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Can you believe that it’s more than THREE MONTHS since Mike from Southampton (he's an Aussie citizen now) set off on his crazy ‘wiggly walk’ the entire length of New Zealand to raise money for nystagmus research?
And he finally reached the end TODAY! 3000km on the Te Araroa Trail!
If you haven’t been following his progress along the way, you've missed a real treat. There's been some breathtaking scenery, lots of heart warming stories and, yes, quite a lot of singing, too!
Over the last week of the journey Mike jumped on a bike to up his km because he was hearing about the deteriorating international travel situation.
Mike recounted his most dangerous time, "probably some of the night walks I did. I walked for 30 hours coming out of the Richmond Ranges. I walked through the Tararua Ranges, I walked till 2am, climbing Mount Crawford, but it did leave for some stunning views as the full moon completely lit the area, as the surrounding mountains were a beautiful silhouette. Another epic view was the sunrise at Mount Pirongia. After getting no view whatsoever on the climb, the day before, I decided to stay up there, and get warm in the hut for the night. And I'm so glad I did. The cloud cover cleared overnight, to open up to this bright beautiful green surroundings. Stunning."
And the most emotional! "The lighthouse at the end..... obviously!"
We will be looking forward to see what happens next. While this virus has put a bit of a hold on his plans he did make it back to Aus safely and there's a lot of 2020 left!.
A true nystagmus super hero!
You can still donate via this link.
(ps there is no truth to the rumor that his 2 weeks in isolation upon returning to Australia is due to his singing performances on the Trail)
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David Summited Mount Kilimanjaro
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Dave Rendon, a US vet and one of our ArmaSkin Ambassadors joined a group of buddies to support and raise awareness for Waterboys.
Waterboys comprises professional athletes and fans on a mission to provide clean water for one million people. Founded by two-time Super Bowl champion Chris Long.
To date, @waterboysorg has delivered clean water to more than 360,000 people, and funded 61 sustainable wells.
Dave reached his highest altitude by hiking to the summit of Mt Kilimanjaro. That's 19,341 ft above sea level!.
There is still time. Donate. Make a difference!
.
http://www.waterboys.org/group/david-rendon/
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Soul Trekkers Gave ArmaSkin The Thumbs Up
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Laura Waters, travel writer, speaker, author, long distance hiker and nature nomad took some of ArmaSkin into the wild and happily for her and us she returned with a glowing report on ArmaSkin
"So after the great blister debacle that aborted my Great South West Walk last month, I decided to try these Armaskin anti-blister socks. I tested them on a 15 km beach walk in training for the 60km Melbourne Coastrek event coming up in May and was relieved to have completely happy feet at the end of it. No hotspots, no rubbing. I was worried about whether my shoes would feel tight wearing two pairs of socks (you wear your regular hiking socks over the top) but they were totally comfy. I actually wonder if the super snug fit of them means they act a bit like a compression garment too and stop your feet swelling (another cause of rubbing). There is a special coating inside the socks that makes them feel a bit rubbery/siliconey almost. I know it sounds weird but just try them! I loved them."
It was great to hear from Laura because we were aware of her through her inspiring book "Bewildered"
Here's a sniff: "For five months, Laura battled not only treacherous terrain and elements, but also the demons of self-doubt and anxiety. As the kilometres fell behind her, nature did its work, stripping away her identity and guiding her towards a new way of being. At the end of Te Araroa, it was the hard-earned insights into the power of nature, emotional wellbeing and fulfilling relationships – with others as well as with herself – that were Laura’s greatest accomplishments. She emerged ‘rewilded’, and it transformed her life."
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Erick joined our 2020 ArmaSkin Ambassador Program
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We are pleased to welcome Erick, a new ArmaSkin Ambassador in the USA.
As well as being an avid hiker Erick is a cool nature photographer. He is a nationally published photographer by NPCA which is a nonpartisan voice for protecting America’s parks.
He would love to become a photographer for National Geographic.
His Instagram account is @veteran_aperture Please check his pictures and give him a follow.
Erick is a member of the Vets and Players organisation.
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Yukon 2020 Shirt Competition: WINNER
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According to Art and Lauren, they remain confident that their epic Yukon River challenge will go ahead.
That's a sixty day challenge in some of the wildest parts of Canada!
While we see virtual border walls going up in response to Covid let's all hope they come down before their planned departure date.
ArmaSkin is pleased to be aboard for the journey. We have Art testing out some anti-blister gloves for us.
And last month we announced that we've got one of the Yukon 2020 T shirts to give out to one of our readers.
The winner was Jake from Alaska. Congratulations Jake!
And if you'd like to give Lauren and Art a bit of $ encouragement, you can do so very simply via this fundraising page.
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What's happening as a result of the big shutdown!
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Home School Resources from The Walking Mermaid
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Over the coming months, if your youngsters are sending you crazy why not check out Jessica's Walking Mermaid Blog.
Jessica is an ArmaSkin Ambassador who is an experience home schooler for her two young daughters.
Along the way she has developed a wealth of resources that she shares through her Walking Mermaid website. As an avid hiker and outdoors person you can imagine the resources are fresh and inspiring. Enjoy!
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Sadly, the Melbourne March 2020 OxFam Trailwalker event was cancelled.
We were supporting a number of Teams who were doing the hard yards of training required for this event only to have their goal snuffed out with just weeks to go. while the disappointment must be extensive at least these folks have become a lot fitter as a result of their commitment and hopefully many will have caught the hiking bug for the first time!
At this point events in other states which are planned for later in the year are still indicating that those events will be run. We certainly hope that by August some normality will have returned!
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ArmaSkin production facilities are currently still operating and it is our intention to do this unless external circumstances intervene.
To be on the front foot in this very difficult time ArmaSkin has undertaken accelerated development of a face mask.
Prototypes have been produced for testing in the field and by a standards laboratory. Clearly we are not aiming to have a laboratory qualified mask ahead of distribution.
While we have high expectations on the performance of the mask, we are simply intending to offer it for general purpose use.
The mask comprises 4 layers of Merino wool treated on single sides with SiFusion. That's the same material we are using on our new base layers!
We have a small quantity of 30 prototype masks available to enable some rapid user evaluation.
Pricing is similar to our liner socks, and like them will be washable thus reusable.
At this point we are restricting numbers and distribution to Australian based customers so that we can get wide and rapid feedback without delaying things with possible intermittent international freight.
Once we've confirmed the design and are confident of our supply chain we hope to expand availability.
If you would like to order, please go to our website armaskin.com and look in the Corporate menu. Please note that if we are over subscribed on this initial phase we will hold your order until the next batch becomes available unless in the meantime you request a refund.
If you require additional information about the mask please email ian@armaskin.com
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As folks around the globe are told to shutter themselves away it is taking a toll on many people and businesses.
Even in our tight knit ArmaSkin community we have lots of sudden hardship being foisted upon many good people.
In simple terms our seniors are in the direct line of the aggressive virus and many of our younger members have had the employment rug pulled out from underfoot.
While heading to the hills (with your ArmaSkin) might seem a logical option, leaving behind obligations for what could be months just won't work for most.
So, if there's anything that you may be looking to employ some help on you are welcome to email us with requests that we may be able to farm around to our subscribers. Just email ian@armaskin.com with a thread of what small job you might have or skill you can offer. You just never know.
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SPECIAL 20% OFF: ArmaSkin Liner Socks!!
(offer ends 7 April)
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Now is the time for some ArmaSkin liner socks!
You'll be itching to get out into the fresh air, so make sure you have ArmaSkin afoot for blister prevention.
Please use code News20 before COB 10 April to get a 20% discount on your next ArmaSkin purchase.
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If you would like to get a regular dose of interesting articles for hikers please subscribe to our ArmaSkin Hiking Magazine.
If you are a blogger or have an interest in reaching this community, we might very well include your material in our Magazine for free. Just email ian@armaskin.com to discuss.
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WIN WIN WIN
MONTHLY opportunity to win FREE ArmaSkin -
please share your picture stories with us.
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Stories from you, the happy wearers of ArmaSkin, are our most powerful learning and marketing tool. We thus encourage you to tell us about your experiences and adventures with ArmaSkin.
For your chance to win your choice of a pair of ArmaSkin liner socks or our new Sticky No-Bounce Belt simply email : sales@armaskin.com a picture of you on the go using an ArmaSkin product together with a short comment about the picture. Or you can #ArmaSkin in a social media post that could come to our attention.
If the picture is featured in a 2020 edition of ArmaSkin News the monthly prize is yours.
This month's winner is Laura who shared her review of ArmaSkin.
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