#300kmJune Week 4 Recap

Hey guys! Another week down and a lot of pavement has been stomped. A big thing I have noticed while doing this challenge, is that because I am trying to squeeze in as many possible kilometres within daylight hours I end up doing the same walks repeatedly. The ones that I know are long enough to cover my daily goal, or are flat and long enough that I can get a decent pace on. Diego doesn't seem to be as bothered by this as I am, the one we keep repeating he is allowed offleash for most of it. I personally am getting a bit bored of the same walks though, I want to explore more and take amazing photos.

Tuesday, 20th June
This day I was feeling inspired, I grabbed the camera and was going to walk super far and take some photos along the way. I didn't put the SD card in the camera. So instead, I just lugged around my heavy Cannon camera. In the end, we walked along the riverbank to Upper Hutt, where my friend picked up the camera from me and I grabbed some dinner. Once I had eaten, I was not tired, the weather was good, and we had no heavy camera I decided we may as well explore a bit more. I went down random streets of Upper Hutt and just weaved around to get up the kilometres. Then we headed back to the riverbank for a night time stroll home.

Wednesday, 21st June
I had planned to walk from my house in Birchville up to Tunnel Gully, explore a bit and return home however Diego was acting super weird. The next day/night explains why but at the time I had no clue. He wasn't begging for treats out of my treat pouch like usual, and was scared of everything! He even balked so much at a boulder that he slipped his collar and ran across the road. Very un-Diego like. I didn't want to put any more stress on him as he obviously wasn't coping so we turned around once we got to Te Marua and just headed home. Every time he got scared of something new I made sure just to slowly let him go up and sniff it, realise it wasn't a threat and move on.

Thursday, 22nd June
Diego spent the whole night vomiting all over my house, so I stayed home from work to make sure he was okay and be ready to take him to the vets if need be. I needn't have done that as he woke up chipper as ever and was back to normal, if not more crazy than usual. I found out he had eaten some of my nut and berry mix which is what set him off. The poor pooch. So on this day, to make the most of having a day off, and Diego being chipper we took a walk up Cannons Point. It was a beautiful walk, which was completely empty apart from us. I did take some videos on my Instagram Story but forgot to save them!

Friday, 23rd June
What a disaster of a day. I had another terrible night sleep, and woke up feeling very under the weather. I decided it would be best to take another day off work as I was unsure whether I might be contagious or not. I rugged up super warm, and headed up to the Rimutaka Rail Trail for a nice, long walk. It was not nice. It was torrential rain for 90% of the time, the other 10% was spitting. We made it to the half way mark where it was approx. just over 7 and a half kilometres in, turned around to walk back and then the next time I looked at my Fitbit it had died! This meant it didn't save our progress. I was distraught but thankfully I found this cool website to somewhat show you the map of our walk and give you a fair idea of the trip we took.

Saturday, 24th June
This was a fun day! My friend, Diego and I packed up the car and headed over to Wairarapa to the Putangirua Pinnacles. I had never been there before, or anywhere in that area so it was cool to get out there for the day. Unfortunately, in true Morgan style, I decided to go on a terrible day so we did get rained on a fair bit. This was a stand out favourite walk of the week, and in the top three of the month. The Pinnacles are such a strange natural occurrence and it was so wicked to explore all the weird grooves and tunnels that they have made. I can't wait to go back on a sunny day and get some awesome photos! We then headed to a cafe in Featherston called Everest, and warmed up with an amazing brunch and coffee. I measured this day a bit differently as there was lots of little walking trips Diego and I made during the day, as well as this main outing so I just used the overall total of the day. I removed the Fitbit every time I wasn't walking Diego somewhere.

Sunday, 25th June
This day I had to squeeze in a quick walk in the morning before the rain was going to set in for the day around midday. Just as we were starting out on our trek, dad rung me to ask to change our arranged lunch to a brunch so Diego and I decided to walk to Upper Hutt for that. We had a lovely meal at Mayfair Cafe before continuing home. Thankfully we didn't get rained on, and it meant we had the walk out of the way by midday!

Monday, 26th June
Today we walked along the river bank further than we would usually go, and enjoyed some of the afternoon sunlight before a dark walk back up the main road of Upper Hutt. As I said in the first paragraph, this is an easy walk as I know it is flat and I can get up a good speed. It also is a variable length, from 10kms all the way up as it can keep going for hours. I did put this walk, and a lot of other snippets of our day to day lives on Instagram Story so make sure you follow us to stay up to date!

This week was actually super productive in my opinion! We had a lot of days where we hit or were close to the target of around 12 kilometres, and only one where we were below 10! So now for the tally. We finished off the end of last week at 164.90 kilometres and this week we got a total of 85.07 which is our best week in this month! That puts us at a total of 249.97 kilometres with four days left of walking. That is still sitting at just over 12 kilometres a day to meet target by the end of the month. Super achievable, although still a task as 12 kilometres a day will take at least three hours. 

Remember, all this hard work that both Diego and I are putting in is all for HUHA. This is kind of like a fun run, where wonderful people like yourself donate for the struggle that we are putting ourselves through. All donations are going straight to HUHA, so please donate now to our Givealittle Page.

Also, to say thanks for supporting us and HUHA I am also hosting some giveaways to be drawn at the end of the month. 
Every Donation to the GiveaLittle page will get you five entries.
Every comment/share on our Facebook page will get you an entry.
Every comment on Instagram will get you an entry.
Unlimited entries and some amazing prizes up for grabs :D

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

#300kmJune Week 3 Recap

Hey! This past week has been a lot more chill than the previous weeks of the month. I was settling into being back at work, and also understanding what actually is 10 kilometres in terms of areas and walks I knew. Turns out, 10 kilometres surprises me daily with how far it is. Unfortunately, I done a lot of similar walks, and didn't take the camera out so there is less photos this week.

Tuesday, 13th June
I was still off work this day, so I decided to walk down to Upper Hutt city from my house which I thought would be a decent amount of kilometres. Boy was I wrong. It only just pushed 10 kilometres. It was a great walk though along the riverbanks of Upper Hutt and we stopped off at this wicked little cafe in town called Grind Coffee Lounge. The lady that works (maybe owns) it is the nicest woman I have ever met, and every time I have been in there she has been a pleasure to speak with. She also thought Diego was a beautiful creature so that made me like her even more. Plus, the coffee is delicious. Armed with that coffee I then walked home.

Wednesday, 14th June
Another day, another thought that I would get more kilometres in than I did. What I had planned to do was walk through Birchville and Timberlea in Upper Hutt in a loop so I could get back home. That turned out to be less than 5 kilometres, so I added in a walk to Maoribank Bridge and then around Totora Park. Still didn't make it to 10 kilometres. This walk was also freezing, and because it was a beautiful sunny day I didn't wear my most warm outfit. Bad choices were made. I don't think I will take this route again as a lot of it forced Diego to be on lead through the streets, and it wasn't overly pretty.

Thursday, 15th June
I really didn't want to walk this day. I got home from work and despised the idea of leaving the house to try and walk for two hours. I managed to force myself out of the house and ended up having one of the best walks of the month. We walked along the river bank to Upper Hutt City again, going a bit further along the riverbank this time and there was the most incredible sunset. The sky was lit up in all different tones of orange, pink, red and yellow and made my heart so happy. I was also listening to a super inspiring podcast (Let me know if you want to hear about my podcast recommendations) so I really was feeling on top of the world for this walk. The great thing about this route is that Diego can be off leash for a lot of it, and if I didn't leave it so late in the day and need to walk the main road for their lights, it probably could turn out to be a full off leash walk.

Friday, 16th June
This day is one of those days that you hate. My friend had said that she will go for a walk with us after work (she finished at 4pm) so I waited around for her. By 5pm she still hadn't got home so Diego and I decided to finally start our walk at that hour. It was freezing. My face felt like it was going to break off in the air, and with a quick strut around in the dark, I decided to call it a day and crawled back to bed. I think this was the worst kilometres for the month, but I won't make that mistake again. Friend, no more waiting around for you ;)

Saturday, 17th June
I planned to finally complete the Rimutaka Rail Trail on this day, and not really thinking things through properly decided to go to what I decided must be the other entrance. How wrong was I? Instead, I went to a different car park which led to either the Rimutaka Rail Trail or Tunnel Gully. The trek to the Rail Trail was up hill for a lot of the way, so that wore into me especially as I had all my camera equipment with me as well. Diego and I did manage to get 17kms done, and I am proud of that effort but I do have mighty sore legs and back still to this day! The Rail Trail is a beautiful long walk, and if you go to the right car park is a flat, easy walk. A definite recommend of ours.

Sunday, 18th June
Diego's Birthday! We were lucky enough to be invited to a pet photography course of Carol Howell's where Diego was to be the model, so we headed into Wellington city for that. We parked quite a bit away from the studio (Mt Vic) and made the most of the stroll through town. Diego performed amazingly, and was an absolute star. I had been a bit worried that he would be nervous in a new area, with so much excitement going on but he took it all in his stride and I am super excited to see the photos. After that, we strolled down to the Rouge and Vagabond where we met up with Richie McPaw and his wonderful mother for a quick drink. After that, we headed back up Mt Vic to our car, and home to meet up with my best friend for birthday wines (Me drinking, not Diego).

Monday, 19th June
I am still sore from the Rail Trail walk on Saturday, as well as training legs at the gym in the weekend, my legs feel like jelly. I also have a terribly painful back that I can't seem to massage away which I think was from my camera bag on that same walk. With that complaining out the way, it meant that what was meant to be the Cannons Point walk, turned into a walk to the dam, me giving up and letting Diego go see his brother for a play and us only getting half of the kilometres we should have. What really matters though is that Diego had a great time as most of the walk was off-leash allowing him to run around like a nutter and smell all the smells. I did get some footage from this walk which will be put into a vlog shortly.

So the horrible part where I have to tally up how far behind I am. Although this week we did manage to do quite a few walks where we were at the 10 kilometre mark or above it, we had just as many days where we done half, or lower than expected. The end of week 2 we were sitting on 103.13 kilometres, and this week we hit 61.77 kilometres. This puts us at a total of 164.90 kilometres which is just over 25 kilometres short of where we are meant to be. This means to complete this challenge we need to be doing an average of 12 kilometres a day for the rest of the month. Wish us luck as we crack into the hardest part of the challenge!


Remember, all this hard work that both Diego and I are putting in is all for HUHA. This is kind of like a fun run, where wonderful people like yourself donate for the struggle that we are putting ourselves through. All donations are going straight to HUHA, so please donate now to our Givealittle Page.
Also, to say thanks for supporting us and HUHA I am also hosting some giveaways to be drawn at the end of the month. 
Every Donation to the GiveaLittle page will get you five entries.
Every comment/share on our Facebook page will get you an entry.
Every comment on Instagram will get you an entry.
Unlimited entries and some amazing prizes up for grabs :D

reade more... Résuméabuiyad

#300kmJune Week 2 Recap

Hello! Sorry for this being up so late, but gosh it has been both a busy and hectic past few weeks. My sister and I started our North Island road trip with Diego and Ollie, and during the week of travels managed to get four flat tyres. This meant a lot of trips to the tyre store to get it fixed, and then eventually had to go to a mechanic to get the actual bolt replaced. This meant that we didn't get to go to Auckland like originally planned, and I am so gutted we missed out on that experience. Apart from that, the last week has been an amazing time, and a true eye opener to what this month has in store.

Tuesday, June 6th
After such a long walk on Monday we wanted to take a chill day and kind of relax. First off, we headed for a walk down to the lake that is close to my dads house. It was such a beautiful day and both dogs enjoyed being able to frolic and swim in the lake. As you may know, I have been having ankle issues since a hike in February where I ripped my ligaments in my ankle. On this walk, I rolled my ankle within the first two minutes. Thankfully, not badly and I haven't had much pain since.
We also done a small walk along the main lake in Rotorua, which at the end we found out was not dog friendly, so had to quickly scurry back to the car. Not the 10kms we needed to do in the day, but each walk was enjoyable and the dogs had a blast.

Wednesday, June 7th

We headed up to Tauranga on Wednesday and went for a walk at the Puketoki Reserve. Online it said it would take about an hour, but even with plenty of photoshoots it only took us forty minutes. This meant it was a lot shorter than I had wanted. Although the walk itself was beautiful, in a deep forest with a range of different plants and bird life. After this walk we came back to the car to another flat tyre so instead of heading to our camping ground we had to go into Tauranga to get the tyre fixed. Since we were already in town, our second walk of the day was down at the beach between Mount Maunganui and Papamoa. It was another lovely day, and it was nice to amble up and down the beach meeting other dogs and watching the dogs interact with others. I even got out my book and settled in to read as Tammin and the dogs continued playing in the sea.

Thursday, June 8th
Thursday we were meant to be heading up to Auckland, but as I mentioned above we didn't make it because after spending the night in Omokoroa Motor Park we awoke to another flat tyre. We went straight back to get it fixed, had breakfast at a wonderful cafe (full blog post on that will be coming up) and then went on our way to Auckland. Once we hit Waihi, I realised I had a terrible feeling about it all, and didn't want to risk anything bad happening while up further North or while driving. Instead we took a detour to Karangahake Reserve and explored the awesome area. It is an old gold mining area and a lot of the old machinery parts and railway lines are still intact. As well as a kilometre long tunnel through the hills! It made for a lot of awesome photos, and we had actually visited here when Diego was a young pup so I am so excited to compare the photos.

Friday, June 9th

We braved the Redwoods again! This time we done the Purple track which was a casual three hours instead of eight and followed a lot of the same tracks as the Black track. It was a beautiful day, we were lucky to have sunny days for all of this week, and was a lot more enjoyable with that better weather. After completing the Black track, this Purple one felt like a walk in the park and I loved it. Afterwards we stopped in to the Coffee Club for a coffee and some fries, and received some of the best service! The dogs got delivered a water bowl, with a treat each, and we were given polite, friendly service and banter.

Saturday, June 10th

On Saturday we were headed back down to Whanganui for the last leg of our journey. Before we left, dad wanted to have one last walk with us so we all travelled to Taupo and explored around the Spa Thermal Park. This was a spectacular walk where you trekked along the side of an impressive green river and at the turn around mark you got to view Huka Falls. This track was an easy walk, with a range of short up hill and down hill bursts on a dirt path. It wasn't overly busy but those that were there were in packs of people or did have dogs with them. Spa Thermal Park was a huge expanse of grass with areas to explore and look around. Unfortunately we were short on time so couldn't keep looking around so I would love to go back another time to see more of the place.

Sunday, June 11th

This was the date for the Great Global Greyhound Walks where people all over the world all meet up with their Greyhounds and go for an organised walk at the same time. The Whanganui meet up was a blast, with 18 Greyhounds + 1 Diego there! I did take a bunch of pictures which I will have up in a blog post shortly. Diego and Chico were both super well behaved, and Diego even made friends with Greyhounds who were usually scared of little dogs. The next walk we did was a quick stomp around the Whanganui streets, just Diego and I. This was a chance for us to unwind from such a hectic long road trip, and for me to chuck in some headphones and just stomp the pavements. I didn't keep track of where we went but I remember going and exploring streets I had never seen before.

Monday, June 12th

This day Diego and I were meant to be heading back to Wellington, and I had already planned to stop in Foxton to do our 10 kilometres of walking. Unfortunately that took a twist when we went to leave and I had another flat tyre. To make matters worse, the bolt snapped so I had to take it to a mechanic to get fixed. A wonderful truck driver by the name of John stopped on the side of the road and helped me out, he also called ahead to the mechanic which not only meant I got an appointment that day, I also got a discount on the work completed. I am in awe that there are such nice people out there. Back to the walking... the first walk was along a part of the Whanganui river we had never explored before while we waited for the mechanic appointment. It is part of their walkway from hills to sea, and was absolutely breathtaking. We even met a very friendly schnauzer and his owner along the path. Then, while waiting for the car to be fixed, Diego and I strutted down to a cafe and grabbed a bite to eat and a coffee. This was only a short distance away but meant we got to be adding some kilometres to our total while we waited. The last walk of the day was with my mother, and all three dogs down at the local park. I thought since the universe wanted us to stay in Whanganui for some extra hours we may as well squeeze in some more time with the family. All three dogs had a great time rushing around after Diego's toy and generally just burning off the days extra calories. 

This week has been hard. I am realising more than ever what a feat I have taken on, but also, how more than ever I am wanting to prove to myself I can do it. So at the end of week 1 we had hit the 55.86 kilometre mark, and this week we managed to get up to 47.27 kilometres. For 7 days, that is well behind schedule, and I am quite disappointed in myself. That makes the grand total for 12 days sitting at 103.13 kilometres when we should be at 120 kilometres to be on track. This just means I really have to push the second half of this month to clock up those kilometres.

Remember all this struggle we are going through is for a good cause which is HUHA. Please find it in your heart to donate to our GiveaLittle page where every donation not only puts you in the draw to win some amazing prizes, it means you are helping another animal have a great chance at life through HUHA. 

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#300kmJune Week 1 Recap

Hey! This is the first update in our #300km June series, and let me just start with saying that this is going to be a harder challenge than I originally thought. After five days I have really realised how much ten kilometres a day is, and I am in for a long month.

Thursday, June 1st
When I originally came up with the number of kilometres to do this month, I had based the distance of ten kilometres on this first walk, however this walk was closer to the 7 kilometre mark. I also had some technical difficulties with the GPS tracker which made Diego and I walk across the river at multiple points. It was a great first day though, the sun was shining, and it wasn't terribly cold compared to how it has been. Diego also met some young toddlers who he let pat him, and rub their faces on his back.

Friday, June 2nd
After work, Diego and I headed up to the Rimutaka Rail Trail to complete a bit of that trail. It was sunny when we set out, but as we drove further up the hill the rain started to set in. I didn't wear a rain jacket so just slowly got soaked as the walk progressed. I encountered some more problems with my Fitbit tracking system, it counted my steps, time, calories but didn't record my kilometres. Thankfully, I thought this through and took a photo of Diego and I at the 4 kilometre mark, where we then turned around making the full walk 8 kilometres. Still not the 10 kilometre mark we need to get at daily, but I think a good achievement seeings as we weren't prepared for the weather conditions.

Saturday, June 3rd
Early in the morning we drove up to Whanganui to start the first leg of our road trip so decided once we got there to hit it off with a hike up at Waitahinga Trails which is about a forty-five minute drive out of Whanganui. The walk itself was a lot shorter than I thought, but gave all three dogs a chance to run and explore and burn off a lot of extra energy. Like last time we hiked this trail, it was too foggy to see the mountains that we were promised, but did get a few good shots of the view. You will be able to see more of this walk in our first Vlog.

Sunday, June 4th
This day was a chill walk, Tammin and I walked all three dogs along the Whanganui waterfront down to Mud Duck Cafe to meet up with mum once she finished work. This is a great little cafe that allows the dogs to sit outside with us while we enjoy a coffee, and they make a great coffee! The walk itself was good, the dogs got a bit of a run around and it is always beautiful scenery around Whanganui. Once again, I had technical difficulties (This seems like a common theme) but I googled the length of our walk and it said 4.5km on Google maps.

Monday, June 5th
On Sunday afternoon we drove up to Rotorua to stay at our dads for a couple of days and had already planned to do the Black walk at the Redwoods. This is a 34km, eight hour hike through a stunning Rotorua backdrop of bush, and lakes. Let me just say, this was the hardest walk of my life, and will probably be the longest of the month. It was breathtakingly beautiful, but a lot of hard work. We stopped at the Blue Lake for lunch, and managed to come across a cafe to supply us with a coffee mid-hike. Unfortunately, we got caught in a lightening storm at the five hour mark, and although the rain was sporadic, we all got soaked through our coats. We also set off quite late in the morning, so the last hour of our trek was in pitch black with only our phones for lights. Also, at one point as it was starting to get dark we lost Diego who had chased something further into the bush. Five minutes of calling and there was no sight or sound from him, it was the worst feeling in the world. Thankfully, he came back and onto the lead he went for the rest of the trip. This was a hard trek, and I now have ailments and sores all over my body but I am so happy to say we accomplished it. I was doing so well with tracking the walk, until near the end I accidentally pressed finish on my Fitbit and it stopped tracking. I am not sure how far along I done that before I started it again but all up our hike would have been 35 kilometres, because of the extra little bit that we done around the Blue Lake to get to the cafe and it took us 9 hours.

To be on track at this stage we would have needed to have walked 50km already, at the end of week 1 we have walked 55.86 kilometres! I am happy to say that the long, terrible but worthwhile trek through the Redwoods has really pushed us forward. Now, we have to keep this lead by walking at least 10 kilometres a day and powering through. Wish us luck.

To donate: https://givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/300kmjune 

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#300km June Introduction

Hey! Last year we completed #150kmJune where Diego and I walked 150 kilometres within the month of June. I wasn't working at that point last year, and found that 150 was quite a challenge. I really had to push myself to make it to the end of the month.

Well, me being the crazy person I am, decided to up the ante this year by challenging myself to walk 300 kilometres within the month. The major difference from last year is that I will also be working a full time job while trying to complete all the kilometres (minus a week where I will be travelling throughout the North Island). I will also be continuing to go to the gym, have a social life, home life and remember, June is the first official month of Winter. Because of the challenge I have taken on, I have made this a fundraising event for my favourite charity HUHA. I am aiming to raise $2,500 for this charity, and this is all thanks to the amazing donations from people like you, reading this blog. Every cent counts, so please look into your heart and donate to this amazing cause.

I am going to be documenting my adventures through the month, so that you can follow along with the trials and tribulations that come with this kind of fundraiser. My sister and her dog, Ollie; Diego and I will be also doing a road trip in the first week of June around the upper North Island. We are going to be meeting up with other dog owners and dog company owners, and then trying out the local dog walks and cafes. You can view the list of all posts and videos I have currently posted by visiting the #300km June tab at the top of the page.

I also want this to be an event that others get involved in. I want this to inspire you to leave the house, walk your pooch, explore the places in your area that you have never visited before. I would love to see others photos, and experiences so please use the hashtag #300kmJune on social media so that I will be able to see them. If you don't want to publicly post, feel free to email me on daisypets@hotmail.com and tell me your exciting stories and adventures! There will also be a sneaky giveaway at the end of the month with everyone who shares their experiences, or joins in by commenting/sharing our posts and content. There will be more information on that a little bit later on, but make sure to follow our Facebook Page, Instagram and Youtube Channel.

I would love suggestions on walks in the Wellington region that I should go on, or if you live in the Wellington region I would love to have some company on some of our walks. I have quite a few already planned, but walking this many kilometres in a month, I am always open to new suggestions.

I want to also give a shout out to WonderWoof who sent us a dog activity tracker to track Diego's activity levels during the month. They were kind enough to send that out free of charge for us to test out, and enjoy during our walks. I have been playing around with it for the past month or so and so far, so good!

Thank you also to Fitbit for sending us their FitBit Blaze so that we will be able to accurately count the kilometres we have walked during the month. All my tracking is going to be done on this, with screenshots posted during the month so you can keep me accountable. If you own a Fitbit I would love to connect on the application, our email address is daisypets@hotmail.com. Add us as a friend and let's have some competitions!

Thank you for reading, I am excited for June to start and to get stuck in counting down the kilometres. I hope you can help us out by donating, sharing our posts, or just getting involved by commenting and liking our stuff! Stay tuned for all the crazy posts to come!

reade more... Résuméabuiyad