St Kilda’s pre-season camp in New Zealand ramped up a notch on day five, with the playing group trekking through some scenic, but rugged terrain on foot and two wheels.
Following a less than ideal night’s sleep, the Saints rose early to surge up and around Mount Raupehu, which is the site of New Zealand’s largest active volcano, located between Auckland and Wellington on the North Island.
Saints star midfielder David Armitage explained how the day began at the crack of dawn, progressed in levels of difficulty and how the program kept the playing group guessing for the whole 12 hours.
“We had just a few hours of shuteye and then we were up at 6am to set off again to this magnificent part of the world,” Armitage told saints.com.au in New Zealand.
“We had about a 20km hike which was pretty solid, through some pretty rugged terrain.
“Just when blokes thought we just had the hike today, we set off on a pretty solid bike ride that was about 8kms straight up hill.
“Everyone found it tough, some more than others but the camaraderie of the boys to help each other out was awesome, there was a real care there for each other which was awesome to see.”
And just when everyone thought the surprises were over for one day, the high performance department rounded all the players up after the long, slow hill climb and exposed them to a little more punishment for good measure.
“Straight after the bikes, the boys though they were done, but we were told to get into something warm, we couldn’t have any skin showing. We got our long skins on and our jackets on and then started to do another hike,” Armitage said.
While it wasn’t quite a snow day that forced everyone back inside, the weather did come to the players rescue late in the piece, much to the players delight, who rode back down the mountain on the ski lift.
“Fortunately the weather wasn’t great so we could only go to halfway of where we were supposed to go, but it was still minus two up there so it was quite cold. All in all a massive day, non-stop for about 12 hours,” Armitage said.
