Keeping active on holiday

Happy New Year everyone! I hope you all had a lovely time and celebrated in style!! I had a lovely time, first with a few days at the beach with my family, followed by a week with Tim and his family at their holiday home. Was nice to have a whole week off with Tim as well, not to mention being by the beach too!

This post, I hope, will encourage you to be, and stay, active whilst on holiday. I made it my mission to be as active as I could - mostly because I just ate my way through Christmas and into the New Year... Oops.

Is that the baby getting bigger or just my stomach? Can't tell but we'll just say (and hope) it's the baby... haha.

So here are some of my activities that I did to stay active on holiday, plus a few more ideas chucked in there too... Especially some things that I am not doing whilst preggers...

1. I did lots of walking -  because where Tim's family bach (holiday home) is, a lot of 4WD is required, over quite rough and bumpy terrains, therefore I would often walk a lot. I would either start walking half an hour or so before everyone else did and then get them to pick me up on the way, or I would get dropped off and walk back. I would also just get out and walk certain bits as well, including some seriously nasty hills... Yikes! As I am no longer running I didn't run, but you could substitute the walking for running if you liked.

2. I LOVE Kayaking so made it my little hobby to go for my daily Kayak - great for the arms and upper body!

I know I don't look too happy but trust me, I'm totally in my happy place here.

3. Fishing - we did lots of this, of which I thoroughly enjoyed... See photo above. This doesn't really require a lot of activity, more just standing around, but we would often have a fair hike to get to the 'perfect' fishing spot so that is where the activity comes in.

Three girls in our fishing uniform... We accidently were all wearing similar striped tops... Ah great minds!

4. As it is our summer holiday (sorry for all you people in winter right now!) and we were right near the beach, swimming is definitely a MUST! It is the best way to stay active in the hot weather and still be refreshed and not die in the heat!

5. Other options could also be getting out and playing sports - on the beach, in a paddock or on the front lawn. Soccer, cricket, tennis, you name it, it's a fun and social way to stay active.

6. Surfing and paddle boarding are also great for all you surf bunnies out there. Something I would have been very keen to get into this summer had there not been a slight issue of a wee bump in the way :)

And after all of this active-ness relaxation is a MUST! After all, isn't this what holidays are all about?

My other happy place - shade with my book - bliss!

How do you keep active on holiday?

How do you like to relax after an active day?
 

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 perks of a teacher and a banker...

At the moment it is school holidays which, you guessed it, means two weeks off!! Well, sort of anyway, maybe it's more like 2 weeks to get the teacher's work done without any students around...

I was supposed to be at school most of this week planning for the term to come, however I couldn't resist tagging along on Tim's work trip to the 'big smoke', a.k.a Auckland. I am from a reasonably small city so it's always exciting getting to go with Tim and stay in some swanky digs and pretend like I am posh.

We arrived late Monday night to this delightful little apartment which is right in the Viaduct...

My little setup in the corner to do school work (or stalk some blogs, whatever)

On Tuesday morning I thought I'd get up and go for a wee run, reliving some of the glory from the Auckland marathon course, since I won't be running it this year.

I thought you'd like to see what I looked like first thing in the morning with a 19 week bump and wearing my ugliest race tee shirt, so I took this photo for you. And because I thought you'd like to see the most unflattering photo of me that I think has ever been taken... Ha!

I ran about 4km but didn't wear my belly belt, so then walked the other 4 kms. Now when I run I just look a bit like a fat kid trying to catch up to all the other kids miles ahead in the cross country... Yikes! I can't really go too far without the lovely ol' belly belt on as it starts to get a bit uncomfortable/sore. On my walk I enjoyed sites like these:

The Viaduct where all the fancy peoples' boats are parked

A lovely shot of the Sky Tower in behind all the swanky boats

After I got back I did some school work in the apartment and then got dolled up to do some window shopping and have lunch with my sister in law... Coz that's how I roll when I am a lady of leisure...

Just threw this one in so you know that I didn't look as horrid as that first pic ALL day!

 This morning I got up nice and early to head home so I could hit my fave mall on the way, then get some hours in at school. Yip, posh time was over! But before all of that I parked up at a sweet little cafe and had this delicious and nutricious breakie...

You just can't beat good muesli, fresh fruit and natural yoghurt to start the day!

Now I am home and Tim won't get back til tomorrow so I'll probably just eat ice cream for dinner... Oops!

Oh, and I just HAVE to tell you about the BEST yoghurt I have just discovered! I saw it advertised in a magazine a few weeks ago and hadn't managed to find it in the two supermarkets I usually go to, but then tried another one and found it. I was delighted! Here it is... If you want to find it in Whangarei you can only find it at Countdown at the moment. Hopefully everyone else gets it soon because I normally nevs evs shop there.

Collective Skinny Greek Yoghurt... YUM!!

 They had about 6 or so different flavours to choose from, like tart cherry, passionfruit, and more, but I wasn't going to buy all of them so just chose berry flavour. It was sooo good. It's got no added sugar OR sweeteners, it's low in fat and high in protein and it's just so good! Goes really well with some fresh fruit and probs is super delish on muesli in the morning. The only problem is that the tub isn't big enough and it's more in the price range of the gourmet yoghurts... Will have to be my sneaky indulgence.

This was the wee treat I got when I took off the lid. So true!

So that's the start of my school holidays in a nutshell. Not too exciting, I know, but on Friday we are heading off on our real holiday for 5 days to relax and catch up with some of Tim's family down in the Coromandel... Bliss! Can't wait.

If you're on holiday right now, what are your plans? Doing anything exciting?

What's your favourite yoghurt or your sneakiest indulgence?
 

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?