Sun, Sea and Sand

 I have arrived in Rarotonga, and it is warm enough to make me very happy but not hot enough to be tropical.

The island is actually behind NZ on the date line, so whilst we left NZ on Sat 1 Aug, we arrived in Raro on Fri 31 July. This has caused my phone to start getting confused with when and where to allocate pictures I have taken, as it has already gone through 1 Aug and then suddenly, I am getting it to do it again. It got very confused lol 😀 Therefore, there are several posts going to happen all on the same day because technically, they kind of happened on the same day somewhere in the world!

After finding the accommodation, a quick walk to see the beach was definitely needed.

It was just as I remember it from 2 years ago and I am so glad I have come back. I can feel the stress leaving my body just in the first evening.

Winter Sun Trip

 At the start of the year, I got the idea to go and find some sunshine and warmth in the middle of winter. A weeklong trip was secured to Rarotonga, Cook Island.

Today I left NZ to go in search of the sunshine.

Despite the cold weather in NZ, the morning bloomed amazingly and was a spectacular scene at the airport whilst waiting for the flight

Just a quick 3.5-hour flight and then hopefully the sun will be shining, and I can relax for a week.

parkrun Road Trip

 As we have 75 parkrun locations in New Zealand currently, then travelling to do a different course is always a fun thing to do, especially when you do it with friends.

Yes, we currently have 75 locations, and it is still growing. I know of about 12 others that are in the 'potential' file, it is awesome to see something so simple and easy get developed and made available to so many.

I was just going to do a local one today but got talked into joining a group driving about 90 mins away. By the end of the day, I am so glad that I did, I had a great day out with friends, lots of laughing and a great time. Plus, the fun of standing in the freezing cold 2c early morning waiting for the sun to rise high enough to warm us up.

The course had a gentle undulating to it, which was a bugger as you were climbing a gentle incline for the whole of the last 1km which is hard when you have pushed yourself. It made for a great 5km time and I felt great afterwards.

Breakfast at the local cafe was interesting, from the deconstructed French Toast to the glasses used for the drinks.

My young friend thought my 'tiki' glass was cool and interesting, but then so did I too. And the sophistication of adding sugar to the rim of my Fruit Breeze, which was just fruit syrup and sparkling water was a cool touch (if a little sticky)

My deconstructed breakfast made eating it an adventure as the flavours were not blended, you added them together as you ate them.

The green is pistachio, not wasabi! Someone at the table did have a moment of horror when they thought I was putting hot stuff on my toast!

Another craze of parkrun, if you want to get into it, is to complete challenges. Yes, we are crazy people who will chase event numbers, letters of the alphabet and other aspects of completing a parkrun on a specific date, or at a location with the name starting with a letter that we need.

One such challenge is the 'match challenge' this involves attending an event whose event number matches your event number. So, if you are completing your 87 event and the parkrun is holding their 87th event, then you have a match. I have been looking into this challenge for a few weeks now and with the limited number of locations we have in NZ and the travel that would be involved I always presumed that this one would happen either by sheer coincidence or maybe in a year to two when I could get all the stars aligned.

As mentioned, I was not planning on this roadie and had planned to go somewhere else, so it was only as they were doing the event briefing at the start in the freezing cold and mentioned the event number that I quickly checked to confirm that I was indeed completing my event of the same number 😀

One Match Challenge ticked off 👌

Now to focus on working towards other challenges, although the event today did tick several aspects of several challenges but still got work to do to achieve others, plus the joy of travel to attend a location with the requirement I need. parkrun is free they say, until you start looking at challenges and then it becomes expensive to travel around the country/world chasing challenges 😎

28 Years

 Today, at 11am, I have been in New Zealand for 28 years.

I wouldn't change any of it 💖

Leaving on a Jet Plane

 I love travelling.

Blame my parents for putting that bug into me! Well, they did move me to Kuwait 2 days before my 7th birthday, and we have been travelling ever since. Ok, maybe not as much now as when I was younger. Something to do with how nowadays I have to find the money to pay for all the flights. I love being on a plane and enjoy it even more when I am on my own, although I would love to have someone to share it with.

So, here I go, a much-needed trip to England to visit family and friends and complete some international parkruns. Yes, you read that right, I am going to England to complete parkruns.

My travel companion's aka Bozz and Grey

When travelling many years ago, someone asked if I had a companion? Someone to inspire pictures and memories with. Not a human one but a soft toy kind? That then led to said companions being collected. Bozz has been to the UK a few times since 2001 when he joined the family, think he has been to Australia too.

As for Grey, well he was fostered from my youngest son. There is a huge story behind me having Grey now and one day I will write it down, but for now, he is with me.

The food was not bad either, although the first leg of the flight was direct out of Auckland, so all the food was local from New Zealand, can't go too wrong there.

Otherwise, the flight was your typical night flight. Lots of people sleeping and luckily for me, the people who were meant to be sat next to me moved just before take-off, so I gained an extra seat for the whole 16-hour flight.

Writing a Blog

 The thing with writing a blog is that is does indeed take time.

Sometimes you have space and the ability to upload a picture, and a post gets created and posted, other times, there is life going on and nothing gets sorted. In the case of a holiday then it can be difficult to post, especially when you are in a land far away from home with your normal creature comforts, like your own computer.

All the following posts, till the middle of September will have been written well after the fact, more likely it will be October before they are all successfully completed and posted. However, to keep the flow of the dates etc then when I post them, I will ensure I use the correct date for when it happened. This will allow the memories to be accurate when looking back through in years to come

That is because tomorrow I fly to the UK for a 4-week holiday, on my own. And when I return, we fly to Rarotonga as a family 2 days later for 10 days. Obviously, I am not taking a computer with me to the UK, and I won't have the access to post as I go along, but I will be collecting memories as I go and will be eager to write about them when I return.

The suitcase is packed; I am all excited and Alex is ready to drive me to the airport in the morning.

Bon Voyage