1 more month!

So for the weekend updates....last weekend Jacques' mid-year was a lot of fun, with a lot of interesting costumes.  There was an old-fashioned-type photo booth for entertainment and yummy buffet of food.  Sunday, we went to the rugby, where the NZ All Blacks beat the Australian Wallabies but quite a lot! And we just happened to have really great seats as well!  It was a pretty good game.  The week was another busy one, and actually had some really nice spring-feeling weather.  Lots of playing outside with the kids.

Then on Friday evening, it was off to Rotorua, to Lakes Ranch, for the Tough Guy and Gal Challenge.  We stayed right on the site, which was quite convenient in the morning.  Especially for showering after the fact.  There were 1400+ people participating in the 6k event and about 400 people participating in the 12k (2 lap) event.  The people doing 2 laps started about 10 minutes before those of us doing the 1 lap.  Jacques started up at the front so he didn't get caught in all the congestion inside the start building.  I did it with some of the girls and we were just taking it more casually and started in the middle of the larger pack and ended up getting stuck behind a lot of people at the start.  Immediately upon starting you had to run up this VERY steep hill, so most of the traffic ended up walking after a few steps.  Anyway, I kind of decided that I should make it my goal not to let Jacques beat me doing 2 laps and me only doing one.   I succeeded, but only barely! He passed me right before we got to the finish and wouldn't have even seen me if I didn't say something!  We waited for our times and fortunately I did it in 1 hour and 3 min and he did it in 1 hour and 9 min.   I did the 6k and he did the 12k...haha, he did come 12th overall for the 12k competitors, though, so really he did really, really well versus me going slowly! 1:09 was the AVERAGE time for the people doing the 6k!

After the race we got cleaned up, put our clothes in garbage bags, and headed off to our next hostel in Rotorua, went in the hot pools, had a nap and then showered and went out to dinner.  We knew there was crazy winter weather coming in over the weekend, but thought we may try and head to Whakapapa to ski on Sunday morning before the weather hit.  Unfortunately, our hostel was located basically on top of a bar, and right outside our window was extremely loud music through most of the night.  We got up at 5:45 and started driving the 2 hrs to the mountain, stopping in Taupo along the way, initially for some coffee.  We saw a sign that said the breakfast special (2 eggs, toast and bacon) was $5 so decided to take advantage of that too!  The man working inside kept saying we were crazy to be headed to the snow, lots of snow and cold weather were coming....he was right! We got to Whakapapa village at about 8:45 and waited for the next weather report.  It was already snowing heavily up the mountain and the road was restricted to 4wd or chains (neither of which we had).  We contemplated taking the shuttle up, because although it was snowing, the skiing would have been great!  Then we noticed an extremely long line of cars building up at the bottom of the road.  There had already been an accident up the road, before the mountain even opened, and the snow was only supposed to get worse.  We decided against going up, also because we didn't want to risk being stuck up there overnight (it's happened before).  Instead, we decided to drive to Raglan (a beach on the west coast) since I hadn't seen it before and it wasn't actually too bad a day because the weather hadn't come too far north yet.  So we woke up in Rotorua, had breakfast in Taupo about an hr away...checked out the snow, actually saw some snowflakes fall in Whakapapa village, had lunch in Raglan, and then dinner back home in Auckland.  We traveled just over 900k from Friday night to Sunday night.

I am super excited to head to Sydney on Friday for this coming weekend!  Although, it would be really nice to get down and enjoy all this new snow on the mountain Thursday when the storm breaks.  The winter weather definitely made it up here by last night!  It was sleeting this morning and extremely cold and windy through most of the day.  It even snowed a little bit here!! Absolutely insane! That just doesn't happen in Auckland!  The kids didn't even quite get it!  I stuck my arm out the door and lots of white pieces landed on it!

Our table at the nautical-themed mid-year

Nice view of the harbor and "the cloud" new building for rugby world cup in the background

NZ scores first! Right in front of us!

upsidedown lamps in Steamship bar

massive wooden table and chairs....on our way to Raglan

He makes giant animals out of wood he finds on the beach

Viewing spot of the windfarm

Raglan

Raglan

6 weeks to go...

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!  

Friday's activity since the mt was closed

almost there....

Riding up Movenpick lift

Just got off high noon express

Jacques, me, Astrid, Melissa and Peter

a bit iced over

pretty sunset on the way home

Rainbow (double actually) on the way to the zoo

Kids on the lizard, Tessa was actually afraid of the "big crocodile" 

Sunrise over our favorite photo stop

Sunset over the snowy peaks on the drive home

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