"Ski" weekend...

We headed up north to Ohakune, the gateway town to the mountain/volcano, where you can ski/board in the North Island. There are two other ski fields/resorts around as well, but we have only ever been to this one, called Turoa. WE were invited by our friends Nichola and Duncan, who have just moved back from England to settle in New Zealand, and wanted a ski weekend away. Here's a pic of them (taken on my new camera/phone/coolest thing I have ever owned). A nice pic of them, but not the clearest image ever. However, it's still great to have a camera with me most of the time now.

Bryce was super keen to get some boarding done, since he got so buzzed up about it from the boarding done in Canada at Christmas, especially with Robyn and Lawrence in the Rockies, at Lake Louise. So we drove up Friday night and moved into our cute little chalet that we had rented: Nichola, Duncan, Nichola's sister Gemma, their 14 month old son William and us. It was a fun group to hang out with and in the morning, Gemma, Duncan and Bryce headed up the mountain. WE had been warned that the weather was not going to be great, but had woken up with a great clear view of the volcano, and figured it was worth a shot. (On another note, I am training for a half marathon and decided it was better to get a training run in, than stress myself out with a day of "learning" to ski for the 15th time. Nichola was going to take William up later in the day to play in the snow.)
Before I went for my run, Nichola and I noticed a weird sound coming from the lounge floor. Turns out, a pipe from the water cylinder burst, probably from serious cold and lack of use, and water was rushing out (like a full-on turned on hose!) from underneath the house. We called the lady who owned the place, who in turn apologized and just said, don't worry, a plumber will check it out tomorrow. Regardless of how we explained, "uh, it's A LOT of water coming out!", she reiterated that we should not worry and if we wanted to have hot showers, to find a place to have them and she would reimburse us the cost. WOw.
Meanwhile, the boys and Gemma got one run in before the weather turned horrible (it actually turned into a blizzard while they were riding the chair lift, and the chair they were on was blown out to one side from the insane wind!). The mountain was officially closed, and they all got their money back. So they came back, we poured some wine and played board games inside, while it poured rain from the sky, and poured water from the foundation of the house. WE all felt weird sitting around not doing anything to help the problem with the house, but the women assured us that we should just leave it be, and enjoy ourselves. Plus, none of us were volunteering to lie down in a massive freezing cold mud puddle, underneath the rotted poles holding the house off the ground, to slide under the house to "check out the sitch". It sure was nice merlot....
WE played this funny board game called SMuggle where one person is the customs officer and the rest of the players try to lie/or tell the truth about what cards they are holding and therefore what "they have to declare". The customs officer has to decide whether to take the money for the items declared, or call the person's bluff and hopefully fine them more money. It's pretty amazing how people you think can be so honest, lie to you without "blinking an eye". Shocking, yet very entertaining.
However, not as oddly interesting as what happened today. We went to an indoor climbing wall and played around on the walls, which was something we haven't done in a long time. Good fun and amazing to find out how fast your arms can become entirely exhausted. Mine felt like sacks of potatoes, trying to get to the floor before my feet could!. Here are some pics of the boys climbing.


Nice calves, eh?

THAT'S NOT THE INTERESTING BIT THOUGH.....

On our way back through town, some teens were crossing the road, but one misjudged that we were driving through (he was walking out onto a busy highway, in town, while two other mates were patiently waiting for traffic to clear). Bryce stopped the car/slammed the brakes and raised his finger to his head, as if to say "Use your brain" to the kid. His other friends took exception to Bryce's gesture, and banged/spanked? the back of our car as they crossed behind our car. They obviously has forgotten to read the rules of ski town etiquette and did not know it is extremely offensive to touch someone's car, especially someone's SUBARU. Bryce stopped the car in the middle of the road, and jumped out, upset that these kids were just going to act like that was okay. Bryce said, "what was that all about?" and two of the kids approached Bryce (hoodies over their heads, looking quite tough) and got real close to Bryce's face. I was not pleased at this at all, as you can imagine and fearing for the unpredictability of teenagers and Bryce's safety. The one kid then headbutts Bryce (like goat does to establish territory), so Bryce yells to me to call the police. I do so, and as I am getting the phone sorted, the kid pushes Bryce twice but backs away when he sees that I am on the phone. The whole posse walk away to the other side of the road and into the adjacent park to scatter like the vermin they represented. Keep in mind, I think teenagers are awesome and spend time with great kids everyday. These kids were not representative of teens and I don't think all teenagers are vermin. These ones were though.
So police were there within 2 minutes, caught up with a few of the "slower mice" and eventually got the "king rodent" with the "goat tactics" and locked them up until their parents came to the station to get them. Bryce and I had to give statements and it was all quite an interesting (and no longer scary, once Bryce - I felt - was no longer in danger) and educational event. The extra interesting bit of this was when the cop explained to us, after our description of what the person looked like and what they were wearing, that the king rodent was actually a 14 yr old female, Bryce was like, "uh, no. It was a guy". The cop assured us that others have mistaken her for a male before, we were shocked.
So, as I sit here, with a warm fire cranking, a hot chocolate, a pile of graded homework from lovely teenagers who will make the world a better place, and solid pipes in the foundation of our house (at least that's what we hope....), I reflect on how lucky we are and how others are less fortunate. When I told the policeman who was taking my statement that I felt sad for this girl who "assaulted" Bryce, the cop said, "Why do you feel sad? Those specific kids know exactly what they are doing. And they know that we can't do much to them." I still thinks it's a sad state though. Makes me feel like at least I hope I am helping other teens make better decisions than that chicky did today.
SO, was it a good "ski" weekend? Damn straight it was! No skiiing, burst pipes, customs smuggling, and a head butt to boot. But it was a great chance to get away, and also, I had been complaining that I needed some good stories to put on my blog, so "it's all good".

On another note, here's the wicked ski suit Duncan bought for $25. None of us lost the bets bad enough this weekend to warrant having to wear it out anywhere though...

New nieces are still the most exciting news and still get top billing, but...

This is too funny.

Annalise Arden

Meet the newest addition to the Knight clan, Annalise Arden, born on Sunday July
20th to Rob and Kathy (and Asher and Abby). How exciting to have two new babies in the family in one weekend. My parents said it was pretty hectic, but great!
I imagine how it will be when Zoe, several years from now, can give digs to Annalise about being the older cousin (like twins do). It's pretty amazing how both of Tim and Rob's last 2 children were born within a few weeks (or in the recent case, days) of each other. Max and Abby, and now Zoe and Annalise.
I wonder if they will do a "three-peat"? We can only hope! They are both pretty good at making cute babies!

Zoe Claire Knight

A very proud "Gamma" holding Zoe. The newest addition to the Knight family has arrived. Zoe Claire was born to Tim and Kristie on Friday (saturday NZ time) at a massive 10 lbs 14 oz. Big baby! Can't wait to meet her.....
Awaiting the newest Rob and Kathy project anytime now as well. Watch this space.

Long weekend

So we headed off on Friday morning to check out the famed "Castlepoint" on the east coast of the north island. Whenever I ask anyone if they have been there, almost everyone has, and yet it is a pretty remote place. 2 1/2 hr drive from us and inland 1 hr from the closest town.
Castle point is a small little holiday surf destination with "lots" (like 30) of cottages all nestled around the little bay. It has some pretty mean wave action which has made some good rock formations from all the erosion. It was called Castlepoint because Captain Cook thought the rock formations looked like fortress walls, like a castle would have. In some of the pics we've taken you can see the neat views. The bay is protected by a big reef that curves out and rises up (like a castle wall). As you can also tell from the pics, it's not summer here. We have decided to rent a cottage/"bach" (pronounced "batch") in summer with some friends and do some better checking out of the place.




This was a creation on Castlepoint beach, called, "The Home of the Lost Soles", a memoriam to old flipflops/jandals and other sandals. On the bottom, there was even an old cast from someone's foot!

After the Castlepoint stop we drove backcountry Targa racing style until we happened upon the longest place name in the world.

This was the road sign that signalled to us to stop. The reason you might not stop is because the "place" is really not much of a place. Just a place where something did happen a long time ago, but with no substantial significant landmark left behind, just a story (see my previous blog entry for the story).
Needless to say, it was worth the drive. I love random stuff like this. And I would even like to brag to say, I can say the whole name by memory. I learnt it so that one day, when some quiz is on, or a crucial moment in a Trivial Pursuit game arises, I can let the geek within me shine and speak fluent Maori for that one moment in time!



Note the length of the car parked in front of the sign, and the sign still being longer than the car.
After the excitement of the longest place name in the world sign, we headed off to Napier to stay with Carl and Denise for the weekend. Rod and Donal had planned to join us there as well, so we had a great weekend hanging out with everyone. Bryce and the boys got lots of riding done and Denise and I got a tramp done at a place called "Blowhard Bush". You will notice in the pictures that the place is aptly named. It was a cool hike, with neat caves which the track was built around and through. Rumour has it that an outcasted family had escaped into this part of the bush back in the 1800's and lived in one of the caves; this made for some interesting discussion of what parts of which cave would have been suitable for living in and so on. We got right into one cave and just as I was checking out a very dark corner and hoping that the roof was high enough so that the weta's (yucky native insects with lots of legs, like a massive cricket) that love dark spaces would choose to remain on the rock and not on my hair......something tickled my neck. I let out a scream and a shiver, and then felt slightly embarrassed. C'mon, raindrops can be creepy..... when in a cave!!




After that walk, we checked out an old Maori pa ("pah") site, which is just a settlement on a hill, where they would have been able to check out to see if any enemies were coming close to attack them. Some of the old pallisades still remain, but the rest of the walk was a bit left to the imagination. Nevertheless, there is something great about finally stopping and checking out something you always say, "oh, we should stop there someday". Well, someday should sometimes be today!
Great weekend and a nice break from work and trying to keep busy during the holiday.
Hopefully we can keep doing interesting things and our camera stays nice to us so I can keep updating this. Till then, let me know how you are doing.


PS. Neat pic of the chickens at the maori pa site. I like chickens.

Taumatawhakatangi....

On school holidays and enjoying the lack of schedule. Been shopping a bunch, had a hair cut and colour and off to Napier tomorrow to play with friends. Tomorrow, we are going to see Castlepoint; a real pretty place with nice rock formations, a lighthouse and from what I hear pretty crazy mean waves. I think we will stay out of the water tomorrow though, more because its freezing, not so much for the water action! Then we hope to finally see the sign for the longest place name in the world.
Taumatawhakatangihangakoauauotamateaturipuka
kapikimaungahorongukapokaiwhenuakitanatahu.
It is Maori for "The place where Tamatea, the man with the big knees, who slid, climbed and swallowed mountains, known as landeater, played his flute to his loved one.” We should all have places like this named after us. I wonder what they would call mine. "The place where Canadian chick, known as clamato-lover, who bruises easily, once ate a whole packet of Toffee Pops, and then threw up." Yep, sounds like a name to go down in history. Now, if I could only get someone to translate it into Maori for me. They may struggle with the "clamato" conversion....

Watch this funny video called the Man song. I don't really think men should be put in their place, but its funny anyhow.

Propaganda at it's best

"Fresh air with every breath". I can't believe it. Makes you wonder what drivel we get these days that we take for granted that is complete nonsense.....like the food that is advertised with "added goodness".

DIY'ers continue to wreak havoc

I would like to show you some photos of our achievements so far, but having some technical issues with the camera. Like... its crap!
Just a thought..... how bout using the webcam?


Brilliant, it worked.
So here are two overexposed pics of our herbs that we planted, then I drowned, then we re-grew.
Exciting to think soon we will be able to have our own coriander/cilantro in our meals. Lame, but very exciting!!
Working on filling our 2 half wine barrels and getting some broccoli growing today. I can hardly hold myself back...
Mild sarcasm aside. we are doing well in this wintry nation, as of late. Lots of rain and cold serious wind. But school only has one more week till another break and Bryce is finally recovering from the international flu he got while in Canada earlier this month. All is good!

As if......

I love volleyball. Imagine though, if you could combine volleyball with trampolining. I have done this before with the students who jump off minitramps to spike the ball and then launch onto a big crash mat.
But imagine if there were trampolines built RIGHT INTO the court....and then add the idea in that you can play with your feet as well..... Bossa ball, you rock my world.

DIY'ers to the rescue...

This may be one of the first DIY (do it yourself) projects we have done in this house, and I am pretty darn proud of it. We have put insulation in the roof, and repaired a fence, and when we're lucky I bake cookies. But this is our first actual building project! And I am so excited when I look at it now, even though it looks like a pen for very small animals. In "actuality", it is our new compost bin. We haven't started composting anything yet....but we've heard it's not something to get impatient about. Composting is for older people who "have time". We just wanted to stop throwing out food scraps and so on. So I will keep you posted on our progress. Don't get too excited waiting though.....even though I might. : )

Who says you can't celebrate summer in the winter?

A pic of Michelle and Nathan roasting marshmallows in our fireplace on BBQ skewers. We then put them (the marshmallows, not Michelle and Nathan) on chocolate cookies and made a sandwich. Winter Smores. Soooo good with Pinot Noir.

Another neat story: We went to a Nepalese restaurant the other night, where Bryce has been to before and had raved about. I must say the food was very good and I finally got to try "mo-mo". A delicacy that Bryce and Carl have been talking about since their Everest trip years ago. Mo-mo is kind of like soft wontons, with tomato-ey sauce. So, I finish my curry-ish dinner, but don't actually eat it all since I was full from munchies before. The cool waiter (from Nepal, who owns the place, is very friendly and "chillaxed") comes back over and says to me, "You don't like it?". I say, "No, it was very good, I am just full". He sticks MY fork into MY food and picks up a piece of carrot and points it upwards, "Well, I eat it?". But surely, he didn't say that? Or did he? So I repeat, "No, it was really great". Well, he actually DID say what I thought he said, cause he then used MY fork and put MY food into HIS mouth. WHAAAA??? Never had that happen before. Needless to say, I was definitely finished after that. Funny experience though. Especially when the waiter/cook/maitre'D gives us both a high 5 after we paid him for the food.
Get me on that next flight to Kathmandu.....

Mulch-o-mania

I do not profess to be an avid gardener yet, or even a person who has a green thumb. When Bryce goes away, nothing in my instinct kicks in to remember to water the plants. Anyway, mulching is easy and with the confidence coming from more time spent in the garden, we are beginning an endeavour to start a herb and veggie garden. Watch this space.....more likely for oddball stories than vegetable success though!
Check out these pics showing what the garden looked like pre-mulch and post-mulch.

May Update

So, what a month. Recovered from marathon, Dad turned 60, had a student trying to sell Ritalin pills at school and dealt with a crazy cold. Its been a whirlwind month.
We have spent 3 weekends at home in a row. I know. Nuts. It has been nice, since we have been on the go, basically "boarding" in Rotorua for much of this year with different events going on, so we have loved being at home each weekend and getting tasks done.
Last weekend we put heaps of mulch on the garden to give it some nutrients and stuff out the weeds. Some long work, but pretty easy. I had some issues getting into the middle garden, because that is wear the "wild things are". However, my special gardening outfit with pants tucked into socks, shirt tucked into gloves and hoodie tied up around my face, I was "insect-proof".
As you can see, Frilly the Cow and Eddie are both helping do their part with the garden work. It seems to be one of the only ways to get Eddie moving around outside. You should see the look on her face when Frilly the cow comes to the fence. Frilly also seems to really love the plants on our side of the fence. Yesterday, we repaired the fence because Frilly had been so greedy she mostly flattened the fence to get to the "yummy" plants. We'll see whose laughing later...she seems to be just about the right weight to be heading off to....."Cow Island".

More marathon photos....

I did it! I am a marathoner!

Yep, after 16 or so weeks of training, I finally crossed the marathon finish line on Saturday. I woke up pretty nervous, having had a pretty restless sleep the night before. I strained one of my peroneal muscles (lower calf/ankle area) earlier in the week from a run and had been having physio treatment all week on an achy ankle. Still knew I was going to race, but was nervous as to how it would feel for an entire marathon.
I was getting ready in the morning and Bryce came into the lounge with a t-shirt on him, that said "Go Candace Go. You CAN do it". Then a horrible/funny picture of me in the middle of a maple leaf and then underneath it said "The CK You can do it Crew". I was seriously surprised, especially once I re-read the shirt and noticed the "CREW" part. Next thing I know, I am standing around Carl, Denise, Mark, Rachel and Bryce all in the CK CREW t-shirts.

They were an awesome support crew!
So I started the race after waiting in long lineups for the bathroom (as everyone has the "pre-race nervous pees"), and felt great straight through the 5km, and then the 10 km. I saw Bryce and the crew at about 10km and I felt awesome!
I kept moving strong through to the halfway mark, even pacing myself with an older guy who was wearing a marathon club racing shirt so I figured if I stayed at his pace (which I was finding great) then I would be good. I think I got so focused on staying with him I may have drifted a bit close at times and he turned a little and tried to move away from me. Not a chance, sucker!
So I don't know what happened after the 21km (halfway) mark but my tummy stopped feeling good. I was at just over 2 hours running and felt much worse than I normally do after a half marathon. Which was weird, because I thought I had still been "saving myself" for the second half. I had dizziness when I started running again after walking a little bit, I felt nauseaous and just not right. I had been drinking enough water and eating/slurping enough energy drink. SO what was up? I thought maybe I still hadn't had enough food, so I tried sipping on an energy gel that I had had before and loved because it tasted like vanilla icing. Well, maybe creamy energy food, and acidy vanilla icing shouldn't mix......
I pushed on, walking, and saw my CK crew at the 23 km mark, which was a nice turning spot on the back corner of the lake I was running around. I smiled for the cameras and then once I got around the corner and Bryce was with me, I told him how I was feeling. He assured me I just needed to finish the gel I was holding and I probably just needed more food. He was right about needing more food, but the gel wasn't a good idea. I tried to get more in, but instead....I let it ALL out. Yep, I was "that" girl. The runner you see sometimes in race videos where they show the people who struggle through the IRONMAN, or MARATHON who haven't got their food strategy right who are throwing up, bent over on the side of the road. Except, I was a bit stiff, so I was throwing up all straight leggish. It was classy. Bryce even said I had a goob/puke that was coming from my nose right to the ground. (Yep, I even threw up out of my nose). I know some of you don't want specific details but I know I would want to hear that stuff, so for those of you who wanted "the whole story", you're getting it!
So, my face was dripping and I said to Bryce, "I need something to wipe with." He said, "use some of that grass", as he had a nice supporting CK crew shirt on and his hands full of water bottles and food that I had just unloaded onto him. So after cleaning my face off with grass, and Bryce smiling at me and saying, "You're great. You're fine". I continued on my course.
I felt brilliant (or at least as good as one can feel after running a half marathon, walking 3 km and then puking). I didn't feel sick anymore and I was now heading back to the opposite side of the lake, to the FINISH LINE!
The CK CREW really came through on this side of the lake. They leap'frogged me by checking on me and getting my requests: banana halfs, pieces of mandarins (which were a bad idea that they didn't want to give me, but I figured that out as soon as it went in my mouth), flat coke, and yummy electrolyte stuff. They would then jump in the car, fight the traffic of the other supporters' cars and then meet me again further up. They even had cheers planned out, like cheerleader-styles, which were perfected and got better as I got closer to the finish. At times, some of them (including Pam, Andrew and Quentin who had driven over from Tauranga) would run/walk with me to keep my spirits up. I didn't have much trouble in that way. I was mentally ready for the tough battle at the end, and knew that I was going to have to push to get through. Bryce had secretly recorded my parents giving me supportive messages (including songs) and then Bryce put them on my MP3 player so that I had such an awesome surprise at the 33 km mark. I had my friends Rose and Natalie on the MP3 player already and hadn't heard their messages yet, but you can imagine my surprise when all of a sudden my Dad is talking to me and quoting from the story "The Little Engine that Could".
So, with all the support and encouragement, I got across the 42.2 km Rotorua Marathon finish line at about 5 hours and 20 minutes (5:23 I think). Not really any tears, just elation to be finished. Plans for the next marathon? No.
Thanks again to the CK crew. You guys rock!

TRamps at Easter cont...

WE also went tramping/hiking during the weekend. WE tramped 3 hours into a campsite that was set up around some hot springs. Pretty amazing really to tent outdoors, after walking for ages, and feel like you should be in the middle of nowhere (and you actually are!) but there are about 15 others there too and then you see this....

Two tubs, with wooden decking built around them; all placed beside a natural thermal waterfall. What you do is aim the PVC tube towards the waterfall and let the hot water fill the tub until its as hot as you want it. Any cooling can be done with buckets and a short walk to the river to get cold water. I must say, it was tramping in style. A nice soak after a long walk was luxury. Especially when you have to walk 3 hours to get back out the next day! Mom, you would have loved it....although maybe not the walk to get there. It was a bit steep and slippery in places, with a heavy backpack on, and I was freaked out over the cliffs to my right most of the way there. Not that others seemed to be fazed much by the drop off the side of where we were walking, but this Canadian who grew up somewhere flat still has issues with heights!

Tramps at Easter

WE had a great time in Napier for Easter with Carl and Denise....and Jack Johnson. The concert was awesome! It was at a winery and we brought blankets and a picnic dinner and plastic bottles to drink our wine out of (they had banned glass....I thought glass was better for the environment than heaps of plastic...but....I guess not?)
We were pretty close to the stage, but not so close that we were jammed in when the concert really started pumping. Well....as "pumping" as a Jack concert ever gets. It was pretty mellow but perfect for me. I was singing along like I'd known the songs for ever. Even Bryce Bubble was swaying his hips around to a few songs....which meant he had had enough wine...or really liked the music. Or both.
He put on a great show (Jack, not Bryce) and even his opener Matt Costa was great. If you haven't heard the song Mr. Pitiful (by Matt Costa), check it out. Very fun and poppy. My brother Tim would not be one to enjoy it as much as I.....but thats okay, Tim, right? It's been a few years since I was only getting musical influences from your tape collection.
WE watched a 4WDrive competition on the day of the concert which was pretty neat. Pretty much looked like dune buggys going for gold in mud pits and trying to get out of steep ditches. And then all of us "lay-folk" cheering and yelling when someone succeeds and gets out of the mudbog without having to be craned out. Pretty weird actually, but fun. Felt like what crash-em-up derbys must be like for the spectators. "You only get your money's worth if you come home with mud on your face too."

XTERRA

So, I haven't written/updated in too long, but have been working hard and training hard. Taken students to the Volleyball Nationals again, and had our best results yet. Been working at the marathon training and although I have had some bung knee issues over the past few weeks, it seemed to come right this weekend for the Xterra 1/2 marathon. The run was pretty hilly and over some gorgeous trails in Rotorua. The hardest bits were the stairs that went straight up hills. One set weren't even real stairs, just steep trails. Either way, I got through it and finished in 2:20 so only 9 minutes slower than my 1/2 marathon time in Wellington last year (which was super flat!). And no knee issues, so I am feeling great and anxious but excited for the full marathon in May. Drove around the course this weekend and discussed where hills were and what parts I might need extra motivation for and where I need to make sure I keep my head focused when my body is wanting to give up. I have to remember that other "normal" people do marathons all the time. Some guy I heard of today was doing the London Marathon today after having done 6 previous marathons in 6 different countries/continents over the past 6 days! Now that guy will need some tenderness after all that. I only have to do it once, with NO jetlag!
Need to update on the Jack Johnson concert and a great Easter weekend but will do it later. Got school holidays coming up after this week; thrilled to be having the break coming up!