"I wanted to make my 50th birthday a 12-month long fiesta of some high-octane adventures, and so I crammed as many edgy outdoor activities, prep and training in as I could in.
My birthday started with getting married to Vicky, and moved on to adventures in Cambodia, North America, and India. I also managed a few things in the Tararuas that I'd never done before, including a couple of difficult trips: a solo daytrip abseiling down Chamberlain Creek, in the head of the Ruamahanga River, which took 15 non-stop hours; and a one-day crossing from Walls Whare to Otaki Forks with my dogs Sushi and Floyd, taking nine walking hours.
Most of my trips were solo, and many were unsupported, but all were long-held dreams and personal goals of challenging things that I'd always wanted to accomplish.
How I celebrated my 50th really was best summarised by Frank Sinatra: "I'll do it my way." So my catalyst boiled down to a handful of good cliches: damn the torpedoes, throw caution to the wind, and go hell for leather. It's about enjoying living my life.
The climbing and running that I did were really the hardest physical and mental things that I've done. The burning sun, the bitter cold, the gasping lack of oxygen, and ample amounts of personal discomfort, involved some real self-motivation to keep going. At times, particularly on the high-altitude Himalayan climbing, I was tempted to turn back on each of the four peaks I was fortunate enough to summit. The lack of air was torturous, as was the near-frostbite, but the hardest thing was many days alone above 5000 metres in my tent, knowing that Vicky was snuggled under a soft duvet back in our guesthouse in Leh.
