I had put writing about the Ruapehu trip on hold with feeling the need to write about the “cost savings” that included Enabling Good Lives contingency. Since then I have seen a press release where:

“The Government has confirmed $73.7 million over the next four years and a further $40.5m in outyears to continue to transform the disability support system, Minister for Disability Issues Priyanca Radhakrishnan has announced.”

I am not really sure what the true size of the contingency was, but the maths doesn’t add up, it makes my head hurt, and to be honest, I haven’t got the time or energy for something like an Official Information Act request. The “details” at the bottom of the above press release have promise. I really hope that other regional leadership groups are supported better by Whaikaha than MidCentral was by the Ministry of Health. I will talk in my next blog about some of the “crunch points” that I see potentially happening, hopefully, Whaiakaha will have taken on some of the learning from the “unintended consequences” we came across in MidCentral. I guess I am disappointed that the contingency was taken because it will once again slow down much-needed change because of “resource” issues and that $52 million could have provided some of that resourcing.

So to more enjoyable topics for now!

June 7 and 8 saw a group of 26 disabled people aged 18 – 35 with a wide diversity of access needs jump on a bus and head to Ruapehu. I love working with the MidCentral Enabling Good Lives Young Adults And Youth (YAAY) for many, their first time being in the snow. It once again reminded me that so many people don’t get to experience the outdoor places of New Zealand, not necessarily because of an impairment, but because although the outdoors exists for “free”, accessing it is not always so easy. It could be financial reasons; we all know petrol isn’t cheap, neither is much of the equipment. I consider it an honour to introduce people to the outdoors, even more so when their access has been denied due to perceived perceptions of what disabled people can achieve, and then the risk aversion that occurs more and more within our current society. If people don’t experience risk (hopefully safely) how are they to learn and grow?

I will never forget hearing Celia Lashile talking about young men and her experience of working in the Corrections system; “Do you want your young men to learn about decision making by choosing their breakfast or a superpowered car that they can wrap around a power-pole within minutes?”. I am not equating disabled people to young men at risk or in Corrections, but it is the same concept, for so long disabled people have been “protected” from risk and making decisions that involve low-level risk that many disabled people don’t know how to make good decisions in risky situations. People may see the outdoors as a “high-risk” environment, but the more I work with disabled people in the outdoors, the more I realise that actually in some ways they are easier to work with in this setting because they often understand their limitations, comfort zones and boundaries far better than some non-disabled. We had Deaf, Visually Impaired, wobbly walkers, a wheelchair user, those with various “processing disorders” and other learning disabilities on this trip. We had one minor meltdown over the entire weekend, so I am not sure why people worry so much about disabled people getting out there and enjoying the outdoors.

I often will smile when people hear what sorts of things I get up to with my adaptive adventures, mostly because I can see them trying to process what I am saying, while trying not to react to their own risk aversion to the situation. Often there is a conversation about me being “brave”…. someone please explain???? I am doing exactly the same risk management processes as any other outdoor instructor or event manager, I just have a little more in there around meeting people’s access needs and how to adapt certain things. Although the YAAY leaders had notified Whakapapa that they had a group with various access needs coming and booked in for sledding; this was obviously not passed onto Ski Patrol and the operators of the day. Ski Patrol wanted to ensure people’s safety which I get; I had a chat to them as Health & Safety Manager for the trip and they had no problem with people sleddding, with a couple of adaptions. Adaptions are my thing, so yeah no problem; those with Visual Impairment and lower limb function loss needed to be sledding with a buddy to either; 1) tell them when to put heels out to slow down and stop, or 2) put their heels out and be the brake for those with lower limb function issues. Ski Patrol was a bit confused on how to get our wheelchair user to the start of the sledding; me being me…”Hey, what’s the skin on your butt like?”, their response was “yeah good”, so I asked the Ski Patrol to just bring a sled over and transfered them straight into the sled; problem solved. If the wheelchair user said that they had skin issues on their butt I would have their prescribed seating cushion off their wheelchair as the transfer was done. I was monitoring everyone for signs that they were getting cold, and sent a couple of people to the cafe to warm-up, some found it challenging with their sensory processing being off the charts with the bright white light, all the people and noise, over the entire weekend we only had one meltdown. It was over ill-fitting hire snow-pants, which was resolved quickly and everyone quickly got back to throwing snowballs and making snow angels.

One learning from this trip for me is that if you wear an orange high-vis vest on the mountain, random members of the public will assume that you are mountain staff and will come to you asking all the usual weird random questions that occur on a beginner’s slope. I have since gone out and got a custom made AntnzVentures purple high-vis vest for future work.

I attended a two-day workshop on “Creating Narratives for Change” with Te Ohaakii a Hine – National Network Ending Sexual Voilence Together (TOAHNNEST) looking at what some of the myths around Sexual Violence are, what message would we rather see, and what messaging do we need in order to change the myth, and move from awareness of sexual voilence to understanding the drivers and the responses needed to break the cycles of voilence many New Zealanders face. One of the main barriers to reducing sexual violence towards disabled people is not being part of the conversation and non-disabled not understanding the nuances of disability and how that can impact bodily autonomy and how our current systems are not set up to address some of the horrific harm that occcurs towards to disabled people and their families/whanau. Everybody has some connection to a disabled person (even if they don’t want to acknowledge it); it is up to all of us to take responsibility to end this type of abuse, not just the “disability sectors”? responsibility. Disabled People are at least 25% of the population, I feel a huge weight at times to bring the communities voice forward and try to move people from being aware to understanding some of the issues (and how they contribute to those issues) that occur within the intersection of disability and violence.

Then I had a wee visit to Wellington to attend Jan Logie’s valedictory speech. An absolutely lovely speech…. interrupted by Raven soring, and despite the nudges with a toe she didn’t really wake up until everyone stood as we sung waiata tautoko. I am still a little bemused that the security guy wanted to look through the treats pouch, and I apologise if anyone’s belongings smelled slightly of venison afterwards.

Before I knew it I was on the count-down to my first half-marathon, 4Paws Marathon in Christchurch. I was off to be Ambassador for Assitance Dogs New Zealand. 4Paws is a person and dog event, and a real grass-roots event, where the organisers believe exercise is medicine, and what better way to exercise than with your best friend. It was celebrating it’s 5th year this year, and each year it donates proceeds to different charities, and this year it was supporting Assistance Dogs New Zealand Trust. I figured seeing as I am training, what better way to go and celebrate what Assistance Dogs can help people achieve than go and do a half-marathon.

Wendy who was my Achilles guide for my 10K in May, had agreed to join me as a guide for this mission. I can feel a little worried about getting jostled with just human events, and with the added dogs I am glad I had an extra pair of eyes. It was good to head out to Bottle Lake Forrest a little early and catch up with Jules and the team from FurtherFaster. I have been getting gear from them for several years, and over the years we have gotten to know each other, despite the distance. It was pretty chilly so I don’t blame them for wearing onesies at the start of the day!! Although as Jules pointed out, they weren’t very practical for the portaloos.

4Paws had loads of distances from the 2.4km Rascal Run for the kids, right through to the full marathon distance. The smallest dog on the Rascal Run was a tiny chihuahua and the largest a Leonburger which was almost as large the child that was running next to it. I was a little worried I must admit, I had only just got to walking close to the 20km for my Saturday walks, I knew I was probably going to be ok, but I was a bit hesitant as I had adjusted my training program forward slightly to fit 4Paws. I know some people have been concerned about me pushing Raven too far or too fast. I have done all my training with Raven, and yes at times I push her, but I also give her time off hauling my butt, I have shortened training sessions or stopped if I think something is up with her. I pay attention to her gait, her breathing and all the little body language cues I have learnt over the years I have had with her, that is how I picked up something wasn’t quite right when she was starting to get blisters by her dew claws from her boots, I called a taxi and got a ride home that day. Raven gets regular vet checks and we have progressively worked towards all our events.

The half marathon was was on the more popular events, and we started off the back, walking, it just wasn’t worth trying to get near the front with so many dogs (& their people maybe?) so totally totally hyped to get going, it would have been asking for trouble! We left the start/finish chute and hung a left onto one of the forestry roads, and past a few of the dogs who had taken off as they needed toilet stops. At this point Raven was so excited and kind of hauling her ass, and therefore my ass, because she wanted to catch up with all the dogs and go for a pack run. We then hung a left into the pine forest.

As the rest of the pack passed us again and got out of eye-sight Raven chilled a bit and got on with the job. Having done other bush walks with her she is either on her short, momentum lead, an off-leash heel with her bags on so being in a forest where the tracks were harder to see she didn’t really want to “go long” on my long, momentum hand-free set up. When she could see a definite track, she was good quite happy to “go long”. At least when she wasn’t being distracted by Murphy, a border collie that was walking the 16km event that was free-running (when allowed) she was good, and even when Murph decided to roll in the dead goat, she managed to resist and carry on giving me a bit of momentum heading out towards the beach. I was even more thankful she didn’t follow Muph launching himself into the swamp, just after the wet dog sign.

We hit the 11km aid station, I ditched my base layer, Raven had a big drink, and we both made the most of the opportunity to pee. Then we hit the beach, headed south towards the New Brighton Pier. It was just after the tide had gone out which meant it was nice and packed to walk on. Being a public beach and a lovely day there were loads of people and dogs out enjoying the beach, including a paraglider buzzing overhead. At home of the River walkway, Raven has been charged several times, so she was starting to get a bit twitchy around off-leash dogs, so we have practising her focusing on me and making eye contact when she sees off-leash dogs. She was doing so well at this that it was pointless at times trying to have her on her long momentum line because she kept stopping to make eye contact and get rewarded for it, on the shorter handle at least I can just kind of feed her a treat but keep moving. Oh boy did she work it, I was starting to run low on treats by the time we hit the turn-around. It was during this stretch of the event that I was really thankful to have Wendy with me, she was able to keep a heads up for any off-leash dogs that I hadn’t noticed, or dogs that had passed but decided to double back for sniffs, and when she saw them coming she was just able to get between the dog and us, and usually by then the owner would usually call off their dogs. I was feeling pretty good heading onto the beach, but that pier looked an awfully long way away.

We got up closer to the pier and somewhere by the golf course we did a turn-a-round and headed into the sand-dunes. The sand dunes were a slog, it was soft and on the up and downs, despite having boards on chains to serve as something like steps, it felt like three steps forward and two steps backwards at times. I found this section brutal, I definitely was having doubts about keeping my tights on, but I didn’t want to cut my legs up on the dune grasses on the way through, but it was hot, a clear spring day and the dunes seemed never-ending. The treats bag was almost out by this stage, so I shot out a text to Hannah from Assistance Dogs NZ for an emergency treat stash for when we arrived at the finish line! It was a sweet relief to loop past the aid station at 17km, even if I was wondering if the 21km may have been a little ambitious. “Oh well, I’m here now, I’ve travelled too far and dragged Wendy along not to finish”, I got some water into my bottle, made sure Raven drank and peed, used the portaloo and we were on our way again. I managed to shoot out a quick text to Hannah from ADNZ “emergency treats at the finish line please” before my phone battery ran flat.

After the slog in the sand dunes, the foot-path on the side of the road was quite nice, and it actually had traction, and I gave Raven a bit of plodding wander rest for a while it was then I started noticing the shooting pins and needles in my toes. It was almost a relief to be back on softer pine needles when we swung back into the forest. I’m not sure if it was during sand dunes or the footpath section that my gait decided to forget how it was supposed to work. Whoever puts out the cheeky 4 Paws signs has a sick sense of humour, and I was feeling like the hydrant as we passed the “Some days you’re the dog; some days you’re the hydrant” sign. I just had to keep focused on moving one foot, and then the other. We passed the overly cheery “Good work! Exercise is medicine ladies, well done!” guy on the mountain bike. Now I’m getting shooting pains with every heel strike, and my gait isn’t getting any better, just have to focus on just keeping the toes on my good foot up and keep moving, the finish isn’t too far away. Whoever does the 4Paws signs has a good sense of humour, placed in just the right places to bring a smile and to forget my tingling feet for a moment.

I was not exactly thinking “Yay, I feel great!” in the last kilometre, I was having “What the hell was I thinking?!?” thoughts when we rounded a couple of corners and out onto the last stretch of forestry road into the finish chute! I’m not sure if I was more relieved or happy to be coming into the finish line. As I came in to the finish chute, I saw that Jules and the FurtherFaster team had stuck around to cheer me in; thanks crew that meant a lot, I know you had the prizegiving to get to! Hannah and newly trained Baxter were there, ready with a handful of treats for Raven. I got past the finish line, got our medals, and my brain went “Oh I’m finished”, and my legs went “OK if we’re done, we’re out” and my knees promptly buckled. Someone put a water bowl down for Raven, and we all had a bit of a “WOW, we made it!” moment and took some photos. Someone helped me up, and we headed towards the free ice-cream & doggo ice-cream, while Wendy retrieved my crutches from the car.

We sat for awhile and took in the sun, had a bite to eat and a chat with people. We had chats about both Assistance Dogs and Achilles., both of which I will talk more about in my next blog! Then it was time to head to the airport, have a shower and jump on a plane home! We got home tired, but satisfied with the achievement, and looking forward to the next challenge; The Auckland Habour Bridge.

Next blog: NZ 23 Election, Achillies, Assitance Dogs NZ and the Auckland Habour Bridge!

Kaua e mate wheke mate ururoa
Strive for your goals by being strong and resilient like a hammerhead shark