School holidays, Ariel visits and a triathlon!!!

This post is from ages ago but it never got published because I got caught up in school and stuff. This is from waaaayyyyy back in April. April 14-22 to be precise

     I thought that I would make my life really easy (not) so while working extra on school holidays and having Ariel (one of my best friends) visit, I decided to throw in a spring triathlon. The school holidays were busy. It was my school holiday from uni as well as the kids school holiday from their school.

Cheese tasting on our wine tour

   On the second Tuesday in the school holidays Jack, Kaiya and I went to get Ariel from the air port. I was super super super excited to see her. She stayed the night at our place. Tanya and I moved my hours around a bit so that I could spend more time with her. 

    On Wednesday we took the kids to an indoor play ground. Her old host family met us there. Then she hung out with them for a while (boo to sharing my best friend!).

     One of the days she was here (Thursday I think) we went on a wine tour with NZWinePro. The business owner was our tour guide. His name is John. He is an extremely chatty and slightly eccentric man. Ariel and I can talk A LOT and some how or another he managed to out talk us by himself. It was almost unheard of. We started off in the city and he took us north to Matakana. We went to Phoui artisan cheese makers. We got to taste all of the cheese. I brought some back for a party were were having the next night at the house. John has a fridge that runs off the battery in his car which was pretty cool. 

      Next we went to the Mahurangi River winery. The view from the restaurant/tasting room was amazing. I was so impressed by how lovely it looked. The owner there did our wine tasting. John hadn't brought clients to this venue for a while because of the owner but thought he could give it another go. The owner/wine maker's name is Gary. He and his partner bought it and the dairy farm next door and run both. Gary is a bit socially awkward. I didn't think his wine was especially good either. He had the sweetest pinkest rose I have ever tasted. It looked very similar to cough syrup and tasted about the same. It did get better as we went through the list though and the view was well worth the drive.

Lovely view from the first vineyard

    Next we went to Plume. I would totally go back there. The wine was awesome and the food was AMAZING. We had lunch there. The chef brought our food out and he looked so much like my dad. They also have Sebastian the hunky German waiter that Ariel and I were both quite taken with. I really liked Plume. Next time people come visit me I will definitely take them there.

     We were supposed to go to another place near Matakanabut because of the season lots of the tasting rooms were closed. We did have a lovely drive around for a while before deciding to go to a tasting room in Ponsonby instead. On the way back to the city we stopped at OBO ice cream. 

    We went to Foxes Island tasting room in Ponsonby. It had quite good wine. After our tasting we decided to get food from the Argentinian BBQ place in Ponsonby Central. It is a tiny little restaurant so we had to wait which was fine cause we wandered up and down Ponsonby road looking in shop windows. Nothing was open because it was too late but it was fun. They do really really really good meats with a special sauce and salad. Ariel got chicken and I got steak. Ariel always gets the guys to teach us Spanish which is fun. After dinner we went to the Little Easy. I really like the Little Easy and almost always go there with Ariel. We shockingly got another glass of wine while we decided what we wanted to do with our night. Ariel said she didn’t want to go dancing so we made it to city center and as we were waiting ot get onto the bus she changed her mind so we went to Everybody’s to dance. However it was like 8pm which is a bit too early for dancing. So we sat and chatted and waited and waited but no one was dancing. After a bit we thought we would try somewhere else so we went to Snap Dragon. Snap Dragon is usually quite busy. They tend to have DJ’s Thursday through Sunday and stuff but the Thursday we were there nothing. We asked the bartender to make us margaritas which he really struggled to do. He was new and very nervous. We hung out at Snap Dragon until 11 and it was dead so we decided to go home. We got to the bus stop and then realised we had left our cheese in the Snap Dragon fridge so had to trek back to get it and then go and get on the bus. There was lots of walking and wine but a sever lack of dancing.

Lunch at Plume

    We decided to go out dancing on Friday night to compensate for our lack of dancing on Thursday night. We were having a party at the house with a bunch of the other school moms. Ariel had spent most of the day with her old family. I had a great time hanging out at the house and drinking wine (it was that type of weekend) with the school moms. Ariel showed up and we went to my friend Charlotte’s house to meet up with everyone that was going out. Bevan came over for a bit to meet Ariel but couldn’t stay cause of work (BOOOO). We went dancing in Ponsonby. We started at the Little Easy and went to a few different places. There was lots of dancing and I once again choose my shoes poorly. I think I’m becoming an expert in dancing with ridiculous shoes on. 

      Saturday Ariel and I slept in and had a lazy day. She left around dinner to go to her host Dad’s 30th birthday party and I went home to baby sit/get ready for my triathlon/go to bed early!!!

     Sunday morning I had to get up around 4:30 to get in the car and down to the race with my friend Fiona. We were some of the very few people on the road and got pulled over for speeding. Luckily the officer was really nice and let us go with a warning. We got to the venue a bit before we needed to so we hung out in the car for ages before signing in and setting up our stuff. We could have gone later if we had registered the day before but it is 30 minutes away and it seemed like a waste of time to drive an hour for a five minute registration however I would have gotten an hour more sleep that way. 

A very valid attempt at dancing

     I was way more nervous for this triathlon than the Try-a-Tri that I did a few weeks earlier. The swim really freaked me out. The water was so so so cold and it was dark. I had done a tiny bit of ocean swimming from the house but the bay here is pretty shallow and I always went in the middle of the day. I didn’t realize that there was a slight drop off so as I was running into the water I went under cause it was suddenly deep and people were swimming over me. If the dark creepiness hadn’t already freaked me out having loads of people swim over me certainly did. I ended up doing back stroke which is neither fast nor effective but I stayed with Fiona and she helped steer me and I tried not to panic. The swim is definitely an area to be worked on.

      The bike didn't start out much better. I hopped on the bike and was clipping in when a guy crashed onto me. His pedals were tangled in my wheels. Luckily a race marshal was around and helped us get sorted before we got on our way. After that the bike was really good. I found a number of people that were going similar speeds to me. There were some people that were flying. I would hear them and all of a sudden a huge bunch would soar past me. It was a bit over whelming but not to bad. 

Fiona, Indie and I after the
triathalon

     I was most worried about the run because of my knee injury. I hadn't actually run 5 km in the training because my physio thought that it might be too much stress and I probably didn’t need to. Considering that I had only been running for six weeks (since my injury break) I did a pretty good run. I had to walk once cause my knee was getting sore but I had expected that and wasn’t bummed out by it. 

    Fiona had gotten ahead of me on the bike and met me near the finish line to run up to the finish with me. Tanya and the kids had also come to watch. I had seen Tanya when I was biking and running. I met them up with them after and the Sharps, Fiona and I went to get breakfast together.

    That evening Ariel, Bevan and I went to Sangria Sunday and one of our old favourite restaurants, Blunderbuss.  It’s not the same now that our regular staff aren’t there. It was fun thought. Ariel and Bevan were nice enough to listen to the entire play by play of the triathlon (in slightly more detail than you just read). 

     On Monday I had to work so Ariel and I hung out in the morning and then she went to hang out wit her old host family. Tuesday they too her to the air port. I am so glad that she was able to come back and visit. I have been really lucky to make such an amazing friend here. I hope we keep getting to meet up where ever our travels take us. 

Airforce Ball

     June 13th Bevan took me to the Junior Officers ball. It was fun but unfortunately right in the middle of exams so I didn't enjoy it as much as I could have.
     I didn't have an appropriate dress so I looked at some my friends had as well as ones Tanya had. There was a plethora of choices. I still ended up buying one off trade me which was perfect because it wasn't as fancy as some of the ones I had borrowed but was still fancier than anything I owned. It also happened to be one of my favorite colors. I dyed my hair a dark chestnut which looked lovely with my skin and the dress.

Bevan and I at the ball

     The theme was mascarade. Earlier in the day we went to find some masks. I got a ridiculously sparkly one that I ended up not wearing because it was tiny. It was in a packet so I didn't realize how small it was when I got it. He dropped me back at home so I could study and get ready...neither of which I did very well. I was supposed to be ready by five but ended up not even starting to get ready till about 4:45. By the time I was ready it was closer to 5:30. Turns out Bevan had very cleverly not needed to leave until 5:30 but told me 5 expecting that I would be late. He obviously knows me.

Before leaving the house in
my dress

     We went to base where he got changed. Then we went to the junior officers club. There were loads of people there. Some of the people were in really fancy dresses while others were in pretty casual dresses. They loaded everyone up onto buses and we went into the city to the Maritime Museum. There is a big even room above the museum that we were in.
     We we first got there they had a big brass band and a singer. When we walked in he was singing Old McDonald had a Farm... It was so weird. Not many people seemed to notice. The guy singing was really into it as well. I thought it was bizarre. After that though they got better. They played the song that my Grandma Chris' dancing flower pot used to play. Some people danced to the big band but most people were milling about and getting drinks and stuff. Bevan and I milled about and talked to people that he knows. It was fun to meet his friends.
     They brought out dinner but I didn't have any cause I ate at home. It looked pretty good though. It was roast meat with vegies and bread.
    After dinner the big band left and a DJ came on. Lots of people started dancing which was fun. I really liked dancing. Some people were insanely drunk cause of the open bar and were throwing their cups on the ground. It really foxed my brilliant plan to take off my insanely high heels when my feet got tired. I ended up having to wear the shoes all night. It wasn't as bad as I thought it would be though.
    It was a fun night. Lots of dancing and meeting new people. I'm really glad Bevan offered to take me.

Ed Sheeran

     Way back on April 11th I was lucky enough to go to the Ed Sheeran concert. I went with Rob, Tanya and their friend Rachel. Rob bought tickets ages ago. Way back before I knew if I was going to stay or not Rob got the tickets. He got one for me thinking I'd probably get a visa and if I didn't he has loads of friends who would have taken my ticket.
     The concert was at Vector Arena in the city. It's about the size of the Gonzaga basketball stadium. Maybe a little bigger. We were standing in front of the stage which was awesome cause we got to move around. When we got there at first the tallest man I've ever seen was right in front of us. We had to move around a bit to find a space where all of us could see. He ended up with a dead zone behind him. It was actually quite funny.
     Ed Sheeran came on stage and the crowd went wild. He was dressed super casually in a black top, jeans and bright red shoes. There were a bunch of different screens behind him that had up a variety of graphics mixed with images of him. He didn't have much on stage with him. Just two microphones, a loop pedal and his guitar. After his first song he stopped to say that he had gotten in the habit of loosing his voice a lot and he planned to do it again that night and he wanted us to loose our voices too.
      I really liked watching him us the loop pedal and make beats by hitting his guitar then looping it as a background. It is truly amazing the number of different noises he can create.  The way he layers it is really cool as well. He is excellent at getting the crowd involved and working with the crowd. He had the crowd sing lots of parts of his song. He had to adjust how he was singing so it would work with how we were singing. It shows what an amazing musician he is.
     One of my favorite things was these old ladies who were in front of us. They were probably in their 70's. They were having so much fun and dancing up a storm. I want to be like them when I'm older.
     During a number of songs everyone had their cell phones out, Rachel and Tanya were reminiscing about days when people used to use lighters. I informed them that there was an app for that. They thought it was absolutely hilarious. I even managed to download the zipo app so that they could appreciate the real, fakeness of my lighter. We got quite a few laught out of it.

I tried to take some photos but I wasn't close enough to get a good photo and I was busy singing and dancing so kind of forgot to document it till near the end.
 

Run the night

     I did a run with two friends called run the night. It was a 5km run in the evening at the Auckland domain. It was put on by Massy University and ZM. We got decked out in glow sticks, glow in the dark paint and glitter! All along the course were speakers and decorations. There was one area with disco balls and another that had arches with black lights. It was loads of fun. I really enjoyed getting to do a fun run.

Try-a-Tri

     About a month ago I did a try-a-Tri. It was a 100 meter swim, 10 km bike and 2 km run. I hadn't really trained for it. In fact I only registered the night before the race. I knew some other ladies who were doing it. They were all school moms. 

     Tanya and the kids came with me. We had to go to Maratia which is about an hour to the south east of the city. It took nearly an hour to drive there so we left the house at 630 in the morning. It made it into a pretty long day. 

     I really loved competing the tri. Tanya helped me set up transition and gave me lots of pointers. The swim was a bit stressful because there were so many people and we all swam over each other. I liked the bike bit. I was worried about having to clip and unclip from my pedals but it wasn't a problem at all. The run was tough because of my knee injury. My knee got sore when I was runnin so I had to take some walk breaks. I did the race in 43:34. I was third in my head group and 25th overall in the try-a-tri. 

Orewa Beach Sand Castle Competition

     Sunday Charlotte and I went to Orewa beach to have a relaxing day on the beach. They were having a sand castle competition. Most of the entries were just families that had made something together. I liked how they used sea weed and sea shells to enhance their designs. There was one professional group that was probably hired to make a really awesome castle. It was cool to see them making their castle. They used the same type of tools that sculptors would use on clay. I really enjoyed getting to watch them work.

This is one of my favorites. 

This is the professional one. 

Lantern Festival (Again?!?!)

     This is a really odd post for me to be writing. I remember writing about the lantern festival last year and having it be my most viewed post (I think it still is the most viewed). Going to the lantern festival was the first time that I really felt that I was here semi permanently. Doing things that I did last year again is weird because I never intended to stay here for a whole year much less multiple years. I had a big plan and now it's changed. I didn't realize quite how much it changed until I was walking to university orientation and they were setting up the lantern festival around me. It was an odd and some what emotional experience to say the least.
     Everyday as I went to orientation I had to walk through Albert Park where the festival was being set up. It was cool to see it set up all week. It takes and entire week to set up the whole thing. It was cool to see all the bits and pieces that go into making the lanterns.
     Friday night I went into town with two of my friends. We were going to meet another friend at the festival but ended up not being able to meet her. It was fun to wander around the park with my friends. Some of the lanterns were the same as last year but there were also some new ones.

This is from when they were setting
up

This is during the day while I was going to
campus. 

This is one of my favorite lanterns because it
is similar to my life. As soon as you turn your
back then the kids do silly things. 

I think it might be the year of the sheep.

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This is a duck herder. 

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This is the same one pictured above but lite

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Lindsey Stiriling Concert!!!!

     Lindsey Stiriling is a musician I've liked since university. She plays the violin along with techno style music. I'm not explaining it very well so I will post a few links to her you tube channel so you can see. I highly recommend watching a few videos because she dances while playing the violin which is pretty amazing.

    I had know she was coming for quite a while but hadn't been able to find anyone to go with. Mostly because no one I know had heard of her. One of my friends said I I was desperate she would go even if she wasn't very keen on the music. After R&V I asked one of the guys we met there if he knew who Lindsey Stiriling was and he did. I was pretty excited because he had heard of her. He ever agreed to go to the concert with me. 

     On the night of the concert Rob and Tanya we're going to the circus in town and were kind enough to take us Ito town with them. We started walking to find food and stopped by Johnny Barr's for pre-dinner snickers milkshakes. Then we went to Cajun Kitchen. Unfortunately the milk shake filled me up so much that I couldn't enjoy my jambalaya very much. Once we had eaten part of our dinner and felt enormously fat we rolled our way to a taxi that took us to the Power Station.
    It was really crowed and hot but we were able to find a spot where we could see that wasn't too hot. The crowd was an interesting mix of people. There were people dressed in steam punk, gamers, goth, hippish and more main stream dressed people. I love the her music attracts such a large variety of people.
     We got there around 830 and she came on at 9. The concert was awesome. She has insanely high energy. The whole concert she was bouncing around. She had crazy sparkly pants on which were super cool. About half way through she had a break and they played a video about her life. She played all of my favorite songs and of course played her Lord of the Rings rendition (cause it's New Zealand).
     She stopped every two or three songs to chat with the audience. You could tell that she was winded from dancing and playing. It was pretty cool. Her pianist and drummer would chime in as well. They had a fun bantering dynamic which was very entertaining. The first time she spoke I was shocked at how American she sounds. I know that I have lost some of my accent because people occasionally think I'm a Kiwi but I hadn't realized what a strong American accent sounded like until she started speaking.

A brief sample of Lindsey's music:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jvipPYFebWc

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=49tpIMDy9BE

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vxIOUJ7by6U

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dQiNVk_u0po

Matapuri and the Tutukaka Coast

    The day after I got back from Rhythm and Vines I drove up north too meet the Sharps and our neighbours (The Gumbley's) at the Gumbley's holiday house in Matapouri. Matapouri is on the east coast of the country a few hours north of here. It took me ages to get up there because there was tons of summer traffic. There is a toll tunnel on the way up which is only one lane compared to the duel carriage way prior to that. It was so so so slow getting through the tunnel. Once I got through it wasn't so bad though.

Map to Matapouri

    I was absolutely exhausted from the festival and spent the first two days in Matapouri not doing much. I pretty much lazed about, slept and hung out on the beach. It is a really lovely place to be. The Gumbleys were nice enough to take me out to the Poor Knights marine reserve. It was amazing what
    The next day Tanya went back to Auckland to work and Rob took the kids water skiing and tubing (called biscuting here) with the Gumbleys. I went on some of the flat walks in the area to see some of the views. It was a fun day. I got to see Whale Bay and the light house. It was nice. A bit lonely but beautiful views. Here is a link of the common hikes http://www.northlandnz.com/images/uploads/pdf/Tutukaka_Coast_Tracks__Walks.pdf. I did numbers three and four.
    The next day Tanya came back and we did some exploring with the kids. We found a taco truck that had great tacos. Rob went home because he had to work.
   The next day I went back to Auckland to have day off before the kids got home. It was nice to be out of Auckland and have some chill time fore a few days.

Poor Knights Marien Reserve

Poor Knights Marien Reserve

Whale Bay

View on the way back from Whale Bay

View from the headlands track. The panorama is odd because I didn't knwo how to work it. 

Pohotokawa tree. 

Rhythm and Vines Music Festival

     For New Years I went to Gisbourne with three girls for the BW Summer festival and Rhythm and Vines music festivals. We headed down on the 27th. It was about a six hour drive. When we got there we had to wander around a bit to find the camp site. We camped in the Churchill camp site that was really far away from everything else but it was the least crowded of the camp sites and it was the only R18. All the other were R17.

We set up our two tents and decided to sleep three of us in one tent and keep all of our stuff in the other. It proved to be very warm sleeping arrangements. 

    Within minutes of having our tents set up people were wandering over to say hello. Lots of people had been there the day before as well. There was a group of four guys near us that ha a gazebo, table and chairs. Due to the fact that we had none of those things friendship with them was ideal. All four of them are in the Air Force. They are really nice. Two other guys from Rotorua joined our group. They borrowed a tent from the Air Force boys.

     The first night there we went to the sound shell. It was just a few minutes walk from the camp site. I wanted  to go earlier than my friends so I headed off with one of the Air Force boys. It was lots of fun. At one point we caught up with the girls I came with and the other Air Force boys but I lost them in the crowd. The music was great. It was lots of techno and dance music. The first night we saw Flume. I nearly got to the front for it but there were too many big people in front of me and I couldn't wiggle my way through. There were other DJs but no one I knew or liked tons. 

     The next day we woke up so early. The sun was really bright and having three people in our little tiny tent was so hot! Charlotte and I went for a walk down the beach to the food stalls and activities. They were on the other side of the festival. It was a good 10-15 minute walk. We found some breakfast (by breakfast I mean coffee) then wandered back to camp. We talked to the boys about watching a thing at the Beach Box then going to the beach. The Beach Box was a stage set up next to the food stalls. They had lots of musicians and games and what not there during the day. They decided they would meet up with us at the beach. Charlotte and I went to watch a thing called Blind Date. I think that it was based off an old TV show. It is a thing where there is either on guy or a girl on one side of a screen and three people of the other gender on there other side. The guy/girl asks pre written questions and the contestants answer. Based on the answers the guy/girl chooses one of the contestants. It was funny. Not as funny as we had hoped it would be but we enjoyed t. Then we went to the beach for a while. We didn't up meeting everyone else there because we stayed near the beach box and they went near our camp site. The beach was beautiful. It had different shells than the beach next to my house. Some times I'm very much like a child around the water because I'm so unfamiliar with the ocean.
    It was nice to have a relaxing day before heading off to the festival. The R&V portion of the festival was at a vineyard near by. We had to take the bus to get there. R&V was very cool they had a bunch of different stages. There was a main stage near the food, booze and toilets. The main stage wasn't anything exciting. Something you would see at an out door concert any where really. Then there was the Arcadia stage that had mostly DJ's. It was circular. The DJ was in the middle at a thing that looked like a space ship that had fire shooting out the top. Raised appendages came off the circle and at the end of each one was a fire shooting tree. They also had a Jagermeister stage. It was just a stage nothing super special especially not when there was a fire shooting stage. There was a small stage with plants on it that had some good music but was never super busy. It was a good place to go hang out when the crowds got to be a bit much. They also had this thing called the Fridge. It was a small box with a sliding door. They would pack it full of people and close the door. On one end of it there was a small window that you could see the DJ through. It was lots of fun but you did get a bit beaten up by it.
     The first night at R&V I had a lot of fun. Charlotte and I went off with a guy named Josh and we got to the front of the crown a few times. We went to a few different stages. We managed to get up on the risers at the Arcadia stage which was pretty cool. After the Arcadia stage we went and got spray on tatoos. It was fun. Josh got a dragon. Charlotte got a flower and I got a bird. We had a lot of fun picking them out and laughing over them. Charlotte got tired and wanted to go home so she went home with one of the air force guys and I hung out and I stayed for a bit longer and listened to some more music.
    It has been way too long since I was there to get everything in the right order. It has been a struggle to remember it all. So I am going to write some of my favorite memories in the best order that I can.
    I was much more active than most of the other people in our group. One morning we went to the beach and had a little swim then I headed down the beach to get coffee. Josh followed me and we went down "The Biggest Blow Up Slide in the World". You had to climb up this enormous blow up mountain and there was a little tiny hose shooting water over the slide bit. It was really really steep! Going down it was so fast because of the water. At the end there was a small pool of water that you landed in. It was super fun except for the fact that some of the velcro came up and I went straight over it and tore up my legs pretty good. Some how in the slide going endeavour I bashed me knee and I tore the cartilage under my knee cap which has been an on going and super frustrating issue ever since. The night that I injured it I muddled through the concert and still had a lot of fun but was pretty sore.
    The day after my knee injury my knee was huge and super sore. I was pretty certain that I wasn't going to be able to go to the concert that night. I went to the first aide tent with Charlotte and got some tubi grip to help with the swelling and had some bandages put on my scrapes so that they wouldn't get filled with dirt. The Charlotte and I went on the slide because she hadn't been and it was super super fun! However I got my bandages wet and had to go back to the first aide tent. The medic threatened to give me a red card if I came back for the same issue again. If you get a red card at the festival it means that you don't get to go to the concerts or be able to buy booze or food. That afternoon everyone played drinking games and I slept in the shade. I don't think I have ever been quite so tired in my entire life. Before going to the concert I ran around and caused trouble with one of the boys. We stole a bit from another boys air mattress and were generally ridiculous. In our running around I felt my knee pop. By the time we got to the bus it was huge and sore. We had to walk up this enormous hill and I was really struggling so one of the boys, Bevan, gave me a piggy back to the stage so that I didn't have to do the hills. I went to the first aid tent and it had swelled up so much that I had to have my tubi grip cut off before they could ice it and put new stuff on. I made a few trips to the first aide tent for more ice and ibuprofen.  Bevan was kind enough to give me a number of rides throughout the night. When Bastille came on the main stage Bevan let me sit on his shoulders so that I could see. Even though I was in a lot of pain I actually had a really great time. I laughed a lot and got to be tall which was pretty fun.
    The next day we packed up and took the very long drive home. It felt like it took forever.

When we got to the front of the
Jagermeister stage

This is the group I hung out with while at R&V. From the left Katie, Josh,
Charlotte, Sam, Bevan. In the front from the left Nathan, Me and other Josh. 

This is when I was exhausted and sleeping on the ground. 

    The camp ground had some funny characters in it. There was a man that everyone called Jesus who for the dress up night dressed as Jesus. He certainly did look like interpretations of Jesus.
    A group of people were throwing people on a tarp. They gathered people from all around the camp site to hold the edges of the tarp and then they would get a smaller person to sit in the middle and would throw them.
    Other people in the camp had a group that was holding air mattresses and pieces of foam while people ran into them and tried to knock them down.