Living with the Kiwis: 2011-07-31

I can't believe I only have 6 weeks left in New Zealand!! This year has gone by VERY quickly! I have something planned for every weekend from now as well.

This past weekend, I played in my 2nd winter interclub tennis match and won, again! So far we're undefeated! So that's going well. And then Sunday was an absolutely gorgeous day at Mt. Ruapehu, so we decided to get up at 4am and drive down for the day. Jacques, Marc and I had an excellent day skiing and boarding along with half of the rest of the country!! It was sooo busy! There were massive lines waiting to get up all of the lifts. Also, the more inconvenient thing about skiing in this country, is the lodge is pretty tiny, mostly just a cafe upstairs and tables downstairs for the food there. You can't leave your bags anywhere in the lodge, if you want a bag up there with you, you have to rent a locker for $5 or just carry it with you. Lots of people ski with backpacks. And the very first time we went I was so confused to see everyone getting ready at the car and the just walking right up to the mountain.

The weekend before last, we went down to the mountain from Thursday-Sunday. Astrid and I got a hour of skiing in before they closed and it was a gorgeous day. Unfortunately, it was the best day of the weekend! Peter was saving his 3 day pass for Fri, Sat and Sun, but the mountain was closed on Friday due to high winds! Lack of trees is certainly a problem when bad weather comes through. Saturday was an alright day with moderate visibility and then Sunday was snowy and raining. Overall, it was a good weekend and we did get plenty of skiing in.

When we got back from skiing, Peter came to my yoga class Monday morning and then we went to return the rental gear and then checked out Takapuna beach because it was a fairly nice day. We drove out to Kumeu to see the wine bar where Astrid will be working at this weekend when it opens. It looks lovely and hopefully I'll get to test it out before I go, and get some photos. It is a very cute place that her family is opening out in wine country. Tuesday, we took the kids to the museum and to see the AQUA show. It was good to have some help and Libby especially loved having Peter as a new friend. When we got home they went out exploring and down fishing at the wharf, so I could put Tessa down and she could get some sleep in the quiet house. Peter left to fly to the US Wed morning and I took the kids to meet Nan at the zoo. I brought Tessa home a bit earlier than the others so she could have a sleep and Nan brought Libby and Reuben home a bit later and we got ready to celebrate John's birthday. Friday, he left for the UK for 3 weeks for sailing, pre-olypmic trials.

This weekend, tomorrow, is Jacques' midyear Christmas function for work (I guess they like to have one in winter when it's cold-ish). It's nautical/sea themed and I'm going as a mermaid. I tried to convince him to be my prince Eric like from the The Little Mermaid, but looks like the plan now is Poseidon. Then on Saturday we are going to the All Blacks v Australia Tri Nations Rugby game. Who knows what the plan will be for Sunday, but we've got water polo at 7:30, which I've been happily avoiding by skiing the past few weekends!

Next weekend, the 13-14, we'll be down in Rotorua for the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge. a 6 or 12k race through mud and obstacles. Not sure why I've agreed to participate, but I'll be doing the shorter one. Jacques will be doing the 2-lap longer one. Then, if the weather is nice, we'll head to the mountain to ski on Sunday, since we'll be down that way already.

The weekend after that 19-21, I'll be visiting Fi D in Sydney!! So far the only set plans are to see Jersey Boys! And of course see some Kangaroos and Koalas, but I'm sure it will be a much more packed weekend than that.

The following week, I'd like to try to get down to the snow the 25-26, the I'm registered to run the North Shore Half Marathon on Sunday the 28th, but I haven't run at all...since the Huntly 10k cause Sharon, my yoga instructor told me not to...would just delay the process of stretching out my hips. So I'm not sure that I'm going to attempt the 21k...

The weekend after that, Sept 3rd, we leave for Fiji! Then just 2 days after we come back, I fly home...doesn't seem possible that a whole year will be up! I can't make any promises, but I will try to give updates from a few of the weekends to come! I'll be busy enjoying my last 6 weeks here!