Buying a New Car - it's electric!

Kane has been researching electric vehicles for a very long time now. As a result, I have become quite familiar with various video bloggers (and their cats, - Hi Jensen!) who have been building their own EVs or testing out ones already coming to market.

I was very interested when Kane told me about the Hyundai Kona with its impressive 400km+ range. I got to test drive one at an EV expo and I was sold. At the weekend we went to visit the show room and we put in our order. I couldn't be more excited!

In some countries, like Norway, the waiting list is 2 years!  I was assured it wouldn't be that long, but it could be anywhere between 6 weeks and 6 months.  The dealer gave us a loan of the car overnight, so between 4.30pm on Saturday and 10am on Sunday we got feel like EV owners and get a taste for what's to come.

We headed for the motorway to test out just what this thing can do.  I put some pressure on the pedal and was immediately pressed back into my seat as it took off. Holy cow it's powerful! 

I tested the 3 different drive modes - drive, sport and eco.  Drive was just the normal mode. Eco makes the car feel heavier, changes the dash display to give more stats on how much energy you are saving and maximizes the regenerative braking.  I think that I will use this for city and suburban driving.  Sport mode made the car feel much lighter and reponsive, the slightest touch and the car was ready to go, turn or whatever was asked of it and I was a bit scared of it's power.  I can't imagine ever really needing to use this mode as the normal drive mode was is responsive enough for me.  Jetting away from the traffic lights was plenty fast in normal drive mode!

I also tested out the 3 levels of regenerative braking and using the stearing wheel paddles to increase the regenerative braking to bring the car to a stop.  I try to be a safe and economical driver when slowing down in traffic or coming to a stop and using the paddles fit with my way of driving and I can put energy back into the battery braking in this way.

There were heaps of other modern features that my 8 year old car doesn't have so I'm excited to have Apple Car Play and automatic lights and rain sensing windscreen wipers!

The only downside is that I have to wait but I'm super hopeful that I'll have it before my sister and her husband comes to visit so that there will be enough space to pick them AND their luggage up from the airport!

A New Ballet Class (and How I'm Better at Starts than Follow Through)

I love beginnings, from opening a fresh jar of coffee to starting a new knitting project.  There is something very special about beginnings. They are full of potential.

Spring is really starting to ramp up and with labour weekend coming up its the traditional time of year to get out in the garden and get things started.

Last week I signed up for a new ballet initiation course at the Auckland Academy of Adult Ballet (AAAB).  I did a few beginners ballet classes on my lunch break back in 2014 (blogged here) at a different dance studio but the experience at this new studio is very different and I prefer it.

//From AAAB website

Before the first class we were sent an email with guidelines for what to wear (1. comfortable workout clothes like leggings and a t-shirt 2. socks or ballet slippers) and we were advised to wear hair in a bun.  This is to allow the teacher to keep check on our posture and positioning and help correct errors.

On the night we were met at the entrance by our teacher and as the others arrived we got to meet our fellow class participants.  The only thing we had in common was that we were all female as there was a variety of heights, shapes & sizes, ages, ethnicities, abilities, etc. 

We got given an induction pack that included a headband and a car sticker - nice touches I thought - and the head/owner introduced herself and talked over the contents of the pack including how to access all the instructional videos at home! I've since used these videos and it great for at home practise and remembering arm positions and what tendu means!

The first class was very basic, but I very quickly remembered from 2014 just how deceptively difficult it is.  Only in ballet can standing up straight be such a workout and then moving the arms overhead be such a core workout!

//From AAAB Instagram (not my class)

And we were given homework!  We have 2 different exercises that we have to do every day and I get the feeling that this will grow in time.

I left feeling great and slightly taller :D

//A terrible picture of me

It was the next day that I had found my 5 year plan that I had written in 2014 and I was so saddened to see that I had not made any progress on any of my health and fitness goals - although, I did make lots of progress but then I stopped and now I'm right back where I started.  The worst part of ballet class was seeing myself in the wall length mirror and I was actually surprised at how large I am - my internal vision of myself just doesn't match up with what I see.

My goals are still valid and achievable, but while I'm really good at starting, I'm less good about seeing it through.  I've looked through this blog at all the things I've started and I am embarrassed that I am no further forward.  I even considered starting a new blog because there's only so many couch-to-5k blog posts that could be seen as acceptable on one blog, but that would just further enforce the pattern.

So its time to start again - start everything again - and this time the focus is on sticking with it and seeing it through so that maybe next year, when my 5 year plan is up I will actually have achieved, or at least be pretty close to achieving, my goals.

This Blog Turned 10!

This blog turned 10 on the 31st August, the day before my own birthday.  I was in Scotland at the time, visiting family, taking a little side trip to Oslo, Norway and the main event was my nephews wedding.

//Photos from our trip to Oslo, Norway

While it was this blogs birthday I was visiting Dunfermline Abbey, ogling Andrew Carnegie's birthplace and enjoying the many squirrels and crows in Pittencrief Park.  (Fun Fact: there are no crows or squirrels in New Zealand.)

//Photos from our day in Dunfermline

On my birthday, by coincidence, a family reunion had been organised.  It was fun, nostalgic and emotional in equal parts and I'm grateful that I was able to attend.

//My Mum (in the middle) with her sister and brothers

The following week was the wedding of my nephew Billy which is what prompted the visit and again a good time was had enjoying the company of family, friends and new friends.

//Photos from Billy's wedding

While some blogging years have been quite lean and others have been more prolific, I'm glad to have this little space on the internet :)

Happy birthday blog!

China Anniversary Trip: Day 1

We flew from Auckland, NZ to Sydney, Australia and then had a long wait at the airport for our flight to Beijing, China but we kept ourselves entertained.  I didn't quite realise how long the flight to China would be, anything less than the 30 hour journeys to visit family in Scotland seems short!  I also didn't realise just how big Australia is, it took hours to fly over it.

We arrived at Beijing airport quite late at night and the trains stop running about 11pm but we had planned to get a taxi anyway.  Happily the signs were in English as well as Chinese so we followed the directions to get the official taxi ranks.  We had the name of the hotel written down in Chinese so we could show the driver and we were able to just relax and enjoy our midnight ride into Beijing CBD.

Our hotel was amazing and modernly fancy with big LCD screens in lobby.  This was definitely a very special vacation.

The next day, feeling refreshed and ready to start our adventure, we decided to take a walk around and get to know our surroundings a bit better.

Our hotel is part of the World Trade Centre, with a fancy shopping mall underneath and lots of nice restaurants and eateries.  And right outside is the CCTV building.

We came across a figure skating competition happening in the ice rink that was in the mall.  The kids were so cute and Kane and I were reminded of our own ice skating lessons.

People (family members, I presume) would through teddy bears and other stuffed toys onto the ice as the skater took their bows.

We found a grocery store and picked up some breakfast and light meal supplies then after dropping them off in our room we went to the Temple of the Sun Park.

The road along to the Temple of the Sun houses lots and lots of embassies and Kane and I had fun identifying all the flags.

Turns out you're not supposed to take pictures.

Being here made me so happy; listening to the sounds of music and watching people having fun.

 

  I found out that this bird is a type of magpie and I just loved its colours.

 

The park was full of different activities, from these ladies dancing, to people singing to playing mahjong, cards, chess, table tennis to using the exercise equipment and climbing wall.

After wandering around fully soaking up the sights and sounds we headed back to our hotel and the pub to have a nice beer and get ready for our first tour the following day.

The Great Pumpkin Carnival

At the weekend we went to the Great Pumpkin Carnival in Hamilton. 

We went to this for the first time last year (which I mentioned in this post: Weekend Recap) and had a fun experience but this year I wanted to take part in the pumpkin baking contest.  The clocks went back an hour at 2am on Sunday morning so I had the luxury of a little extra sleep before I started baking.

I made pumpkin chocolate chip muffins and they were barely out of the oven before we taste tested them.  We 'taste tested' a half dozen of them and selected the 4 best looking ones for the box before jumping in the car for the 1.5 hour road trip down to Hamilton.



// Pumpkin chocolate chip muffins for the baking contest

I love a good road trip and I love driving in the Waikato, the countryside scenery reminds me of home.

Once we arrived in Hamilton Gardens I went and registered my muffins.  There were 3 categories, Muffins & Scones, Pumpkin Cake, and Pumpkin Pie.  Then we wandered around to look at the pumpkins entered into the other contests.

It was very visually satisfying to look at the entrants into the Most Perfect Pumpkin and Best Mature Miniature Pumpkin categories.

// Perfect pumpkins

I loved some of the Carved Pumpkins and Best Names Creations and I think I may also enter into this category next year too.

// Carved Pumpkins

// Best Named Creations

// Pumpkins everywhere!

We took a break from pumpkins, got some tasty dairy free ice blocks and wandered around the roses and other parts of the gardens we hadn't been to before.

 

We had some lunch and saw some square dancing that was happening nearby - it's a different world outside of the city!

 

// Hamilton Gardens

We returned to the pumpkins in time for the Pumpkin Racers.  The crowd were quite enthusiastic.

// Pumpkin Racers

The giant pumpkins are very popular and there are two categories, Heaviest Pumpkin Over 200kgs and Heaviest Pumpkin Under 200kgs.  Tim Harris has won in the over 200kgs category for the past 5 years and his winner last year and again this year has been a record breaker!  This years winning weight was 789.5kg while the second place one was 260kg - amazing!

// Giant pumpkins

I was absolutely delighted to find my muffins had come second place!  I'd never entered a baking contest before and it was so exciting to take part, I never expected to place.  I'm already thinking about next years event and all the categories I want to enter haha!

// 2nd Place Muffins!

All the competition results are on the Great Pumpkin Carnival website.

Have you ever entered a baking or vegetable competition?  If you have any good pumpkin recipes let me know in the comments!

My First Kayaking Adventure

This was our second public holiday Monday in a row - woohoo long weekend!  On the Sunday I went to the SciFi book club where my friend Kelly and I got talking about kayaks and she invited me to go kayaking the following day.

So, on Monday morning Kane and I headed over to Kelly's place and helped to load two kayaks onto her car.  She's recently got a new car and had bars installed on the roof so it was quite straight forward loading up the two kayaks, although we did try a couple of different configurations first!

Since Kelly still had the foam blocks she used with her old car, we stuck them on my little vehicle and secured the third kayak to my roof.

Loading Kayaks

Then we were off!  I've never driven with anything attached to the outside of my car before so I was a bit nervous about it.  Driving didn't feel any different which only made me more worried that I had dropped the kayak on the road and not noticed!  I kept checking in my mirrors to make sure nothing was left behind.  The scariest part was crossing the harbour bridge.  On the way back it was a bit windier and the ropes made loud vibrating noises but still it was all fine.  It was an interesting experience!

We parked up at the marina and I pointed to the boats in front and asked Kelly if that's where we were going, and she told me no and pointed behind us.  I could only see a grassy slope, beyond which was the motorway, so I was curious as to where we were going.  It turns out that on the other side of the slope is St Mary's Bay, which is perfect for the beginner kayaker.  We carried the kayaks onto the beach and launched into the water.



St Mary's Bay

I walked into the water a little with the kayak and managed to slide onto it and sit comfortably first time.  I was surprised at how stable it was.  All 3 kayaks were slightly different and we took turns in each one and they were all easy to get in and out of.

We took a paddle around the bay and my rowing technique needs a lot of work!  I managed to splash myself with my paddle a few times.  Sometimes it was a bit tricky to steer but I managed to avoid crashing into anyone or anything!  I also didn't capsize which was a concern of mine, but even in the smaller and narrower kayak it didn't feel likely.

Kelly and Kane taking a rest

Kane wore board shorts and a singlet, and Kelly and I wore gym gear - capri pants and racer back singlets.  They both went bare foot but I kept my jandals on because I don't like being barefoot in the sea but the only time I stood in the sea was getting in and out of the kayak.  And because you sit on top of these kayaks, water resistant sun block on the legs and feet is a good idea.

My upper half only got splashed by my own poor rowing technique but my bottom got a little damp, mostly from the smaller kayak.  Quick drying gym gear was the right choice here because I was already dry by the time we finished packing up.  I brought a change of clothes just in case, but I didn't need them.

We didn't have any life jackets and St Mary's bay is sheltered enough for us to have taken that risk, but if we were going anywhere else we'd need to buy or hire them and I had such a great time that I hope to do more kayaking in the future.



Me, trying not splash myself with my paddle

Afterwards,  Kane and I headed to the pub to spend the afternoon watching the rest of the Super Bowl.  All in all, a very good day.

Have you ever tried kayaking, or would you consider it?

Long Weekend

I've just had a lovely lazy long weekend.

It started on Friday evening when I went to the mall and picked up my lovely new Starbucks cup, 2 OPI nail polishes and some pretty Christmas decorations from Kikki.K.

My new Starbucks cup

On Saturday it was raining so we did some housework and grocery shopping for the week and then spent the rest of the day playing computer games and then watched some TV.

Sunday was devoted to watching sports and it started early at 4am with the NZ v South Africa rugby semi final - it was a real nailbiter and I was relieved when NZ won.  Then we had 2 NHL games to watch, Leafs v Canadiens and Red Wings v Canuks.  The Leafs played well but the opposing goal tender is just a machine!  And Kane was happy that the Red Wings won out.  I also gave myself that much needed pedicure so now I have happy feet and pretty pink nails.



 

Reminds me of the Griswold car in Christmas Vacation

The adverts during sports games are all pretty much the same: cars, tyres, fast food, beer.  After hours of them I caved in and got us a Wendys for dinner with beers that we already had in house.



Little wooden Xmas tree

Monday was Labour Day and we tackled the garden.  I'm glad I got some hard labour in otherwise I would have felt like it was a very inactive weekend!  It's going to take a good many hours of work to get the garden back into shape.  My goal here is to get the garden totally tidy, beds all empty, new raised beds built and filled with soil, new garden lights, and the bbq area decorated in the next 4 months.

Hope you all had a lovely weekend!  Do you paint your nails?  What's your go-to favourite colour?

Ekiden Rotorua Weekend

As is fast becoming our annual tradition, last weekend we headed off to Rotorua for a spring break and to run the Ekiden relay race!

 

The last time we were in Rotorua was earlier this year with Kane's parents, the blog post about that is here: Rotorua Summer Getaway 

What is Ekiden?

 

Ekiden Rotorua is a relay race held on the 42.2km marathon course and is split into 6 legs of varying distance: 1: 7.5km, 2: 7.88km, 3: 7.93km, 4: 8.27km, 5: 4.74km, 6: 5.88km.  Some have hills, some are mostly flat.  Instead of passing a baton, the current runner wears a sash and passes this on to the next runner.

 

Race Website: Ekiden Rotorua

 

How we got started

 

In 2013 my friends mother had roped her and another friend of mine to be part of their walking team for the Ekiden relay race and even though the weather was just awful that year, they really loved it and wanted to put together their own team for the following year.  

 

I was part of their team in 2014 and it was such a fun weekend.  We raved about so much afterwards that more friends wanted to take part so this year we had 2 teams! 

 

Ekiden Rotorua is also the self proclaimed world fancy dress championship so we like to take part and dress up, this year we were heroes and villians.

 

(1) Our 2 teams all together at the start
(2) Team 1 at the finish (3) Team 2 at the finish

Pre-Race

Kane and I headed down to Rotorua from Auckland on the Friday night, which was about a 4 hour drive.  Most of the others had taken the day off work to head down earlier in the day and some of group had travelled up from Wellington.

We arrived at 9pm and checked in.  A short while later the last 3 of troupe arrived and we gathered in one of the rooms to collected our chips, bib and race freebies which, this year, was a t shirt and a gym towel.

Kane and I hadn't had the chance to eat dinner but had brought some food with us, so we headed back to our room to make pasta and sauce and relax after our drive.

Race Day

We woke up feeling well rested and had coffee and some toast with cheese for breakfast.  We put on our running costumes and made some adjustments.  We both went as Fantastic Four members, me as Susan Storm (the Invisible Girl) and Kane as Reed Richards (he preferred to be referred to as Mr Fantastic).

We met with the others and made some last minute team changes as some people needed to switch distances and others needed to switch teams.

Once we were all sorted we headed out to make the race briefing at 8.30am.  The race walkers had already started at 8am and the route went past our motel so we got to see some fun costumes on our drive to the start.


(1) The Start Line (2) Glenn and Tania our first 2 runners
(3) Kelly passing the sash to me with Glynn hot on her tail! (4) At the end waiting for the prize giving

Our teams first runners, Glenn and Tania took off and my group jumped in to my car to head to the first change over point, while some of the others headed off to get coffee and breakfast.  We spotted Glenn first and cheered and waved and then a little further up we spotted Tania looking strong and cheered and waved her on too.

We got to the first change over point and hung around waiting for them to come in.  Tania was first and handed over the sash to Charlie.  A short while later Glenn came in and handed the sash to Kane.  Speedy Kane took off and managed to run over all those hills even faster than last weekends race!

The rest of the race was spent hopping from one change over point to the next, stopping to beep the horn, wave and cheer at our runners.  The only break was when it was my turn to run.  I put on my headphones and zoned out for an hour.

Soon it was time to make our way to the finish line where we would meet our last runner and then all run up to the finish line together.  Charlie and Tania, from the other team, had their car break down so Glenn and Kelly of our team had finished with the first team in order to collect their medals and then go to help them.  Charlie needed to stay with her car so Kelly brought Tania back so that she could cross the finish line with our team.  Kelly ended up crossing the finish line with both teams and that's why she's in both team finish photos, but at least she was able to collect Charlie's medal for her.  And roadside assistance sorted out Charlie's car so it was all good in the end.


(1) Change over point 1 group shot (2) Finishers medal
(3) Glynn doing a gangnam style dance? (4) Catherine cruising in to the change over point

Post Race

Prize giving finished at about 4pm and we were starving so we made a bee line to pizza hut which we could see across the park and then headed back to our motel to enjoy our pizzas.  Then we went into pool. 

The pool is the number 1 reason we come to this motel.  It's heated to around 37degC from the geothermal activity that Rotorua is famous for and there are also two indoor mineral pools.

This year some of us brought pool noodles to just float around with and it was perfect!



Last years pool photo as we didn't take one this year!

After hanging out in the pool for ages, we then got cleaned up and hung out in one of the rooms and enjoyed some wine and MTV classics.

The following morning we checked out and then headed for a group breakfast before going our separate ways again.  A most enjoyable weekend!  We're already in discussions for next years costumes :D

My Official Stats:

Leg: 4
Distance: 8.27 km
Time: 1:02:51
Pace: 07:36 min/km

I did better than last year by 4 minutes but I got really bad cramp last year.  I think I need to do more hill training!