First stop, a familiar name

Our actual first stop was Auckland to visit friends and drop off a surfboard with them.

But when it came to hitting the road to the Coromandel, a vague plan had to be formed.

Armed with the NZMCA Travel Directory, we looked up an good place for a first venture onto the peninsular.

It looked like Thames would work for us. A perusal of local sites led us to a simple but cheap place right in the heart of the town.

An old WW1 memorial, set high up on a hill gives a great vantage point to look out over the Firth of Thames and across to the Auckland coastline across the way. As well as the town itself. What there is of it!

And we're off

So it's that time of year again when New Zealand breaks up and goes on holiday. And we're no different. With a week and a half off, it's the ideal time for us to make the most of the van.

This time we're off to the Coromandel, a popular holiday destination near Auckland.

Maddy assumes her usual position in the van while we're driving. We think she enjoys coming with us but it's hard to know for sure! We'd like to think she'd rather come with us than be left behind or at kennels!

She'll be coming round the mountain...

It seems that Annalie is seeking different ways to challenge herself physically as she continues running. So when a friend asked for volunteers to take part in the Taranaki Round the Mountain Relay, Annalie jumped at the chance.

The 150km circumference of Mt Egmont/Taranaki is split into 21 legs of various length and gradient. You just need at least nine other people to split the running with you. Not only that but the race starts at 2.30am! So you have to be a little bit mad, or keen.

Perhaps Annalie is a bit of the former, agreeing to run the maximum three legs for the team.

She travelled up on the camper, the perfect support vehicle. With Ian working, that left room for our friend Dave to tag along. He used to run lots, before home ownership took over! But we knew he'd still be a secret weapon!

Annalie's first leg was number 5 and the start time we'd estimated was 6am. As we carbed up on pasta on the Friday night, we were told that the runner on leg 4 was super fast, so Dave and Annalie guessed it could be more like a 5.30 start. But we would get a text when the previous runner set off.

We stayed out in Stratford as it was just 5kms from Annalie's first start. She got a text at 4.50 to say Adam was off and running, so we got set to be at the start by 5.20. As it happened, she started her run at 5.36, nearly a full half hour ahead of schedule.

As this 5.1km run was in the dark, she needed to wear a headlamp and a rear light too. The good thing about running so early was she couldn't see the long straight road ahead. Because there's nothing worse!

Having 2 legs and 14.6kms still to go, Annalie didn't want to push it too hard so early. Still she ran faster than she intended and made up 3 minutes on her forecast time.

She had a 40 minute break while another runner completed the next leg, then she set off on her round 2, leg 7 and another 5.2kms. She managed to pass two other runners on the leg and maintained a similar pace to her first, conscious of the 9.4km leg still to come.

She was passing on to Dave after both her latter legs, and his encouragement towards the end, along with that of the rest of our team, spurred her on at the finish. Another 3 minutes gained.

This time her break was more like 1.5 hours. She took on some fuel and water to ensure there was plenty in the tank and hydration in the legs. Then all too quickly it was off again, this time on her longest, and what turned out to be her hilliest leg.

Plus, it was another dead straight road, which is mentally challenging when your route just stretches before you!

Dave perched at the halfway point to provide some more water and encouragement. But she felt strong and powered on. Despite having already run 10kms, she ran her fastest pace of 5:16 per km. Her next goal is a repeat of her first half marathon at Round the Bays, and she's gunning for a time of 1h 50. If she can maintain the pace from her last mountain leg, she should do it.

Tagging Dave again, Annalie then became part of the all important support crew, leap frogging around the rest of the course, dishing out encouragement and water.

We joined up as a team 70m from the finish line to cross it together, with Dave leading the way on the last leg. We completed the course in 14 hours and 30 minutes. We were 44th out of 50. But that didn't matter. We'd all entered it to challenge ourselves and just to say we'd done it. And what a fab event it was.

For Annalie, the best part was running as a team. It's a great feeling to have support driving you on when your feeling fatigued or you can see your leg stretch out in front of you, but you can't see the end of it in the distance! We could be back next year!

Back on the ladder

Today we became property owners once again. We completed, or settled as it's known here, on the house we've been living in for nearly three years!

It's not often you get to test drive a house before you live in it. And while it's not perfect, it ticks a vast number of boxes for us.

But it also marks the longest we've lived at the same address for. I think the previous record was held by our house in Derby, where we lived for 2 years and 8 months. We've been here 3 months longer than that already and have more to come.

So instead of paying off someone else's mortgage with rent, we're now paying off our own. Hello big debt once again. It was nice without you for a while!

Collecting personal bests

This week has seen a collection of running personal bests coming Annalie's way.

On Sunday she'd decided to pop over to Masterton in the Wairarapa to take part in a 10k race. It was only her second at this distance so she was confident that she'd beat her original time.

Her colleague is an experienced triathlete so she had a personalised plan written. It was only for three weeks, so rather a lot shorter than a proper plan would be, but it was something to focus on.

Although going in rested, Annalie made the fatal mistake of not taking her camelback and getting a bit dehydrated (it was hotter over there than in Welly). But she still achieved her goal of being in the 51s. Just. The watch said 55 seconds. But the official time was 59.

The second PB came on Tuesday night. Annalie had never taken part in the Waterfront 5k, mainly due to it clashing with football. But this week she was roped into it for work, promising to be running mate for the CE.

Turns out he didn't need it, as he flew off. But Annalie was determined to beat her Parkrun best of 24:41. She's been trying to surpass that each week but to no avail, getting within 5 seconds but not close enough.

The waterfront event is a faster course so she thought she'd be in with a good chance of beating out. With a few people to focus on, she was able to push herself through and shave a whopping 32 seconds off! The watch was off again, this time it was 4 seconds over. She was obviously too glad to finish to stop her watch in time!

The PBs just get harder to achieve now though. But it's probably back to half marathon training now. Round the Bays is looming in February. And there's a PB to beat there too :-)

From one extreme to another -adventures in hiring cars!

We had only pre-booked a hire car in Maui, but decided to rent one for a day in Honolulu too so that we could go shopping. We won't bore you with that post but it was a success!

Our on-the-spot rental in Honolulu was the cheapest option, but still cost a bit. Still, we managed to get a funky little Fiat 500 to run around in (and mainly to annoy our friends Jo and Tony who like them!).

Our pre-booked option on Maui was a similarly cheap option, however Annalie was given the chance to upgrade for a small fee. As Ian wasn't with her, she decided to surprise him with her choice...

What's S'UP Waikiki?

For this trip, we decided to try our hand at stand-up paddleboarding (S'UP!). After all, it's much easier falling off into warmer water!

We have been very lucky with the weather being stunning and very warm, so we've been glad to get on the water. Despite his surfing background, Ian lost the learning race to Annalie, who was off like a rabbit.

But Annalie managed to get better photos of Ian, capturing the Diamond Head landmark in the background.

Day two was slightly more choppy with both of us spending more time in the water than day one. But it could be something we persevere with. Only with wetsuits rather than shorts and bikini. The Cook Strait isn't quite so forgiving!

Wish you were here!

Debunking myths

Tonight we debunked a myth that Hawaii is expensive.

Annalie did some research on Tripadvisor.com to look up some low cost dining options. Se happened upon a review for the Steak Shack (http://www.tripadvisor.com/Restaurant_Review-g60982-d1991489-Reviews-Steak_Shack-Honolulu_Oahu_Hawaii.html). 

We'd headed there on our second night, only to find out we'd missed it by about 20 minutes. But we were determined to try it after reading the great reviews. 

On our third night, we decided to head down in time for the sunset, seeing as it is on the western side. You can pay three times the price for a posh beachfront restaurant at a hotel. Or pay US$7 for fantastic steak, rice and salad with the same view. This...

Help Annalie win!

Annalie has entered a burger she designed into a local competition, and got into the finals! Now it's up to the public to decide. So go ahead and vote for the Get Me to the Greek burger to help her win :)

Click the link below then vote on the left.

http://www.stuff.co.nz/dominion-post/capital-life/burger-bunfight/9142444/Vote-for-your-favourite-burger

Battling the All Blacks

Our All Blacks training session was an amazing experience and it gave us a real insight into how fit those boys are.

We're both pretty fit now, but the ABs fitness coach, Nick Gill, wanted to show us just how fit professional rugby players have to be. He got us doing a number of the drills that they have to go through, only we did a lot less of them. And were still knackered!

It started with a warm up of passing, then a quick game of touch rugby to get us moving. Then we were into the running drills. We did two, while they would be expected to do about 8 and maintain the same pace. We didn't do too bad, but we're not sure we could have kept going at that pace.

Then is was onto some conditioning drills, with crawls and drags across the grass. We had to try and wrestle rugby balls off them (and them off us) for a minute (phew!). And there was some lineout and kicking practice. More running drills finished us off before we headed back to the gym for a shower before lunch.

The boys were absolute stars and friendly as anything. We even showed them the video we'd done to win the training session. They seemed to be rather amused (wonder why?!). They posed for photo after photo and did autograph after autograph. We'd even bumped in Aaron Smith on the flight up to Auckland and he'd been more than happy to chat to us. There have been a fair few twitter conversations with them since too ;)

A happy day that we will remeber for a very long time.

 

Things Wellingtonians never say

Only when you've been here will you truly understand the irony of this clip - but it's spot on! There's nothing more really to say - other than watch it!

We're taking on the All Blacks tomorrow

Well, three of them anyway!

The boys we'll be tackling include Steven Luatua and Charlie Piatau, both of whom can be seen in this video

The third is Aaron Smith, who's a hairdresser by trade would you believe!


Photos will obviously follow!

Shake, rattle and roll

Well it's been a shaky few days in the capital. But we wanted to let you know that the three of us are OK
Things kicked off on Friday morning with a 5.7 magnitude quake just after 9am. It was enough to make Annalie "Drop, Cover and Hold" as her 9th floor office swayed with the movement. Ian was blissfully unaware as he slept through the whole thing!
As did Maddy. Who said animals had heightened senses to these things?
Thankfully there was no damage, but it was the start of a series of shocks that continued through the weekend.
On Sunday morning, just after 7am, we were woken be another long, juddering quake. It wasn't enough to have us sprinting for the dinner table, but it was significant att 5.7. Our house normally doesn't feel much, but that one sure did.
This sparked several aftershocks that we could feel, both at home and as we ventured into Wellington for some brunch. But we thought they were subsiding throughout the day.
We had planned a night out as it was Ian's first night off work from his new job. So Annalie had organised dinner at Big Dogs on Blair, before heading to the movies to see The World's End.
We'd only been sat down for 10 minutes when the biggest quake we've felt hit the town. At 6.5 it was roughly the same size as the second major quake that crippled Christchurch over two years ago. And it rattled.
Because we were out, we asked our friends to check on Maddy, slightly concerned that she might be freaking out on her own. They duly checked on her and let her calm down, before returning her to her crate with some tasty snacks. Their commitment was that they would go back and get her if there were any more quakes.
We felt a few minor aftershocks but continued about our evening, not wanting to let the quakes ruin things.
Not long after the film started, at just after 7pm, we heard and felt the next big aftershock, at which point Annalie got a text to say our friends were off to get Maddy. This was always going to be an interesting exercise as they have two cats! As you can see from this photo, we think that Maddy was probably more scared of them than they were of her! But apparently she wasn't interested in them and was just happy to me around people (usual story for her really!).

There were a couple more shakes during the evening, but nothing major, however the 6.5 quakes appears to have sparked in excess of 100 aftershocks, of varying magnitudes, throughout the course of the night. We had shoes beside the bed just in case, but we never felt a thing. Friends and colleagues weren't so fortunate it seems.
Here's where all the action has been centred.

Here's a video overview of the seismic activity of the last three or four days. But this doesn't include all the 100+ aftershocks that have occured since the 6.5 "big one".


As we've said, we're all OK and just hoping that we're coming to the end of the trail.

Aftermath of last week's storm

Just in case you were wondering what more of our Southern Coast looked like after last week's storm, here's a video that was taken, mainly on Friday.

It starts off in Owhiro Bay, literally at the bottom of our hill. It travels around to Island Bay (you can make out the island in the background before he stops to look at the sea). The video ends up by the airport in Lyall Bay.
We have since been round the coast road and you wouldn't even know this had happened. Nice work Wellington Council - and all the volunteers who helped out.

All Blacks haka

Our trip to New Plymouth to watch the All Blacks meant we were in for a treat to see the haka live for the first time. And here it is:

We found the sun again!

So after this week's Wellington weather bomb, we had already planned a trip to New Plymouth to watch our first All Blacks game. Annalie had won tickets so it was a good excuse to break out the Bach for the first time in a few weeks.

We woke to a continuation of the storm that didn't bode well for a journey north in a high sided vehicle. Wind and rain persisted. But we thought stuff it! We'd planned this weekend for ages. And besides, the can needed a run.

Most of the way up was damp, rainy and grey. It want until we reached the boundaries of Taranaki that the sun started to peek through and we started to get a glimpse of blue sky. It afforded us some lovely views of the snow covered Mt Egmont/Taranaki along the way.

By the time we got to our campsite in Fitzroy Beach, the skies were well and truly clear and the wind was merely a whisper. It made a walk along the black sand beach very enjoyable. A much different prospect to what we were expecting to face here.

We're glad we made the trip.

Windy Welly lives up to its name

After the best summer in decades, Wellington showed its dark side last night. The forecasters had warned that a 'weather bomb' was on its way.

And a weather bomb hit the bullseye.

Winds gusted up to 200km/h and the Cook Strait had 11m swells. The inter-island ferries were cancelled and moored in the centre of the harbour to protect them from being slammed against the docks. The airport was closed. Trees, benches and trampolines found new homes of their own accord.

It was classed as a Category 1/2 Atlantic Hurricane. Wowsers. But we bet you didn't hear about it on the news. Wellington has carried on functioning as normal. The coffee shops are open so all is right with the world!

We came away unscathed (so far). But others were not so lucky.

Annalie's Mum and Colin may recognise these pictures as being right outside the dive shop in Owhiro Bay (for those who haven't been, it's at the bit of coast at the bottom of our road).

We have a new toy

It doesn't have a name. Or a gender. It's just more practical for our needs. We figured our Scooby wad just a little too big for our requirements. So now we've got a mint with a hole...

Another month, another half marathon

Annalie's third half marathon in three months was the Vineyard Half in Marlborough. This region is reknowned for amazing Sauvignon Blanc, which is made possible by the cool nights and warm, sunny days.

The autumn weekend that greeted Annalie over the Strait typified this - although she hadn't counted on the 1 degree Celcius temps as she got up that morning (thank heavens we'd recently invested in an electric heater for The Bach!).

Her walk to the start line rendered her fingers inoperable, despite the glorious sunshine that drowned everyone at the start/finish line.

 

Once the race kicked off, the rest of her body started to warm up. However it took a full 9kms to regain fully-functioning fingers! Not ideal during a pee stop at 7kms, when she had to try and pull up her compression tights over sweaty legs with hands that didn't work properly!

Eventually they regained a pinkish colour, but they weren't really required too much, except to reach out for some of the samples of the local, ahem, fayre that was on offer. You'll be pleased to hear that no alcohol was consumed on the course, but some yummy food samples were not refused (it's called sustainance!).

She wasn't aiming for a time and even turned the volume on her running app down so she didn't know what pace she was running. It wasn't until she crossed the finish line that she knew she'd done around 2 hours again. The official time was posted a couple of days later at 2:00:01 - if only she hadn't needed a pee! (Because the Sauvignon Blanc gelato was a necessity ;) The official course photos make it look like she finished strong too.

The course was incredibly scenic and it was a wonderful event - as she keeps telling everyone! We don't think she'll be alone next year! And when you get a "medal" like this, why wouldn't you?

The Bach heads south

Considering The Bach is an ex-rental, we are certain it has ventured onto the "Mainland", aka the South Island, before. However, this was its first trip with us. Well, with Annalie anyway. She had to leave Ian and Maddy at home due to work reasons.

Annalie was heading to Blenheim in Marlborough to participate in her third half marathon in as many months. This one, however, was called the Vineyard Half, and if you're aware of what Marlborough is famous for, you'll understand why!

Annalie travelled over on the ferry on the Friday morning to get settled ahead of the saturday morning race. She managed to wander from her campsite to the start line as a loosener on the Friday afternoon, but mostly to check she didn't need to take The Bach with her and avoid the traffig/parking queues that were bound to happen. A pretty splendid afternoon in general.

 

 

Here's all the "medals" waiting for everybody who completes the HM

 

Some crazy Kiwi-ness - but it was worth it

On July 30th, we're going to train with the All Blacks. No, that's no lie. It's the truth. Annalie and some friends won a competition to train with the ABs conditioning coach and three of the team - nice!

To win this, Annalie and her friends had to put together a video stating why they wanted to win. We did a parody of the Air New Zealand safety video featuring Richard Simmons! We hope that the competition sponsors, Powerade, had a good giggle when they got it!

The competition was supposed to see the top five finalists go to a public vote, but for some reason, the other four finalists were ineligible so we won outright! And Annalie was lucky enough to be picked to bring a friend, so Ian gets to go too.



Annalie also thinks it shows off her weight loss a bit too :)

Some more photos of our run

Last time we showed you our results, but we wanted to show you that, in actual fact, we do run. So here's the proof of our attempts at crossing the finishing line...