Vacation & Training Mix Well

http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/2012/06/vacation-training-mix-well/

I Know I Can.

http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/2012/05/i-know-i-can/

Weekly Blogging Commitment

I've made a commitment to myself to blog weekly on Team Priority Health and I have been sticking with it for 3 weeks!  Here's my newest post.


http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/2012/05/playlists/


I'll keep posting them on here as I go along & hopefully I'll get rambunctious enough to add a little extra on here as well.

Where in the World is Carmen Sandiego??

Okay actually, it's where in the world am I?  After New Zealand I may have slightly dropped off the face of the blogging world as I do.  But I have spectacular revelations yet to share so here I am again.  Below is a link to my new blogging adventure as a Team Priority Health Champion.  Check it out.


http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/2012/05/well-i-made-it/


http://www.teampriorityhealth.com/2012/05/new-champion-my-story/

Final NZ Post

**Will add pictures soon.  Forgot my hard drive today** 


I've been so busy catching up this month, I hadn't even finished my final NZ post.  For shame!  Oh, well here it is.


Sunday, October 2 was our final rugby game and it was a great one, New Zealand vs Canada.  The crowd was an absolute sea of black and they were all excited to see the All Blacks play.  Canada had maybe a thousand fans out of the 60,000 there but they were great fans.  Canada did not stand a chance against the AB's but they played very well.  They weren't scared and played hard.  It ended up being a great game.  After the game we started our trek back north.  


We only had three days remaining and we really wanted to re-visit some spots that we had been on our honeymoon.  Mike drove us the 5-ish hours up to Rotorua that night and we had a good nights sleep at our hotel.  The next morning we headed out for a run together in the rain and ended up going about 10k total.  We did a 7k loop through the Rotorua Redwood forest and it was majestic.  With all the steam from the various thermal things and the huge trees it was a wonderful run.  Getting back to the hotel though turned out to be a soggy project.  The light rain that we were running in suddenly turned to a downpour and we got soaked.  Back at the hotel we had hot showers, skyped with Mom & Dad about the fire and decided what we were going to do next.  We decided on a little bit of shopping, diner at a place called Brew and then a trip to the Polynesian Spa.  All spots were wonderful and we really enjoyed our time at the spa.  


The next morning we headed north again.  Stopping in Hamilton we had a wonderful walk through the Hamilton Gardens and a delicious lunch.  The Hamilton Gardens were some of the best gardens I have ever visited because they were so interesting.  They had a whole section of the garden dedicated to different types of gardens.  A Japanese garden, an Indian garden, an Italian Renaissance garden... so neat.  We ended up about 20 minutes south of Auckland to stay that evening and we went to a fantastic little pub for dinner.  


Wednesday was our last day and we headed into Auckland to see some of the rugby tourist stuff and find some spots from our honeymoon.  We found our little park, Emily Place.  It was my favorite part of the whole trip.  I can't believe Mike & I have been married almost 5 years.  We took a hike through huge Auckland Domain and then tripped down Parnell Street looking for a little restaurant that we loved.  Unfortunately when we found it, it was empty and under construction.  Bummer, but we still had a nice time shopping and walking on such a beautiful day.  After that it was back to the airport to come home.  30 some hours later we made it home and were wide awake at 2am!  It was an amazing trip and I couldn't have asked for anything else.

It All Went So Fast

A view from Mt Cawte.

And now we're home.  The last few days went so fast that I scarcely had time to take it all in in let alone blog about it.  After our hike in Abel Tasman National Park, we did some exploring closer to our cottage.  We drove further up into the sounds one day.  We were debating whether we would go kayaking or go for a drive and we stopped to talk to Vik on our way up to the car.  He checked the weather and said that even though some weather was headed in, we wouldn't get any of it.  We chose the drive and it was a very good choice.  After running to Linkwater to grab some beer we hit a hail storm that was so heavy that we were whited out!  Very crazy!  Kayaking in the hail would have been very horrible.  As the storm backed down to a drizzle we headed out into the sounds.  There was much to see and we stopped at a beach after about 30 minutes or so of driving.  The rain had stopped and we explored the beach, finding quartz, shells, weird birds and a little cave.  After a good walk we got back in the car and decided to head back to the cottage for some rainy weather snuggling.

Mike carefully inspecting dirt.

Saying goodbye atop Mt Cawte.

We finished out our week, with an attempted kayaking trip, a hiking jaunt and our last trip to Blenheim.  We attempted to kayak, but there was too much boat traffic and therefore too many waves.  Also, Mike was just too big for the one person kayak we hauled down for him!  It was definitely one of the most hilarious situations we were in the entire trip.  If someone had only video taped us, it would have been a youtube comedy hit!  Then after cleaning up we headed to Blenheim via Havelock Waterfall hike.  We grabbed groceries and a bit of internet in Blenheim.  Friday, our last full day on the south island was our clean up/pack up day.  We cleaned the cottage, packed up our stuff, did one last hike up Mt Cawte and made dinner for our hosts, Yvonne & Vik.  Being the fantastic people that they are, they brought down some drinks and fruit for dessert.  I made chili, rice (Moore style) and beer bread for dinner and Mike made yummy chocolate chip cookies (called biscuits in NZ).  We had a lovely dinner together and they invited us up the next morning for one last hurrah, breakfast.  Mike and I did dishes and relaxed that night wishing we didn't have to leave.  We gazed out the bedroom window at the sea of stars for an hour at least chatting about nothing before we drifted off to sleep.

Flowers at the cottage.

Mike's baking.

The next morning was one last breakfast with the Kollers.  Vik made eggs, bacon & tomatoes on the barbie.  We look forward to the day that we get to cross paths with them again for they were truly wonderful people.  Off then for the curvy drive to Picton and the ferry ride over to Wellington for the last time.  

France vs Tonga

Arrival in Wellington was good and we found a way to avoid the game traffic to get to our hotel.  The game that day was France vs Tonga.  France should have steamrolled them, but Tonga played excellent and France's response was lackluster.  Surprising performance, since they are now in the Semi Final game vs Wales.  I will root for Wales, so sorry to any Frenchies reading.  Tonga celebrated in grand fashion, as well a tiny island nation of 100,000 people should when they beat a nation of 62 million!  It was a fun game to be at.  Later that night we walked down to a pub that we had found after another game, but it was already packed to the gills, so we had a quick pint and wandered back towards where we were staying, window shopping the entire way.  We happened upon a pub nearby and grabbed a pint and a shared table to watch England vs Wales.  We began to chat with our table mates and they actually became our mates by the time the night was over.  A father and son that had a great lot to say about many things.  They were immensely fun and they generously bought us some pints!  It was a very good night all in all.  The next day was our much anticipated last game... New Zealand All Blacks vs Canada!

Waterfall hike in Havelock.

Beautiful New Zealand

Dolphins!

We’ve been drinking in the beautiful sights our last week on the South Island.  While waiting for the ferry on Friday, we were greeted at the Picton terminal with two very welcome things, a school group doing hakas and traditional Maori songs and some dolphins.  The school group was great and I had vowed to see dolphins this time in New Zealand, so I was excited to accomplish that goal!  We returned from Wellington on Saturday after watching USA give 29 valiant minutes.  We won’t discuss the other 51 minutes where the USA went down in a ball of flames… But the game was good fun.  If you didn’t know that New Zealand and Australia were rivals in sport, you would have known at the game.  There were thousands of USA fans.  Mike and I began calling them Kiwi-Americans.  They rooted for us because they hate Australia!  We needed all the help the Kiwis gave.  Although it was difficult to discern who was American and who was a Kiwi.

Go USA!

Saturday, when we arrived back to our little New Zealand house, Vic asked us up for drinks.  As the All Blacks were playing that night we thought we’d go up about 4pm have a drink then return to our cottage for dinner and the game.  But, gracious hosts that they are, Yvonne had already put in extra “tea” (tea means dinner in NZ) for us and invited us to stay, eat and watch the game.  It was a wonderful night full of fun conversation again.  I’m still pinching myself as to how lucky we were to find such lovely hosts and a wonderfully beautiful place to stay while we are here.  The All Blacks had a decisive win over France and put them squarely into the Quarter Finals.

Sunday, we went out for a run on hilly Moetapu Bay Road then skyped with my Mom & Dad for a bit.  It was nice to see them and catch up a bit.  Then we decided to go for a drive further out into the sounds.  It was a beautiful day that quickly turned cold & dreary.  We actually got caught in quick hail storm that was so strong that we couldn’t see on the road for a few minutes!

Beach further up in the sound.

The next morning we slowly got around (we’ve had a daylight savings time change on Saturday night/Sunday morning) and decided to pack up and head over to the Abel Tasman National Park for an overnight hike.  We arrived in to Motueka and checked in with the i-Site to make some plans.  They gave us some great recommendations and we booked our campsite in the park and our water taxi ride back to the car.  We were ambitious and planned to do approximately 36 km of the 54 km trail through the park.  Monday we dropped the car at the water taxi lot and headed out on the trail.  It was a very nice 3 hour hike into our campsite on a little isolated beach, but we were starving by the time we arrived and the sun sadly was already behind the hill and we were getting cold fast.  No fires in the Abel Tasman park so, we got around to get the stove started and make some hot food & drinks fast.  Unfortunately our stove was broke!!  We were tired, cold and hungry eating cold chicken and crackers for dinner.  By 7:30pm we were in our tent shivering and huddling together to get warm.  It was a long night in the tent and possibly one of our coldest tented nights ever.  

Headed out.

The beach we camped at.

Sunrise.

The next morning, there were no eggs with no stove… so we both had a granola bar and headed out on the trail so we could warm up.  We had a big climb out from the beach we were at, so we were sweating and warm in about 20 minutes.  We had a set time to be picked up by the water taxi, so we could not waste any time.  They informed us, that if we were not on the beach we would be stranded!  Though, I highly doubt that would have been the case (not very Kiwi-like), but it probably helps them to keep on their schedule.  The hike on Tuesday was definitely tough, but so beautiful.  It was worth every step uphill that we took, just breathtaking.   

First people across the beach on our hike out of the bay we camped at.

Awesome 40m suspension bridge.

When we got to where the taxi was to pick us up we were about 45 minutes early and there was a lodge/café there.  It was quite an expensive and posh place, so we settled on just a snack and two beers, so that we didn’t go broke.  We thoroughly enjoyed it and then headed down to the beach to lie in the sun and wait for the taxi.  The taxi ride was great.  It was great to see everything from the water side that we had hiked and a bit more that we didn’t hike.  We even stopped at one of the islands to pick up 2 scientists.  At the end of the trip the taxi boat drove right up onto a trailer that was being pulled by a tractor and drove us right back down the road still in the boat to our cars.  

Mike resting while waiting for the taxi.

Aqua Taxi ride back to the car.

We were thinking about going to the USA game in Nelson that would have been on our way back, but we were pretty tired after such an arduous two days, so we picked up some groceries and headed back.  We planned on watching the game on TV last night, but unfortunately it didn’t play.  So we had dinner, watched Amazing Race Australia and  Step Up 2 then went to bed early for some body repair.  Unfortunately Mike turned his ankle while hiking so this morning we are icing his ankle before we head into Blenheim to use the internet and I can upload these last two posts.  Oh, how I miss internet in the USA.  WiFi is free and so easy to find….  I will value it when we arrive back home next week.

Boots cooling off on the beach.