North Canterbury News: March 07, 2024
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2 The<br />
NEWS<br />
<strong>North</strong> <strong>Canterbury</strong> <strong>News</strong>, <strong>March</strong> 7, <strong>2024</strong><br />
Cousins tackle Coast-to-Coast<br />
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ByROBYN BRISTOW<br />
An extended Waimakariri family added<br />
areal spark to the recent Coastto<br />
Coast.<br />
Eight of the competitors all had<br />
connections to the wellknown Spark<br />
family —seven of them ‘‘effectively<br />
second cousins’’.<br />
‘‘All of our parents are cousins or<br />
siblings,’’ says Molly Spark. The eighth<br />
is connected through marriage.<br />
Molly competed in the one day<br />
individualcompetition,coming in a<br />
creditable thirdinher grade, after a<br />
few spills on the paddle down the<br />
Waimakariri River.<br />
Her cousin Joe Druryfinished 57th in<br />
the open male two day event.<br />
Georgia and Henry Sparkwon the two<br />
day tandem open family mixed contest,<br />
while their cousin James Tyrell<br />
finished 59th in the individual one day<br />
contestinhis grade, and 134th overall.<br />
Georgie and Chris Smith (dad, and<br />
daughter), were eighth in the twoday<br />
family three person teams event, and<br />
Gracie Taggart sixth in the two day, two<br />
person open mixed teams contest.<br />
Molly says her build upwasn’t the<br />
smoothestdue to injuryand not being<br />
able to run for four weeks beforethe<br />
race.<br />
‘‘Lucky for me adrenaline and pain<br />
killers numbed my injuryand Iwas<br />
ready to go.<br />
‘‘The first run was smooth and the<br />
next bike was fast. Ifelt strong on the<br />
firstride, and was first women off the<br />
bike.<br />
‘‘Heading on to the run, it took awhile<br />
to not have heavy jelly legs, but Isoon<br />
found my groove. Iwas very grateful<br />
that Iwas able to follow experienced<br />
races on the run during the first half,<br />
which meant Iwas able to focus on<br />
breathingand technique, rather than<br />
getting lost and finding my way. After<br />
Goats Passhut Iwas alone and was<br />
looking forward to the next cycle,’’<br />
Molly says.<br />
‘‘I was very happy coming off the run<br />
in 4th woman overall. Inew Ihad to<br />
Coasttocoast ... The Spark contingent who all contested the CoasttoCoast in varying<br />
categories and bringing home some well earned placings.<br />
PHOTO: SUPPLIED<br />
make up as much time as possible as the<br />
paddle is my weakness. Getting on to<br />
the river,Iwas in top 5women and<br />
knew the others were close behind.’’<br />
But her paddle wasn’t great, falling<br />
outtwice and getting beached acouple<br />
of times, which saw her drop from fifth<br />
to 12th over, and thirdinher category.<br />
‘‘The final cycle, however, was really<br />
fun. Iloved it. Coke, lollies and<br />
chocolate fuelling me, my head was<br />
down and Ihammered hard home.<br />
Overall Iwas happy with the day. I am<br />
gutted Ilost 25 minutes in the paddle<br />
from silly mistakes as Ionly came 3rd by<br />
20 mins.’’<br />
Molly is looking forwardtonext time<br />
she tackles the longest day, as she<br />
knows she can keep improving.<br />
James says his race went to plan, with<br />
just one fall out of the boat.<br />
‘‘Otherwise the paddle went well. I<br />
paced myself for first run and ride.<br />
Really enjoyed Goats Pass, got rained<br />
on for the first hour of the last ride<br />
which was agood motivator, and abit of<br />
fun. Support crew and transitions went<br />
really well.’’<br />
Gracie, who had apartner that did<br />
very well in his legs of the journey, says<br />
she loved the run, despite being stuck in<br />
single file alot of the way from Doreen<br />
Creek to Goats Pass hut, but was ‘‘dying<br />
at that stage anyway’’.<br />
‘‘My legs moved faster than my brain,<br />
so took some big falls on the way down,<br />
but refuelled because someone<br />
suggested it was agood idea, and found<br />
it really good from there.<br />
‘‘Again my team mate smashed the<br />
kayak so got into afast cycle group on<br />
day two, which Icouldn’t keep up with,<br />
so rode solo most of the way to New<br />
Brighton.<br />
Marissa Stephen<br />
marissa.stephen@ncnews.co.nz<br />
Apphelping recycle food and organics<br />
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Phone:03313 2840 or 03 314 8335<br />
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Distribution:deliveries@alliedpress.co.nz<br />
Anapp which connects people wanting<br />
to recycle food scraps and other organics<br />
ishelping an Amberley business to<br />
recycle their coffee grinds.<br />
Kelly <strong>North</strong>over of Kells Kitchen, uses<br />
the app when she has coffee grinds<br />
available for people to take away for free<br />
to use on their gardens, or even to make<br />
body scrubs and soaps.<br />
Sharewaste is simple to load on to<br />
cellphones, and easy to use.<br />
Kelly says there is always about 60 kg<br />
of coffee grinds to give away, per week,<br />
and encourages people to use the app<br />
whether they want to dispose of, or use<br />
items.<br />
She says cardboard will be the next<br />
feature she will be adding to the app to<br />
giveaway.<br />
Hurunui District Council’s Waste<br />
Minimisation EducatorSerina Linton<br />
discovered ShareWaste when she was on<br />
holiday in Tasman, seeing adisplay at<br />
the Nelson market.<br />
Always keen to minimise waste<br />
wherever she is in New Zealand, she now<br />
uses the app on holiday to dispose of the<br />
family’s food waste from their house bus.<br />
She also uses it to lookupdrop off<br />
locations nearby.<br />
Kelly and Serina women agreed its<br />
also agreat way to meet people in your<br />
neighbourhood, or in other parts of New<br />
Zealand.<br />
To learn more about ShareWaste, visit<br />
Hurunui District Councils website and<br />
refer to Food Waste Recycling at<br />
hurunui.govt.nz/propertyrates/rubbishrecycling/additionalinformation.<br />
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