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 :) |
.JPG)
.JPG)
