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Kia Ora
My name is Chris Owens, I am a 40 year old Pakeha male from New Zealand. Where the hell is
that ? I hear you say. New Zealand is in the south Pacific , a few thousand kilometres off
the south east coast of Australia . We enjoy a very moderate climate spread over three
islands. The top of the north Island has a tropical bias in its climate , where, down in
the South Island (middle island) where I am situated, we are fortunate to experience the
advantage of winter alpine conditions with our Alps, and a summer, where the temperatures
hang around in the mid 20’s (Celsius.) The proximity of the coast offers a diverse
range of outdoor pursuits relative to seasons and our requirements. The land area is
similar to that of Great Britain, with the huge advantage of only having about 3.6 million
people. We have much wilderness area, both alpine and native forest. The Southern Alps
runs north south down the South Island , with our highest peak Aoraki (Mt. Cook) is about
3754m (12500ft).Basically we have one huge playground with not too many people and
lots of outdoor pursuits to distract us.
I have been active in the outdoors here since high school and have traveled extensively
around the World and New Zealand. My current involvement in the outdoors is organization
wise, is with the New Zealand Mountain Safety Council (www.mountainsafety.org.nz/) where I
hold instructor status in Bushcraft, Alpine, Rockclimbing and Avalanche Awareness. My
personal activities involve follow the same , add sea kayaking, a spot of mtn biking and
avoiding avalanches. Currently I am working for an outdoor manufacturing company called
Macpac. We produce in New Zealand, tents packs sleeping bags and clothing for people who
hit the outdoors quite hard.
So here I was, doing what I really enjoy doing in a country that we call Godzone and then
one weekend I self diagnose myself as having the big D. I had the blood test on the Monday
morning before work to confirm my fears , and by Tuesday afternoon they were showing me
not to inject through my belly button.. I was fortunate to have a younger brother who is a
Youth Field worker for the Diabetes Centre here in Christchurch, and who is also type one
dependent. My partner and I had planned to go back to India in early October for a five
week stint. Initially we had thought to knock the idea on the head as I still had had my
trainer wheels on. We toyed with the idea of a softer option trip, however the more we
learnt about diabetes and the more confident I was becoming , we felt that this should not
stop us. If we could do this trip then there was definitely be no barriers to us and our
future journeys.
So having decided that we were still going back to the sub continent , I set about
researching how I would keep insulin cool in a very third world. To my amazement research
showed that most of the information was written for diabetics who were much older /
heavier / more sedentary than myself. No help if some one wanted to go off piste! Then I
found Idea 2000, these guys were very helpful on keeping things going when involved in
winter alpine activities . However there still seem to be few references to going places
that are hot and did not offer four star accommodation. Until my brother found a product
called a Frio wallet .( www.friouk.com.) This seemed to offer freedom to us from having to
carry thermoses and seek ice , in a country where electricity in unreliable and sometimes
fridge contents security is questionable.
Wish us luck.
Chris and Donna.
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