Skiing!!

We went skiing the weekend Turoa opened!  We were just too excited that it had finally snowed so we woke up bright and early Sunday morning and were on our way by 3:30am.  We were down at the mountain and skiing by 9am.  It was good to be skiing again, after having missed the season at home, but the trails were very skinny and the lots of rocks were showing because there wasn't much of a base.  The average depth was about 65cm.  Now there is 165cm avg base so the trails should be much bigger and look completely different than before.  We (Astrid, Peter and I) head down on Thursday morning for a long weekend and Melissa and Jacques will join us after work Friday afternoon.  Hopefully, it's a good 4 days of skiing!

Also, I just booked a flight to Sydney to visit Fiona Davidson, from camp.  I'm going for a weekend in August.  I just decided that I couldn't NOT go to Australia to see her while I was here, and the flights were a good deal!

And, I have been replaced.  The Clinton's have found a new au pair and she arrives Sept 1st.  It's crazy that I only have 2 months left in NZ!  It's all gone by so quickly!  Still have lots to look forward to before I leave though.

Mt. Ruapehu, Turoa ski area

Riding up the Movenpick lift

A bit too many rocks showing!

Skiing above all those clouds

Can see another snowcapped peak above the clouds in the distance

Mt. Ruapehu from the drive home

Little neighbor mountain

The Chalet and Whakapapa side of Ruapehu

Birthday and Mardi Gras!

First of all, thank you for all the fabulous birthday wishes, cards, celebrations and whatever else you may have given me! I had a great, well, full week, really!

It all started with a surprise party Jacques worked very hard to plan for me Friday 17th of June.  It was supposed to be Saturday, apparently, but I had to babysit, so it was semi-last minute switch.  I thought we were getting some dinner and watching a movie, when we walked into his house it was filled with people! Very scary actually! And I was quite underdressed for the occasion.  Basically in pajamas and most people had actually mad an effort at dressing up!  Rachel and Josie did a great job on the decorations, including a homemade sign done on a fitted sheet from Rachel's house! Birthday week was off to a great start!

On Tuesday, the family had a dinner for me and cake.  The kids were just far too excited about the whole thing!  We played pass the parcel and musical cushions and musical statues and they had a treasure hunt, more because they wanted the candy and chocolate to eat!  The best part was when they had lit the candles and were about halfway through singing, Julia walked under the heater (which blows from high up on the wall) and it blew out all the candles on the cake and the room went pitch black! She was like, oh no! oops! Went back, lit them again, and started singing from the beginning again, AFTER turning off the heater of course!

Wednesday night no one turned up for swimming, so I had a nice little pre-bday night off from teaching. Thursday was a very busy day! Swimming from 9-1 Then home to shower and eat and then straight to yoga so I could make it back in time for my bday dinner up in Albany at 7pm.  Unfortunately, the train coming back from yoga was late so I missed the 5:10 ferry to Bayswater so hopped on the 5:15 Devonport one and rang Julia to see if she could pick me up from there.  Luckily it all worked out and I just barely made it up to Jacques' for 6:45 and we made it to dinner by 7.  I had a really nice, delicious dinner!

Friday, we left for Ohakune down south near Mt. Ruapehu where we spent the weekend for Mardi Gras (opening of the ski season).  Although the mountain didn't open until later on in the week due to lack of snow, the concert was still lots of fun, but VERY muddy!  Still dreading cleaning my boots!  There were 15 of us staying in a house meant for 10 people and we all dressed in ninja costumes for the Saturday night, since it was a fancy dress event.  Sunday, we took a drive up the mountain because I wanted to see some snow.  We had a pleasant surprise that it was closed at the 13k marker due to snow!!! It snowed pretty much all weekend and the beginning of the this week so ski season can officially begin! :) It was quite strange seeing snow only 3 days after my birthday, after having never missed a summer birthday...I am very confused that it's almost July and I'll be snow-skiing!!

Surprise party banner at Jacques' house, made by Josie and Rachel

Extra yummy choc cake! (I was scared of the sparkler candles!)

Actual birthday dinner at Serengeti

Ninja Mardi Gras Crew!

13k mark, driving up the mountain road to Turoa ski area

Yay! Snow!

Freshly covered Mt. Ruapehu Monday morning

The the silly clouds had to get in my way!

Queen's Birthday Weekend (3 day weekend)!

To sum up, life in NZ has still been fabulous!  I know the updates have been lacking, but I've just been busy with regular life and haven't gone on any new exotic trips, so I haven't really had any especially exciting to report.  But, I figured it was about time for a recap of the last month an a bit since Great Barrier Island!


I am now teaching the COMPLETE yoga class on Monday mornings, including the relaxation, and Sharon said I taught a lovely class the last time :)  However, she told me not to do any running until I get my hips into better shape, because the movement they do running in just countering all the stretching I'm doing to get them a bit more flexible where they need to be.

As for the kids, since my flight home is booked (back stateside the 15th of September), and Fiji before that 3rd-12th, I'll be stopping work on the 1st, they are starting to say that they don't want me to go.  Libby doesn't want a replacement, she just wants me to stay forever.  Tessa has learned to say her own version of my name is says it ALL the time now, asks about me all weekend when I'm away and even Thur and Friday nights comes running into my room or is shouting up the stairs asking where I am, she won't let me be in my room, instead she takes my hand and leads me downstairs to play with her.  It will definitely be the hardest for her when I go, she won't have a clue where I went.  Since I've been their first au pair, she basically thinks I'm part of the family!  Reuben, Libby and Tessa know the words to some of Michael Jackson's number ones, and any time it comes on the radio to and from school it has to be turned way up and we all have a singalong.  It's good that there's at least one thing they all agree on because it doesn't happen very often!  Lately even Tessa starts saying in the car "don't like that song" just to get the station changed...often she doesn't even listen to it long enough to decide, she just wants to have her way like the others do.

I'm still teaching my regular swim lessons, Wed, Thur and Sat.  I even filled in for 2 Tuesday night "Mad Mums" classes at the start of this term.  They are just a bunch of mums that come and swim, some just beginner swimmers and some looking for a full workout set!  Though they are worse than the kids, wanting to use fins the entire time!  Also, the week following Mother's Day weekend Julia went away to Melbourne with her mom (Wed-Sat) so I was on kid school duty as well as yoga and swimming for the entire week so that was busy, busy! I even took Tessa to her swim lesson on that Fri, same ones I usually teach on a Thursday, so I think the other parents were wondering how I knew all the songs.  She loves her swimming, getting thrown up into the air and going underwater.

I went ice skating at this indoor place with Josie and Rachel, just so we could have a winter-like activity.  It was pretty fun, but there were too many people pushing around those metal bar things to help support them, I also got run over by one!  That same weekend I ran a 10k race down in Huntly.  I did alright and finished in 1hr 9 min considering I hadn't trained at all, and the last time I ran was my mini triathlon March 5th.  I also was not feeling well at all that day and slept the rest of the afternoon.  Jacques and his Dad ran as well and both did very well! Jacques came 25th overall, out of 1000+ people and finished in under 40 minutes.

I also joined Just Workout, a gym down in Devonport, and have been attending their classes.  Topride (a spin class I really enjoy, I've even made it to a few of their 6am classes and plan on continuing to do so), Ubound (a class on mini trampolines so lots of bouncing), Pilates and KiMax (a boxing-like class).  I still want to make it to Zumba, but the times aren't so convenient with my schedule.

As for weekend activities, last weekend I went to dinner in Ponsonby with Jacques and a bunch of his work people, because one of the guys is getting moved down to the Christchurch office.  The restaurant was called Troy and they had a belly-dancer come out and entertain everyone as well as go around and make people get up and dance with her.  Jacques had gone to the bathroom, leaving a space next to me so she moved in and took me out of my seat to dance with her! 

I have started playing water polo on the team Jacques was playing on before, Sunday evenings....not sure I am a fan just yet.  Last week I got kicked out because I did something wrong...don't really know the rules yet but it looks like everyone just tries to drown each other...I guess I did it at the wrong time...and I got kicked really hard as well by someone scoring a goal against us...unpleasant.  Plus a bunch of chlorine just gets in your eyes...not my favorite sport just yet.  We are also a team kind of just thrown together, so winning is not our forte...yet.

This weekend, NZ celebrated the Queen's Birthday so the sky tower was a pretty blue and red.  Jacques' mom's birthday was also on this holiday Monday so we had a couple of very nice dinners for her!  I made manicotti (well cannelloni here because there are no manicotti noodles) and a sort of experimental chocolate orange cheesecake which turned out very yummy, luckily!

The weather is definitely turning a bit colder, a bit more rainy as well, it will definitely be weird to have a "winter" birthday this month, having never missed a summer in the north east of the states!  It will be a change going snow skiing 2 days after my birthday and through the rest of what I consider the "summer" months!

Dancing with the belly-dancer at Troy

Josie and I skating

Sky Tower for Queen's Bday weekend from Bayswater

Blue and Red Sky Tower

Great Barrier Island!

On Friday, at 7am, Jacques and I departed Auckland City on a ferry bound for Great Barrier Island.  At about 11:45am we arrived at Tryphena Wharf, which was basically a large dock and very skinny road with some parking places.  There were two small movie rooms on board and some upstairs outdoor seating.  Also a few seasick passengers with the rocky seas towards the end.  We picked up our rental vehicle, a tiny Mazda fun top with no radio.  At least I got to practice a little bit more of my manual driving, LOTS of gear changing around all those corners and up and down the mountains!  Mostly Jacques drove though, I was scared of what would happen if another car was coming around the corner at the same time as us.  It didn't happen very often.  The island only has 800 locals and often not too many visitors.  This 4 day weekend was particularly busy because of the GrabOne deal and holidays.  We drove to our accommodation, the Lazy Acres, and met Roy and Maree.  They own 13 acres of land and built a small octagon-shaped building just down the hill from their house, which makes for a cozy little rental place.  Roy has been living on the island for 40 years and you can tell he loves sharing about the island and his life, basically to any company he gets.  There is not much phone service on the island, only down in Tryphena, and the houses all run off of gas, generators and solar power.  Everything is very DARK at night.

The scenery is beautiful and the white sandy surf beaches are amazing as well, not to mention basically deserted.  The water was pretty warm and we went for a swim one day after our hike up Mt. Hobson (the highest peak on the island, 621m, offereing 360 degree views of the entire island).  There were many, many, many, many stairs, but the view from the top was worth it and we were lucky with clear skies and could see the beautiful landscape and sea all around the island.  We checked out some of the rocky harbors on the west coast of the island, and the bays up north.  We literally drove down every paved road on the island and almost all of the unpaved ones as well.  It doesn't take long to explore the entire place by car.  On foot is another story, there are tons of walking/hiking tracks all over the place.  After hour steep one to Mt. Hobson, we kept the gradient a little easier with a nice flat walk to the Kaitoke Hot springs.  There is literally a hot stream running through the woods and people have built little pools with the rocks in the area and you can just sit and soak in them, nice warm spa temperature.  No digging required like hot water beach, and you don't have to wait for low tide, and you don't need the flow of cool water because they are a much more manageable temperature!

On the last day we got a bit of rain, and realized after we'd packed up to check out at 10am that we could have hung out until we needed to leave, so we drove around to some of the last places we hadn't seen yet and then went to the one cafe in Tryphena, only to find it closed at 3pm, but the Irish Pub next door opened at 3pm.  Everyone going back on the ferry was there, literally it was the only place to go, and still about a 15 min drive from the ferry.  It's definitely a different lifestyle over there, and if you weren't doing a multiple day hike or have nice beach weather, there wouldn't be too much to do!  Also, the food is crazy expensive, we brought all of our own and had a our meals planned before we arrived, everything cooked on a gas hub and had to boil all our water before drinking it!  We just wanted to get some more bread and the mini "supermarket" if you can call it that, that we went into only had a couple different kinds of frozen bread...hopefully frozen WAY before the sell by date because our rolls said best before 28th Jan, 2011!  It's nearly May!  Just feels like island life is living in the past a little bit, but it was definitely a cool experience and worth seeing all of the natural beauty.  This whole country seems to have quite a bit of that to offer!

Just off the ferry and picking up our fun top!

Medlands Beach, also they have their very own Mt. Sugarloaf, the pointy one in the back

Kaitoke Beach

an example of the roads

Harataonga Beach

Views of the entire island from Mt. Hobson

the whole inside! door leads to bathroom/shower

our "house"

Kaitoke Hot Springs

Honey, I Shrunk My Car!

On Wednesday night last week, I finally got a "new" car.  I went to look at it and decided to get it over the weekend, but then it had an inspection (which I'm glad I had done and didn't have to pay for) because it needed a new tire and then windshield wipers.  I am now insured and driving along in my 1989 Toyota Corolla (manual).  Now $30 fills it to half instead of under 1/4 tank of fuel!  It still takes premium, unfortunately, because it's so old, but at least it will get WAY better milage and be much more economical!  Basically, it's like a savings account here, and when I go home, I can sell it, most-likely for more than I purchased it for, since Jacques' dad helped me find it through one of his wholesaler friends.   Just because it was something new in the driveway, all the kids just thought it was the coolest thing! Nicest car of the family!

After her bath