The Kirkland Brothers

I recently had two long lost friends from my sailing days drop by London on their way back to Bermuda. Jesse and Zander Kirkland are starting out on a campaign to sail in the 2012 Olympics in London sailing in the 49er class. From what I understand from them, 49ers are similar to Australian 18-footers but smaller and lighter and understandably fewer crew members, 2 to be specific. Like the 18-footers they also go incredibly fast and are very hard to manage, apparently they can get up to 25knots (~28mph) or something.

So basically at the moment its just Jesse and Zander against the boat rather than against the rest of the fleet but they're learning fast and are optimistic about their chances. They've just finished a tour of Europe sailing in regattas in Poland, Germany and, for the last two weeks, in Weymouth. Now they are flying back just in time to get hit by Hurricane Danielle before they head out to Cali to do some more training.

So just wanted to wish them luck in all the hard work they have left to do over the next two years up to qualifying in June, 2012. If people are interested they have a blog up: BER 49er Olympic Campaign.

- Landey

I believe

We need sometimes to escape into open solitudes, 

into aimlessness, into the moral holiday of running

some pure hazard, in order to sharpen the edge of 

life, to taste hardship, and to be compelled to work 

desperately for a moment no matter what.

- George Santayana, "The Philosophy of Travel"

I particularly like this quote and i feel it is very fitting for what we are about to attempt. I have no doubt that we will definitely taste some hardship along Te Araroa. I believe that we will run into hazards; some probably accidental  or unavoidable and some possibly through bad judgement. But I also believe in myself, Landey and Damienmarc. I believe that we all have that spark that makes you push on through whatever poor situation we may possibly be in.

Neither of us have ever attempted anything quite like the Te Araroa trail, but what we lack in experience I think we make up for in common sense, determination and the ability to take any bad situation in a positive light, in order to sharpen the edges of our lives.

- Anders

Guerilla promo in Oz

A good friend of ours, Patrick Burr, is in Sydney right now staying in some backpacker hostels. Very kindly he has offered to print off and handout/hang up some flyers promoting TastyTrek and the Te Araroa trail.

Anyway, thanks a lot Patrick. Beers are on us next time we see you.
-Anders

If YOU would like to promote TastyTrek and our causes please don't hesitate to contact us at TastyTrekNZ10@gmail.com

Where we all are.

I just realised that many people will not know where in the world each of us curently are, or what we are doing with all our time when not updating the website or writing around to potential sponsors and magazines. Well let me enligten you.

• I (Anders) am in London and will be starting a new job with a removals group, hopefully tomorrow. I also hope that this job will make me enough money to do Te Araroa without having to constantly worry about budgetting for everything...because that would be a pain in the ass and not much fun. I have done some rough calculations and i should be fine.

• Landey is also in London and works on the 24th floor of the Canary Wharf building, where he sits all day long typing information off utility bills into a database. He says that it's riveting and he's having the time of his life. Note the sarcasm. No, it's a soul destroying job. But he will persevere. They pay him quite well and this will ensure he has enough funds to do the trek.

• Damienmarc is currently in Sri Lanka with some firends but will be back home in Dubai in the next few days, where he will continue to work somewhere, doing something until he comes to London at some point. Very vague i know. Thats just the way he rolls i guess.

So we are all roughly in the same boat at the moment, just working to raise some capital and continuing to spread the word of TastyTrek.

- Anders

WaterAid in Pakistan

It has been hard to miss the news reports of the devastating floods that have ravaged Pakistan in the last few weeks. United Nations are declaring it the worst humanitarian crisis in recent history with more people being affected than in the Indian Ocean tsunami and recent Kashmir and Haiti earthquakes combined!

The first wave of deaths resulting from the floods themselves stands at 1,384. However, Pakistan's problem are set to get worse as now 3.5 - 6 million people do not have access to clean water and/or are at risk of contracting deadly water-borne diseases such as diarrhoea and cholera.

WaterAid is helping. WaterAid have already released funds that will primarily provide relief focusing on drinking water, sanitation and hygiene services; and secondarily will continue efforts towards rehabilitation of drinking water sources, hygiene and sanitation facilities. WaterAid are currently supporting local partners in the following activities:
# Hygiene kits
# Dissemination of Information, Education and Communication (IEC) material
# Drinking water tankering
# Drinking water quality testing
# Emergency water purification and hydration
# Assesment and rehabilitation of dinking water supply schemes

For more information, please see what Wateraid is doing for Pakistan.

There is really no better time than NOW to support WaterAid.

Help WaterAid help Pakistan.
Thank you

- Anders and TastyTrek

References:
Pakistan Floods Facts and Figures

You've got mail

WaterAid fundrasing packs have arrived! Albeit very squashed and mangled after being folded and jammed through my letter box. Anyway, there's tons of literature and information here and a personal message -

"Dear TastyTrek, wish you all the very best. We hope you enjoy your walk and are successful in rasing awareness for WaterAid!"

Thanks WaterAid.

Donations

We have now raised over £113 or $176...
Just want to say thank you to everyone who has donated so far.
There are alot of changes coming to the site very soon (hopefully). 
Have a look at the Charities Page to read up on Solar Light for Africa and WaterAid (to be added soon)


and please make a small donation if you can:
Solar Light for Africa
WaterAid

Te Araroa - On Veg

I just want to say a quick thank you to Paul Goodsell. Paul is also walking the Te Araroa trail although he is starting a couple weeks before our planned departure date. He has selflessly taken some time to write us an in-depth email with his thoughts on our equipment list. Anyway I have added his page to our Supporters as a thank you for his help.

Paul updates his Blog (Te Araroa - On Veg) daily and has alot of information on vegan trekking. So if your planning on doing any long distance walking on a vegan diet then take a look!

- Landey

Update by Anders

Another day gone... It's suprising really how much of a day can be used up whilst just sitting on your bed, drinking tea and playing with the website; ironing out all the little mistakes, trying to make it look nice. There's plenty to still do to it, but slowly slowly it's coming along.

Daily the website is being edited by Landey and myself, having stuff added to it (some stuff you haven't even seen yet!). However i'm beginning to feel that im using the 'editing the website' card more and more often as an excuse to not seriously start looking for a job. I hate job searching.

The ball starts to roll...

Today is a great day! Imperial College's student newspaper 'Felix' are our newest sponsors. Felix have asked to interview us about TastyTrek and our intentions of walking Te Araroa; and to publish an article in the September additions of Felix when the university reopens.

Hopefully this will spread the word of TastyTrek and bring in more donations for Solar Light For Africa and WaterAid. 

We also hope that this will inspire others from Imperial College to get out and explore the world. There is more to life than working hard.

Thank you to Felix the cat and Kadhim Shubber (Felix Editor).

TastyTrek Blog

I have, finally, got around to setting up the Planning Blog (well thats what I'm calling it for now). Updates will be still be posted via the Map/Blog page however we will only start updating it once we start walking since it was designed to allow people to follow our progress (and right now we are miles away from New Zealand and the Te Araroa Trek!). So for right now we will write about the ongoing planning of the trip. 


This Blog also has the advantage that users can comment on posts so that we can receive your much appreciated feedback, and you can subscribe to TastyTrek allowing you to follow us easily using the format you want.