Tania's Tales...

	Cook Islands	29/05/05 29 May, take 2: Rarotonga
		30/05/05 The lie of the land
		31/05/05 Doing nothing
		01/06/05 Walking in and around Muri lagoon
		02/06/05 Local wildlife
		03/06/05 Have wheels, will travel
		04/06/05 Market day, and airport shenanigans
		05/06/05 CICC at Ngatangiia
		06/06/05 Kayaking on the lagoon
		07/06/05 Walking: Wigmore's Waterfall and the Needle
		08/06/05 The backroad, and more walking
		08/06/05 Notes on Rarotonga
		09/06/05 New accommodation
		10/06/05 Snorkelling, enjoying the beach
		12/06/05 Home again!

	New Zealand	18/06/05 Work and play
		24/06/05 St John First Aid training
		25/06/05 A June wedding
		16/07/05 Kaipara Flats 10K
		07/08/05 With family in Morrinsville
		10/09/05 Last exam for a while - yeeha!
		15/09/05 Being a tourist in Auckland
		16/09/05 Running with an inspiring training partner / te reo
		22/09/05 Our FOURTH police report this year!
		18/10/05 Morrinsville half marathon among other things
		24/10/05 Feelers concert, Devonport hills, late night cricket
		30/10/05 Auckland half marathon
		04/12/05 A busy weekend indeed
		30/12/05 An up and down December

30 January 2005 06/02/04 Next Back to top Home

After Christmas and New Year there were still plenty of excuses to head to Morrinsville. Dad had a knee operation on 21 January and couldn't drive afterwards, so I picked drove him home for the weekend, and spent time cleaning out all my old gear from mum and dad's for the next few days. I caught up with Rose, Rob, Levi, Jean and their friend Carl while I was down there. We were back there for dad's birthday on the 30th, and it was another chance to catch up with more Waikato friends... Denise and Arron, Carl and Shelley. All January I watched seemingly endless cricket - hooray! Not that we won much. Still, I love watching cricket. Time to start thinking about employment sometime soon... I have started to look online and in newspapers to see what's out there in my line of work.

06 February 2005 17/02/04 Next Back to top Home

In the last few weeks we have become pretty adept at using TradeMe, a kiwi auction website. We've bought and sold a few things. Among our latest acquisitions are the odd CD, computer stuff, a Yamaha Virago 250... Yes! And yeeha! A Yamaha Virago 250cc motorbike! A cruiser, in perfect condition. In Palmerston North. Hmmm... So begins the story of one fabulous road trip. Well, probably more interesting to us than to anyone else, but I had a blast. Our first stop was TradeMe again for jackets, then around town to make sure we had everything else we might need. On Saturday we bought two lovely helmets, and early on Sunday we flew to Palmie. This was my first time there, at least that I can remember, and it was to be my first time on a motorbike on the road. Quite a day ahead! The bike's owner met us at the airport and took us out to her place in Linton, where Warwick rode around the neighbourhood to familiarise himself with the bike. When he was happy, we were on our way. 11am. It was brilliant being on the back! I could smell the orchards and timber yards and even people's gardens as we zoomed by and out of town, and onto SH54 through Fielding. What a way to see the country! We stopped for a while just past a rest area and lookout on SH54, completely taken by the view. It was a baking hot day, and we called in at Taihape for a snack and fuel. Our pineapple Fruju, Toffee Pop bar and Krispa Salt 'n' Vinegar Corn Chips (sorry expats!) cost almost as much as the fuel did! It costs $7 to fill the tank, and we get about 160km for that. Because Warwick was concerned I might be tired or not enjoy the ride, or that he mightn't cope with a pillion for such a long distance, we had printed out the Intercity bus timetable so I could catch it at any one of its stops on the way north. A nice backup, but not needed :-) We continued on to the Desert Road, stopping to savour that fabulous desolate countryside and the mountains of Tongariro National Park. To our left was sunshine. To our right, the drizzle the Met Service had promised us. We rode on through poorer weather to Taupo, and the hills and traffic made this the most difficult leg of the entire journey. The Virago can do 100kph with both of us on board, but not up steep hills. All the way we had supportive text messages from our friend Rachel, who was keen to see how we were doing and to make sure we were OK. Lovely Rachel had even offered to drive from Pukekohe and pick us up if we decided the journey was just too long! Subway provided lunch in Taupo, then we were away again - at least, as far as the Huka Falls. I had never seen the Huka Falls before (well, once apparently, when I was too small too remember). This is a constant surprise to my husband because they are the source of the Waikato River, because I have been through Taupo heaps, and because they are just so beautiful. I have never seen falls like these before. The colours were fabulous! Apparently, if you go over them in a lifejacket, you will sink when you get to the bottom because the aerated water is less dense than any lifejacket. We also took a quick peek at Craters of the Moon, then headed on to Tokoroa where we stretched our legs and grabbed some hot chips. Warwick met an elderly couple there who asked all about the bike and said that it took them back to their own motorcycling days... "That's a real bike, it's not like the bikes of today." The Virago is only ten years old, but has no fairing (a plastic or fibre-glass shell placed over the frame to shield the rider from the wind). 30 years ago, fairings were optional accessories for enthusiasts, and most bikes were sold without them. As performance and top speed has increased with the advance of technology, more bikes are now sold with fairings. South Waikato... it was great being back in familiar territory again. Great to see new country south of Taupo of course, but good to be nearer my home country with some idea of the journey ahead. And my comfy seat was rather less comfy by now... Matamata's best milkshake shop was shut but another Subway sandwich filled the gap and we continued on, bike and bodies refuelled. We scheduled one more stop, to stretch our legs at Mangatawhiri. This was imperative at this stage for me, as my arms and legs were starting to tire. I was feeling the bumps in the road much more by now, but none of that diminished the enjoyment of being on the bike and feeling so much a part of the environment through which we were travelling. The difference between the bike and a car felt to me a bit like the difference between a Bandeirante (the smallest plane I have ever flown on, max 19 passengers) and a 747. After Mangatawhiri we headed to the airport, where I picked up the car. A welcome change in posture for me! Must work on my core muscles... but then I knew that anyway. We got home tired and happy. It was a long, slow trip, as planned. We were home at 9:45pm after nearly 11 hours on the road, and 13 hours after we took off from Auckland airport. So that's our latest news! Apart from that, Warwick is still working far too many hours (by his own admission) in central Auckland, I have received some encouraging responses to letters of introduction I sent to potential employers last week, and life is great.

17 February 2005 27/02/04 Next 30/01/04 Previous Back to top Home

Rochelle and I caught up with one of our German lecturers on the 11th... the best part of being back in New Zealand is catching up with people and places from the past. It's great fun! However, the 11th wasn't quite the relaxed and happy day I had planned. Some backstory first: Warwick had commuted to and from work by bicycle for several years in the UK, entirely without incident, and decided that today would be the day to start cycling to work in New Zealand. I got a phone call not long after he left... he had been cycling down Remuera Road towards Broadway when someone in a queue of traffic opened their car door in front of him. Ouch! He went into then over the door, and smack onto the pavement. Ouch! Apparently he was awake but unresponsive to any questions for a few minutes. He sent me a text message from the ambulance to say he was OK, and I picked him up a few hours later at Auckland Hospital. My poor husband! All bandaged and bruised and moving like an old man. And his poor bike, six weeks old and not in great shape either. That was the first and last day of his bicycle commuting in New Zealand. The summer of cricket continues, with our first Twenty20 international (the first Twenty20 international) v Australia at Eden park on the 17th. We met Rachel, dad and Darcy for the game... although it wasn't quite the run-fest we were hoping for, there was some good cricket (and some great 80s hairstyles!). Warwick was recovering a little from his accident by now, but still had limited movement in one hand :-(

27 February 2005 06/03/04 Next 17/02/04 Previous Back to top Home

We had a very busy month in February, catching up with lots of people who we hadn't seen much of in the last few years. BBQs here and there, meeting up with an "oldfriends" old friend, meeting some of Ron's students, dinner in Ellerslie with Matt and Julia, walking with friends in Michaels Avenue park... it's been great. Warwick has begun a small business book-keeping course as he is now a self-employed contractor. I really admire how he decides what he wants to do and does it: he's turning down permanent work and finding plenty of employment on his own terms. This gives us more flexibility with time off... we've used some airmiles to book a trip to Rarotonga in May-June. Yeeha!

06 March 2005 14/03/04 Next 27/02/04 Previous Back to top Home

Ooops! We bought another motorcycle! Warwick wasn't happy with the power of our lovely 250cc Yamaha Virago (it's great for commuting but not terribly powerful with two of us on board, especially uphill) so he went browsing on TradeMe again... and found a 400cc Suzuki Savage... in Wanganui. Well, we'd done this before so we felt like experts. In short order we had booked our flights down there, and early on the 6th of March we were once again walking from our carpark at Auckland Airport's international terminal to the departure lounge in the domestic terminal. Flying into Wanganui was great! We were on a tiny wee Beechcraft 1900D, with great views of the land and coasts below us. There is so much coastline out the back of so much farmland! So many deserted beaches, I guess that's what I'm saying, all the way down the North Island. As we approached Wanganui we could see the colour change in the water, where the brown and silty Whanganui River flowed into the pale blue sea. We could see straight out through the front windows of the plane, and the runway looked very short indeed! Thankfully, as we got closer, it looked more and more like something we could actually land on. We took a taxi to our TradeMe seller's address, and after all the paperwork was filled out, we were away. Yay! Another road trip. As we headed out of town I saw a sign for an overbridge... which made me wonder just exactly what an underbridge would look like... This time we headed up along the winding, hilly road (SH4) towards Raetihi, stopping at a pretty lookout over a waterfall. Throughout our journey there was plenty of evidence of last year's terrible flood damage. Even now, the road was down to a single lane in places, the other lane having tumbled away completely. Everywhere in the paddocks around us large trees were down, and fences and road sidings were still not repaired. In some places, tiny asphalt curbs were all the protection there was between us and the valleys below. We made the usual stops for Frujus, Trumpets, Whittaker's Dark Sante Bars, Krispa Salt and Vinegar Corn Chips... Mmmm... We took SH41 towards Taupo, stopping at a beautiful lookout over the lake, before carrying on north along SH32 to Tokoroa. We joined SH1 briefly, leaving it again at Tirau for SH27, and from there on in we were in home territory again. We stopped at Bombay for petrol, and got chatting to a group of riders who had spent that day touring the Coromandel Peninsula. I picked up our car at the airport, and soon we were home for a well-earned sleep :-)

14 March 2005 25/03/04 Next 06/03/04 Previous Back to top Home

On Saturday 12th, we had a party to celebrate my birthday - yay! We had a gathering at mum and dad's, and it was lovely to see everyone again... albeit briefly. I always forget how hard it is to catch up properly with people when you're hosting a party. That evening a few of us headed out to Waikato Stadium to see our Chiefs take down the Auckland Blues - what fun! What an atmosphere! (Thanks go to the sole Aucklander in our group, who so gamely turned up and so graciously accepted the result!) As I remarked that evening, turning 30 is GREAT :-) (Although it was pointed out to me at the time that I wouldn't be able to say for sure until the Monday... now that I actually AM 30, I can say with certainty: life's a whole lot of fun).

25 March 2005 02/04/04 Next 14/03/04 Previous Back to top Home

Dad and I had a couple of days in Christchurch from the 19th, to see nana who was very unwell... a sad and strange time, but nice to be able to be together. After a long and family-focussed life, our fun-loving nana passed away on March 25, Good Friday.

02 April 2005 05/04/04 Next 14/03/04 Previous Back to top Home

Life has been busy - not stressed, just busy. We went to the fabulous David Meece concert on the 24th of March. It was the first time I had heard him and it was a brilliant show. We also caught up with Carl and Shelley again at Easter, and with Heather and Martin up the road in Mt Wellington, for a picnic on their lawn. We have made several sunny trips to explore the areas around Kaipara Harbour and northwards beyond Dairy Flat and up to Warkworth, with Fruju/Trumpet stops becoming a regular habit. And within six weeks of the first police report Warwick had to file (the bicycle accident), another one! I had gone to post letters in our local postbox, to find the door of the box hanging open. I notified the post office and thought nothing much of it, until Warwick was looking at our bank accounts a week or so later. A large amount of money had been taken from our account! Warwick called the bank who told him that yes, he had indeed written out such a large cheque. "Really?!" he asked, "Who to?" It was made out to someone we had never heard of at all. Warwick had posted a cheque to the IRD the night before the postbox was broken into. The cheque had been washed and the amount changed, and it had been banked into some fraudster's bank account. Warwick saw a copy of the cheque and said that the handwriting looked just like his! Apparently this happens every month, postboxes are broken into at about the time people start sending money to the IRD. Wow! Sounds very clever... however, among other mistakes he made, our crook wrote his address on the back of the cheque and banked it into his own account! Dad gave us free tickets to the Blues v Brumbies game on the 2nd of April, so we went along supporting the kiwis. We may live here, but it's not all that often you find us cheering for Auckland! I was expecting a close game and a Brumbies win, and what we got was a runaway Auckland victory. Needless to say, the atmosphere was amazing!

05 April 2005 14/04/04 Next 02/04/04 Previous Back to top Home

The family was together again for nana's funeral in Christchurch. I met some of her friends for the first time at her funeral, some lovely elderly ladies with real spark in their eyes. It was lovely to be together with family to remember her.

14 April 2005 15/04/04 Next 05/04/04 Previous Back to top Home

I had my first motorcycle lesson tonight! Hard work, and every time I stalled I had to kickstart it again. Good fun though. I was exhausted by the end of it, but able to keep the bike upright and not crash into anything :-) One more lesson next week. We have lately caught up with Evan and Angus, both in Auckland, and I attended an AUT open day... Yes... I'm looking hard at a career change...

15 April 2005 22/04/04 Next 14/04/04 Previous Back to top Home

I went into town with Warwick on his motorbike on the 15th, with a Borders gift voucher in my pocket (thanks mum and dad!) an AUT application form, and a backpack full of things I needed to return to places around town. This turned out to be one of the sweetest days I have ever spent in the city. I had been unpacking boxes of stuff, and we are trashing lots of things or giving them away or selling them on TradeMe, and it's all very therapeutic, but I have also discovered some things that belonged to other people! Oops! So I retraced my steps around my old haunts from 1993-1999... a lovely, sunny, peaceful walk down memory lane... delivering a German text to the Arts building, which took me past our old rooms on Grafton Road, and a hymn book to St Andrew's on Symonds Street, which took me through the HSB courtyard and past the cafe there. I continued under the Symonds Street underpass through to where the Campus Pharmacy used to be, past the registry building, across Princes Street and through Albert Park to AUT. And at AUT begins a new phase... I applied for a course that will hopefully eventually see me qualified as a Personal Trainer. This is fulfilling a long-held dream :-)

22 April 2005 25/05/04 Next 15/04/04 Previous Back to top Home

I had a second motorbike lesson on Monday, got my Basic Handling Skills Certificate (lots of fun zooming around a carpark building, doing hillstarts on the ramps and swerving between cones...) and sat my theory test on Friday. Yay! I now have my learner license! I bought baby kiwifruit to celebrate. We put mum on a plane to Italy on the 20th, and headed to Morrinsville on the Friday night to see dad and Clem... dad made us a lovely roast dinner and pavlova, mmmm... And Warwick came up to me quietly that night and whispered some strange words which indicated the even stranger direction in which our weekend would skew: "I won the hug." He had set aside a certain amount of money to give to charity, when he happened upon a rather special TradeMe auction... a hug was being sold with proceeds to the children's ward in Christchurch Hospital. Warwick bid without really thinking he would win, but... late that night he was receiving phone calls from reporters, and the Herald on Sunday even jacked up a photographer to meet us the next day in Rotorua! So on Saturday morning we headed to Rotorua as scheduled. We had been planning to get back there for some time, and had hoped to climb Mount Tarawera. But it turns out it's over a hundred dollars per person to go up! You can't go without joining a tour, and that's what the tour costs. So I guess it's mostly tourists whose home currencies are stronger than ours who see the mountain these days. We didn't cancel our plans though, as we had friends to catch up with and hot pools to soak in... and once we had had our photo taken that is just what we did. Riding home from Rotorua, Warwick had to lean on a mad angle just to keep the bike upright, it was that windy. A weird and wonderful weekend all up. Winning the hug brought us into contact with some truly lovely people, and we are very glad of that indeed.

25 May 2005 29/05/04 Next 22/04/04 Previous Back to top Home

A couple of parties marked the end of April, some card games, and some good use of our Risk set. We have learnt that changing the rules to speed the game up only changes dynamics you never considered and slows the game down. (We also took part in a rather remarkable Trivial Pursuits game, where the winning team had all their pieces by 9:30pm, and we thought it would all soon be over. In the next two hours however, they only landed on the centre circle once and on that occasion got the question wrong, so it was 11:30 before they finally won!) Warwick and Rachel took part in a 40km cycle race, run by the North Harbour Triathlon Club, on May 1st. I was their cheerleader, although they didn't need me! They both did really well and it was a great day out. I have been attending AUT part-time and loving it, and on 18 May we farewelled Fang who is leaving for China after several years here. We spent 23-25 May with Sarah and Andrew at a bach in Whitianga, where they introduced us to (addicted us to!) Settlers. Settlers is the board game everyone else raves about when we suggest a game of Risk, so it was great to finally see what all the fuss was about. We also went walking and kayaking, and enjoyed doing very little else indeed. We were in convoy for part of the way home, when all of a sudden smoke started belching from our exhaust! Eugh! It completely enveloped Sarah and Andrew's car! We pulled over and started up again, but it kept happening. It was getting dark and there was no phone signal, so Sarah and I sat in the car while Warwick and Andrew ran up the hill to get a signal and call the AA. A towie came along about an hour later, diagnosed a blockage in the exhaust which was burning itself off and said we'd be fine to get to Auckland. Phew! Thank you, Lord! Sarah and I drove up the hill looking for the boys... they were supposedly about 3km farther up but it was dark and we couldn't see them. When Sarah was starting to get a signal on her phone we pulled into one of many bays on the side of the road to try and call them. It just happened to be the very one they were waiting in. Yay! We drove home without any further trouble, under a lovely full moon, and got home five minutes before a TradeMe buyer arrived to pick up his goods.

29 May 2005 29/05/04 Next 25/05/04 Previous Back to top Home

A busy weekend, how had I managed to plan this?! A dessert evening for Jenni's birthday on Friday night, an exam on Saturday morning, rugby to watch on Saturday night, a 5km run scheduled for Sunday morning, a visit to my new place of work in the afternoon to learn the ropes, then on Monday morning an early flight to Rarotonga. Eeks! It was hectic, and the social bits were enjoyable, but the wheels came off on Sunday morning. I woke up feeling rotten, which wasn't too surprising given my large amount of activity in the last week, and my small amount of sleep. I rang to cancel the run. I was just feeling a little more relaxed when a lens popped out of my glasses! Oh no! Now I can't see! Then I got a text message - there had been a mix-up and I was expected at work by 8am. That's ten minutes away! Help! I can't see! I'm feeling terrible! It's Sunday morning! Aaagh! Well, I got everything sorted, I didn't need to get into work until the afternoon, I tied my glasses together somehow, and managed to pack for the morning. Boy did I need a holiday by the time it came around...!

29 May 2005 30/05/05 Next 29/05/05 Previous Back to top Home

Darling Jenni was up very early to take us to the airport. It was a bleak, rainy morning as we left Auckland on early on Monday 30 May... After a four-hour flight we arrived in Rarotonga mid-afternoon on Sunday 29 May. It was sunny and warm - yay! As we entered the passport control area, a man with a ukulele or banjo of sorts was singing and playing to welcome us :-) We had pre-arranged a shuttle to our wee self-catering studio, and the shuttle driver gave us each a floral ei - a crown for my head, and a long necklace for Warwick. They looked and smelled divine! From our place we could see the wide open ocean, the huge surf breaking out by the reef, and a tiny smidgen of the lagoon. Here and there, clusters of coconut trees rose up against this background. We were sleepy throughout the afternoon, so unpacked and walked down to the local shops. Eeeks - food is every bit as expensive here as we were warned! Saw a gecko above our door as we came home in the evening.

30 May 2005 31/05/05 Next 29/05/05 Previous Back to top Home

Slept in, and had no schedule for the entire day. How freeing! We both really needed a break from routine and from everyday work. We took a bus to the supermarket in the main town of Avarua, catching glimpses of the clear, blue lagoon as we drove around the island. It was another bright, sunny day. We then took a bus to Rarotongan Backpackers, where our final two nights were booked, to pre-pay. As we walked up the road from the mainroad to the backroad, a sweet wee puppy appeared from nowhere. With no encouragement at all from us, he followed us to the backpackers and waited with us until the owners were back from their lunchbreak. Coconut trees were everywhere around the island, most with several fallen coconuts wasting on the ground below them. Also lots of mopeds and motorbikes, it seems to be the best form of transport on these roads. And... roosters! Everywhere! Crowing all day long! I slept in the afternoon - a very rare occurance for me - and Warwick made dinner. We chatted away into the evening - so nice to be alone together :-) Yikes! Just before bed we spotted a centipede crawling along the floor! We were to see enough by the end of our trip that we ended up becoming quite blasé about them, but for tonight it was a bit of excitement!

31 May 2005 01/06/05 Next 30/05/05 Previous Back to top Home

Did nothing! All day! Played some cards, read books, lounged around, and that's it! A cloudy day and we both seemed to need to do absolutely nothing at all for once, so it was a day well spent.

01 June 2005 02/06/05 Next 31/05/05 Previous Back to top Home

Today was the first day of what was to become a really healthy routine: some resistance training in the morning, using our two 1.5 litre water bottles as weights. Great! We walked down to the lagoon for the first time (!). It was beautiful: little islands, clear water, the breakers on the reef even more impressive from here (and we still weren't terribly close to them). The water was icy at first but we got used to it and wandered out for ages and ages - it never really came above our waists, so while I swam a wee bit, Warwick just walked. We saw kayakers by the sandy island to our left, and poor wee sea cucumbers all over the bottom. I say "poor", because we read in our guidebook that they are a delicacy. They are served up in restaurants but people do sometimes pick them up from the lagoon, rip them open and swallow their spaghetti-like insides. They throw the animal back to sea, where it heals and regrows! Looking back to shore, the pale sand was made golden by the sunlight, and dark clouds loomed about the mountains beyond, a beautiful scene. We got home before it poured down, and resumed our lazy holiday reading. (I was reading Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close, by Jonathan Safran Foer... a novel about grief after September 11, which I felt was cleverly written and very interesting, if not a little self-consciously artistic). Things to note: the gorgeous goats down our road, which actually looks and feels like a driveway; hibiscus of all colours everywhere. My glasses were the main reason for the trip to Avarua... my makeshift repairs to the frame had come away, a lens had fallen out, and I was now unable to see. We got them fixed, we did some shopping, remembered that for all their many good points Kiwibank still doesn't have international banking agreements so we were suddenly short of cash, and most exciting: got our Cook Islands Driver's Licenses. Because we both already have car and motorcycle licenses it was a matter of paying a fee and having our pictures taken. Otherwise, you take a short test on the motorcycle, basically driving around the block, remembering to indicate, not falling off and not hitting anything. While cooking dinner we had the kitchen lights on and the curtains open, when one gecko and then another came and sat on the window, catching moths. This was great fun to watch! They sat around eyeing the moths, then darted around to catch them, and licked their lips after eating. We could see them breathing, and occasionally the big one would chase the little one off his patch. It was a bit like watching the cricket: a slow, steady build-up of tension then BANG! All the action in a moment. Warwick called this a geckotrot, like a foxtrot (slow, slow, quick, quick...)! Well, we had no TV, so we named this Gecko TV.

02 June 2005 03/06/05 Next 01/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Slightly cloudy, another lovely inside day. I could get used to this lengthy holiday idea! It's nice to have no pressure to see everything in a few days. We took a late afternoon walk, turning right from the bottom of our road this time, and after a wee while on the main road found access to the golden beach. It was almost deserted, and the size of the surf and the lovely, clear lagoon impressed us both once more. It was very pretty, near high tide, with lots of shells and pieces of coral washed up along the high water mark. And then one or two of them stood up and started walking and rolling along! These were little hermit crabs, and once we had seen one we spotted hundreds of them! Most of them were hiding in cracks in the large black rocks, in all sorts of different shells, a lovely range of colours and shapes and textures all moving about on tiny legs. A friendly dog followed us along for a while - there are lots of dogs here, and I don't think we have seen a single leash. Another dog was swimming a way out in the lagoon, following a canoe of six people. On the walk home, the purples and blues in the sky were beautiful as we looked back on the lagoon and the two islands we were closest to. We wandered past a rugby club where training was going on - some pretty good goal-kicking! There were pretty painted graves beside the club; there are some cemeteries here, but it is quite common to see people buried in gardens all around the island. By the time we got home, the sea was pink, reflecting the colour of the clouds in the blue sky. We had three geckos on Gecko TV tonight. We had bought matches for our gas stove, but they were not only difficult to use, they were downright dangerous. As often as not, when the head did finally light, it would separate from the rest of the match and fly onto the bench. Eeeks!

03 June 2005 04/06/05 Next 02/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

We hired a bike this morning, a Suzuki GN125. It quickly became known to Warwick as "the contraption", or "the squeakbucket". We relaxed indoors for lunch, then headed into Avarua on the bike - you can see so much more from a bike than from the bus, especially more of the rugged volcanic mountains to one side and the lovely lagoon to the left. Sigh! Top speed limit was 60kph on the open road. We had no helmets, which was kind of interesting... it meant we could talk as we rode (we often saw people riding two abreast, chatting), and it also meant my glasses got extremely dirty indeed! Also my ears started to hurt at 60kph :-/ Rarotonga feels like lovely old-fashioned rural New Zealand, with all the kids barefoot, and people riding on the backs of utes. We went to the library but didn't have the cash on hand to join, so we headed on to the supermarket. Because we were on the bike and hadn't thought to bring a backpack, Warwick introduced me to the "poor man's backpack" he knew from his cycling days... an arm through each of the holes in the supermarket carrier bag!

04 June 2005 05/06/05 Next 03/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Avarua AGAIN!!! This time for the Punanga Nui market. What a cool place! It sounded and smelled like a carnival. There were island guitars and harmonies playing out over speakers, and everything from clothing to jewellery to food and fresh veggies for sale. We got a supply of veggies for the week, including a large bunch of very fragrant basil and some lovely-looking silverbeet. Warwick bought a large slab of chocolate cake, and then a tour of town on a large Harley Davidson touring bike. The owner of the bike, Brendan, had put 7000 kilometres on the bike since he had it - a thousand of those in the first two weeks! And Rarotonga is only 32 kilometres round! That means he must ridden at two or three times around the island every day for the first fortnight! We decided to stop in at an internet cafe briefly, although while we have been here we've enjoyed having no phones, email, internet, TV or newspapers. It was nice to find out that our lovely vagabond cat Misty had turned up at home and sweet-talked dad into feeding him. I practised a bit on the motorbike when we got home, then we rode to Ngatangiia. Ngatangiia (or Avana) Harbour is where the canoes left for New Zealand at the time of the Great Migration. The seven canoes that completed the trip are commemorated here by a circle of rocks. We photographed a couple of the impressive white CICC churches on the way up to Avarua, where we parked close to the end of the runway and joined a small group of people who were waiting for the next flight to land. The plane appeared ahead of us and grew larger and larger and louder and louder, until it was so close overhead you felt you could reach up and touch it! What a buzz! We had some of our yummy new silverbeet for dinner, it was firmer and fresher and more flavourful than any I have ever tasted.

05 June 2005 06/06/05 Next 04/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

We went to the Ebanezera CICC church at Ngatangiia this morning. The regular congregation was dressed in white, and the women wore rito hats, woven from coconut fibre. There was a bilingual communion service, with a mix of traditional church hymns, modern choruses, and Cook Islands songs. The singing of the Cook Islands songs, without instruments, was out of this world! Sung in many parts, with real passion and strength. We were invited to lunch afterwards, so we went thinking we'd meet some of the local people, but there were only tourists there! We had hoped to go back to the airport this afternoon to see the next flight come in, but the rain kept us indoors and when we finally got out we had missed the landing time. We had a lovely ride around the island anyway, and came home to read and chat all evening. It's lovely being together so much :-)

06 June 2005 07/06/05 Next 05/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

After some shopping in Avarua and sitting about reading for ages, we went out and hired a double kayak, $10 for an hour. We went straight out towards the reef, and the water was shallow and clear the whole way out. We saw spiny sea-eggs, different corals, sea cucumbers, the odd fish, not a lot of colour but lots of different textures. The surf was HUGE! I can't say it enough. I wonder how high the waves are. Very impressive. When it got too shallow we turned back towards the wee volcanic island on our right. The water was glassy and the sky wide and blue, the sun so warm... bliss! Warwick wanted to pull up on the beach like Robinson Crusoe, but there were heaps of sea cucumbers below us and we didn't want to wreck their days no matter whether or not they can regrow, so we turned back to shore. I jumped out and watched a windsurfing lesson, while Warwick went out to the sandy island. It was a lovely, warm, quiet evening out on the lagoon. In a pile of magazines at home, I found an Observer magazine, only a couple of months old. Ah, however much I get hassled for it in NZ, I miss the UK. And we both miss our Sunday morning routine of taking a couple of hours to read the Observer.

07 June 2005 08/06/05 Next 06/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

A sunny, windy day. We took a lovely walk down around the lagoon to photograph our favourite spots. Blue, blue, lots of blues in the seas, hermit crabs, lots of people out and about, sunshine, lovely being in each other's company. Mmmm.... yummy silverbeet omelette for lunch. We rode to Wigmore's Waterfall then took the back road around towards Avarua. There seemed to be more real life along the back road: agriculture, locals about, not too touristy, very lush, beautiful. We spotted a sign for "Hilltop Paradise, 3 mins drive" - and what a drive! I have no idea of the gradient of the hill, but our front wheel did come off the road at one point! The place itself was closed but the view from the top was fantastic. We carried on, and took a wrong turn that led us to the hospital. I had read of an easy five-minute walk you could do from here so we did that, climbing to the top of the hill for some more lovely views all around town, the airport and of course the open sea. We filled up our thirsty, hard-working bike, stopped in town for water, then found the start of the cross-island trek. This trail would lead us to the solitary rock in the mountains known as the Needle. We walked in along the road, through a grassy clearing, then into low, tangled bush. We scrambled over a couple of big logs then got to the large mesh of tree roots: we were to scramble up, up, up over these for 45 minutes. It was so steep! I nearly put my hand on one very startled gecko, he blended in so well to the roots. Strangely, we spotted three roosters up high here in the middle of nowhere. There's no escaping them! We had begun our trek at 4pm, the absolute latest we could have started out to get back before losing the light. We finally reached the Needle, having had some tantalising glimpses of it through the trees for some time. It was beautiful, and again, the views were stunning. Warwick carried on up around the rock itself via a path with a chain to hang onto above sheer drops. I was not confident with that so I stayed put and watched the view over the ocean and the changing light and shadows across the hills. It was so hard waiting there for Warwick to come down safely! I was so glad when he was safely past the sheer drop! The way down was much quicker, although my quads felt like jelly, and we were walking out as the light began to fade. We rode through Avarua in the dark, checking for the huge ship that we'd seen there earlier but it was gone. The sunset over the ocean was bright orange, and Warwick sang and danced on the front of the bike all the way home :-) We were both buzzed and tired - what a lovely, exhausting day! A big pasta meal, showers and sleep.

08 June 2005 08/06/05 Next 07/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Sunrise was beautiful today! We took the back road the other direction today, towards the Avana stream walkway. We missed that turnoff somehow, but found the Turangi walkway instead. This was lovely, lush, and full of mozzies. The mozzies at the Needle had buzzed around us, seemingly enjoying the fumes of our insect repellent. Here they seemed to regard it as a tasty sauce! It felt very remote as we walked up to the deep, clear water catchment. Back along the back road we stopped briefly at Arai Te Tonga marae, then into Avarua where we got lost somehow in the back streets! We got to the main road and, with some shared guilt, went to the internet cafe. We had thought we would only check the internet once, but there is so much news happening that we know we're missing! Such as: the first Lions games, the naming of the Maori squad to play the Lions, Lomu's comeback at Martin Johnson's testimonial match, the London 7s, and the announcement of the shakeup of the NPC divisions. Although that was all that seemed to be happening in the world. We went home via the back roads again (a snappy wee bull terrier in Avarua wanted my ankles! After all the warnings we'd received about dogs chasing bikes here, we had had no incident until today). We might be the last guests at Muri Vista to actually have a vista... there is a house going up with remarkable speed directly in front of us. The construction hasn't bothered us at all, but what was a brick outline on the earth when we first arrived now has poles extending upwards almost to the horizon. We rode to the Avana stream walk, but the many river crossings became more and more difficult (not deep or swift, just slippery and hard to do without getting cold and wet above the ankles or possibly falling in completely). I gave up at the fifth crossing. It was a lovely walk as it had been at Turangi earlier, rich with insects, loud and chirruping, and beautiful moths. And of course, mozzies! Warwick made us yummy kumara for dinner :-)

08 June 2005 09/06/05 Next 08/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Another entry, just to record some of my observations and things we have learnt about the Cook Islands. The Cook Islands have a total of about 241 km² spread over about 2 million km² of ocean! We have learnt some things about the other islands, and they look beautiful from the photos, but they are far too expensive for us to visit this time around. Suwarrow is one island that has captured my heart. It is a bird sanctuary that is inhabited by four people only (a caretaker and his family) for part of the year. It is also the original treasure island of the south seas... $15,000 in gold coins dating from the mid-1700s was dug up here in the 19th century. In 1876 Spanish coins from the 1600s were found here. Around this time, other signs of European visits were also found, including artefacts, skeletons, and evidence of habitation. These may have been from shipwrecked Spaniards, or perhaps the English crew of the lost cutter from the ship Pandora, which was sent in 1791 to find the mutineers from the Bounty. Cool! The island of Mauke has the grave of Kea, who watched her husband Paikea blown out to sea while he was out fishing. When she saw the storm approaching she called to him from the cliff where she stood, but he didn't hear her. She believed he had died, and cried until she died of grief on the spot, and was buried there. He hadn't died, but had ended up on Mangaia, and in a roundabout way reached Rarotonga where he departed for New Zealand. He is the ancestor of the community at Whangaroa, where there is a carving of him atop a whale on the marae there. This community was made famous in the film Whale Rider. Kea, of course, remains in her grave on the clifftop at Mauke. Finally, I was taken with the old name of the back road, Te Ara Nui O Toi. This means "the great road of Toi", but noone knows any longer who exactly Toi was! The road is now called the backroad or Ara Metua ("ancient road").

09 June 2005 10/06/05 Next 08/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Today was our last day at Muri Vista, so we cleaned up, packed, said goodbye to our friendly goats, and headed to the road. Warwick took his pack on his back on the bike, and I caught the bus with mine. We checked in at Rarotongan Backpackers, where we had our own wee bungalow with a peaceful balcony on the back road. It is a really nice set-up there, including an enticing-looking pool. We went out for groceries, but we were very tired, the winds were high and the water was too choppy for enjoyable snorkelling, so we continued the spirit of our lazy holiday by lazing around the hostel. The wee puppy we had met on our first visit here had come from down the road, where he lived with some playful, friendly kids. They all greeted us as we walked back towards the hostel. Warwick played table tennis with a boy there, while I picked up The God Boy, a novel by Ian Cross that was always a prescribed school text but which my classes had never studied. A nice afternoon, like our first lazy days on Rarotonga. There were heaps of geckos that night! One came in our wee skylight, he would only have been a couple of inches long, and one larger one tried to come in the door when we opened it. Later we noticed a wee one on the outside of the glass panel in the door, he would have been only just over an inch long.

10 June 2005 12/06/05 Next 09/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Brrrrr! It was a cold night! No mozzie bites though :-) The little gecko in the skylight chirruped a bit. Warwick felt like snorkelling but it was still a bit windy for me to want to swim, so I took a magazine to the beach and he got in and out of the water depending on the strength of the sun and the visibility. He said he saw lots of fish out there... he had forgotten his towel however, so it was a wet ride home for me on the back of the bike! Warwick returned the bike in the afternoon while I packed. I had really enjoyed Rarotonga, but was also starting to feel ready to head home. We had an early night in preparation for our 3am start in the morning!

12 June 2005 18/06/05 Next 10/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

The 11th of June lasted only a few hours for us - we were up at 3am, checked in, then flew four hours to New Zealand where it was already the 12th. However early I ever get up for anything, there are always people who have been up for longer. The airport was a hive of activity - of course, so many people have to work! Even the singer who welcomed us when we arrived was back to serenade us as we boarded the plane about 4am. We had not been given a choice of flight times when we booked, and we were a bit disgruntled to learn that there were two later flights to Auckland that day. Why did WE have to get up so early?! The pilot told us that there was fog at Auckland airport and that he'd keep us updated about it. As it happened, we landed in a light fog that got denser through the morning. The next flights from Rarotonga were diverted to Wellington, so we ended up counting our blessings! Jenni and Derek met us and took us home. It was icy cold and looked like England in January! Low fog that was dense enough the wet the letters in our mailbox! I got my exam results - yay, I passed! I went into work for a short time, to reacquaint myself with it before my first day in the morning - a 5am start on my own - eeks!

18 June 2005 24/06/05 Next 12/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

My first few days at work this week, and Warwick's last few days of holiday before his next contract. It's nice being home together. The days pass in a blur of fun, productivity and rugby. (And, since we've bought our own set - gee, that was quick! - the odd game of Settlers with friends).

24 June 2005 25/06/05 Next 18/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Boy, we've been busy! Lovely visits with and from Fergus, Jonathan, Matt and Julia, Evan, and Helen this week, and Martin, Heather, Ruth and Steve coming next week. Great stuff. And: wahoo! I just got back from two days of First Aid training with St John! Wahoo! I can help everyone out now with rescue breathing and CPR (among other things) if needed :-) I really, really, really cannot recommend the course highly enough. And it feels great to have finally done something I had intended to do for a very long time.

25 June 2005 16/07/05 Next 24/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Jen and Derek were married this month, in a beautiful, sunny, outdoor ceremony, half an hour after rain, lightning and a tornado went through the venue! Just before Jen arrived the clouds rolled away and beautiful sun shone down on us all. It was a lovely ceremony and a great evening, one of those occasions that feels right in every way. It had been a bad day for weather, and as we drove to the wedding we could see dimly through the pouring rain that a motorcyclist was stopped hard up against the concrete median barrier on the southern motorway. We put on our hazards and slowed down beside him; he had run out of petrol and could do nothing but sit there in the heavy rain as cars roared by. Luckily we were just ahead of an off-ramp so we drove slowly left across the lanes to the exit, shielding him as he walked his bike across the motorway in front of us. Phew! Auckland was invaded by Lions supporters in June, with a disproportionate number of campervans on the motorways... the rugby was not all it could have been but the sense of occasion was nice.

16 July 2005 07/08/05 Next 25/06/05 Previous Back to top Home

Warwick ran the 10K race at Kaipara Flats today, a lovely, rural course with a small field of runners. The town hall there took me right back to childhood, with its old wooden flooring and stage, and trestle tables laden with cakes and loaves like nan used to bake. It was a cool, grey morning and reminded me of my first 10K race (walking) with Loughton Athletic Club in Essex. We love Kaipara Flats. We love Kaipara everything.

07 August 2005 10/09/05 Next 16/07/05 Previous Back to top Home

Home, home, home... :-) It's been great to get down to Morrinsville this year, and we were able to get there two weekends in row before mum and grandad left for Spain. We played Canasta and Settlers, ate well, caught up with mum, dad, Clem, Nik and Garry, and also spent time with our mad animals, including our poor dog Herbie, who was in pain with spondylosis deformans. (Poor lovely dog, we had to put him down on August 10). Both weekends we came back to Auckland via Rachel's in Pukekohe, where she laid on two fabulous dinners for us. YUM!

10 September 2005 15/09/05 Next 07/08/05 Previous Back to top Home

Hooray! Yahoo! Cartwheels and somersaults and song! I have just finished what I hope is my last exam for a while. YES! Boy it feels good to have that over with. More study in November to qualify as a Personal Trainer, but until then I have WEEKENDS again!

15 September 2005 16/09/05 Next 10/09/05 Previous Back to top Home

We celebrated Warwick's birthday on the 13th with banana cake and our favourite home-cooked meal: hash browns piled with spinach, tomatoes, onions, mushrooms and fried eggs. Mmmmmm! Just as well we are both back training at the moment. Warwick's half-marathon preparation is particularly impressive, and he no longer forgets to eat lunch on the weekends! We are currently watching The Long Way Round, a series following the adventures of Ewan McGregor and Charlie Boorman as they motorcycle across Europe and Asia to New York. Inspiring! The DVD managed to find its way to Warwick for his birthday... Mark and Wendy came to visit and I became a very willing tourist alongside them for a day. We began the day walking over Mt Wellington with Warwick, then drove into town when Warwick left for work. Auckland-bashing is a popular New Zealand pastime, and I used to partake keenly. But no longer! For all its traffic and congestion, Auckland truly is a beautiful city. Today we introduced it to Wendy, with its beautiful volcanic cones and harbours, its vibrant and colourful main street, and its notoriously changeable weather. We wandered through Uni (where there were noisy shows of support for Helen Clark who was speaking there - we didn't see her though) and AUT, then headed up to the Sky Tower despite the intermittent showers. At times up there we couldn't see a thing for the rain, then the sun came out and the view (and the rainbows!) were gorgeous. We walked and walked and talked and talked, ending up at the ferry terminal before heading home. I love holidays!

16 September 2005 22/09/05 Next 15/09/05 Previous Back to top Home

This week, Nik and I started running together as part of our build-up to the half-marathon later... and it's been great. It is so much easier to get out and run if someone else is waiting for you, especially somone who is as good company as my sister! On Monday we ran around and about Michaels Ave Reserve, and today we met at Cornwall Park. Cornwall Park is so big and so beautiful! We ran around the base of the cone a couple of times, spotting groups of colourful bantams among the flowers, then walked past spring lambs up to the obelisk and ran down again. We did the obelisk bit in very heavy, cold, pouring rain! Eeeks! It was good fun, and with our walking and running altogether we were on our feet for an hour and 12 minutes. Warwick and I have been going along to a Te Reo Maaori course at Edgewater College recently. It is a seven-week introduction to the language, offered for free, and it's been great! Next Monday night is our last night, when we are doing mihi and waiata at the local marae there, so we have a bit of study to do this weekend...

22 September 2005 18/10/05 Next 16/09/05 Previous Back to top Home

Well! Things that have happened lately... ... passing my Fitness Assessment and Counselling exam (yeeha!)... ... watching NPC rugby at Eden Park and North Harbour Stadium - just rolling up to the gates and buying tickets on the night if the game takes our fancy. (And once, while standing in the queue for tickets at Eden Park, being given a pair free by people who had spare and liked our Waikato jerseys...!) ... our early spring with hot, sunny days - we have since plunged back into icy winter with extraordinary snowfalls around the country... ... enjoying our introductory Te Reo Maaori course at Edgewater College, Pakuranga. It's been really interesting, and we five students finished the course with mihi and waiata on the local marae... ... voting in our closest ever MMP general election. We went out to dinner with Ron, Jen, Derek and some friends, and went round to Ron's to watch the votes come in. A light plane was threatening to crash into the Sky Tower and we saw the choppers hovering around the tower for whatever reason (it is hard to think what they could have done apart from perhaps initimidate the plane pilot), then headed past Kohimarama Beach where the plane eventually crashed as it was not a great detour from our way home... ... running with Nik. It's great! We went hard out doing the beep test in Michaels Ave Park yesterday. Complete madness and a great giggle! Today she and Garry and I ran/walked around Western Springs park, dodging mean geese, cooing over cute cygnets, singing the praises of pukeko and even chatting to the elephants for a while. They were so cute! We watched one as he stepped silently backwards, gracefully pointing his toes, until he got to just the right position to scratch against a tree... ... THEN... we got back to the car to find it had been broken into! And my shoved-out-of-sight handbag including wallet and mobile phone were gone! Oh no! Apart from being effective bodyguards against mean hissing geese, Nik and Garry are a fabulous support crew if your car ever gets broken into. They searched rubbish bins in case the bag had been dumped, and hailed a handy cop who happened along, but all to no avail. So I filed our FOURTH police report since coming home from the big scary old wide world to lovely little New Zilind :-(

18 October 2005 24/10/05 Next 22/09/05 Previous Back to top Home

I'm tired. Boy am I tired. Working, running, trying to keep things in balance. Life's good - but I need a holiday! That will come in a couple of months. In the meantime... Nik and I have both improved on our beep tests, and I am certainly feeling fitter. I ran well for 40 minutes recently, feeling like I was putting my all into it the whole time. And then, the first of our two big events... ... the Morrinsville half marathon and 10K! Dad walked the 10K, I ran it with Clayton (60 mins non-stop, a PB for me), Nik walked the half marathon and Clem and Warwick ran it. It was Warwick's first ever half marathon and he did great! It was a well-run and friendly event, and I can't wait to run the half this time next year. It was great being home, it was gorgeous and sunny and green and lush and overgrown. The morning drive down SH27 was beautiful, and as was the evening drive back to Auckland. I felt so relaxed and happy - the weekend was far too short! In less than two weeks we run over the Auckland Harbour Bridge... I'm not all that well-prepared but I'll give it a go :-/ Just now the grapefruit blossom in our backyard smells divine, and a few of the fruits are ready for eating. It's a hot, sunny day and summer is in the air :-)

24 October 2005 30/10/05 Next 18/10/05 Previous Back to top Home

On Friday dad, Nik and I met mum and grandad at the airport. They arrived from Italy looking very well despite the long haul flight! That evening, Warwick and I went out to see the Feelers in concert at the St James Theatre. The last time I had been there at all was to a movie, back when it was still a cinema, coincidentally with Warwick, about 10 years ago. The St James is a smaller venue than I remembered, and they have kept all the old-style decoration and stained glass inside. The show was great, a wide selection of songs from their back catalogue with not an unfamiliar tune among them. I worked on Saturday morning, and Warwick worked on Sunday morning, so it hasn't quite felt like a long weekend to us. I ran for 76 minutes on Sunday morning, which made me very tired and very happy. That afternoon Warwick and I went out to drive the first 13km of the half marathon course - so many hills! What have we let ourselves in for?! That and the fact that I was tired after 76 minutes this morning have confirmed to me that I should not attempt to run the full distance. I will walk the initial uphills I think, so that I can enjoy as much of the run as I can and finish not too late. While we were exploring the course, we also detoured through serene Bayswater and took a walk under the Harbour Bridge at Northcote Point - both great places from which to view the city. Bayswater was beautifully quiet in the sunshine, yet we felt incredibly close to the city. Sunday night brought us a whole lot of noise from Michael's Ave Reserve, waking us up at 3am. We couldn't sleep so we got up to watch the exciting last few overs of NZ's first ODI with South Africa - we lost by 2 wickets. I love cricket. How can I end up being paid to watch it...? That would be my dream job. Watching cricket... sigh... grin :-)

30 October 2005 04/12/05 Next 24/10/05 Previous Back to top Home

At last! The Auckland half marathon with its run over the harbour bridge! Soooo exciting and just a little scary... the pressure was off a bit because I had already decided not to run the whole thing non-stop, but Warwick and I had been struggling against pesky colds all week and not feeling the best. We were both feeling a bit better by Saturday morning but on Saturday night, when we needed our sleep, our local noisemongers were again out in force at the park across the road... this time with fireworks, and this time until well after 2:30am. Aaaagh! So it was a slow start in the morning, as we attempted to be ready for 5:30am when mum, dad and Clem were to pick us up. We missed this deadline by just a few minutes (sorry to our gracious and patient family waiting in the car), picked up Nik, Garry and Andy from Kingsland, then headed across to the start at Devonport. Toilet queues meant we missed the gun at 6:30, and when I started out I was largely alone, just a few other stragglers with me. It was nice actually, more like a rural race than the enormous event that this is, although I was feeling pretty wretched and even considered pulling out within the first couple of kilometers. So I and the tail-enders straggled and plodded and pounded around Devonport, and up and down hills around Narrowneck Beach, when I finally began to feel a little better, to pick up the pace and to catch up with larger bunches of walkers. I found Nik and Garry (who were walking the course) on Lake Road closer to Takapuna, where they performed elegant pirouettes for my disposable camera. Then I zoomed on, feeling pretty good, towards Anzac Street then over the motorway at Northcote Road. By Northcote I was feeling great! I was feeling wonderful! I was feeling fabulous! I kept to my plan of walking the tops of the hills, but ran all the downhills and flats and the gentler uphills. It worked. Almost exactly on 1 hour 30 mins, and before I really realised it, I was at the Stafford Road off-ramp - our entrance to the bridge. What fun! Although I was feeling good, I had given up on any kind of time goal, so I nipped about the bridge taking photographs and enjoying just being there. The best bits for me were the view of Watchman's Island and looking up through the large metal structure of the bridge itself. It took me exactly 15 minutes to get across so I guess I didn't drop my pace too much. From there we wound our way down around Curran Avenue, along the marina, and finally towards home. Dad, Warwick and Clem were waiting on Halsey Street and were a very encouraging cheering squad indeed. I was able to pick up the pace a little, knowing there were only a few hundred metres left, then as I rounded the corner into the chute and looked at my watch, I realised that I could get in in 2 hours 20 minutes if I sprinted for the last 15 seconds. So I RAN! And I got there, 2:20:00, dead on. Yay! When we had all finally got in and found each other, we went to our respective homes to shower, and while Mum, dad and Clem caught up with Nik for lunch, I headed out to my course (yes, more study for me). I was buzzing all afternoon, even as the soreness began to creep in, even later as exhaustion hit me. Warwick also recovered really well, and that night we were back online, looking for another race to run :-)

04 December 2005 30/12/05 Next 30/10/05 Previous Back to top Home

Hmmmm.. it looks like nothing happened in November... truth is, all my weekends were taken up with study. And Warwick managed his third (!) half-marathon in six weeks. The small but well-run ADRA event was also his third-ever half-marathon! December began with exhausting hot weather and a very busy and social weekend... Earlier in the week, after a few weeks' deliberation, we finally snapped and bought tickets to the John Fogerty concert at the Civic on Friday night. This was my Christmas present from Warwick - yay! John Fogerty was the essence of Creedence Clearwater Revival, and he played all his great tunes from that time and since. By and large it was a real party atmosphere, with a few ballads thrown in. Fantastic! There was some great guitar - in fact, John Fogerty changed guitars between almost every song. The man is 60 and he bounced around the stage like a teenager! Actually, the audience was full of old rockers, we were among the youngest there I think :-) The last time I had been to the Civic must have been 10-12 years ago. I was pleased to see, after all the development of that block, that they had left the theatre as it had been, with its starry ceiling and skyline of exotic buildings around the edge. On Saturday morning we were up and away to BMW in Mt Wellington, where we met with 418 other motorcycles for the Salvation Army Christmas Toy Run. What fun! We were escorted onto the motorway by police, in a single lane at first, and then we were able to spread out and take over the whole motorway. It felt great, it sounded great, and it looked great. Kids and grown-ups alike waved to us from overbridges as we rode by. (Although I don't suppose everyone was charmed... we saw police having to explain to people on the on-ramps why they were not allowed onto the motorway for a bit...) We came off the motorway at Wellesley St, and headed down to Queen St via the bus lane, where the lights were all held for us. There were lots of smiles for us along Queen St as well, and all too soon we were parked at Britomart where our soft toys were donated and the Salvation Army Band was playing Christmas carols. Baking sunshine, outdoor carols, and a holiday atmosphere - Christmas is in the air! We didn't have time to miss a beat - from Britomart we headed over the bridge to the funeral of an elderly family friend of Warwick's family. It was a large, loving and at times very humorous memorial. We nipped home for lunch then raced out to Eden Park, where NZ was playing Australia at the cricket. We have a fistful of tickets to the cricket this summer, and this was to be the first of them. Well! We kept Aussie to 252 but our batting was rubbish, we were all out for 105 and at one stage we were 33/6! Warwick and I sat high on the terraces, above a very drunken crowd (who, with nothing at all to cheer and no recent Kiwi victories to shout about, resorted to chanting "Who lost the Ashes?") We were able to see all the evictions and disruption that made the newspapers later. Idiot behaviour and shocking security! The best thing about that evening was the 46th over, bowled by Cairns: 1 1 w 1lb . w Nice. Welcome back Mr Cairns!

30 December 2005 04/10/05 Previous Back to top Home

I am sitting relaxed with a beautiful ocean view as I write this; in fact, I am as relaxed as I have been all year. Warwick and I are at Matheson Bay, Rodney District, in a wee bach we have rented for a few days. Today is the day after our fourth wedding anniversary, and it is our second full day here. The evenings are long and light, the weather is sunny and warm, and the colours of the sea, the grass and the pohutukawa are deep and vibrant. It's wonderful to be on holiday. From here I can reflect on what has been an extraordinary year. It feels like we have been a bit settled this year - no European jaunts or long-haul international flights, no looking towards an end-point to our time in this country. I began 2005 as an education consultant; I am now a registered exercise consultant and qualified personal trainer. Fantastic! Despite early morning shifts regularly draining my afternoon energy, this career change has left me revitalised and happy. Warwick has had his first full year as a self-employed contractor, which he really enjoys. We have finally begun learning to play Canasta, with mum and dad as able teachers - it turns out to be an incredibly engaging game! And we have remained shy of church but joined a home group that meets fortnightly. This is a forum for meditation and discussion, and it suits us well. Since I last wrote, life has been a very busy and almost overwhelming mix of sad and happy events... Through December, Warwick and I made regular trips to Hamilton with Ron, Jen and Derek, to see Warwick's uncle Rex who had been admitted to Waikato Hospital in late November. After several weeks of up and down cardiac health, Rex's heart finally stopped beating in the early hours of December 22. He was a cheerful, energetic and loving person, and his sudden loss is still somewhat hard to believe. So our Christmas was a Christmas of bereavement and togetherness: we held a funeral for Rex on Christmas Eve and spent Christmas Day in Tauranga and Hamilton with both of our families. In and around these events, life and work kept on keeping on. On December 12, we went to see Handel's Messiah at the Auckland Town Hall. This is something I have always meant to see, every Christmas, like the temple lights in Hamilton. And like the temple lights in Hamilton, every year I have missed it. Until 2005: I was organised enough to get tickets for mum, Warwick and I. The show was long but the singing was beautiful and the hallelujah chorus was a real highlight. You never know, I might see the temple lights next year. One day in December, I was driving out of a carpark with Warwick behind me on his motorbike. Down to my last few coins and unsure whether or not they would make the $5 I needed, I got to the booth to pay. I was counting coins as I handed the attendant my ticket, and I dropped at least one gold coin under my carseat, beyond my reach. "Do you take card payments?" I asked. "Yes," he replied with a big smile, "but the woman in front of you has paid for your parking." "Wow, really? That's so nice!" "Yes," he said, "and the motorbike behind you parks for free anyway." "Wahoo! That's my husband!" So we got entirely free parking there that day, due to the commonsense "bikes-park-for-free" policy and the Random Act of Kindness of a stranger - if you have ever paid for the parking of someone behind you, this is a big thanks from me :-) We went to the Classic Comedy Club for my work Christmas party, where we saw the incredibly clever "Boy With Tape On Mouth". This act was in the tradition of European mime, with some sound effects but no words at all. The comedian had audience members perform hilarious tasks on stage - incredibly clever given that all communication was made through the eyes and through actions. With recurrent themes, complex twists, and an atmospheric soundtrack that reminded me of Yann Tiersen's music for the French films Delicatessen and Amélie, this guy stole the show for me. We went with Mike to The Feelers, who were supported by Ewan Gilmour (a fantastic idea to have a comedian to warm up the crowd; and great music but by increasingly drunk and scattered performers) then a week later to Jimmy Barnes at Mangawhai Tavern (a high-energy show by a polished professional with an amazing voice, although his back catalogue is so great that a few memorable hits had to be left off the playlist). And in Warkworth, we bumped into friends who also turn out to be cousins of Mike, who was with us for the Jimmy Barnes concert. A happy coincidence :-) After all that, I am very glad to be at a quiet bach in beautiful Matheson Bay with my lovely husband. This is the bay where Warwick holidayed regularly as a child with his family, so I'm very pleased to get to know it. We have just returned from a walk to the beach, where the pohutukawa is rich and red, and the sunlight is turning gold as the evening progresses. We have been playing records - there is a turntable here and a good collection of 80s vinyl! It's strange to place and remove the needle, and I had forgotten you could flip the record over for side 2! I even own three records myself so there's no excuse. This is definitely the life we came home for: bach holidays, pohutukawa, summer Christmases, Australasian music, and family, family, family. It's been quite a year.