What is really great about tagging along is the fact that other than air fare, virtually everything is paid for. The hotel is generally paid for by the organization sending her to the conference, in this case the Ministry of Health as are her meals. The good part about the meals being paid for is that ever since meeting up with our friends in Hawaii, Kristie and I have always found that meal portion sizes are easily large enough for two people; any time a meal doesn’t fill us up, we will generally purchase some snack items on our own dime. For instance, a couple nights ago, we were a bit hungry in the evening, so we shared a small tub of yoghurt between the two of us.
Another great part about tagging along for conferences is that most conferences are held within the heart of a city. The one we are at now, for instance, is at Otago University, which is just north of the down town core. In order to save on cab fare, the organization paying for the trip will generally try to house the attendees close to the conference; within walking distance. That gives us the advantage to exploring the city on foot, which is much better than driving as you get to fully investigate all the nooks and crannies of an area to your heart’s content, which is exactly what we always do. We walk, and walk, and walk, and walk, and walk... Which brings me to the point of this blog entry: Holy frig do my feet hurt!
Kristie and I walk a lot normally; in the summer, that can amount to anywhere from about 15 – 21 km a day. That is walking to and from work, and then taking the dogs for a 2 - 5 km walk after work, depending on weather conditions or how tired we feel. That is a fair amount of walking. Whenever we’re on these kinds of vacations however those numbers go out the window.
Toronto, Montréal, Christchurch, and Dunedin have all taken their tolls on our feet leaving them bruised, blistered and swollen. I knew we walked a lot on vacation, but until Christchurch and Dunedin, I never knew how much it actually added up to. As I’ve talked about before, I now wear a pedometer ever day to track how many steps I do on a given day. The data from the pedometer will be uploaded to my computer and then I upload the data to an online spreadsheet/reporting program. My goal is to complete 5 million steps in a year’s time. Using this pedometer as a guide to tracking my progress has vastly improved my fitness level over the last few years. It has also given me insight into how much walking we actually do on vacation.
As I mentioned earlier, a good normal walking day at home will be about 21 km, which will equate to about 32,000 – 34,000 steps. Last year, while on vacation in Hawaii, I racked up about 46,000 steps on my best day, which can be roughly estimated to equal 28 km. Two days ago, I recorded my largest number of steps ever recorded since I started doing this about three years ago. I walked 53,173 steps. This total can be roughly estimated to equal about 33 km of walking in a day! It is no wonder my feet hurt when on vacation!
The next day, I wanted to give my feet a bit of a break, so while Kristie was at the conference, I pretty much just puttered around the downtown core. Sitting here and there, reading a book, enjoying the sunshine, walking to some of the cafes, etc. I still managed to rack up almost 37,000 steps. Even on a day I try to take it easy, I end up walking about 22 – 25 km!
Today, after the conference, we’re heading to St. Claire beach, and I bet you I’ll still walk over 20,000 steps today. Oh well. My feet hurt, but I’m seeing some really amazing sites. Next post should have some of the pictures I’ve been taking while on holiday.
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