New Zealand!
December 30th, 2009Hello from down under! Jennie and I are currntly in New Zealand visiting her sister Tina, hubby Andrew, and our nephew Elliot who will turn 2 on Jan. 3rd. It’s been a great trip thus far with lots to tell. We arrived on Dec. 17th and will be here until Jan. 7th. The weather has been fantastic and we just got back from touring the entire north island, stopping in Wellington for Christmas where Andrew is originally from. We’re back in Auckland now where they live and a few other folk are arriving to town today for a New Year’s bash.
Our travel down was great. Uneventful would best decribe it. Jennie didn’t swell up much considering she is 5 months pregnant and we both fell into the time change well. It was a chore to stay up until 9 the first night, but nothing some good coffee couldn’t help with.
The first week we made base in Auckland and did a few day trips here and there. I went sailing the third day with a family friend which was a blast. I immediately found the local pool just down the road and hooked up with a bike shop that has some group rides during the week. We are also just 2 blocks away from One Tree Hill, a famous park in Auckland, that has fantastic running on super hilly terrain. All in all it’s a fantastic winter training area!
The past 9 days we went on tour around the north island. We packed up the Subaru sedan with four adults and the little tike. We had a rather large trailer in tow keeping with the first rule of camping which is to ‘bring everything’. We made our way down through Taupo, the location of the New Zealand Ironman, and on to Tongararo. We camped at a great campground that had a kitchen available to all. There were a ton of Germans there for some reason. The next day I got dropped off at the start of the Tongararo crossing, a 19km hike that goes up some sick mountains. I ran most of it but had to scramble up a couple of steep climbs that I don’t think are possible to run nomatter who you are. I arrived at the other side just as Andrew, Tina, Jennie and Elliot arrived by car. The next day we went down to Wellington.
Wellington is an amazing city. It’s situated around a large bay and all the homes are nested on steep hills. There was a 40km loop around the bay that was very bike friendly. I hooked up with the local tri club and went on a 170km ride on the day after Christmas.
After Wellington we headed north up the east coast to Opotiki. This is a great little town with miles and miles of beach. The running and riding was excellent. The first morning we all got up and went ‘pipping’ which basically means digging into the sand under the water for pipis - small clams. We bbq’d those up for morning tea. We tried to net some flounder as well but didn’t have any luck. Still, it was great fun to be out and the water temp was quite warm.
Those are the basic highlights. I could certainly go on about the views and on and on about Elliot. We’re having a ton of fun getting to know our nephew. Last time we saw him Elliot was just 4 months old and I had just gotten in my accident. This is certainly a much more pleasurable experience with him!
I’m looking forward to this final week. It’s nice to have a home base again after 9 days on the road. You certainly could spend a ton of time jumping around New Zealand to see it all, but I prefer to be in a place for a few days or so to get a better feel for things. This vacation was greatly needed. I’m feeling incredibly refreshed after a brutal fall semester teaching and am confident that I will come home completely rejuvinated. The skip in my step is back as is my motivation for all things. Perhaps the biggest highlight so far had to be Christmas day. I was lying in bed with Jennie and my hand was on her tummy. The sun was just comming up and peaking in our window. Right at that moment I felt a little ‘thump’ on the palm of my hand. I quickly sat up, closed my eyes and concentrated on my hand again. Again, ‘thump’. Then a coule of thumps together. Our future son was letting me know he was there. It was a moment that put the best of Hallmark movies to shame!
So that’s the quick summary for now. I’ll write more and put up some pictures when I return.
Jeremy