I'm Still in New Zealand! :)

At least I didn't let a whole year go by without an update...although I suppose it's getting pretty close! Sorry!!

Life has been very busy, indeed! I've been in New Zealand for another year and a month now, time just goes by so quickly!! However, lots of you will be happy to know (if you haven't heard already), Jacques and I are coming home for a 3 week visit Aug 10-30th! We can't wait to get away from the NZ winter rain and into some New England summer!!

To fill you in a bit on what's happened in the past 10 months...

• In October we had the final ITU race of the season here in Auckland where all of the top triathletes of the world came to compete.  Swim T3 had a stand set up at the Expo and Javier Gomez did an autograph signing session at the booth directly across from ours.  Got to sell some merchandise to lots of serious athletes.
• I swam across the Auckland Harbor again.
• We had a nice quiet Christmas here.  I insisted on having a real tree.  Cut it down myself :) Strange to do in the summertime...
• We had some work Christmas functions, mine was Italian cooking class, pretty yummy! And Jacques, was at a nice seafood restaurant on the water and we were put up in an awesome hotel suite in one of the nicer hotels in Auckland :)
• We spent NYE in Waihi Beach with friends in a batch across from the beach
• I left work at Swim T3 in Feb. 
• On my last day of work we flew to Australia for a week holiday, visit with Fi D, and then Soundwave Festival and our farewell to Matt and Sam who were continuing on their travels and moving to England.
• Jacques' family and I went down to Taupo for the weekend to support his dad, Eugene, as he completed Ironman NZ, his first full length ironman event. Very inspiring to be a part of the support crowd.
• I started teaching yoga at CrossFit Auckland in March when we got back from Aussie, 2 nights a week
• I upgraded to full hour CrossFit classes shortly after in March and have already noticed huge results in strength and fitness.  I also go regularly Mon-Fri and am loving it. I participated in this years CrossFit Games open workouts and although very challenging, fun and motivating to keep getting stronger and keep improving.
• I started working at Farro Fresh as Assistant Grocery Manager. Where the new job is! It is very close to home and super convenient at night with both Jacques' and my schedule.  Next week will mark 3 months there for me.
• I've also registered for my first actual CrossFit competition, for people new to competition in Tauranga on July 6th.  3 events in one day so will see how that goes!

Also, one other thing I wanted to let all my readers know about is that I have signed up to participate in The Ride to Conquer Cancer here in Auckland on Nov 16th and 17th.  It is a 2 day cycle covering approximately 200km.  As part of my entry, I am committed to fundraising $2,500 to benefit the Auckland Cancer Society and cancer research.  I would please like to ask everyone to consider making a contribution of any amount to help me reach my goals! You can find a link to my fundraising page HERE :)

Javier Gomez meet and greet at the Skins booth at the ITU expo

Harbor Crossing Crew--an extremely choppy swim!

Chopping down our mini xmas tree! (It had to fit in Sumi)!

Jacques carrying our xmas tree to the car

All nice and decorated :)

After dessert at our Italian cooking class, the chef decorated everyones faces with leftover chocolate.

In our suite before Jacques' work xmas function

Catching some waves at Waihi Beach New Years Day

Taking a stroll across the Sydney Harbor Bridge

About to have some dinner while waiting for Gene on one of his run laps in Taupo

13.2 in the open.  Since have repeated it and improved by nearly a full round! :)

Most recent photos of us :)

Weekly Highlights

Just some updates of my ongoings so in the past week or so...

The rep from Arena came into the store to show the boss the new product.  He wanted to see how to fit it and how the material was different and how to fit people into it properly, so I got to be the try-on girl.  I got (literally) put into a pair of acid green Arena Carbon-Pro Powerskins (just like many of the olympians are wearing).  In NZ, this suit will retail at over $700!  I felt like I could be pretty speedy just from the suit!

Two weekends ago, we had planned on going to the New Zealand Fitness expo to support a couple of the members of CrossFit Auckland who were competing in the CrossFit demonstration at the expo. They had collected a bunch of the top CrossFit athletes from around the country to participate.  At about 7:45am, Jacques got a call from his coach asking if he also wanted to compete to fill a space that had opened up last minute.  He jumped at the opportunity and did really well given the last minute circumstances and high calibre of all the athletic performances.  Not to mention the pressure of performing in front of a huge audience.  It was pretty awesome day watching the 3 intense WODs they had to complete.  And the other 2 CrossFit Auckland athletes came 1st and 2nd (guys and girls respectively).  

We called our car Sumi after all.  She spoke to us in Japanese (the toll system thingy in Japan) but we actually had her voice disabled when we had a radio band expander put in this weekend.  Now we get lots more radio stations :)  She is super nice to cruise around in and will save us LOTS of money on gas!

My kale is still alive and flourishing, getting closer to being able to become dinner!  Hopefully it continues to survive so well.  

Tonight, my boss is taking Jacques and I out to dinner because one Saturday when I was alone in the store (on an insanely busy day) I had very high sales for the winter season and he was impressed I managed all by myself.  Looking forward to a nice Indian meal tonight :)

Arena Carbon-Pro...what the Olympians are wearing!

Jacques competing at the New Zealand fitness expo

Sumi, our Suzuki :)

My kale getting closer to being ready to eat!

Working Full Time

I started working full-time July 5, the day after we got back from Australia.  It was a bit of different first day at work, having to try on 2 ocean swimming wetsuits (entry level and high end) to get a sense of how to fit people in them and how to explain the differences.  If that wasn't enough to work up a sweat, next, two of my co-workers (who are competitive swimmers to begin with) got me into a racing suit...2 sizes too small as it should be.  It was definitely a quick way to get up close and personal with them shoving bits and pieces of me into the tiny kneeskin.  I have also needed to get used to calling swim suits of all kinds "togs" on a regular basis.  I might actually be used to it now, as strange as that seems.

Three weeks down and I get my first full weekend off this weekend :) though I haven't had to work a full one yet either...that will be 2 weekends from this one.  Working with all the swimming and triathlon gear and talking to all the people who come into the store may just inspire me to get back into some swimming for some of the open water competitions.  We'll see...

My QuickFit (crossfit) sessions have been going well, 3 times a week 7:30-8.  I'm enjoying it and I definitely like the QUICK factor about it.  The WODs may be nice short, but they are by no means easy.

We've been alternating pub quiz Wednesday nights at Slipp Inn (tends to be MANY more teams and more challenging) and Tuesday nights in Albany (which is growing a little but far less teams and slightly less challenging).  The first week we did the Albany one we came second and won $40 to spend on food and drinks the next time.  The second time, we came first and won $60.  The last time we came 3rd and won $20, so we have to keep going back!

Saturday, July 14, we went to soup night at Corelli's! A nice salad started, bowl of soup and dessert, all very delicious of course! And best of all, you got to keep your soup bowl, hand made by an artist who was roaming around and raffled off a large ceramic punch bowl as well!

Jacques and I went to Libby's 7th birthday party a couple Sundays ago.  It was a yucky rainy day, but fortunately the girls were happy bracelet-making and practicing their netball shots in the house.  It was so cute watching the group dance to a game on the Wii, they were all focusing so hard.  It was good to catch up with all the Clinton kids and spend some time with John and Julia as well.  Post-party, we headed to the Glenfield night markets for the first time for dinner.  Lots of varieties of food from lots of different cultures.  A nice way to eat dinner for relatively cheap and extremely delicious!  We went back last Sunday as well!

Last Saturday, I was on by myself at work for the first time on the weekend and I think we had about as many people come into the store that as had been collectively the whole weeks I'd been working!  It was soooo busy, I didn't have time to eat or anything during our opening hours 10-5.  I had LOTS of great sales thought, so it was all worth it.  Even though I was basically ready for bed when I got home, we went to go see The Dark Knight Rises at 9pm and of course didn't get home until after midnight because it's such a long movie!  Definitely worth it, though!

Sunday, we test drove a car and yesterday, purchased it! It's a 2007 Suzuki Swift, dark blue.  I'll post a photo when I can take one in the light.  It's manual, so I'll have to readjust to driving it, but it drives very smoothly and easily.  I am definitely a fan so far.  I am hoping to call it Ollie, just have to convince Jacques that's a good name! :) The purchase came JUST in time as well.  This morning, I picked up Astrid from the airport at 6am and returned her car we'd be able to use for the past 7 weeks!  Is good to have her back and she brought us some delicious Belgian chocolates too!

We are looking forward to watching the opening ceremony of the Olympics this weekend.  We'll have a breakfast/brunch along with the ceremonies Saturday morning 6:30-10:30am.  Later in the day we'll head to a CrossFit expo at the ASB show grounds where 2 members of CrossFit Auckland will be competing.  It will be good to go along and support them.

I think I am mostly up to date now...busy busy with work!  Nice to finally have a steady paycheck, though :)

Port Douglas

Just to preface the lateness of this blog entry...we had an overnight flight back from Australia so we didn't get too much sleep, I spent the first half of our first day back sleeping and the other half unpacking and getting everything organized, making sure I was well-rested for my first day of work Thursday July 5.  Then, I had this entire post written, just waiting to add photos, but it didn't autosave when Safari crashed...so I've had to find time in my now VERY busy schedule to re-write it and catch up.

Wednesday, June 27 I met Jacques in town had some lunch, then we caught the bus to the airport and boarded our plane to Cairns. The flight was close to 6 hours so we didn't arrive until after 10pm. We caught a taxi to our backpackers where Alex and Jane let us in. We went across the street the Gilligan's for a couple drinks and that was basically all of our time in Cairns. In the morning we had some breakfast and got the bus to Port Douglas. We checked in at our backpackers right on the main street and did a bit of exploring. It's definitely a holiday beach town, everyone there to relax and enjoy the reef and rainforest. We spent a couple of days on the beach and did 2 day tours.

Our first tour was to the Daintree Rainforest and Cape Tribulation. We were picked up from our backpackers at 7:45am and not returned until about 5:30. Our tour only had 8 people on it (that was the maximum) so it was very personal and informative. The first stop was Mossaman Gorge and then a boat trip down the river for some croc-spotting, where we saw some males, females and some babies! We had morning tea and coffee and some muffins at a sort of hidden beach along the side of the rainforest. They even catered to my vegan eating. I got a nice fruit box for morning tea instead of cookies and muffins. We carried on to Cape Tribulation where we got about 30 min to explore the views an beach. We drove back into the rainforest for lunch and sat at a picnic table in the middle of the trees. Lunch was a feast of steak, fish, sausages and about 4 different salads and damper (Australian bread). I had 2 vegan patties consisting of some grains and veggies perhaps. They were tasty even though I'm not too sure what they were made of. After lunch we had the option to swim in a chilly mountain stream, which the 4 of us did. The water was about 64 degrees. Very refreshing but a nice little spot. Next we went for a guided walk though the forest.  We all piled back in the van and stopped off at a little ice cream place before heading back to Port Douglas.  They only served a sampler of the 6 flavors of the day which were all named after foreign Australian fruits and things.  I just sampled little bits of Jacques', but most were pretty tasty.  Instead, I had a dairy-free fudgesicle of my own.

We had some nice beach-weather days and did a bit of poking in the shops around Port Douglas, mostly relaxing days.  One day when Jacques and Alex went to do a workout in the evening, I decided to go for a run along the beach.  It was the perfect temperature and since the beach faced east, the sun wasn't beating down on me, but nicely hidden behind the trees, just a nice warm breeze to keep the climate comfortable.  There were so many others out running and walking along the beach as well, definitely a popular evening activity for vacationers and locals alike.

Our other big day trip was a snorkel tour out to the Agincourt Reefs in the Great Barrier Reef.  All three spots were beautiful and we saw some amazing colors and sea life (including 6 white-tipped reef sharks!).  Although a couple of the sharks were decent sized, the guides telling us they were harmless was enough convincing to swim up close to get some photos.  They were pretty hard to keep up to though!  Once again, we were fed very well throughout the day and my vegan needs were catered to.

All in all, we had a fabulous trip and lovely weather!  It was nice to have a week of summertime after going from one winter into the next.

White-tipped reef shark

I Got a Job!

This past week was definitely an eventful one!

I began by starting my crossfit induction training Monday morning at 7am.  So far I've learned lots of new things this week, how to do double-unders with a jump rope and many different kinds of lifts with a barbell.  I had sessions 2 and 3 Wednesday and Friday morning and 4 this morning (Monday June 25).  We also went to the Mega WOD on Saturday morning in honor of moving to a new location, Saturday was fun day at CFAK.  Seeing as that was my first real crossfit workout, I was very tired afterward and sore the next day.  Definitely have some conditioning to do.

Monday, I had my second interview at Swim T3 and it went very well! :)  Thursday around 1pm they called and offered me the job! I start July 5th (even get one day to recover after our trip to Cairns, Australia which we are getting very excited for!).  So I will be working 5 days a week 9-5:30 or 6 on the weekdays and when I have to work Saturdays 10-5 and Sundays 10-4 (I think).  Jacques and I will become bus buddies in the morning to town, and then I'll have to catch the train from there to Mt. Eden.   I am looking forward to having a full-time work schedule and getting paid a salary! I also had another interview Thursday morning at a place in Newmarket, wanted me to come back today for an on the job test day, but I was happy with the job I was offered, so did not go.  I also canceled an interview I was supposed to have Thursday afternoon way out in Penrose.  I did however have a pretty full week of work for the health trust last week, more showers and cleaning and cooking.  I even had to help an old woman change the bandaging on her freshly amputated toe...eww....today I helped wash a woman who will be 100 in October.

Friday night, Jacques and I both got haircuts.  I went to his hairdresser he's been seeing the last 4 years or so and we are very pleased with her work!  Then we had a late delicious Indian takeaway, made more vegan-paleo bars (recipe recommended by Amy!) they were sooo delicious! And also made pulled-pork which I somehow managed not to eat.  It was however devoured by everyone on Saturday night!

I am not quite sure what made me decide to go to crossfit Saturday morning on my birthday...not only did I have to do 25 birthday burpees but many more during their Mega WOD...I was ready for a nap by 5pm before the party started in the evening.  All the rest of the day was busy busy as well.  We had some mimosas and breakfast after crossfit then straight to town for Ice Skating in Aotea square.  90 min of ice-skating is also quite a workout! We then went to Elliot Stables for lunch, but my vegan place Basilicum didn't open until 5:30 so I had to settle for vegetarian eating and had some delicious pumpkin and spinach cannelloni from an Italian place.  We followed lunch with peppermint mochas from Starbucks and then came home for a quick break before the evening birthday olympics began.  It was certainly a fun-filled day and night.  Thanks for all the birthday wishes that came in many different shapes and forms.

One and a half more days of work for the health trust and we are off to Australia to some warm summery weather, hopefully, on Wednesday evening!  Very excited!

haircuts

a few of the skating crew

homemade 80s USA shirt