I landed in Wellington, New Zealand last wednesday night - just past midnight. Since my flight was arriving after midnight I found a hotel right near the airport. Before this trip I didn't really pay attention to where NZ was on the map, I had a general idea. Flying from Perth, Australia I had a layover in Melbourne for about an hour or so, each flight was about 3 and a half hours. I left about 11am and by the time I landed in NZ I had gone through 5 different time zones. Even though it was past midnight, for Perth time which i was slightly adjusted to it was only 7pm, which meant stayed up until about 2am. Breakfast was delivered before 9am and my day was started.
Matt & Donna from MAD CF came and picked me up around lunchtime and brought me to where I'd be staying over the weekend. It was a nice place, overlooking the water which had some stunning views. It's hard to find words to describe the essence of NZ - it's absolutely stunning and breath taking. Just from the drive from the airport to Petone which is where I'd be, it was absolutely incredible views...just wait till I post the pictures
After getting comfortable at hotel I got picked up to go check out the place where I'd be teaching course over the weekend. Their CF is great, a nice space and very fun to workout in, I knew it was going to go well over the weekend! Afterwords we went into town for dinner and that was about it, I as feeling a bit of the effects from all the travel and the different time zones - I needed some rest.
Friday worked out in the morning, we went to breakfast and did some swimming in the afternoon, have to keep up with my IM training :). After that I went into Wellington, which is about a 15 minute train from Petone. The city itself is like a mini San Francisco, super cute, fun, hilly, lots of coffee shops and seemed very diverse. I spent most of the afternoon wondering around which is always something I really enjoy doing to get familiar with a new area.
Friday Matt & Donna hosted a small BBQ of some of the folks that would be attending course over the weekend which was fun. Notable from the course was the down pour that we got Saturday afternoon when we were about to start the workout - it wasn't light at all. The weather is quite interesting here, it's quite windy almost always, and the sun can be super intense - I guess there's a whole in the ozone here. 20 minutes in the sun is about all that one can take. I got dark right away - love it!!!!!
Sunday I could feel something coming on, I wasn't sure what it was, but could sense it...turns out with the wind being quite strong peoples allergies can flare up easily, which is something I hadn't prepared for. Towards the afternoon on Sunday it was starting to get to me, but I pushed through it and gave them my best. We had 21 attendees in Perth, and 22 here in NZ.
Monday came and I felt like crap - my head felt like it was going to pop out of my ears. We had picked up some zyrtec(allergy medicine) but it wasn't working fast enough. I managed to get in a workout in the morning and another in the afternoon, but I was in quite a bit of discomfort throughout the day, and a bit tired from coaching course over the weekend - the group was really fun, even had someone come all the way from the middle of Australia, about an 8 hour trip for the course.
Monday night Matt had something that resembled the netti pot and I got busy with it - I didn't use to be a believer but sometime last year I couldn't shake off a sinus headache for awhile and tried it and found immediate relief. This time it worked well once again, I woke up Tuesday still congested, but no headache - yeaaaa!!!! This was great since Donna and I were going to the South Island for a day trip - it was a 3 hour ferry and the views were seriously breath taking, coming in through the sounds and docking in Picton.
We spent the day near by, we looked into going to some of the near by places, but it was too expensive or too late in the day, so we had a lunch in town and did a great 3-4 hour very near by which was the perfect way to spend the day. The weather was incredible too, nice and warm clear sunny skies. We came back on the ferry later that afternoon.
Wednesday Matt had a work meeting that he had to drive to, which was about 3 hours away and I tagged along and got to see a lot of the North Island thanks to this opportunity. During his meeting I managed to do a 30 mile bike ride (super windy - great IM training) and then we drove a little further to Lake Taupo which is where IM New Zealand takes place and it's a sight that words can't even begin to describe. We also went to Huka falls, had lunch and made our way back to Wellington. On the drive I saw the most incredible nature display, volcanoes, trees of all sorts, desert - yes in the middle of all this, and lots of sheep!!!
It's Thursday now and I return to San Diego tomorrow night, I've had the chance to see quite a bit of NZ during my short stay thanks to my gracious hosts Matt & Donna. New Zealand is beyond amazing, it'd be super fun to do a backpacking trip for 3 months here with my brother sometime - maybe someday...
I'll be posting pictures from entire trip this weekend - stay tuned :)
