Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge 2013

Last Saturday was the annual Lake Taupo Cycle Challenge. This iconic event sees 8-10,000 cyclists converge on Taupo and attempt to complete the 160km circuit of New Zealand's largest lake. Both Jeff and I have done it a few times and now we have a new cycling star in the family!

 

This year there was a new addition to the options offered. Along with the usual solo or relay riders, this year you could be an accumulative rider! This meant one rider would ride the complete 160km and, at specified points around the lake, would pick up their other rider. They would then complete the remainder of the journey, crossing the finish line together.

 

Olivia decided earlier in the year she would like to attempt this challenge so the entry was made! Finally the day dawned and after seeing Jeff off very early in the morning to start his ride, Olivia and I travelled down to Taupo and then on to Motuoapa where Jeff would stop and pick up Olivia.

 

 

We had a bit of a wait as we got there very early-better to be organised and have some time to sit around and (try to) relax! I enjoyed free coffee from the Holden sponsors tent :) and Olivia tried to calm her nerves by the edge of the lake.

 

 

 

 

She wore a Forestland Wheelers club shirt-this is our local cycling club who do a great job of supporting junior riders. The team number was 10313 and Jeff and Olivia had decided on the name "Cycling Nuts" for their team! All this info is printed on the race number pinned to her back.

 

 

 

 

Finally, Jeff arrived and it was time to get going. By now the relay changeover was getting quite busy but Olivia was very composed and set of confidently. Suddenly I was the nervous one, hoping all would go well for her. She had 40km ahead of her and a massive hill to conquer - Hatepe hill is the dreaded part of the event. It is a 1.7km climb, which has brought grown men to their knees (well, to their feet after they had to stop and walk up the hill!) Olivia was worried about her ability to get up without stopping but we reassured her she just had to do her best and keep going!

 

 

And she made it!! All the way to the top without walking! Yay for you, Olivia. Jeff said the smile on her face was priceless! She was so proud of herself and so was he. I was waiting further along the road and it was fantastic to see them both come flying along. Olivia was still grinning!

 

 

Then I drove back to Taupo to wait for them at the finish line. By now the wind was getting stronger and it was looking like rain. Luckily it held off till later.

 

 

Then, there they were! Crossing the finish line with very proud smiles! Olivia's 40km took 1:58 and Jeff's total ride was 5:58-an awesome effort by both of them. So very proud of my cyclists :)

 

 

Of course, all that effort requires refuelling! Here we are enjoying some well-earned food with friends. The cafes in Taupo do a roaring trade this weekend with all those hungry cyclists and supporters to feed. There's no leftovers on those plates!

 

 

Yep, it's a rough job being supporter! No glamour shot here, folks!! :)

 

 

I didn't think Olivia would be so keen to get back on a bike so quickly but she couldn't pass up this one. Apparently it is made from a car tyre!! She didn't stay on long though-I think her butt was a little tender!!

 

 

Then it was on to prize giving...in the rain :(  We stood around with more friends but to no avail-no prizes for us this year. But it really doesn't matter because it was enough to just see the pride in Olivia's face from her awesome effort.

 

 

And it was quite some effort!! Couldn't quite keep her eyes open on the drive home :) What a well-deserved rest, darling. Dad and I are SO very proud of you! We thoroughly enjoyed introducing Olivia to the world of cycling events and look forward to seeing what else she attempts in the future.

Better late than never

Oops...time has gotten away on me this year and I suddenly realised it was December in a few days and I hadn't made a Christmas cake!   :(
Traditionally, I have always made one during Labour Weekend to give it time to 'mature'.
So, out came the recipe books (and the multitude of loose pages of recipes that I pull from magazines but never get around to putting in a folder or cookbook!)

This year I wanted to try a new recipe. I had made the same cake for about 10 years now and while the old rule of 'don't fix what ain't broke' is a good one, I decided that it was time for a change!

 

So, FINALLY, I was able to use one of those "loose pages" that I knew I had held on to for a reason    :)

 

It was an incredibly quick and easy recipe to make and this is the cake mixture ready to go in the oven.

 

A few hours later and voila! My Christmas cake is done. I hope it tastes as good as it looks.

 

It's currently wrapped and being stored in the hope that even a couple of weeks may improve its flavour...time will tell. I decided to do an uniced cake this year to make it last longer...my girls like to get a piece of cake just to eat the icing! This way they will only have a piece of cake if the REALLY want fruit cake! Cunning, huh?   :)

I just put these decorations on to show what it will look like when I serve it up closer to Christmas (but I may not add the green ribbon. I was looking for my 'Xmas frill' but couldn't find it quickly)

 

So, yay...I have one Christmas task ticked off my list. And as I (belatedly) type this post (the cake was actually made 2 weeks ago!) it is now Dec 1st and I can start to decorate our house for Christmas. I love the Christmas season and having 3 girls on my side means the Christmas Grinch of our house gets outvoted on whether or not we decorate   :)

 

Do you have any traditions for Christmas? I'd love to hear about them! Or any (non-complicated!) yummy Christmas recipes? Watch out for a post on the gifts we make for the girls' teachers and friends closer to Christmas.

The Taniwha

November 9th saw us rising early (on a SATURDAY!!!!) and on the road by 7am to get to  the 2nd annual Taniwha event. This local event is fantastic-you have so many options to try. If mountain biking is your 'thing' then try 21km, 42km, 60km or 83km. If you enjoy running or walking, you can choose from 7km, 14km, 21km, 42km or gasp! 60km!! You can even enter as a team and share the beautiful scenery...and effort!!

 

 

Jeff and Olivia decided to enter the 21km mountain bike and the start line was the gorgeous Mangakino lakefront. Don't they look keen to get started??

 

 

The start line...and they're off! See you at the finish line, guys. (Olivia is in the red shirt centre of the picture)

 

 

Their awesome support crew was waiting for them at the halfway point at Whakamaru. (where there just happened to be a lovely café open serving wonderful hot coffee-hey, it had been a really early start!!)  

 

 

We stopped along Ongaroto Road to give them some more encouragement...looking great there Olivia. Just wish that slow guy in front of you would get a move on, huh?!

As you can see, there were all ages doing this event-great to see!

 

 

The finish line...well, nearly! We parked the truck and were there to see Jeff and Olivia fly past on their way to the finish line. Great riding! Total ride time = 1hour 56mins.

 

 

The awesome support crew!!

 

 

The best part of the day-chilling out after the event. The weather was just glorious (almost too hot!) and we enjoyed sitting around catching up with friends and listening to music.

 

 

Check out the scenery-not a bad place to have lunch, huh? All the events, which utilise the River Trails,  finish at the Lake Whakamaru Christian Camp and it is a stunning location.

 

 

Finally, it was time to head home. They say you should 'leave it all on the racetrack' ...and somebody obviously did just that! Well done, Olivia-we learned later that evening at prize giving she come 1st in her division (0-20yr female) so AWESOME EFFORT!!!

 

 

 

 

 

 

Stationery

Anyone who knows me, knows I love to write letters...and receive them!! I have several international penpals and some local friends too that I write to regularly and I like to vary the stationery I send them. However, with only one stationery store in town I often struggle to find different designs. I have attempted to make my own but it is not very professional looking and I find it uses up my time that could be spent writing!

Luckily a couple of years ago I stumbled upon a wonderful penpal blog written by a lovely Canadian girl, Julie. (I think all Canadians must be wonderful as I have a sister-in-law and a penpal who are both Canadian and are just the nicest people I know :)  )

Anyway, Julie designs her own stationery and does an AMAZING job of it! She recently offered a "stationery of the week" service where the design is made available for one week only then a new one is offered. So we are getting fabulous variety, and I can vouch for the quality of her stationery, having ordered it in the past. I have just ordered this gorgeous set and can't wait to receive it and start my Christmas letters to my penpals.

Go and have a look around her blog-it is amazing- and who knows? You may even find yourself a penpal! :)    www.penpaloftheweek.com

Thanks, Julie, for your commitment and hard work in offering letter writers everywhere a wonderful choice in stationery-I for one am very thankful for what you do!

Guy Fawkes

 This year we decided not to celebrate Guy Fawkes in a big way, however, I cannot resist a sparkler or two. We got together with a good friend and her girls and had a lovely evening eating, drinking and setting fire to things!

Jeff is always in charge of lighting the bigger fireworks-they scare me!

 

 

 

Sparklers are more my style :)

The kids had heaps of fun with them (so did the BIG kid you can see at the front of the picture!!) 

 

Wow, they even produce heart-shaped sparklers now. We also had star-shaped ones as well.

 

 

 

And no evening is complete without dessert! We were lucky enough to try some cake pops for the very first time and I am SO going to make some in the near future. They were great!

 

And that was our fireworks for this year!

Labour Weekend 2013

Yay! Finally, a long weekend!! It seems so long since Queens Birthday Weekend in early June but finally Labour Weekend arrived. As we are now feeding a veritable menagerie of animals we cannot get away for a break so decided to take a 'local' holiday and spent the afternoon down at Lake Whakamaru. We usually spend a week or so camping here in January but it was really  nice to go down before it gets too crowded and enjoy the lake by ourselves. There were a few keen campers there but nowhere near as many as in Dec/Jan.

 

We set up day camp with some chairs and the chilly bin under the pine trees and unloaded the 'toys'! We took the kayaks and the paddle board down with us to play on and everyone was on, and IN, the water in no time!

 

 

I thought the lake would still be a bit cold but ...apparently not!  :)

 

 

We are so lucky to be able to enjoy such beautiful scenery right on our doorstep.

 

 

Briar and her friend navigating my paddle board.

 

 

Phew...they made it back to shore!

 

 

Enjoying the first summer (ok, spring!) sun

 



 

Gotta have food...oh yeah, and a beer! :)

We had a lovely picnic lunch of bacon & egg pie, tomato & goat's cheese tarts, ham & salad rolls and chocolate cake. Yum, yum.

We had a wonderful afternoon just chilling and relaxing and having fun-we should do it more often!!  

Councillor Gash

NO...not me!! :) 
Jeff decided it was time he did his bit for the community and decided to stand for council. Elections are held every three years in New Zealand for districts to select who they feel will best represent the community and work in the best interests of that district. In the South Waikato this year there were 16 nominations for councillors and only 6 positions available. After a few weeks of campaigning (attending public meetings and putting signs up around the district) the public voted. Well, 40% of them did! :(  Not the best turnout for such an important decision but I guess now the other 60% cannot complain about what goes on if they don't like it. You can't complain if you don't vote!!  

Finally on Oct 12 the results were in...and to our utmost surprise Jeff was the highest polling candidate! Wow, very humbling. A week after the results were announced it was time for the first council meeting and the swearing in process to take place. Olivia and I went along for a look and below are some photos of Jeff making his declaration.

The council staff performing a waiata (song) during the ceremony

The Mayor being sworn in

Jeff making his declaration

Jeff signing away the next three years of his life!

Congratulations, Councillor Gash

First day on the job... look at all that reading material!!

So, well done to my wonderful husband - I am very proud of you! I just hope there will be some minutes left in his day for us??!! But it is what he wants to do so I say "Good on you, darling-you'll do a great job!"

Now, let the fun begin...

Cougar Chaser

News flash!!! There are cougars in Cougar Park Mountain bike trails!

Well, there were on Sunday 20th October when the local mountain bike club held their first event in a long time...the Cougar Chaser. Riders could enter either 30 km, 20 km or a 5 km ride and Jeff and Olivia decided to do the 5 km event together. The 5 km was set up as a 'family fun' ride so the kids were encouraged to look out for 'cougars' in the park (well, paper pictures of them!) Each rider who found one received a large block of chocolate and much to Olivia's delight she spotted one!! Plus she had the added bonus of being the first girl home so received a certificate for her effort.

Olivia, all set for her event (well, she will be once she puts her helmet on!) 

Waiting for the start...

This is what they were looking for...

On the start line...Olivia and Jeff to the right of the photo after the smaller kids

The end result...well worth the effort! Good on you, Olivia, well done!

She now has her sights set on another local event in early November-The Taniwha, which consists of many different options including both running/walking events and mountain biking. Olivia has signed up for the 21 km mountain bike ride-go Olivia!!

Term 4 has begun...

Wow, the school holidays have finished and we are into term 4...it will be Christmas before we know it!

The holidays were fairly quiet but still flew by so fast...at least it seemed that way for me. Briar had the busiest holiday of all as she had it all organised from day one. She was off to Aunty Lacreice and Uncle Vaughan's for a few days then to Nana and Gramps before heading over to the beach for a holiday with Nana and Grandad! Whew...welcome back home Briar...nice of you to join us again! :)

Olivia spent a fun-filled week with Nana and Gramps at the farm with Caitlin and I going over for a weekend to catch up with them too. It was wonderful to spend some time with them while they are home.

Caitlin's holiday highlight was right at the end when she got to go to her first ever concert! Yep, 1D was playing in Auckland and her roommate from hostel had invited her to go with her...cue lots of squealing and hugging and laughing etc! :) Of course it was the busiest weekend we had in a long time but luckily for her Aunty Lacreice and Uncle Vaughan came to the rescue and took them up to the concert and by all accounts EVERYONE had a great night! (Glad you enjoyed the Italian dinner Creise!!)  :) A HUGE thank you for helping the girls out as they would not have been able to get there otherwise.

Jeff and I had a Sportsworld conference to attend and it was great-I hadn't been able to get to the last couple so it was great to catch up with familiar faces and meet new members to the group. Jeff stood down as chairman of the Board and a presentation was made to him-he is now the owner of a spiffy new dress watch! We stayed at the Ibis Hotel and had wonderful meals there with great views of the Waikato River just out the window.
On the Saturday night before conference Jeff and I took the opportunity to find a Turkish restaurant as it is our favourite type of food. After walking half the length of Victoria Street we turned into Hood Street almost ready to give up when we stumbled upon "Paasha"...OMG...SERIOUSLY good Turkish food!! Do check it out if you are in Hamilton and like Turkish food-it was absolutely divine and we will most certainly be back.

The other BIG news for us all is the fact that Jeff is now a councillor!! Yep, local body politics...here he comes. The voting closed on Saturday 12th Oct at 12 noon and by 2pm he had the phone call he was waiting for ...elected onto council AND...the highest polling candidate! WOW, huge support from locals which was very humbling. Now the hard work begin which he is looking forward to.  Straight after the phone call we headed up to Hamilton for the conference so didn't talk much about it with the girls but they obviously decided it was a big deal (which it is!) and we came home on Monday afternoon to this welcome...

 

Thanks girls-we both laughed out loud when we saw it!

So...that is what we have been up to lately...hope you enjoyed the update!

Weekly update

Well, it has been a couple of weeks since I last blogged...it's not my fault...there was an issue with getting signed in and accessing my blog and although I tried, it just wasn't happening! :(

Anyway, here we are again so let me tell you what has been happening...

Briar participated in the Interschool Cross Country and after I stood around in freezing cold wind for a couple of hours doing marshalling duty, I was EXTREMELY proud to watch her cross the finish line.......FIRST!!!! Yep, fastest 10yr old in Tokoroa! Well done, Briar. She absolutely ran her heart out and lead from start to finish-there was no way anyone was getting past her!



Olivia has gained a bronze badge as part of a school initiative to encourage students both academically and personally to achieve high standards. There are three levels (bronze, silver and gold) and she is determined to have her silver badge by the end of the year and gold by end of year 8-great goals, Olivia!


In soccer news...Briar scored her first goal of the season!! Yay, Briar! She was SO pleased with herself-especially as she had a challenge going with her uncle who also wanted to score a goal for his soccer team before the end of the season. It was with great glee she skyped Uncle Arthur to inform him that she had indeed netted a goal...had he managed one too?? Oh really...no? Oh dear...
Briar, stop grinning so hard!!


It is now school holiday time and it has started with a Regional Guide Camp in Matamata. Pity the weather hasn't really played its part but I am sure the girls will return home on Sunday tired but happy.
I am not sure what the rest of the fortnight will bring but I am sure we will fill the days! Daylight saving begins tomorrow-yay! I love the lighter evenings...more time outside.

Rite of passage

I can't believe it has taken this long! Our girls have never been to watch the All Blacks play a test match...what is WRONG with their parents...LOL.

However, we remedied that fact last night by taking them to see the All Blacks take on Argentina at Waikato Stadium in Hamilton.

We got ourselves ready...faces painted and (mostly) 'all black' clothing on and off we set. A quick stop in Cambridge for an early dinner and then we were in Hamilton.

 

We found a car park pretty close to the stadium and joined the crowds heading to the stadium.

 

 

 

 As we got to the entrance of the stadium we were delighted to be entertained by South American dancers putting on a display for the crowds. Beautiful to watch and very professional!

 

 

We were a bit early! But the stands filled up quickly and there was always something to watch. And I need to thank adidas NZ for the tickets - a very generous gesture from a great company!

 

 

  We saw Moorehouse perform (finalists in X Factor NZ) and also Jackie Thomas (the winner). There was a display by a dancing studio and  also a giant rugby shirt that moved around the field!

 

Of course, no test match is started until the haka is performed-even more spine-tingling to watch in person. Then it was game on! To be honest, it wasn't the most exciting game to watch but the girls seemed to enjoy it-the atmosphere was great .Unfortunately, Ritchie McCaw had to leave the field due to a knee injury that looked mighty painful :(

 

 

 We saw passionate Puma fans urging their team on but to no avail. They really get into their supporting-they were continually singing/chanting and cheering for their team. This lot even had drums!!

 

 

Then it was all over and time to leave...well, not quite! This was the view from above the ground floor so we sat it out and talked to friends we saw. Watching the crowds was almost as entertaining as the game! We even spotted more people we knew and saw some interesting costumes.

Finally, the crush cleared and we were on our way home. It was after 10pm by the time we left Hamilton so two VERY tired girls fell asleep in the car on the way home.

What a great night out :)