Sore feet and good food

The tragedy of Melusina, whatever language tells it, whatever tune it sings, is that a man will always promise more than he can do to a woman he cannot understand.
- The White Queen by Philippa Gregory

Oh man, where to begin!! Right, how about nachos? This was me proving to The Chef that they can indeed be (fairly) healthy and yet still delicious (as I recall he went back for seconds).


I was even awesome enough to cook my own beans for once! About time since Mum had given me a bag of dried organic kidney beans for Christmas and they've been sitting in the pantry ever since.

On the Saturday I competed in The Dual off-road half marathon which (for anyone who knows the area) goes from Home Bay on Motutapu Island to Rangitoto Island and then back again with lots of big hills and epic rock sections.


Above is Home Bay and the final part of the hill you come tearing down (well, sort of since your legs feel a bit like jelly about now and my feet were killing me after the hellish rock sections).


This is Rangitoto Island from the ferry on the way home again. Rangitoto is the most recent volcanic cone in Auckland (there are something like 49 volcanic areas in the region) and the biggest. It's surface is all rough scoria rock with native bush somehow growing amongst it all. You run almost to the top before descending down a narrow, rocky track that flattens out at the bottom and winds around the edge of the island (for a grueling 6km) before heading back up and over Motutapu again to the finish.

This was my second time competing in this race and it went a whole lot better than last year! I was a bit more prepared for the section of hell (I think I passed at least 20 people somewhere amongst all that rock) and had an awesome run managing to get in the top 10 women despite still having a lingering cold and taking it easy. I guess it helps that I like hills and uneven terrain.

And because obviously I felt like I hadn't run up enough hills, on the Sunday we had orienteering out on one of the steepest maps we have in our area!


Quite spectacular and I almost wished I'd taken my camera out on the course (this is the view from the event centre.

Anyway, now I've bored you completely with sport we can return to food! I met my darling cousin D for lunch on Friday and after dithering all morning about where I wanted to eat we decided to go to Raw Power.


I wasn't feeling all that hungry so got a salad from the salad bar. They have a collection of different salads to pick from and you basically just fill up your bowl with what ever you want. Clearly I overdosed a little on the peanuts but it was delicious all the same, especially the pearl barley salad (which I think you can just see poking out on the left).


D got me a melting moment cookie too which was sitting there tempting me the whole time I was eating my salad so it had to be devoured straight away! SO good (but a little rich...sometimes I wonder what is happening to my tastebuds these days!).

Right, I have to race off and start packing for another adventure!