Sick in Taupo

Originally posted on February 16, 2015, by cruisingrunner

Getting sick is a good way to ruin a training plan or a vacation. Well, it’s not like I’m really training or anything, but I have been running a lot lately, and now I’m not. I’ve been derailed by a cold. That sounds lame, so let me elaborate. I will typically run through head congestion, in fact I PR’d at the Carlsbad Half Marathon once with a head cold. But this current cold is a lot more than head congestion. It’s in my chest. Deep in my chest. Breathing hurts a lot of the time, so running is out of the question. It started about a week ago, and I am long over the flu like headache and the body aches and the chills, but the congestion persists.

So, when I am finally able to run again, whenever that may be, I will be starting from square one again. At least it’s not in the middle of a training plan, though, because that can be really disappointing.

But to make matters really bad, I’m sick in the middle of a holiday. You may be thinking something like, “well, your whole life is a holiday now…,” which reminds me that I need to write a post about how cruising is not always a holiday, but in the mean time just think about this as a holiday from my normal holiday. We left Exodus at a marina in Opua and we are on a road trip to see the rest of New Zealand. And I’m sick. And not just me. My husband and my youngest son are also sick, and we are seriously slowing down what should be this marvelously epic road trip. Our plan has been to tent camp, but feeling as bad as we all did when we pulled into the Great Lake Holiday Park in Taupo we rented a “deluxe cabin” instead. We have beds, a half bath, a small fridge, a small table with four chairs, and a TV. We decided to stay until we feel well enough to press on and we are going on our third day here while barely even leaving the cabin.

Perhaps I need to return to the thought that, “cruising is not always a holiday.” When I wrote that, I was thinking of it in a negative way. Don’t get me wrong, cruising is a fantastic lifestyle, but it’s still life, and therefore by definition cannot always be a holiday. And while it’s a true sentiment that there are a lot of normal, mundane, life type things about cruising which make it different from a holiday, I have just touched on one very real positive aspect that make it better than the typical holiday. Flexibility. Our cruising lifestyle affords us flexibility. If this had happened during our 10 day vacation in Hawaii or our 7 day vacation in Grand Cayman, for example, it would have been extremely disappointing. In contrast, our current road trip has no set end date. We are thinking it will be about four weeks, but if it ends up being 4 weeks and four days because we got sick and had to pause for awhile, it is mostly inconsequential.

When I get around to writing that post about how cruising is not always a holiday, I will need to remember to make it comprehensive and include positives as well. Right now, we are sick in Taupo, but as soon as we are ready, the “Exodus Road Trip New Zealand 2015” adventure will continue. And I’m sure it will still be epic.