Motivated by a sunrise view from the top of the mountain over the sea, we rose early and walked to the top of mt maunganui in the dark. We heard the Morepork owl hooting his ‘more pork, more pork’ (seriously!) and climbed the very very steep mount. This ‘1km on the flat’ girl struggled, but as it was dark I couldn’t see how bad it was going get nearing the top. And hubby kept promising me it was about to flatten out. And I really wanted a good sunrise photo. In a lather of sweat, calves burning and seriously out of breath, we sat and waited for the sun at the summit. And oh boy was she worth it.