the rotorua run!

well after lots of training and preparing.. i entered the 10km, and Hamish did the 21km. i was freaking out thinking i would come last, but yeah both did suprisingly well... i came 86th out of a pack of 400.. (11th in my catagory) and hamish got 26th out of about 650 people.. (11th in his catagory)... we were both pretty stoked.. felt it was not to bad going for my first adult running race. hmm now need something new to train for... london half? anyone else keen?

bad TASTE indeed

Ohope outdone itself with the worst outfits imaginable for nat's going away party... what an awesome night.. booze and ugly costumes, can't top it!

Easter - Jack Johnson, Frisbie, big surf, happy hour & family

had a tip top easter! Lots of Wines, chocolate, beach - chilled times, and sweet sweet music! 

We went down to Taranaki for Jack Johnson, and spent the long weekend with Hamish's family in Fitzroy.  Had a few days to chill out before my family came to stay, and the flatties from ohope.  We had the meeting of the parents for the first time, which went no worries, and they got on like a house on fire. (My stressing was for nothing.)

The concert was AMAZING! Hamish's mum had organised a tasty picnic for all of us enjoy, and when Jack came out, he turned it on bigtime. He just cruzed out in his jandals and played his songs, and it was all so relaxed and chilled. 

Spent a heap of time showing everyone the Naki sights, loads of time at the beach and indulging in happy hour. The surf got up to about 7foot while we were there, and the boys braved it. The surf is really different down there! huge dumpy waves.. not really my cuppa, so played lots of frisbie and games of touch on the beach. It was a sweet weekend, was cool to have that time with the family before boosting, and show the boys around Taranaki. 

xxx

Mount Edgecombe Tramp, and the Lake Tawarewa falls

What a weekend - bananna chips, BBQ's, Bush whacking, and Beach extra large wines.

Well... after almost a year of driving down to Ohope, and seeing Mount Edgecombe, WE finally did the day tramp up to the top. In true us style, we got a weeny bit lost, and a 2 hour walk took a good five. We ended up bush whacking, without a whacker... hmmm... not fun! got totally scratched up and was pushed to breaking point! Views from the top were unbelievable, and was totally breathtaking, and amazing to have done... howewer I'm beginning to wonder about tramping, i dont think it agrees with me at all, so it may be the last for a while!
After the mission down, we did another short tramp to the Lake Tawarewa falls. Pretty outstanding as well, and after the morning was great to jump in the lake and have a swim.
x

Matakana - Kama's wedding and Auckland

Another awesome weekend, this time up in Northland for Kama's Wedding, and Auckland catchups. Weather was absolutly miserable, and poured down almost the whole time! lots of coffee's in the cafes avoiding the wind and rain!

Boosted up on Friday night, and spent the weekend in Hamish's family appartment. Such a sweet spot! It's right in the heart of the city, which is pretty cool that everything is such a short stroll away.

Went up to Matakana on Saturday with Koren and bloody hell we were late because she had been boozing to hard the night before! We only saw the 'I do's', how embarrasing!
Felt very Auckland with high heals on, and sinking into the mud, beautiul place though, loads of vineyards, and rolling hills. Love it.
She got married in a quaint little church because it was wet, and was followed by a reception at the local hall. So beauts to see her, and little Tegan. Aww...

Sunday was lazy and hungover for both hamish and I - He went to the Auckland races with some boozy uni mates, and got on it hard!

One of the bfm summer series concerts was on in Albert park on sunday, so we went and chilled for the avo and watched MC tiki do his stuff! Was mean. That sort of treat makes me miss the city.

Had an appointment on Monday and opened our UK bank account.. wheels in motion now, things are slowly and surely coming together!

Zzz 24th birthday

well.. hi there all!

cheers for all the thoughts, texts and emails from you guys on my birthday. i felt super special and had the most awesome day! On the 13th I had to go to work which was better than expected... wrangled an extended lunch break, and popped over the road for a pub lunch... then got back to work and they put on a yummy caramel cake for afternoon tea which was a treat!

Hamish took me out for dinner that night, and completly Spoilt ME, totally got wined and dined!

On saturday night a decent crew all made the effort to come and out and celebrate in style, which was pretty humbling! Was a bloody good night out in Tauranga, it had been ages since everyone had caught up, and was tops to see everyone! We Started at Amphora for dinner. Everyone took full opputunity of the BYO wine, and enjoyed all the pasta for dinner.

After a few hours of boozing, eating and catching up On to town we went. The strand was in FULLSWING! the pubs were all packed, and ozzing onto the street, so we found ourselves on the street outside the usual suspects dancing and drinking jaga bombs.. it was loads of fun! lots of laughs and goodtimes. cant remember what time we got home.. i just cooked up hotchips and crashed before eating them!

24 is going to be a bloody good year... ive decided its the year of New Experiences... oh yeah!

xx

The Lake Waikaremona Great Walk

Well guys thought I should post up again, since it has been another full on few weeks.

Did the lake waikaremona great walk… What an awesome experience. If you ever get the chance it is an absolute MUST because it makes the soul feel good. A wee word of warning though, the one and a half hours of windy gravel road before you begin is absolutely AWFUL!! I’m guessing it does probably have to be one of the worst roads in NZ. Pretty classic though, it’s like you are driving on someone’s farm. Horses, pigs and cows, greet you and they are all just cruzing around on the main road…

With packs full of food, and loaded up with water, Hamish and I started the tramp at the Onepoto end, and proceeded up the bluff on the first day. Not to bad a walk and the views are absolutely breathtaking! We then kept going to the Panikiri hut about 1000m high and we hung out in the clouds! You can defiantly notice the difference it altitude, was much colder and damper up there. The vegetation was like I’d never seen before, the trees had buggar all leaves, and because of the dampness, moss was the main vegetation.

It was quite fun cooking on the little cooker, and playing cards in the hut, and camping out like you would if you were at school. Meet a great bunch from the hospital in whakatane and ended up playing so many games of five crowns with them, that I actually dreamt I was playing cards in my sleep.

Day two was pretty horrible. From nowhere the weather turned shit, and well.. I forgot a raincoat and I had to wear a couple of thermals to try stay warm and dry. Because of the rain, the track was pretty slick, and I ended up bailing quite a number of times and getting massive $2 coin sized bleeding blisters on my feet... what did Hamish like to call it? oh that’s right… “Character building”… ha. Sensing my despair he gave me his raincoat, and he wore a low-cost rubbish sack and the day improved from there.

We went to an amazing waterfall, which was a highlight of the day, by the time we reached Manauiti Hut that evening the weather had improved, and the drizzle had stopped. The day of tramping was about 8 or so hours and man did the food taste good that night!

The hut was right on the water, and it was bliss to be able to swim in the lake. It felt so good to be so far removed from day to day stuff, and there was something so refreshing about getting into the bush and away from everything. The third day to the water taxi pick up point was about a 6-hour tramp, and was a pretty easy stroll, and our packs were way lighter as all the food and water had gone. SO Yeah that was waikermoana.. goodtimes and character building. I know next time to go prepared for anything oh and will totally take a bottle of wine.. After tramping almost 50km in 3days you need some sort of reward! Hope everyone is back into the swing of things at work..

Can’t believe its mid Feb already! xx

Summer Days

Well guys, hope this reaches everyone well, and rested after holidays.

For those in NZ, hasn't it been theeee most sensational summer EVER!

and those overseas hope you got to kick around in some sweet spots over the globe.

by the status thingy on facebook, seems like everyone had a mean one!

I thought it was about time that I get sorted and throw together the chaos that is my life and get into this blogging business and aim to keep in touch and keep a little bit organised.

Had an amazing summer. Spent about a week in Waihi Beach. Was top family time, and caught up with loads of mates that migrated back to the Beach. Heaps of wines and Pimms where indulged in. Got to go to the Black seeds and spent New Years at the pub watching 'the dudes' and singing along to all the oldies with a bloody good crew. On the 1st of Jan, Me & Hamish boosted down to lake Rotiwiti for about 5 days, and had a fantastic time with Hamish's family going waterskiing, sailing, fishing, kayaking, lots of swimming and sunbathing... after that spent a few laxed beautiful days in Ohope. Perfect holiday, i totally felt like I was a kid again!

I've finally got my flights booked to London. Can't bloody wait. Feels like an enternity of saving, and I still don't have enough! Thats right people's! Hamish and I have our bums on a Thai airways flight to Bangkok on the 12th of June, going via south east asia for six weeks... Thailand/ Cambodia / Laos and Vietnam then arrive into Heathrow. Mean! Really keen to explore! Shet load of planning to do before hand, visas, insurance, bank account etc. Quite daunting but I'm sure I'll get there. I finishing up at work at the beggining of May and heading down south to do Outward bound for approx a month. This is something that I've always wanted to do, so I thought It would be pretty cool to start off the big OE with an Intrepid South Island adventure. If anyone has advice about SE Asia, or London, would gladly love to hear it!

January has been such an awesome month, had Hayley's wedding which was so special to be a part of. It was a perfect day, lots of smiles, tears of happiness and Love. She was absolulty stunning.

Hamish and I have been a list of stuff we are trying to do before we go, so the adventures have begun now! NZ is so amazing and want to make the most of it all before we head off. We did the Pinnicles day tramp in Thames which was like something from the lost worlds! Well worth it if you haven't already. Heading down to Lake Waikaremona for the 3day tramp this weekend which I can't wait for. Fingers crossed the weather is primo.

I hope that I can catch up with everyone before I shoot off, let me know how life is going, would love to hear from you all, i'll try and post up stuff on a regular basis, so ill email a link every now and then...

love love. xx