Auckland Marathon

Well, the day of reckoning finally came around. Running a half marathon at 6:30am on a sunday morning, the complete opposite of a perfectly comfortable Sunday morning lie in. Why spoil it? I still don't know the answer to that!
I (James) finished in 1:54, under the 2hour mark I was aiming for so I was reasonably happy, considering the pain in my legs. Jody managed to complete in about 2:31, longer than she would have liked, but her knees were giving her some right 'jip'. Think she's worn them away for good, hobbling about the house at the moment.
Now we can say, "been there, done that, actually got the t-shirt" (as proof), etc. Not really tempted by another long distance slog, once is enough.
Pics below, will send a link later on to the official pics.

Arrive to the starting line about 10mins after the starting pistol, mainly due to long toilet queues and a cruise ship docking in the harbour which delayed our ferry crossing. Spent the first 2km overtaking loads of fatties!

Just before we went our seperate ways (not exactly, did the same course and all that). It was a bit of a hilly course, as you can make out.

Some nutters ran around in the flintstones mobile.
Not many marathons will take you past a beach.

On the harbour bridge (not normally any pedestrian access). Hazy view of the CBD.

Jody's long slog up the approach to the harbour bridge pinnacle (much easier in the car)

The finsh area, proof we made it. Also, it's pretty hard to take a photo in Auckland without getting the Skytower in the background.

But I managed it here!

The aftermath, Sunday afternoon in a hammock.

Official photo's: James - http://www4.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?job=Sports%2F2008+Sports%2FAuckland+Marathon&match=9649

Jody - http://www4.marathon-photos.com/scripts/event_entry.py?job=Sports%2F2008+Sports%2FAuckland+Marathon&match=9650

Evidence of some cheeky walking going on from Miss Page! Not sure why I've only got one photo, the others must have been a blur due to my shear speed!

Some recent photo's

Hey all,
Just a few photo's from my camera phone from over the past few weeks, mostly of a walk we went on last Sunday down near Cambridge with Kieran and Nic. Just like the Yorkshire Dales, except for the tropical stuff and amazingly crystal clear river.
Enjoy

A Maori carving up in a place called Omaha. Huge designer houses line the beach up here, showoffs!

A fern ready to unravel - NZ is covered with these things.

We'll be back to swim in this one day.

On my ferry home last night, the NZ Americas Cup yaughts sailed past. They're pretty big, about 40m high!?

We're hoping to get some of the Thailand vids up here soon, been a bit lazy recently!

Until then,

James

x

Visitors

Well it's not that exciting but we had our first visitors today, Ki and Nic. Since we don't know anyone here it was nice to have someone round and to show them the pad. We had a relaxed lunch and a play on the wii it was just fun to have friends round. Ki and Nic have to travel 2hrs to get here so it's not like they can pop round anytime so we loved that they made the effort.

It's a bit up in the air here about how much longer we'll be living in this property. We've been offered a lease to october next year but our desire to have a puppy is making us think of looking around, we love it here so ultimately i think we'll end up staying. It's so close to the transport links to James' work it's only 15mins from mine we're close to the sea and the bush, there are shops within walking distance and loads of cool relaxed cafe just opposite our drive it make you feel like you're living in a resort. It would have to be a dream property to encourage us to move!

Been speaking to lots of people in England this weekend which is cool and makes it seem like we're really not that far away.
Heard it's raining in England today. Hope it's not too depressing!!
(Really not missing the English climate i have to say)

Jody

Weezer are back!

Not really relevant to our New Zealand experience, but I just think that everyone should see this video - http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=muP9eH2p2PI

I couldn't actually embed the video in to the blog due to copyright stuff, but hope you can follow the link. Sorry if I'm behind the times with this, but I've only just heard this song over here and I'm going to go buy the album asap.

The mighty Weezer return!

James
x

PS-some Thailand videos to upload next week, ooooh yeah!

Hong Kong Videos

Quite a shock landing in a typhoon, plenty of wind and rain, just like Yorkshire then!

We didn't quite eat the freshest food we that was available.

Epic show, can't believe they do this every night! And it goes on for about 20minutes. We watched it from Kowloon side, where the accompanying music is played.

The rain was so heavy it was actually exciting to experience. The Buddha was pretty good too, and big!

Work and Running

Hi
Sorry it's been so long since i wrote a blog - i've started work and unlike James i can't pop on the blog willy nilly.

It's nice to see James has been keeping you up todate. I found a job one week after i started looking and it came with a car so that took a big finicial strain off us. It was my first interview as well so not too much mucking around. It is for three children two girls and a boy all under 5 years. I've nearly finished my third week and it's going really well.

Working closely with a family and other kiwi's i feel i finding so much about the culture and way of life-
-Children barely wear shoes (it's safe as it is clean)
-The Kindy's (pre schools) are fantastic loads of outside space i'll just have to take a picture but believe me these are the kind of places you want your children going to.
-The value are amazing too. Their curriculum has parts called 'Mana Whenua' Meaning belonging and about children learning, where there place is in society and connecting links with family and the outside world. Also 'Mana Tangata' Meaning Contribution where they are learn they are value as individuals and how they can contribute and make a difference. With these things being learnt from an early age you can see the children would be less likely to go off the rails later on as they would feel part of the community and hopefully respect it.

I could go on forever about my new job but it would bore you to pieces

I have notice James has forgotten to mention HE signed us up for a half marathon, (20ks) I would have happy attempted another 10k but 20 is way too far i think James thought for some misguided reason it would be good for us to run together to bond (he misses football and the football lads i think) unfortunately at 6am i'm not at my best (We've been training before work) and the whole way round our 4k route i'm silently cursing him for getting me into this. I don't even know when it is but i think it's in november -watch this space, Any way James said we're going to do 2 laps tomorrow which might kill me before work. I know your thinking hey that's not far but when you live 10 minute walk from the sea nothing is flat and the route we've been taking goes down to the sea though some bush and then back up again along the road and it's the UP part that is killing me.
But if you don't hear from me and James again it might be because i died on the second lap or kill James for getting me into this.

We've got our first confirmed visitors coming so we're really really looking forward to that (Hooray for the Richardsons) And i'm hopeful that Mum and Dad will find someone to Farm sit so they'll be coming soon too. Also i think they might be some other people in the the pipeline. Just let us know if you're are interested in a stay at Chez JJ.

I've loved reading all the comments you've been leaving us so keep it up. Missing you all but still loving it here.

Jody

Sunday at the beach

So, it's early spring over here now, and the weekend forecast was for the first time since we got here absent of rain. We decided to visit a popular beach about an hour away, Piha, which could turn out to be our nearest surf beach (once I get a wetsuit and board!). The drive was really nice, seriously lacking in any real traffic (compared with UK seaside routes). The beach was relatively busy, by New Zealand standards, that is there were other people other than us there. This beach actually is quite notorious for dangerous rips, and has a dedicated life guard team with boats and quads, etc. There's actually a TV program called 'Piha Rescue' on over here, but it's hardly Baywatch action, just a few surfers getting too close to the rocks or swimmers getting beyond their depth, etc.

Anyway, here's a couple of pics and a video, yes, I've finally discovered how to upload videos via youtube! Expect more in the future posts. In the middle of the beach there's a huge rock called Lions Rock, which was just asking to be climbed. Actually, there was a path anyway, but I would've attempted it either way.

All in all the weather was great (about 20degrees).

inabit
James
xx

Looking North from Lions Rock

Looking South from Lions Rock (the surfing bay)


Bit of an in joke regarding the bag/packed lunch. When we came to NZ last year we had to leave a remote paradise like beach due to my incessant hunger, and it was a bit of a trek to get back to civilisation!