Body found on track
A unidentified man was found dead on a walking track in the Coromandel yesterday. Hikers walking in the Coromandel Forest Park, Broken Hills, came across the man’s body shortly after midday and called for help. A search and rescue team was then sent into the bush area, at the end of Pukenui Valley Rd, south of Tairua, where they found the body on the Collins Track. The body, of a man aged between 35 and 45, was carried out of the bush and flown by helicopter to Tairua. Police are now appealing for any reports of missing persons so they can identify the man.
In my life before journalism, I spent the days and nights slaving away in the hospitality sector. Those who are too high- brow to stoop to the level of serving people food to pay for their own will have no idea how good a workout you can get by doing a shift in a bar, cafe or restaurant.
At least eight hours on your feet, dashing around after people, is just as good as going for a run, while lugging crates of milk or kegs of beer is all the weight training you need.
Bend your knees for getting things out of low cupboards and you will easily do 50 squats a day.
But those days are well and truly behind me. Journalism has made me a desk jockey.
Sure, my fingers and thumbs have never been fitter after putting in thousands of keystrokes each day but I get nowhere near as much exercise as I used to.
While some reporters here are into all sorts of fitness regimes, my physical activity consists of walking the dog, the occasional run, playing drums, and lifting music gear in and out of cars.
So how had going from waiter to writer affected my fitness? There was only one way to find out.
On a sweltering hot Manawatu day, I find myself at the Sport and Rugby Institute about to be put through my paces by personal trainer James Amon.
New Zealand under- 19 cricket player Arana Noema- Barnett is there to do the same, so I have the perfect opportunity to see how I stack up against someone who actually tries to keep fit.
A glance at a whiteboard shows what we will be doing: sprints, yo- yo test, shuttles, horizontal jumps, weights, skinfold testing and being weighed. The sprints, done to check our acceleration, go off without a hitch and without me pulling my hamstring. I am feeling good after them. Ready for more. Ready for anything. Or so I thought. The yo- yo test has replaced the beep test but works along the same lines. Beep – run to other end of the gym. Beep – run back to the line.
Beep – you have 10 seconds to walk a few metres before the sequence starts again.
I keep track of Noema- Barnett to make sure I keep the right pace and do not feel too bad at the start.
But as the beeps get closer together, the legs start to wobble.
‘‘ Head up mate, it’s all good,’’ I tell myself, mainly because the national women’s sevens team had just finished their training and were getting some entertainment watching a reporter in gym gear gasping for breath.