Club Champs/Jelly Bean Week!

This week is Club Champs at the Tennis club.  I entered Women's singles, Mixed doubles and Women's doubles, just for fun.  I had a match on Sunday, Monday, 2 on Tuesday, one Wednesday and one tonight (Friday) and one tomorrow as well (if it doesn't interfere with my Ocean Swim, Milford Beach to Takapuna beach).  I'm not in tennis shape at all, but the tennis-filled week has been fun. 

Last weekend was An and Jenny's last in New Zealand :(  Jenny is now back in California and An is in Australia, and then off to Thailand and eventually back to Belgium.  We had a nice goodbye dinner all together Friday night (along with their replacements) and then games and picnic in Albert Park Saturday evening before going out.  It's sad now a lot of my first friends here have gone back home or off traveling and then back home! 

This week was also the last week of swim lessons for the term and so half the class is fun and games and the kids get jelly beans at the end!  While telling "The Bob Story" during one class of preschoolers I was corrected.  Apparently, they're not zEE-bras at the zoo (where you also always see a bobcat in the bob story) they are ze-(as in egg)-bras...also playing red light/green light, the it's not a yellow light, it's an orange light!  I was wrong all over the place.  They just didn't understand that it was what I called them, to them, it was just wrong. 

Tomorrow I am doing the King of the Bays Ocean Swim, another 2.8k from Milford Beach to Takapuna beach, very close to home again.  Hopefully the weather stays just like it has been all week! Nice and sunny!  It's the last swim of the series as summer is slowly coming to an end.  The rest of the weekend should be pretty relaxed (that's the plan as of now) and then Monday night Jacques and I are going to see Bruno Mars at Vector Arena in Auckland!! :)  Then three days of looking after the kids the first week of school holidays, then the family is off to the Mount and Jacques and I are off to Great Barrier Island!

Last ever group photo with An and Jenny :(

Coromandel!

Last week was another busy one! Lots of swimming teaching (about 12 hours) and the regular days with Reuben, Libby and Tessa.  After Saturday's lessons, I came home, showered, and Jacques and I were off to Hahei on the Coromandel peninsula for the weekend.  The weather could not have been more perfect! It was like summer had come back completely for the weekend!  We drove to Hahei and staying in the Tatahi Lodge right near the beach.  We did the walk to the famous Cathedral Cove that evening and then visited Hot Water beach the next morning.  The beach was pretty busy with people waiting with their spades for the tide to go out low enough.  There's only a small section of the beach where you can dig (and only 2 hours either side of low tide) where the hot springs are felt.  They are HOT!  You need to dig far enough from the water so that the waves don't fill in your hole, but close enough so that you get a bit of cool water every now and again.  Placement is tricky indeed!  We merged "spas" with a few different people at times, better to work together to dig and build a wall so that all the hard work doesn't just collapse on itself with the next wave. 

From there we drove up north a bit more, to Cook's Beach and Shakespeare's Cliff to look out.  We saw the passenger ferry to Whitianga which would have literally been a 5 min swim across.  instead we drove about 40k all the way around up to Whitianga and then continued on some more.  We stopped off for some ice cream, just before getting to Otama Beach (which was deserted!) and asked for a double scoop.  I was so surprised when she handed it to me and I saw my tower of ice cream!!  It was more like a quadruple scoop and I couldn't eat it fast enough off the tiny cone and it started dripping down my arm...a bit messy.  I went for one last swim at Otama beach in the waves and enjoyed the warm water before hopping back in the car, driving across to Coromandel Town, and then back down the coast via Thames and back up to Auckland.  A lovely weekend away indeed. 

People digging and spaing at Hot Water beach

Otama Beach

swimming all by myself at Otama Beach

Partially eaten double scoop ice cream!

A wave of cool water flowed in right at picture time!

Hahei Beach

Beginning of the walk to Cathedral Cove

mid-walk to Cathedral Cove

Cathedral Cove

Otama Beach

Museum and 5k Fun Run!

This weekend we said goodbye to yet another friend! Vicky flew home to the UK on Saturday.  A group of us met on Saturday for lunch (also met Jenny's replacement since she'll be going soon as well) and then visited the Auckland Museum, a perfect rainy day activity.  They have a living room you go and sit in and it simulates what it would be like if a new volcano erupted next to Rangitoto, the floor shakes and you see all the ash and magma racing toward you through the sliding glass door.  Basically, we'd be completely wiped out!  So hopefully no more volcanoes are planning on emerging anytime soon!

I had to babysit Saturday night while Julia and John went out to an 80s party, dressed as some crazy 80s characters!  Sunday morning John and Reuben and I did the Shore to Shore 5k fun walk/run with over 5000 other school kids and their parents.  The race started at Takapuna grammar school and we ran up Lake Rd, down onto Takapuna beach, across the beach, up on the road along to Milford beach and then across Milford beach to the finish.  8-year-old Reuben managed to do it in 42 minutes! just over 20 min faster than he did it last year!

Smart Little Tessa

This morning, while getting Reuben and Libby ready for school, making sure their bags were packed and shoes were on, and as Julia was getting ready to head out the door for work, Tessa went all the way up to my room by herself and came back with the keys to the Merc and handed them to me in the kitchen!  She knows her days and routine quite well!  In spite of that, she was so well mannered adjusting to a slightly different routine today.  We went to watch a couple of duckling swim classes, so I could see how they do them and learn the songs for the ones I'll be doing on Thursdays for the next 4 weeks. 

I also forgot to mention that George, John and Julia's friend from Greece (from before Reuben was born) is visiting and now currently living in the boat shed for awhile, so it is definitely a full household!  He goes to a lot of sailing races (that's how they met him) but he's also an architect and Libby has put him to work to complete the tree house which now has a roof and everything! 

6 Month Mark!

Crazy! I have been here 6 months today!  It doesn't quite seem possible that time has gone so quickly, but on the other hand, I feel like I have been here for longer as well...

Tonight, we're going to dinner for Astrid's "temporary" goodbye, because she's going back to Belgium for 6 weeks while she waits for the wine bar she'll be working at here to get going.  And tomorrow we'll be checking out some of the many St. Patrick's Day celebrations in the Viaduct Harbour.  After a couple of cooler days last week that started to feel like fall, the weather has turned right back to summer again this week with nice hot sunny days.

Hmmm, I started this post and then got distracted and and now returning to it about 5 days later.  I also realized I don't think I ever managed to say that I am far far away from earthquake damage, but tons of people have come up to Auckland from Christchurch to stay for awhile until things are rebuilt or safe from aftershocks down there.

Astrid's dinner was good, although we had to wait ages for the food.  We told the waiters (who were all Italian guys) that it was her birthday, because we had seen the other birthday display earlier that night.  They all came out of the kitchen together with their shirts off singing happy birthday in Italian and brought her a dish of ice cream. 

Thursday, we went out for St. Patrick's Day and they do it HUGE here!  Lots of green everywhere and mini parties going on everywhere.  Bars had green beer and lines out the door, much worse than a normal night out and it was in the middle of a Thursday afternoon. 

Friday night, Reuben had 4 friends sleepover, well they came home from school with him, for his 8th Birthday Saturday.  I supplied Julia with a list of various camp games to help tired them out so that they'd sleep well.  Saturday, was the family party/lunch and Reuben enjoyed playing against everyone on the Wii. 

I taught swim lessons Saturday morning and one Sunday as well, then played some tennis because it was a nice warm sunny day.  The weather feels more like fall today, cooler and rainy, so making sure to take advantage of the last days of summer while we have them. 

Today, I taught a portion of the Monday morning yoga class as usual, adding a new posture or two each week.  Next week, I am beginning class as well, opening with the positive vow and Ujjayi pranayama.  I took Libby and Reuben swimming after school today, and then after feeding them dinner, went back to Takapuna to fill in coaching the super squad, of about 15 kids at Steve Lindsay Swim School.  This will be my biggest week for swim lessons yet!  Just over 10 hours of swim teaching.  Reanna's Bday celebration Wednesday night and yoga Thursday and Friday.  I need to do my own practice, as well and stay and observe the classes.  It will be a pretty busy week for sure!

red skytower in the background for Christchurch, this was actually the weekend before St. Patty's

Devonport, just a regular Tuesday morning with Tessa

Tessa and I watching some people workout one Wednesday morning at Narrow Neck beach

a little friend that decided to join me in my room...

Astrid's temporary goodbye dinner at Gina's

Rachel's dinner she was afraid of but chewed up bravely!

Green skytower for St. Patrick's Day, from Bayswater wharf