An uneventful week...

From Collages

Dano and I are sitting at the table, he is filling in hockey travel weekends. Both Sammer and Abs are playing on the Pee Wee team, Dano is their coach. The Senior Men's team that Dan plays on travels as well. We are a little gobsmacked at the looks of our calendar for May and June. It looks like we will see places such as Alexandra, Dunedin, Queenstown, Naseby and Tekapo. Although it does seem like a lot of traveling we are pleased becuase we get to see places we would never had gone in the winter in NZ. Ironically, when Mom and Dad are here the kids do not have any games. Dan has a game and there is a tournament at our Gore Arena so we will be involved. I cannot wait until they get here!

The weather is definitely autumn now in New Zealand. The days have been sunny and warm and the nights cool and clear. Yesterday we did many jobs around the house, cutting grass, weeding gardens, adding oil to the cars...stuff like that. It was a dry windy day and the laundry was dry in no time! This whole idea of not having a dryer is like second nature to us now. This morning we got up and Dano was speaking at a church on Lumsden about camp. The drive to Lumsden is amazing, hills and mountains all the way. The scenery is something that we will never grow tired of here. We came home to gale winds...and when I say gale winds...I mean really, really extremely strong winds. Like doors slamming, windows being sucked open and shut, whistling, roof creaking, random items whizzing by the windows....like Southern Ontarians have never seen!!!!! While the kids and Dano were public skating I went for a half hour power walk in this crazy wind. It was not pretty. My hair was such an issue I am sitting here typing with a doo rag tightly wrapped in an attempt to tame the mane.

Oh yeah, Dano and I watched Weekend At Bernie's Saturday night and laughed our tails off. Brian Cofell will always be Bernie Lomax to me. Flopping around like a standing corpse, Brian is hilarous!!!! (miss you Cofe)

Until next time,

Samantha

Triathlon

A few weeks back the kids entered a try-athlon. After they successfully completed it, I vowed that I would tackle one. I'm trying to develop an action habit so I picked a triathlon with a really easy short distance option that was just four weeks later and decided I would enter it if I felt I could complete it. It consisted of a 400 metre swim, 12km bike ride and a 4km run. Three weeks ago I started training by swimming laps for the first time in 17 years. It was as hard as I thought it might be and I really struggled the first week in the water, trying to do front-crawl for 20-30 minutes straight. I kept having to do a few lengths of breast stroke to rest my arms. Thankfully after 3 weeks I was able to swim 1.2km in 30 minutes. At the same time I started jogging, very slowly. I worked up to almost 4km but was concerned about how I would be able to run that far after swimming and biking. My other concern was that I would be using my mountain bike with big knobby tires through the city streets. I tried to find a road bike to use but was unsuccessful.

This triathlon also had a kids event(100m swim, 4km bike, 2km run) and Abby was keen to give it another go. Sam was nursing some sore ribs from a game at school so he sat this one out. Samantha is getting ready for a duathlon in a couple of weeks so played the role of photographer at this one. Abby had a great go and was finished before I had completed my bike leg. I did alright too. I can claim a first place finish in the short distance open division for men - I was the only one in that division! In the end the time didn't matter for me, it was about whether I could finish or not. I was pleased that I was able to jog the entire 4km and still stand up after I crossed the finish line. I am targeting a triathlon in 4 weeks time. I'll have to see how the training goes for this one. We are all doing the Wai Tri duathlon option in two weeks time. It should be fun.

Abby turns 9 and the Highlanders lose.

This Friday the 13th our babygirl turned 9 years old. She invited 5 friends over for a party and 2 stayed the night. It was a success. Sam got invited over to James' while his sister Libby was here at Abby's party. Mom and Dad arrived at Holly's in Texas and Abby opened their gifts while on webcam. Thank goodness for webcam! Although I really missed them after we hung up. Dano and I gave Abs tickets to the NZ Ballet troupe coming through Gore this Thursday. Abby is still totally crazy about Little House on the Prairie and Reena, Bovins and Nik and Ger gave her the set of books for her birthday. She is already half done the first book!

Saturday night we went to the Highlanders rugby game. A new canadian friend, Chris Howey came with us to the game. He is teaching at Gore High with me and he grew up in Aylmer. He is a funny dude. We met at Hell for some excellent pizza then on to the game. The Highlanders tried to defeat the Chiefs but were unsuccessful. We were amazed by a few things at Rugby Park. Firstly, they sold 6 packs of beer that people can purchase and take to their seats. A few people had 3 six packs in hand! Secondly, the hotdogs they sold were those giant floppy corndog looking things dunked in tomato sauce. (Giant bloody...well, you get the picture) Thirdly Chris and I were "thunderstruck" (also a favourite song down here) by the clothing Kiwis are wearing! It is like they are living in the 80's. Skinny jeans, leather high top Nikes, leggings and short dresses, the mullets were out of this world!! Some kids are even dying the long hair down their necks blonde. Chris was noticing the "steps" in the sides above their ears too. The fashion is definitely a step back twenty years. Teenage boys even wear skinny jeans. So bizarre!

Until next time,
Samantha

Mountain Bike Race

I've always wanted to try mountain bike racing. Just after we arrived in New Zealand I bought a mountain bike, planning to do some training and enter a few races. Thirteen months later I finally entered my first race. The Meridian Energy White Hill Wind Farm Classic was Saturday afternoon in Mossburn about 90km from Pukerau. There were three options for the mountain bike race: a 22km full race, an 11km recreational ride and a 6km Kiddies Canter. There was also a 13km cross country run. There were over 500 participants. I entered the 11km recreational ride thinking it wise to ease into this new venture. Sam and Abby decided to give the Kiddies Canter a go. Samantha was our number one fan and our official race photographer.

It was hard. The 11km course started on a reasonable uphill grade which I was hoping would level off after the first bend. It didn't. The grade doubled and before long the mountain bike ride, became a mountain bike push. The majority of the riders proceeded to push their bikes for the next 4km. I guess they define recreational a little differently than I. It is especially discouraging to get passed by runners while pushing your bike. The only consolation was that I knew the second half of the race was going to be easier on the bike. 1 hour and 16 minutes after starting I crossed the finish line. I finished 20th in my category, 30th overall in the 11km race. I also finished behind at least one runner and two riders from the 22km race. I have a long way to go but was pleased with how things went.

Sam and Abby finshed their ride. They found some of their hills a little challenging but continued pushing away. Neither of them would say that they particularly enjoyed it but were pleased at the end. Sam finished 17th in his race and Abby placed fifth last. The great thing is that when we arrived in New Zealand, Abby refused to even ride her bike. She was still have traumatic memories of her mother running over her after a wipeout at Rondeau. To go from that to riding a 6km race is fantastic.

The kids and I are looking at entering a triathlon in two weeks and then the whole family may enter a duathlon in 4 weeks. We'll keep you posted.