volunteer, as the grimacing fellow runner hobbled towards the final aid station of the race. He shook his head slowly, as if in disbelief over his own insanity for being here. “I need a psychiatrist.” We chuckled sadistically. “Don’t we all?” […]
The Values Compass is a book written by Mandeep Rai on ‘What 101 Countries Teach Us About Purpose, Life, and Leadership’. I was fascinated by the author’s unique idea of using values to illustrate our planet’s colourful diversity. Therefore, I thought it’d be fun to map out the featured countries and each of their attributed […]
“Be careful out there, it’s very addictive,” warned our hut ranger Grace, as she bade us farewell from Clinton Hut with a twinkle in her eye. We already knew that, of course. Afterall, this had been our third try at booking the Department of Conservation (DOC) huts on the Milford Track. Armed with learnings from […]
Last month over the Easter break, we decided to book a city getaway to Wellington. It was the long weekend right before our big marathon race, so the plan was to relax… and do nothing. But after walking through the colourful streets of the quirky capital, we couldn’t help ourselves – and ended up plotting […]
2021 has turned out to be another bumpy ride so far. Auckland went into and out of lockdown twice in February, turning our plans into custard. So instead of heading out into the trails, we went for an adventure by mixing up our default city run route. As we ran past these colourful murals from […]
The Great Barrier Island adventure begins even before you arrive. Located in the Hauraki Gulf about 100km north-east of Auckland CBD, visitors have two options to get there: a four-and-a-half-hour ferry ride or 35-minute flight from Auckland. Given our limited time on the island (an extended long weekend of four days), we opted for the […]