Mt Herbert Extravaganza
12 June 2017
Team Limit Zero decided to sacrifice their Sunday morning sleep in for a day running around the mountains! The game plan, catch the morning ferry from Lyttelton to Diamond Harbour, make our way up Mt Herbert and push around the mountain tops all the way back around to Lyttelton…. A forecast 50km on the menu for Team Limit Zero. With the day perfectly planned, all the was required was execution!!
We arrived safely in all our glory, 4 lads in matching Save the Children T-Shirts just in time for our 6.50am ferry across the harbour….unfortunately it was to all of our amusement/disgust, the timetable was read wrong and the earliest departing ferry was at 7.50am….straight back to the warm car it was!!
We got underway and took on the 9km climb to the Mt Herbert Peak which includes a 900m elevation gain (approximately 4 Rapaki tracks to all you city slickers)! Safe to say, this start woke us up! We reached the top and enjoyed the magnificent views along the way (photo evidence provided).
We began the run along ridge towards Packhorse Hut, which soon enough turned into a rapid decent. This tested all of our knee joints and ankle stability as we maneuvered through some questionable terrain.
The team were in good spirits coming off the track and onto Summit Road, just in time to be tested by “The Bastard.” The ever popular Summit road climb which has no doubt broken many cyclists over the years, hence the name. We took it on like champs and made our way up to the Crater Rim Track. It wasn’t so bad on foot if I don’t say so!
At this point we were 25km after approximately 4 hours of running/walking, not quite the pace we were hoping for. We continued on getting some much deserved flatter and even downhill sections of track. We pushed along the track through to just above the sign of the kiwi from where we had to call it a day! Unfortunately the lengthy uphill terrain mixed in with a Crusaders v Lions game the night before resulted in an early exit. All up we spent just under 6 hours on the track, covering around 35km, (50,000 steps for all you fit-bitters). It was a solid effort 10 days out from the big day! The bodies have been tested (slightly), and are ready for the challenge!
Bring on the Queen Charlotte Track!!