Swimming with the Fishes

As you may have noticed, we're always looking for an excuse for a holiday - and a two week South Island trip looming on the horizon for our Christmas holiday, we thought it best to check that all our recent Carrie upgrades and amendments were working.

Any excuse.

So, Friday afternoon we headed North our of Auckland city to one of the regional parks on the coast. A 45 minute drive takes you clear of the city and out into the hills, where we stayed the night at Wenderholm Reserve. After a busy week of work, it was nice to relax in the sunshine with some beers. A chilly bin (cool box) filled with ice and stubbies is a beautiful sight!

Two of the three loves of my life (Willy the Bike left at home)

Anyone want to crack one open with me?

 The next morning, after what's becoming the traditional campervan breakfast of cinnamon/banana/brown sugar/raisin porage in a non-stick frying pan (easy to clean) - we headed North (stopping at the Cheesery at the insistence of a certain someone). After trying pretty much everything, and buying what was left, we headed up to Goat Island. Many small islands are given nicknames such as Goat Island, as local people would leave Goats and Sheep on the Islands as food for any poor souls who got shipwrecked on the Islands. Those days have changed, and now the sea in this area is a marine reserve absolutely heaving with shoals of fish - with visits from stingrays and dolphins. With our wetsuits and snorkels in the back, we were pretty excited!

A campsite with a view...

Another BBQ, this time without Al and Anna.
They were missed!

Sunset over Goat Island

Rock and Roll living in Carrie the Van
How's this for a view to wake up to?

 Both days we went down to Goat Island for some amazing snorkelling - the water is still pretty cold here, so we were glad to have our wetsuits. The fish weren't as exotic as what we've seen snorkelling in other countries, such as Vietnam on our honeymoon, but they were impressive in a very different way. Some of them were HUGE! Pushing on 3 feet long, I'd occasionally hear a snorkel muffled scream and turn to see Sarah swimming away form one pretty quickly, to the 'safety' of my side. I was worried I'd have to do some Inbetweeners style fish punching... Sadly we saw no dolphins or stingrays, but it's probably a good job after Sarah was scared of the relative tiddlers!

Goat Island bay (the island is just to the right, out of shot)

Happy campers

Another great weekend, and the research showed us the van is in fine fighting fitness. So, we're now getting packed for 16 days on the South Island, including Christmas in the Abel Tasman with a BBQ chicken on the beach for Christmas Day.

We'll miss friends and family, but it's shaping up to be a Christmas to remember.

So, Happy Christmas everyone and thanks for following this blog in 2012. We'll keep up the momentum for 2013, holidaying purely for the sake of your amusement of course.

Swim, Bike, Run

Sport - they're not wrong when they say its all in the mind...

For those of you who know me well, you'll know that I am not the sportiest young lady. I dreaded sports day at primary school, and even though I could swim (thanks to Saturday mornings at Norwich Penguins) I hated the annual swimming gala. Racquet sports were OK but I could never beat my sister at tennis. And running - don't get me started.

Things changed in 2008 when I decided that if I wasn't getting fit aged 23 - it was never going to happen. So Matt happily (I think) dragged me out running, in January, in the cold around Regent's Park. It was a struggle to say the least, but I persevered and entered my first 10km in London in May that year. I didn't love it, but I got around (thanks again to Matt). From thereon I ran on and off, culminating in a half marathon in Kent in 2010. This too wasn't the most enjoyable experience of my life but I got around, and celebrated with training partners Matt, Al and Anna afterwards.

Some others of you who know me well might know that my evenings of the second half of 2011 and the first part of 2012 were mainly spent at My Fitness Boutique in West Hampstead - spinning. A new obsession - it was the first time I had actually really truly enjoyed exercise. I loved being on a bike (even if it was stationary), being surrounded by others, pushing myself to the limit. And getting really super fit. I felt great at our wedding last year and even better walking up to nearly 4000m in the Himalayas in India!

Arriving in New Zealand to a new life, I knew that sport was going to be a part of it. I just didn't realise how much at the time! Once we'd moved into our flat with the pool downstairs, and we'd both bought bikes, suddenly the unthinkable - an actual triathlon - seemed half achievable. So we signed up, and got swimming (a lot) and biking (quite a lot). My running had improved considerably  (by not running that much it seemed) - helped along by an incredibly enjoyable half marathon in October.

So what's this all leading to... Well - the big news (for me at least), is that I am now a triathlete! On Sunday we woke up at 4.30am, loaded up a lot of kit into our van and headed to Mission Bay (our 'local' open water swim training venue) for the People's Triathlon, Race 2.

Packing - just a few bits and bobs

I was terrified. As we racked up our bikes I realised that this was serious stuff. I love my bike - but it didn't quite match up to some of the others there - disc wheels, tri bars, aerodynamic helmets and durace group sets had all come out to play. Along with some very fit looking kiwi blokes, posh wetsuits, triathlon specific elastic laces and special 'nutrition' for the race. Gulp.

6am - very nervously getting set up in the transition area

What they didn't have though was my secret weapon - my hubby! This is going to sound incredibly cheesy, but from the terrified arrival at Mission Bay all the way to crossing the line at the finish - Matt stuck by my side and got me through it. Thanks to him I enjoyed it more than I ever imagined.

Wetsuited up (body glide lotion on underneath for fast removal in transition...) we headed down to the beach at the start. I insisted upon hanging right at the back as I knew from watching these things on the telly that its every man (and woman) for themselves in the water. The horn went off and they all ran in. I tiptoed in with Matt at my side. Stuck my face in the water, blew some bubbles and then got going. The water was still, the sun was shining. And 1500m went pretty quick. We had to come out of the water after each lap and run around a buoy on the beach - after the first lap Matt was waiting, and I was welcomed by cheers of Go Sarah Go from the crowd - an amazing feeling (thanks Matt for setting them up so well!)

Sliding out of my incredibly tight wetsuit and throwing on my bike stuff was surprisingly easy and we were off on the ride. This triathlon allowed drafting, so Matt was my lead out man for almost the entire 40km. I tucked in behind - and loved it! Cycling is definitely a new passion for me (and so much more fun than spinning). We cycled with a couple of mini pelotons (as well as getting lapped by the blokes with the pointy helmets) and had a fantastic time!

Reality soon hit when we came off the bikes and embarked on the 10k run. I had been completely unconcerned about the run - no technique required or outside factors which was what had worried me about the other two legs. But it was hard. I was soon huffing and puffing and my legs were like jelly! I felt as though I was crawling my way through the first lap. And then things started to improve (after a quick toilet stop). The sun was shining, we were overtaking people (thanks again to excellent pacing from Matt) and I was actually doing it!

Loving it! (this photo was taken by the
race photographer and made it onto the race website!)

Crossing the line at the end was ridiculously emotional. I am not one to get teary - but as we ran onto the finishing stage and the announcer said my name I started crying - real tears of joy. What an incredible morning, and an amazing way to round off the best year of my life.

Very happy!

Thank you to the best husband I could hope for - I know you weren't completely selfless in sticking with me (you wanted me to enjoy it enough to carry on with this crazy sport after all) but without you I would never have started running 5 years ago, would never have contemplated entering a triathlon, and would certainly not have completed it in my very proud time of 2 hours and 52 minutes.

Thank you Matt!

A great day (especially the celebratory afternoon of sparkling wine that followed) - bring on the next one!

A well earned drink

A well earned lunch in the sunshine overlooking the
beautiful harbour (with another drink)

Don't know if this one was well earned -
or just a bad idea! Literally glowing from all the excitement!

The Movember Results!

Well - that's Movember done and dusted for this year! I've been wanting to do it for a while now but it always seems to have coincided with a new job or rotation. Not sure a fluffy week-old moustache is the best way to be meeting new people!

How wrong was I. Movember was brilliant and not really that embarrassing at all. High fives from other moustached men on the train, the most supportive ladies I've ever encountered and some great team building at Ko Awatea, where I captained the team of ten Mo Bros to over $1500, about £800 in old money!

Thanks to everyone for your support. The money goes towards mental health and prostate cancer initiatives around the world - so now all you've got left to do is go and learn about men's health and what we need to know!

So here's my thanks for all those who've supported me along the way - a daily stop motion video documenting the progress from clean shaven, through the fluff all the way to the patchy el-gringo look! Enjoy - and a big thanks to the ever so talent Simon Porter for the use of this piece of music he crafted.

The A Team Arrive!

Well its the blog you've all been waiting for - finally this page is featuring some special guests - Al and Anna all the way from London town!

We haven't seen friends and family since April so were a little over excited in anticipation of their arrival - and were not disappointed when their smiley faces walked into arrivals.

Matt and Al enjoying a Speight's together back 
at our flat

We had just one day together before Al and Anna headed down to the South Island for a few days so we decided the best way to overcome jetlag was to drag them both around town on a long walk. Showing friends our 'new life' was brill - we love it here and so it was great to finally share all our favourite places, as well as a long overdue game of frisbee for Matt and Al in the Domain, whilst I caught up on some serious gossip time with Anna!

On their arrival back from down South at the end of the week, the A team re-packed and we all jumped into our rented 4 berth wheels for a tiki tour all the way up to the Northern tip of NZ - Cape Reinga. 

We had decided that the best approach would be to get a big chunk of the drive up North out of the way on our first day. As the weather was absolutely diabolical (non stop driving rain) we were pleased to be warm and dry in our camper - although our planned stop offs (including at the biggest Kauri tree in the WORLD) were a bit damp. 

Tane Mahuta - 'Lord of the Forest' = massive
(this photo doesn't do it justice)
It's 13.7m around and the trunk has a 
volume of 517 cubic metres!

Damp tree admiring

Beers were cracked open on our final arrival at Ahipara (a laid back beach town at the bottom of 90 Mile Beach)... and before we knew it we were joining a big crowd of Maori teens/twenty somethings for a big party, in the rain. We knew were too old for the fun that was being had when Matt piped up that we hadn't made up the beds yet, and should we pop back to our van to sort it out!?! 

A few headaches the next morning but thankfully the sun was out so we had a bit of a splash in the sea and cold showers before heading further up the coast.

Breakfast in the sunshine

Not a bad spot for a campsite

The boys could not resist trying out sand surfing at some of the biggest sand dunes we've ever seen (including the Sahara) before we finally reached Cape Reigna. 

No chair lift for this extreme sport

Matt zooming down the hill

The Tasman Sea and Pacific Ocean meet at Cape Reinga- the closest we've been to home in while, but couldn't have felt further away! 

Looking out over two seas

Where to next?

We spent our second night at a Department of Conservation site near the Cape followed by a fantastic hike the next morning along the coast. 

Looking down to the campsite

After some very tasty cheese and tomato sarnies for an early lunch we jumped in the van to continue our tour. Unfortunately Al, Anna and Matt were suffering from mozzie bites so all took an antihistamine before we set off. It soon turned out they were definitely the drowsy kind (we did buy them in Laos, from a teenager, who counted them into a plastic bag for us). Al and Anna were completely conked whilst I kept Matt awake at the wheel... It soon became apparent that we really needed a break, so happened across a delicious fish and chip shop at Doubtless Bay for a second lunch! Suitably refreshed we carried onto Kerikeri for a quick swim in the inlet before a fantastic night commenced at a beautiful campsite. 

So peaceful (until we arrived)

Al took on the bbq and won, we popped a couple of bottles of sparkling wine (plus a few other beverages), played some very challenging drinking games (for me at any rate) and went to bed in our contact lenses (well Matt did at least!)

Al cooking everything to perfection - yum

A happy foursome

Another wet day for our last day full day touring but we fitted in visiting the oldest stone building in NZ, a fantastic walk to an epic waterfall, a walk around Russell and a view of the beautiful Bay of Islands (shrouded in thick cloud). We made up for the weather by having yet another bbq and watching a Christmas DVD (sorry it was such a terrible choice guys) in our cosy camper.

A little bit of NZ history

Look away now mums - pretty sure
Matt didn't choose the safest spot for a paddle

That only left a rushed drive back to Auckland for me to get work for 1pm, an afternoon in Auckland for the other three, a night out on Thursday night and final swims (in our pool and at the nearby inland bay - the weather came good in the end!) and goodbyes.

The Harbour Bridge and CBD in the background

A Nick von Mertens special

Grins

Turns out the Sky Tower is a big casino (who knew?)
Al and Anna made $6 on a pokie machine - too exciting!

What a fantastic couple of weeks! We had the best time and very sad to see Al and Anna leave. Roll on our next trip over Christmas (Carrie will be back in action) and soon after the arrival of Pete and Clare/Mum and Dad!

Notes from Two Small Islands

It's nearly four months to the day since we arrived in New Zealand, and seven since we waved goodbye to all of our friends and family in the UK (and those who'd come to visit from outside the UK for the wedding!)

Along the lines of Bill Bryson's "Notes from a Small Island", I thought it about time that I share my own thoughts about two small islands, roughly 13,000 miles round the world from the UK. Here's a few observations:

• I get A LOT of stick for drinking tea at work, or insisting on making a cuppa before going into a meeting. Mostly a long the lines of BLADDY TEA DRUNKUN PUMMES (literal translation from Kiwi into English of "Gosh, you British folk do partake in a lot of tea drinking". The funny thing is that Kiwis drink on average about 20 cups of super strength, freshly ground coffee every day. They turn their noses up at instant coffee. They actually have Drive-Thru coffee stalls at the side of the road where you don't even have to get out of your car for your fix. But I'm the cliche!

• On that note, they also have Drive-Thru Liquor Stalls (off-licenses to you and I). I still can't make my mind up about this, must try one some time...

• NZ TV is pretty dire most of the time, apart from a few gems (one gem a night is the norm, across the 9 terrestrial channels). The best bit is when a film is out that has an actor who is a kiwi in it, or is married to a kiwi, or can point out NZ on a map. That is a seriously big deal according to the adverts! Use that to put into context the new Hobbit film which was filmed here. I'm pretty sure the NZ PR machine is going to give itself a hernia.

• Houses here are way bigger in comparison to the houses back home. But they're not houses... A flat is a house according to the local lingo. Bungalows are also way more common than back home, and the richest, trendiest also live in bungalows! The half acre plot is really the standard, everyone likes a big garden. Interestingly, kiwis haven't linked this to how their cities are sprawling bigger and bigger... Come on guys, make the link!

• You're never more than an hour from the beach, some beautiful hills to go tramping in or some other fantastic area to explore. The countryside is beautiful, and these guys really make the most of it. And have a huge amount of patriotic pride in it. It's why Sarah and I have got so into our sport while we've been here - the country is just so beautiful it has to be explored.

• The obsessions with the All Blacks is HUGE! Hospital wards and management offices are adorned with flags. What's great is that sport over here is not just for the men, women's sports are still in second place but you'll actually see them broadcast during prime-time. They adore their sporting heroes, form the Black Sticks (female hockey) through to their female track and field competitors. What's a bit of a shame is that they're all sell-outs! You'll regularly see an All Black endorsing razors, an All White (football) getting behind a new brand of olive oil, a Black Sticks flogging the new range of Tena Lady, a Tall Black (basketball player) drinking some lager, or perhaps an Ice Black (ice hockey!) wanting to flog you some flights to Fiji.

• They like the national symbol of a fern. Did you notice that in the above? NZ Rail, NZ Roads, everyone uses it... See if you can guess these sports: Black Caps and Black Cocks!

• A huge proportion of car registration plates (rego's - they'll shorten anything and everything, including the All Blacks to ABs, Coronation St (yep) to Coro) are personalised, I guess because there are so few people here compared to the UK's car population. So you'll frequently see plates like "ABFAN", "PLAYA", "LMFAO" and the likes... love it! 

• On the subject of language, the kiwi accent is gold. From sometimes being brutally efficient, to extremely cutting, through to cute and then to just downright confusing... Every day I hear a...
• Sweet as Bro!
• Ah, good on ya...
• Bugger!
• Ah yerrr... heaps!
• Catcha! (good bye)
• And my favourite... She'll be right!

• Things here are just that little bit easier. In our first week we walked into the bank with a UK driving license, a printed out email from our new landlord (from his very official hotmail account). 30 minutes later we walked out with an actual bank account card that we could use straight away. That would have taken 50 forms, lots of ID and a two week wait in the UK.

• Every single newsagent (they call 'em a Dairy) has a hot cabinet with pies in it. These aren't the best quality NZ pies, but it makes you wonder why in the UK we're obsessed with Ginster's Cornish Pasties straight out of the fridge... Great comfort food!

• Judging by the TV adverts, bladder incontinence is a big problem here. Not sure why. 

• And finally, kids go to school barefoot. They stay barefoot at school. They go home, they play barefoot. Why? I don't know. Parents seem to be hugely proud of this fact. We're struggling to get it!

Bill Bryson's book delves into the British national psyche, plots hundreds of journeys and encounters with Brits. But he openly still struggles to tell you why he likes it, apart form the sudden surges of fondness for such an intriguing and beautiful place as the UK. 

I'm nowhere near as eloquent as him, but hope through what we put on this blog and the photos that usually accompany these words, you'll understand and enjoy the reasons we're out here and why we're taking as much pleasure in being here as we are.

We do miss home, and look forward to coming back when the time comes. It's funny to think of how much of a high we left England on... After having such a fun time at the wedding with all of the people we enjoy spending time with in one fun and cheese-filled room, it's strange to think we haven't seen those people since. A big reunion when we get back is in order, maybe at The Blue Lion again - complete with band and great beer! And a limbo competition rematch?!

Movember!

It's Movember - the time of year when an annually growing number of men across the world grow a Moustache. A Mo. A fuzzy ribbon slowly cultivated during the month of November which says to the world "Hey - men's health is important. We don't talk about it, and we don't really like getting checked out. Prostate cancer ain't cool and depression isn't something you talk about with your mates down the pub."

A group of 6 guys in Australia 10 years ago wanted to change that. Well, that's a lie. They had a drunken bet to see who could grow the best mo during November. At the end of the month, they'd had so much fun they wanted to legitimise it as an annual thing.

After getting the support of men's health charities first in Oz, then NZ, before venturing into Canada, the US and the UK - Movember is now a global phenomenon and has raised over £200million in the last ten years. All by men starting the month clean shaven and growing that mo.

Day 8 - Still looking like a bumfluff 13 year old...
And I also had my first "protective parent shielding their kid
from the man with the moustache" yesterday. The shame...

If you'd like to sponsor me or the team I'm in at work, that would be great. Just follow this link.

No pressure at all to sponsor. What would be great though is if you could take 5 minutes to learn a bit about the health issues that affect men - whatever their age. You don't know what your mates might be going through... Learn more here.

I'm taking a photo of the progress every morning and night, so will compile it into a stop motion video at the end of the month. Fingers crossed I've got something to show for it by then!

The Auckland Half

One thing we're definitely finding in New Zealand is that it's way too easy to spend all your time outside... which we're loving! The walks and rides are fun, but our main aim while we're here in NZ is to get fit and enter some big races. A lot of Aucklanders have been telling us we HAVE to do the Adidas Auckland Marathon/Half Marathon, as it's the one time in the year that you can run over Auckland Harbour Bridge - a pretty special (and tall!) looking beast which straddles the posh district to the North of the Harbour to the picture postcard perfect city (CBD in local lingo) to the South. So when Sarah's boss offered her a place for free with a week to go - why not say yes?!

And when that meant I'd have to stay at home on my own or be in the crowds cheering, I decided I'd better get on the case of hunting out a spare ticket with only a couple of days to go! All is good in the tiny country that is New Zealand though, as everyone knows everyone - so I soon had got a ticket from a friend's builder. A 48 year old builder by the name of Barrie - and I didn't have a chance to change the registration name - oh well.

Sadly we didn't get any photos of the course or the race, but it was stunning. It's the biggest race in the country each year; so the atmosphere, route, scenery and crowds cheering us on were fantastic.  It was a bit of a brutal start getting up at 4am to catch the 5am ferry to the startline - but watching the sun rise with the other runners and then setting off was a lot of fun.

Here's a very happy Sarah after the race

Sarah "The Machine" Cope

Sarah smashed it! Sticking like a limpet (no, she didn't get a piggyback) to the 1:50 pacer the whole way round, she came in at about 1:50:06 - a PB by about 20 minutes.

I loved it too - and guess what? I came 14th in my age group! Admittedly that was the 45-49 age group that 'Barrie' was entered in, but hey! Good job I didn't make it onto the podium!

Couldn't be happier with a 1:34:30,
but next time, sub 1:30!

And here's the evidence... I got a few people shouting "Go Barrie!" as I went round!

One to keep

Kiwis know how to do good weather and good atmosphere, that's for sure - so after cheering Sarah in we demolished a lot of free bananas and powerade in the sunshine, before turning our attention to the beer tent. And every finisher gets free beer - amazing!

Mid-day drinking and 13 mile runs don't suit everyone though...

 Sarah beat a lot of Auckland's runners.
But Auckland (and a beer) beat her in the end

So what's next? Well, we've entered an Olympic-distance triathlon this December, again in Auckland. Our running is looking good, the cycling is going well and the swimming... Well, the swimming is taking a bit more effort. but we'll get there. The race itself will be a 1.5km ocean swim, followed by a 40km ride then a 10km run. Fingers crossed we'll get round it - but it's looking like it'll be a great race between Sarah and I. She can smash me in the water, we're pretty even on the bikes (damn all her spinning classes) and my long legs can outpace her on the run. Place your bets now people.

 The training for it is pretty intense - so I thought you might like to see the makeover we've given our washing machine. It's now the Mother of all training plans, and is handy bathroom reading.

Turns out our fridge front wasn't magnetic!

Wish us luck! Seeing how December goes, we're already toying with a Half Ironman in March of next year, but that really would be a beast. Consisting of a 1.9km swim, 90km on the bike then ending with a half marathon (21.1km).

Make it stop.

Labour Weekend in Hawkes Bay

Spring is here, and there's nothing better in Spring than a bank holiday! We had our first long weekend (since starting work oh so long ago) last week and since we refuse to pass up any opportunity to explore this beautiful country, decided to take on the 6 hour journey to Hawkes Bay on the East Coast of the North Island. I left work early on Friday to be met by Matt at our apartment with the van fully packed and ready to roll. 6 hours later we both had sore bums but had reached Napier, our destination.

Beautiful Napier

Napier is the (self proclaimed) art deco capital of the world - and we both loved it - we spent a glorious morning wandering around town admiring the 1930s architecture.

Stepping back in time to the 1930s

After lunch, we jumped in the van and parked up at a free site a few kilometres out of town by the beach. The best thing about this site (apart from not having to pay) was its handy location within walking distance of three vineyards!  

Strolling through our first vineyard

A ridiculous amount of tasting followed, with some purchasing of wine for the evening. We also fitted in a little bit of beer drinking, boule playing, chatting to locals and generally deciding that we had made it in life. If all Saturday afternoons could be this good!

Beach House Winery - delicious Riesling

Boule and beers round the back
of Clearview Vineyard

Back at the beach beside the campsite, and back on the wine!

After all that wine we didn't feel quite so fresh the next morning - but blew away plenty of cobwebs with a windy and sunny walk up to the top of Te Mata - a peak inland, near to Havelock North. The views were stunning and again we made friends with some locals. We reckon us Poms have 'come and chat to us' written on our foreheads.

Looking down the Te Mata ridge to the Tukituki river

A quick stop off at Countdown (ubiquitous NZ supermarket) for bbq supplies and we drove 2 hours back along the most stunning road to about 20km from Lake Taupo, taking a good chunk off the return journey. As chief tiki tour planner I had identified what looked like a lovely cluster of Department of Conservation campsites just a few kilometres off the main road, in protected native forest. Half an hour of driving on a gravel road later through dense wet forest (the sunshine had disappeared by this point - replaced by very heavy rain) we arrived at a deserted campsite with only one long drop toilet for company.

Even spookier than it looks!

Matt was still determined that the planned bbq would still take place. It was delicious!

This Pom doesn't mind a bit of rain

Spot the other Pom who does mind a bit of rain!

Nothing for it after we'd filled up on steak, chicken, burgers and bananas (yes - we did eat it all) than a very early night and an early set off next morning.

Huka Falls on the way back - awesome!

A slow journey home via Taupo, Huka Falls and a number of classic small Kiwi towns we returned to the big Auckland smoke completely pooped. But raring to go for the next long weekend - and even sooner - the arrival of Al and Anna in less than three weeks!

P.S. This blog wouldn't be complete without commerating a huge moment in the life of Carrie, our van which we were lucky enough to share with her this weekend.

The photos say it all... Well done Carrie - here's to the next 300,000km!