En-Zed Part 2

It was time to head away from the water for a day, and into the mountains. Our little hire car (a Getz) struggled to get up to Arthur’s Pass but it was well worth the scenery.

 

On the way up

We got to the village with the plan to spend the day hiking. I tried to convince J to climb Avalanche Peak but he wasn’t interested. We decided on a hike that was listed as 2 hours in our information brochure, so that we could potentially walk some of the other short hikes after lunch.

The weather was quite warm, and the Bealey Spur Trail started climbing right from the start. We normally finish hikes a bit quicker than the suggested time, so when we we still heading in the same direction 90 minutes later we knew something was amiss. I’ve since found information online describing it as taking 4-6 hours return, so I don’t know why our brochure was dodgy! The views over the Waimakariri River Valley were pretty awesome but we could have turned around earlier and still had the same experience.

We went back into the village and checked in to our motel (old, run down but clean), then demolished a gigantic pizza as a late lunch/early dinner. This fortified us enough to go on another walk, and this time it really was just a short walk out of town to see a waterfall.

 

From Arthur’s Pass we headed back to the east coast to stay a couple nights in Akaroa. This is one of my favourite places to visit – the harbour is beautiful and the town itself is very pretty. When we arrived on the Monday it was crazy busy thanks to the 4 cruise ships that were visiting. We checked into our hotel early, and decided to do a scenic drive away from town. It was quite lovely, but I spent the whole time stressing that we’d run out of petrol, and that our little Getz wouldn’t be able to get back up the hills!

Sky, meet ocean

We spent a bit of time out on the water in Akaroa – first sailing, then kayaking. We were the youngest people on the sailing trip (by about 30 years – they were all talking about retirement)) but it was a lovely way to spend the afternoon. The worlds smallest and rarest dolphins live in Akaroa Harbour, and they like playing with sail boats. We spent most of the trip going in circles, following small groups of the dolphins. The dolphins were even more amazing when we went kayaking the next day, because we were so much closer to them.

 

 

We had one night left in NZ so it was time to head back to Christchurch. It was really intense seeing the devastation still present from the 2 earthquakes that literally rocked the city. Our motel was great, and the owner gave us a map of the city and marked the areas that are still no go zones, told us how to get to the cathedral and told us where we could get food. For a city that no longer has a centre they’re doing an amazing job – the container mall is really interesting, and the gardens are still beautiful.

The destroyed cathedral

The earthquake didn’t kill the flowers…

J and I had a great trip. We’re lucky that we both like to travel, and we both like the same sort of holiday. I spent way less time on the internet than normal, and I didn’t run at all – it was really relaxing. Since we’ve been home I’ve been trying to remember to switch off a bit more! Which is probably a good cue to get off the computer now.

Any suggestions where we should head next? I want to do Camino de Santiago but that’s really just a dream.

En-Zed Part 1

We are just back from a short holiday in New Zealand. This was a relatively last minute trip, and we loved the South Island when we visited in 2009 so we decided to head over the ditch again!

Our first night was spent in Kaikoura. It’s a cute seaside town apparently famous for crayfish, so we headed to the seafood BBQ for dinner, and then went seal watching.

After the stopover in Kaikoura, we stayed a few nights in a bach near a tiny town called Havelock. With drizzly, grey weather around we spent our first day doing absolutely nothing. It was great! I’m really bad at just chilling out (my iPad or iPhone is usually attached to my hand – not really relaxing), but with no Internet access and no phone coverage it was a good opportunity to switch off entirely.

A bach is essentially a holiday house (or granny flat in our case) that can be rented out for long or short periods. We went shopping before collecting the keys, assuming that we would have a full kitchen at our disposal. When we arrived, we discovered that we had a fridge, a BBQ, and some pots and pans but no oven or stove. So, we did what any enterprising person would do – we cooked spag bol on the barbie!

The weather started to clear up, and we spent the next day on a wine tour. It was fun, but J has never really been all that excited about white wine. He has now developed a strong aversion to Sav Blanc in particular, thanks to trying versions from the different wineries throughout the day! The highlight was definitely lunch at Hans Herzog Bistro, complete with a cat to keep me company between main and dessert. The trouble with wine tours that start at 10am is that the hangover hits at about 8pm…

Pre-lunch tapas

NZ is great for hiking tramping, with well marked trails seemingly everywhere. We spent our final day in the Marlborough region hiking along part of the Queen Charlotte track with crazy blue water on each side – the Queen Charlotte Sound, and the Pelorus Sound. I’d like to do the full track one day, because the section that we did was incredible.

We then had a few days with lots of driving. We left the Marlborough Sounds and headed to the west coast, driving through vineyards mountains and eventually the coast. After 5 hours in the car we arrived in lovely Greymouth.

Pancake Rocks on the way to Greymouth

The drive down the coast to Greymouth is incredible, and then you suddenly hit a fairly industrial town. The main reason I wanted to stay there was to visit the Monteiths Brewery, which luckily did not disappoint. We shared a tapas style lunch and both got a tasting tray of beers. They were very generous with food and beer, so we emerged from the pub an hour later very full and just a bit boozy! We then went for a walk, got lost, and ended up back at Monteiths an hour later needing to use the loo. The rest of Greymouth was pretty unexciting, but it was a good place to stop for the night.

 

Next up: Arthur’s Pass, Akaroa and Christchurch

Good food, good company, good life.

After the race I spent a bit of time with my running group, before heading off to meet a friend for lunch. A few of my friends have moved to Melbourne, and I have family there – this is the main reason that I chose Melbourne as my first true 'destination' race. I've done races while on holidays before, but not travelled specifically for a race.

I was meeting my friend in North Melbourne – about 4km from the MCG. When I'm not running, I walk everywhere. (Like the time I decided to walk from my house to Carindale shopping centre. It was 9km. I didn't realise it would take me a couple hours, until I started walking.)

When I started walking to the cafe I noticed that my anterior hip (hip flexor sort of area) was feeling a little bit sore. I had aggravated it 2 weeks previously using a dodgy exercise bike, but it originally settled down pretty quickly. I guess running 21km at pace made it cranky again. The walk was worth it – I don't think I've ever had such perfect weather in Melbourne! Plus we had a great lunch (at Beatrix), followed by a trip to the markets. This, of course, meant more walking.

I finally slowed down for the afternoon and went to the pub. Apart from nearly losing my handbag, it was a fun afternoon/evening filled with cocktails and good food.

This is essentially the theme for this entire post

After a couple more days in Melbourne catching up with friends and family, it was time to head back to Brisbane.

I had no real plans for my recovery from the half marathon (not that I ever really follow a plan). When my hip was feeling a bit strange I decided to book in for a massage on the Friday following the race. My hip only hurt on the day of the race, but afterwards it just felt uncomfortable. Sitting in cars and planes for hours on end probably wasn't helping either. The massage was partly for general recovery but also to see if anything was actually wrong with my hip. Apparently something (a tendon? Or ligament?) was locking up, and pulling other things in to counteract whatever was going on. I obviously paid a lot of attention when he was talking to me!

I ran a couple easy days during the week, and then went to parkrun on the Saturday. I went to a different location, and while the weather wasn't great (it was super windy) I was happy to run hard again.

J has been working out of town recently, but he had the past week off so my priority was to spend time with him. We had a BBQ lunch on the Sunday (Oktoberfest!) and then booked an apartment down the coast for 5 nights. I work on the Gold Coast a couple days a week (when I'm not traveling), so we don't normally holiday down there. It's so close to home that we really should take advantage of it more often! We spent the week swimming, body surfing, eating and drinking. Essentially, a perfect week.

The biggest benefit of being so close to home is that we got plenty of visitors while we were down there. Good friends make life even better!

When we were away I only ran once: I visited another parkrun location. I also did a little bit of yoga and strengthening when we were hanging out in the apartment, but nothing too strenuous.

Now that I've had a break, it's time to make this fast, fun summer a reality!

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Byron Bay long run

When I was working in Lismore, I had one day off. I used my day wisely: I went to Byron Bay for some sunshine and a long run!

I did a short out-and-back along the highway, before heading to the beach to run up to the lighthouse. It was a beautiful morning, and the perfect reintroduction to long runs after our holiday!

(I didn't take these photos on my run, I went for a drive afterwards to capture it all).

The lighthouse in the distance

 

 

 

I ran all the way to the point as well

 

Post run!

 

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Lismore Lantern Parade

 

I work out of town a fair bit. Sometimes it sucks, but mostly I like visiting new places!

I was working in Lismore recently, and stayed there over the weekend. Lismore is a cute town in northern NSW that is a lot bigger than I expected. It’s a uni town, but there’s definitely a bit of a hippy vibe as well.

These photos are from a Lantern Parade that was on the Saturday night. I was amazed at variety of lanterns, but unfortunately my camera is crap in low light conditions so I apologise for the blur! There were soup stalls, popcorn, music, market stalls…

It was a great way to spend an otherwise lonely weekend in a strange town.

Denver, LAX, and my favourite fast food

Tuesday morning was a massive struggle. We were headed back to Denver – only one hour to the north, but so very very far away.

When we finally arrived in Denver we were headed to the baseball. Neither of us watch baseball, but it seemed like a fun thing to do! Plus I managed to get ridiculously cheap tickets.

This is why they were cheap – we were up so high!

I had a long list of things that I wanted to eat/drink while we were there: hot dogs, pretzels, lemonade, beer… but the thought of the food was better than the food itself. I wasn’t drinking beer (for obvious fuzzy-headed reasons), so maybe that was the vital ingredient?

I really enjoyed the game. J likes cricket much better than baseball, so he found it quite boring. Again, the vital ingredient (beer) was missing! We stayed for 6 innings and then went home. The score didn’t change in the final 6 innings so I’m glad we didn’t hang around!

The next morning we needed to repack our bags, and become more streamlined for flying. It was great having the same car for 2 weeks, but it’s amazing how much everything seems to expand in that time! I also needed to leave room in my carry on, because we were finally going shopping!

I was very restrained – I only bought a couple things at Lululemon, and a new Pandora leather bracelet + charm to remember the trip. I had to remind J that he was getting off very lightly compared to previous trips!

(top double strand bracelet = Hawaii, bottom bracelet = Colorado. A teddy bear’s not exactly a grizzly, but close enough!)

Our flight to LAX was in the afternoon. There was one thing that we were excited about in LA – In-N-Out Burger! I’m fairly certain we spent a large portion of the entire trip figuring out how to get from the LAX to the nearest In-N-Out, and what we were going to order. A lot of people suggest taking a parking lot shuttle there, but we ended up walking. It took about 15 minutes, and was really easy to find.

J ordered an animal style double-double with regular fries, and I ordered a double-double with animal style fries.

Delicious. I’m not sure what makes In-N-Out so good? I think there’s the novelty factor of the simple menu (and the not-so-secret menu), but the burgers are also fresh and tasty. The fries are pretty gross, but put plastic cheese, thousand island dressing and bacon on anything and it’ll taste good!

After dinner, and watching the planes fly in, we had a long wait back at LAX. And an even longer flight home.

And now – we’re home! While I love America, absence certainly makes the heart grow stronger. Brisbane’s a pretty awesome city, and we’re lucky to live so close to most of our family, and friends

I think mum was worried that we were going to move to Colorado. Don’t worry mum, we’re staying in Brisbane – for now!