As many of you know, I've been quite busy the past few months training for rowing. Last week we headed down for Nationals in Twizel. It is a really amazing place for rowing with green-blue glacial water in the high country of the South Island. My four won a bronze medal and we were in the lead for a good portion of the race. Our eight was only 4 seconds behind 3rd place. It was a great season for me and I am already missing it!
And because I can't seem to do anything coherent or sensible in my cold induced brain fog, here are some random photos from my phone camera. My real camera was broken as I took a photo of Mt Taranaki a few days ago (and one post ago). Perhaps it is time to invest in a new one. Just like I did the week before leaving Boston when I killed that camera by dropping my keys on to the screen. I am a very good technology tester, so long as you are looking to test out rugedness... phew that I mostly use a toughbook for work now!
Photo 1 - Ivy. This is the view from my work parking spot. It means a lot to me because well this is what the cover of the marketing book for my college looked liked. I didn't much like my university at times and I have a strong association with the phrase 'bait and switch' with this image. Lately I am really liking Ivy becaus I associate it with my cool job and well yes it is a weed, but it is kind of cool in a way. And I love the way the world Ivy sounds.
Photo 2 - This is my breakfast today. It was shared with lots of people who just showed up to eat with me. Yay living in the country. All the main ingredients were from my garden. My free range eggs from my birthday chickens were the core bit, then fresh green beans, tomatos, swiss chard, basic... I did toss in some store bought onions and garlic though...
Photo 3 - I love my chickens, but I don't take them camping with me.... or to rowing regattas
Photo 4 - My rowing teammates play a game called SPOT IT. It is very simple. Yell spot it and hit the person hear you if you are first to spot a yellow vehicle. It helsp that a main courier company here paints their vans yellow. I like the parking meter bouquet in front myself.
Photo 5 - This is a number 3 bus with no windows going to a bus graveyard. I may have even riden that exact bus when I used to live in the suburb the 3 bus served. I see the most interesting things driving in the middle of the day.
Photo 6 - Like seeing this old fashioned truck full of wood when I was ducking into a shop to buy a new shirt between seeing kids because the first kid spilled stuff all over me and well I didn't really wanted to meet the second kid's mother for the first time splattered with goo.
Photo 7 - Yes I don't take my chooks camping with me, but I do love it when they are all waiting at my door for me to come up. It is a very sheltered spot, but I think they just want a chance to get an extra round of food. 
This post is dedicated to my dearest friend Laura and her husband Pete who just welcomed into the world their wonderful son Finley. I hear Laura is looking for posts here while she is on Mat leave, and so I submit the following thrown together post as I nurse my cold and prepare to fly to Twizel for Rowing Nationals.
I spent the weekend up in Wanganuni, about 3 hours north of here along the west coast of the North Island. It is a charming town, although it seems like most of the stores are always closed and I had the worst meal ever here the night before I left. It was nearly $20 for an all you can eat Mongonlian Grill... and well I couldn't even eat and just walked out. Oh well, live and learn.
I was there to row not eat anyways. And row we did. My fours team took 1st place and our eight didn't have a chance to race due to poor water conditions each afternoon. 
Actually, I think we did more watching and sunburning than we did rowing...
As is our informal tradition, we stayed in a school hall near the river. I kept looking for the basketball hoops, but I guess basketball and school hall aren't as linked here.
And of course we went grocery shopping where I snapped this photo at Pak N Sav, park of their 'we save you money' campaign. Trolleys are shopping carts. Some use the word trundler as well for this thing. I just miss the bar to rest your foot on that are on American ones.
On the drive home I saw a llama on the back of a truck.. you know, as one does.
The next day I was flying back up the coastline for work. The plan was to fly over Wanganui up to New Plymouth. Unfortunately New Plymouth was covered in fog ALL DAY. So we landed in Wanganui and then were bused north. I was so glad to see this the following day because it meant the ceiling was plenty high enough for me to fly out. 
This weekend I was up at Lake Karapiro, home of NZ rowing. Many NZ regattas are held here and next year the world rowing championships will be held here... I just signed up for their volunteer pool, anyone else want to?
It was our first time rowing with buoys (which happens to be a homonym in Kiwi English the word boys, leading my teenage teammates to distinguish between 'penis boys' and 'water buoys' just to make sure everyone is on the same page. I think the fact that their voices tend to become more high pitched whenever boys are talked about makes it perfectly cleared, but hey I guess extra information isn't too dangerous in this case!)
We also frequently walked by the high performance center:
Complete with tree storage and a shipping container that I assume is to transport boats to overseas events:
The attached toilets had open plumbing that allowed you to see the water flowing from the sink, around the room, and down the drain.
Have I mentioned that I love how nonpretentious sports are here. And really, they still are churning out Olympic rowers so who says things need to be flash to make it work!?
And it was pretty cool to see Mahi Drysdale walking around with his sports bag getting ready for races that were happening as we were rowing up for our own races.
We also had a bit of time to just chill out by the water.
Then the long drive home through the desert road at dusk. It is so lovely at that time of night.
looking east
looking west
looking straight on down the road toward home
I woke early and made my way up in the early dawn light to my neighbor's house. They had left the TV on low all night I think just so I wouldn't miss the event. I sat down like a kid watching Saturday morning cartoons. Food in hand and my face a foot from the screen.
It was nice to be an American today.
And then I walked back to my house to get ready for work, to feed my chickens, and to fret about my little personal worries.
But it felt like a brand new day.
I just spent a four day weekend near Rotorua for a rowing regata, but first a few words about New Zealand versus America differences. I know its been awhile, but I noticed a few more of differences this weekend.
I think I'll just focus today on how the McDonalds are rather 'flash' here (i.e., fancy).
They have a normal section and a cafe section (see counter above). Today I ordered a very lovely chicken wrap from this deli display along with a tasty iced coffee. 
They make espressos and everything. It is common to see a couple mums ordering at the cafe and one of their 10 year olds begging for money so he can go to the other counter to get a box of chips (i.e., fries). Even the bathrooms are a step up from any Mackers (as it is called here) experience back stateside.
I also think it is funny that the kids I row with call Rotorua Rotovegas as in it is the 'Vegas' of NZ. I guess it does host a few conferences and have some attractions like bungee jumping, sky diving and such. But it smells like rotten egg, hotels often have bathtubs that fill with steaming hot spring water, and there are polls of bubbling mud. Oh and there is a lake and it is not a desert and there are no huge casinos. But I guess there are similarities to be found.
But 10 minutes out of town is Blue Lake, which is partially heated by hot springs. A feature that is very nice when you are rowing in these conditions:
even more appreciated is when these conditions return:
There were heaps of people there, and Petone did fairly well.
We have room to improve for sure, but it was the very first time in an atheletic event I can remember where we had a very good chance to win and we just went out and did that very thing. No interpersonal dramas, no doubting ourselves, we just went out and did it.
Here are the boys team pulling away to take the lead.
We did the same thing in our fours race. We also placed 1st in our novice 8th final and came in second in the B final for the Club four race. Here is my team of fine people who are teaching me heaps about what it means to be a teenager in New Zealand. 
Yes, they were all born while I was in high school, but they are becoming some of my favourite people. And really what can be better than rocking out and singing along to ipods on a 6 hour road trip with 15 year olds who think you are almost cool. Nothing takes my mind off work this well. Plus I am doing way better this time around at being mates with 15 year olds than I did when I actually was that age myself.
Scenes from the road trip to and from the regatta:
Please note that these petrol prices are in Litres not gallons. Also, here petrol = gasoline, gasoline = propane, deisel is well deisel - but the rental van folks alway really check that I know what deisel is, cuz I'm a girl, even though the real risk is an American not knowing how to buy propane.
