We went on a holiday...

That's right, Tim and I went on a holiday - and not a work related one. Treats! He had a lot of leave owing so thought he'd take a few days during school holidays to pop down and visit his brother and sister-in-law in the beautiful Coromandel.

We were gone 5 WHOLE DAYS which was sooo wonderful!

We relaxed, fished, hiked, beached, went on lots of walks and did some more relaxing and WE LOVED IT! Classic Kiwi beach holiday!

The first day we headed over to Whitianga to check out Cathedral Cove, and on our way we came across this guy and his strange but cute pets...

OK, this pig is not so cute but he has a 4 day old piglet under his jumper which was SUPER cute!

 Got to admit, it was a little bit strange and I'm not sure if this guy has (or would ever have) a girlfriend, but he was friendly enough. The pigs and chickens, and there were peacocks too, just roamed around and lay all over the road and side of the road... Never seen anything like it before! They were all very friendly animals though, never harm anyone.

 After the pigs we moved on to this lovely spot...

Can you guess why it's called Cathedral Cove??

 For all you non-Kiwi readers and Narnia fans, this is the beach where the beach scenes from The Lion, Witch and The Wardrobe and Prince Caspian was filmed. It's our claim to fame and what put NZ on the map I think... After Lord of The Rings.

We hiked up and over to get there first... We were happier than we looked!

Inside Cathedral Cove looking out... Gorgeous Beach!

 Tim and I had some cuddle time and I forgot to suck in my tummy... Or turns out you can't actually do that when you're preggers?!?

This is part of the land that split off from the mainland after many years of weathering... Sooo cool!

Awww so cute!

The In-laws... Lucky no rocks fell on them. I'm NOT being sarcastic, promise, love these peeps!

 The next day we headed up the coast a bit and did a spot of fishing. Matt took the long line out in the Kayak and it was a team effort getting it all back in... Apart from me, I took the photos.

Tim looking super proud with some of the day's catch.

 A hard earned lunch... Chip and Dip sandwiches... YUM! By the way, you have to wear blue clothes to fit into this family... It's kind of regulation. Since you're just new Kirsty, we'll let you off. But at least your beanie is blue!

And this was our lovely room at Matt and Kirsty's bach-house which was stunningly decorated all beach themed. It was pretty cool!

All and all it was a great holiday, we had an awesome time with family and got in some much needed relaxing before coming back to set up my class room and for Tim to get stuck into some more house reno work... Fun times!

The sweet life of CRG...

On Monday night, after work, my husband and I travelled 2 hours down to Auckland where Tim was to be doing some business training for the next two days. Thanks to having the sweet life of semi-employment I had no work over these last two days so decided to tag along with him, hang out in the hotel, go shopping and order room service all day long (not really, but I wish).

The hanging in the hotel is easy, I have been watching the Olympics - and LOVING IT! The shopping was more like window shopping thanks to the speeding ticket we managed to get on the way down - seriously though, the cop must have been bored because it was only 3kms over the limit... DOH! And the ordering room service is actually more like going to New World metro and getting a few snacks... But didn't it sound so much more luxurious before you knew all of this?

Bed + computer + Olympics = bliss!

So yesterday morning I was thinking that I would go and run along the waterfront, part of the course for the Auckland Marathon, but the weather was a little bit crappy and I thought I'd like to make the most of the hotel gym. Therefore I did my key run #1 on the treadmill. I ran my 1000m repeats at 12.5km/h rate with a 1% incline and this pretty much killed me. My rest interval was a mix of walking and lite jogging. I wanted to end with a round time too so ended up staying on the tready for an hour, made easy by being able to watch the Equestrian at the same time. I never knew I liked Equestrian until yesterday!

This morning I did my cross training session on the bike in the gym, did only 40 minutes and then honestly, I got a bit bored! Oops.

Now, because hotels tend to have this 'you have to check out, you can't stay in bed all day watching Olympics' rule, I have to pack up our room and get out by 11. Tim doesn't finish until 4.30ish today so I am going to catch up with one of my favourite friends and her two kidlets for the arvo, and maybe get in a visit to my brother. What treats!

Now just so you know, I am starting a full time job in a month's time, thus the reason I am making the most of this being able to travel around with Tim staying in hotels and being a lady of leisure (with the odd day or two of work in between too). Because when I start my job in a month, I imagine it is going to be all consuming of my life... JOY!

What sports have you surprised yourself by enjoying at the Olympics this year?

Definitely the Equestrian, weightlifting and the odd spot of fencing - so surprised about this one, never thought I would enjoy that! 

What are your not-so-guilty pleasures when you don't have much work on?

Do you prefer treadmill training or out on the road? 

Pretty much always the road, but the treadmill can be kinda good for repeats since you need to measure your distance - esp. if there is no track near by for you to use. However, I just don't think I push myself as hard as I can on a treadmill.   

Holiday perks...

The perks of being a school teacher MUST be the holidays! Two weeks of holidays every 10 weeks and then 6 weeks of holidays over summer - the sweet life. I suppose I earn them too, but that's totally beside the point!

So this is what I have been up to...

Week one of holidays I was sick in bed - one of the not-so-perky-perks of being a school teacher. So week two I have taken my 15 year old brother back to this place to relive some of my glory days spend some time hanging out with our cousies that are the same age as him!

Here's what we have been up to while we have been in the land of freezing Rotovegas...

This is the view from the kitchen window - the lake is just over those trees

Wednesday we went to visit this mountain - Ruapehu

My little bro, me and my cousin looking to cool for school in our snow gear

This morning I went for my 10km run and went past this beautiful site

Not going to show you the uber unattractive photo I took of myself during my run in case my husband sees it and decides he doesn't want me to come back home!

Also ran past these dudes just munching on some grass.

Cute but annoying dog - Poppy! 

So we've done some skiing up the mountain, I've been running in 3° temps where I almost lost my fingers and didn't know it, and we've been enjoying some good ol' family time. This afternoon the boys are going skating and I am going to check out the shops and have afternoon tea with my Aunty - holidays are sweet.

Back to Poppy, the dog... She's not even one and she has this crazy weird obsession with licking people. I know you think this is a normal dog obsession, and it is, but she likes to lick people's clothing - namely jeans. It's yuck! I think going out of the house with dog-licked jeans has got to be worse than a Mum leaving the house with baby spew down their backs. What do you think?

So there's my holidays in a nutshell, heading back home to the hubster tomorrow which I am looking forward to and so is he as he has finished all the food I cooked and left for him a day EARLY! Gasp!

What do you like to get up to when you have time off work or wee holidays?? Do you have an animal with a weird obsession?

A fun marathon... Is that an oxymoron???

In finding my last marathon a bit of a struggle (that's an understatement - it was a MAJOR struggle), I had decided that for this one I wanted to try to beat my time, but most importantly I wanted to enjoy it and even try to... wait for it... MAKE IT FUN!! Gasp!

Slugging it out in the Auckland marathon - not even at half way yet!

So here's what I came up with to make a marathon fun... And yes, IT IS ACTUALLY POSSIBLE!!
(warning, some photos beyond this point may offend)

10 musts for a fun marathon:

1. The first is the most obvious - train hard so you know you have put the effort in to actually get you to the finish

2. Smile every chance you get - if not for the WHOLE marathon

3. Encourage other runners - this always makes you feel so much better

4. Have a laugh at the funny signs people are holding up along the course. For example, these two guys were carrying a sign on the sidelong along several parts of the course that said: 'Hurry up, we want coffee!' Didn't really get it but thought it was worth a laugh. Or my all time favourite at the Auckland Marathon: 'Nek minnit... Finished!' Classic.

5. Make sure you look good before you start. Have a good looking kit to wear and make sure you feel GOOD in it!

6. Or if the running gear ain't doing it for ya' dress up if there's a theme or just because you feel like it - such as the tinman seen in this post, and like this guy:

or this guy:

7. Fist pump whenever you get the chance - such as when you see someone you know, someone cheers for you, or just because you CAN!

8. Encourage, cheer for and even offer lollies (if you have them) to the marshals and drink station peeps - trust me, they LOVE it! Especially if there are kids!

9. Have some funkadelic beats playing on your iPod, or run with a buddy so you can have company. If all that fails, do what I do and just make mates with someone along the course - that's fun and then you have someone to encourage and someone to encourage you!

10. Last but definitely NOT least, and probably the most important especially for your first marathon... CROSS THE FINISH LINE WITH YOUR ARMS IN THE AIR!! 'I throw my hands up in the air sometimes...' You know it, sing along :)

So... That's about all I can think of for how to make a marathon (or any other race) FUN! That's right folks, you heard it here first, running CAN BE FUN! How do you make running fun? Is there anything you can think of that I didn't? Would love to hear what sorts of fun things you do to get you through.

Happy Runner Girl

There it is, 'The Im-having-fun-running-this-marathon thumbs up and smile!' 

If i can do it you can do it too! 

Runner Girl