Total steps!

Z and I carried Fitbit pedometers as we walked so that we could keep track of how many steps we took.

In addition to being really useful for estimating distances, we figured it would be fun to know just how many steps there are in a thru hike between Cape Reinga and Bluff.

Ok, so if you want to cross New Zealand, we can definitively tell you this:

• Z took 4.7 million steps.
• I took 4 million steps.

The difference between us is height. I’m several inches taller than her and have a much longer stride.

The other fun fact this tells you is that since we each destroyed 4 pairs of shoes, you can consider one million steps to be the limit per pair.

New Zealand Alarm Clock

The keas decided it was time to wake up the camp.

We tried to get a good photo, but they fled. We got this one a while back though of a New Zealand parrot:

Updates

Two posts have been updated with new stuff:

1. The final photo has been added to the Photos of Faces series. You can now observe our fall into hobo with a compete series of weekly snapshots.

2. More mailboxes have turned up on the South Island mailboxes post.

Our ‘Camper Van’

We finished the trail a bit early and have a week to spare so we decided to rent a car to explore a couple of bits that we hadn’t visited.

From Fred and Dave: ‘We guess you have hired a Britz Campervan now? You sell outs’. Britz is one of the thousands of companies that rent camper vans, a super popular way to travel around New Zealand (faster than walking, that’s for sure).

This was the scene at Lake Gunn campsite near Milford Sound. So many camper vans.

We made a video special for them to show them our ‘camper van’, complete with all the amenities.

Z, April 13th 2014

New Measurements!

Back when we started, we decided to do a little experiment. Before we left, we took measurements of our bodies to see if walking 3000km would change them.

The results are in:

Basic conclusions:

1. Z’s butt shrank while mine has grown.

2. Both of our bellies shrank, Z shrinking by 7cm.

3. My upper body shrank. Z’s chest shrank(insert easy joke here), but arms grew.

M, 12 April 2014

Beard is Gone

It took five cheapo razors and about an hour, but the beard has been banished.

Before:

During:

Now:

M, 9 April 2014

P.O.P.

We know it’s late in coming, but we had the idea for this video in the North Island but never got around to making it. And when it got down to the last meals, it was either raining or too windy or we just weren’t eating P.O.P.  P.O.P stands for Plain Old Pasta. We’ve eaten it for at least 80% of our trail dinners. It’s some shape of pasta (elbows, penne, spirals, macaroni) cooked with nothing on it. No sauce. No butter. Only a dash of salt if we have it. I have to say that I am not sick of it. We made a video on Oreti Beach on how to make P.O.P on the trail. Enjoy!

Z, April 9th 2014