Kuranda

I was drawn out of my bleak, yet comfortable hostel room by the glowing pinks and reds of the sky beyond the palms and gum trees outside my window. I strolled down the quiet street before just before dusk, as the fragrant plumeria and tropical flowers wafted in the warm, but light breeze. I rounded the corner near the Scenic Railway Station and Skyway Rainforest cable car platform without another person in sight. The trees surrounding the sidewalk darkened my path as I neared the main street, but the delicate walkway lights cast a gentle shadow on my way, exposing many shadowed clumps that I couldn’t make out. A step closer made 20 or so clumps jump and scramble into the forest, making it clear that these were the Cane Toads that we introduced into an island where it had no predators.
Walking down the main street, as the red sky turned to lighter pinks and blues, I was clear that the town of Kuranda has two distinct sides. Mid-day, sweat dripped and sun beaten tourists arrive on the train, buses or Rainforest Skyway and descend onto Kuranda to buy anything “Australian”. From t-shirts, didgeridoos, and even kangaroo skins, this place has it. Shops line the two main streets, overflowing onto the sidewalk with racks and tables of outback trinkets. And while the only non-tourist buildings are a church, police station, grocery, and post office, Kuranda manages to bring an artsy funky Australian uniqueness to the place. Around 3:30, as the last train out of town blows the whistle, you can practically see the shops pull down their front metal covers and roll the café tables back inside.
As I walked down the now darkened street, I notice a few people out, some sitting outside the glow of the open market. A few cars drive past, but otherwise, this is it. Turning down a side street I look ahead to the next block. The houses aren’t close together, leaving room for palms or Cook pine, and typical tropical island scenery. Beyond a few houses I notice a church or community hall with a light on. Inside I hear grunts, and through the doorway see a handful of people wearing white Karate clothing. Turning the corner, I see an Aboriginal family taking a walk down the street in the cooling evening. Night has finally arrived, and only dim and distant lights emerge from houses. As I peer into one of these houses, I see an older woman sitting by the open sliding door, rocking in a chair, and ready for an evening of listening to the song of the cicadas and hum of the toads.
For the first time on my trip I finally felt like I had been in the real Australia. Beyond the big city bustle of Sydney, the backpacker swarms and endless tour bookers of Cairns, and the sarong and boomerang shops mid-day Kuranda, I was finally able to see Australia alive. It’s not just the tours and spectacular views, or Koalas that make Australia, but rather the people and how they live in this unique and beautiful place.

Sydney Adventures

Our departure from New Zealand now seems like ages ago. Our last night in Queenstown was spent on a stroll through the lively center of town, as restaurants and shops started filling with a crowd. In Queenstown, the adventure capital of the world, aka
'I'm going to throw myself off a plane/cliff/bridge town', I had been pondering jumping off a cliff (attached to a hangglider). After great consideration of cost-benefit anaysis, I decided to do a hike up Queenstown hill, allowing me to get the same views for free.
The hike took me up through the expensive villas on the hills above town, winding up steep forest switchbacks, and finally tramping through the treeless rocky peak. At the summit I had 360 degree views of the lake, city, and snowy hills below me and beyond.

After saying goodbye to the coffee shops and bakeries then next morning, we started our 6 hour drive back to Christchurch. Turning in the rental car was somewhat of a relief, but it also felt as the we were handing over some of our independence.
That night we stayed at a large motel room near the airport, complete with kitchen, living room and deck. On one of the free maps it showed the University of Cantebury was nearby, so to recovery from the drive I set out to run to check out the school, as they have a large geography department.
Once I reached the campus, I was somewhat surprised to see such a quiet and empty campus, even for a Friday around 6pm. It only occurred to me on my run back that this in fact was not so odd... the students weekend had started and knowing these New Zealanders, they were all down at the pub or headed
off for a weekend away.
The Opera House with stage set up for the Australian Idol finale.
The next morning we got up at 4:30 am to catch our flight to Sydney. Once in the city, we lugged around our luggage for half the day, trying to see so sights, eating in cafes and taking a harbor cruise to pass the time until we could head over and pick up keys to the McPaul's place where we are staying. Their condo is in East Balmain, just a short ferry ride from downtown, but possibly in another world. Trees and old houses with detailed ironwork lined the main street from the harbor. Further down the road, shops and restaurants were filled with people overflowing into the streets, but the neighborhood community could still be felt.

Our second day in Sydney proved to be the hottest, as record breaking temperatures reached 42 degrees celsius(105F). I spent most of the morning wandering through the Royal Botanical Gardens, shops and markets of downtown and chinatown, and finally made my way to Darling Harbor once my feet and internal body temperate had had enough.
We spent most of the afternoon beating the heat inside and relaxing with Evan and Angie who had arrived from Melbourne.
Today is suppose to be much cooler, and the weather is already more pleasant. While it is our last day here, I'm debating a day of adventures in the city, or relaxing on the back porch or sitting by the pool, with maybe a run and trip to find internet later. I think today I will take a break from traveling, and maybe for the first time in a while, be on vacation.

Here is Amy a few minutes ago reading on the balcony!

Best Yet

Some things are just too amazing to describe. Here are some of the best photos I've taken so far!

From the train to Christchurch.


View from the other side of the train.



The road to Milford Sound.

Waterfall in Milford Sound

Same waterfall at a distance

Flower and snow

That waterfall again.

Near Lake Manapouri

View from my hike from the top of Queenstown Hill

Running New Zealand

I've been a bad girl and haven't updated much on my trip to New Zealand yet. I've had a lot of fun adventures so far, but it has been hard to find time to stop and write about them. Rather than go back over a week and a half of fun sights and cities, I figure I should write about something a bit more mundane.

While it may seem a bit off topic, Alex, a friend of mine, signed up to run a half marathon in March, and I decided to train with him and run it as well. Back home, the weather started cooling and it was getting dark quite early, so it was a wonderful treat to be able to keep up running in New Zealand in the early summer weather.

Running is a great way to see a new place. While I can still only do just over a 3 mile run, I've come to realize that there are so many amazing things to see in just that short amount of area.

Here are some of the runs I've done so far.

Wellington: This was one of my favorite cities. It reminds me a lot of San Francisco, with a great waterfront, hills, culture and coffee shops. My run took me from the hip nightlife area near our hotel, out along the quiet (Yet Windy!) path along the bay and then back towards the downtown waterfront.

Queenstown: This lakeside resort/adventure town again was quiet windy. The cold weather was soon forgotten as I warmed up, and the trail along the lake took me past green trees and fancy wooded villas. On my return towards town the clouds and rain over the lake broke and the sun took a moment to shine through onto the turquoise waters and craggy snow peaked mountains.

Manapouri: We had driven 0ut towards the fiords, near Milford Sound, and stayed right on the water at Lake Manapouri. The weather was once again gusty, and the snow on the surrounding mountains were unseasonably snowy. I had spent a lazy afternoon in my room, reading and enjoying the warm sun shinning through the window, but I decided it was time to get moving. Again, I ran along the lake, trotting through forest and Lupin covered beaches. I was in Lord of the Rings land, and could just imagine Hobbits and Elves tramping through the forests. It truly was Middle Earth!

My time in New Zealand is quickly coming to an end, but I'm sure more runs and adventures will await me in Australia!

I'll try to update as much as I can.

No Pain, No Pain...

Since my last post was on food, I thought I'd maybe move on over to exercise. On Monday I started taking a class called the Dailey Method. There is one located just up Piedmont Ave. right near my house. I decided to sign up after hearing about it from some friends and reading about it on Yelp. The Dailey Method is an hour long class of strength training through small isolated movements and Pilate's, ballet barre work, and stretching.

I showed up early my first day and the instructor was really friendly, showing me around and giving me the low down. I did feel slightly out of place, as all but a few people in the class were stick-thin, but muscular blond women. Anyway, the music started pumping as we lifted up our knees in a step aerobic fashion. We grabbed our tiny 1 lb weights and work our arms in every way possible to the point of exhaustion and burn. Not anything too awful... that was until we popped down to the floor going straight into plank position and then push ups. Three minutes in and I heard my inner voice saying, 'What the $&#%!! did I get myself into.' But soon my arms were relieved by a moment to stretch. Not for long though, we had to move on to gluts, legs, abs and 50 more muscles I never knew I had. An hour later, hanging off the bar with my legs in front of my spasming and shaking uncontrollably, it was finally time to rest.

I hobbled successful down Piedmont back home, proud for sticking with it. The soreness didn't hit me until the next day when the task of moving became agonizing. I went again on Wednesday, after popping some Advil to make sure any residual soreness wouldn't influence my workout. I was slightly worried that I the class would be harder and I wouldn't be able to keep up. In fact, I think it probably was harder, but that wasn't a problem, as they encourage you to listen to your body and do what you can.

Maybe that's what I love about this class. There is no boot camp style yelling to go harder or kick higher (like that horrible kickboxing class where I torn my hamstring out of fear of not kicking 'high enough'). I think the difference is that everyone in the is there to work hard and do their best. Heck, I was doing this pretzel bend thing and couldn't even lift my knee off the ground. The instructor came up to me and told me (by name!) that I had great form and that it was better than getting my knee high with lousy form.

Anyway, enough with the rant. I'm debating if I need one my rest day today, or if I should run over for an afternoon class. For the first time this week I am not sore... to bad it is so darn addicting!

The List

Ah yes, I see that it is time for a new little post. Tonight's post is inspired by Cool Whip..... you'll find out soon enough.

Summer is fast approaching, and with that comes many adventures this year for me! First is my 16 day trip down the Grand Canyon. Aside from taking turns at the oars to row the 240 mile river, we'll been working pretty much from sunrise until late in the evening. Also, I can't imagine any better way to do hard physical labor than in 117 degree heat. So basically I am confronted with a choice... suffer now to get in shape for the river, or suffer out of shape while on the river. The choice was easy. Oh, and I'm going to be a bridesmaid..., nothing like some extra motivation.

Anyway, I joined WeightWatchers 8 weeks ago and so far have lost about 15 lbs. It is going well, but as I try to get creative with food, it has become very clear that there just some foods that I can never buy. Now, it's not like these are really bad foods.... in fact, it is usually the 1 'point' foods that are the worst since 'they aren't bad food you'. Well, if you eat the whole thing they just might be. So here is my list of:

FOODS I SHOULDN'T BUY!!!!
1. Trader Joe's Mini Blueberry Muffins. They are small, come in a container of 6, taste great, and have a very healthy ingredient list. In fact, the only solid is bran, making this a 1 Point food thanks to dietary fiber. Well, it usually takes less than 48 hours and these are all gone. Of course, eating the whole pack won't do much damage at one point each.... the next few days might not be so pleasant, though, if you get my drift.

2. Fiber One bars. Just saw these last week at the store. They were chocolaty, sweet, high in fiber and only 2 points. The box of 5 was gone in 24 hours. I think the sweetness got to me and had me craving more sugar. Again... another high fiber food.

3. Fat Free Cool Whip- Today's discover!! 15 calories for 2 Tablespoons. Of course, with 25 servings, the container is certainly not for quick consumption. Again, sweet and yummy, and hard to stop at 2 Tbs. Also, probably not the most nutritional food...

Well, I'll either have to find a way of forcing myself to limit these foods, or just not buy them in the first place. I guess it could be worse, though, I could be talking about french fries or fast food.

Solvang Half Century

This weekend we had a Claresco company trip to do the Solvang Century. Heather, Erica and I (the significant others/significant employee) headed down early on Friday, stopping at the Gilroy outlets for some pre-ride shopping! We enjoyed a relaxing trip down 101, with another stop in San Juan Bautista to see the mission and Atascadero on a secret mission to find cheese curds. We met up with the guys in San Luis Obispo for a dinner of tapas on the patio. After getting to our hotel in Santa Maria, we prepped our muscles for the next day's ride with a nice soak in the hot tub.

We stopped for some cheese curds on the way!

The next morning us ladies had a much more relaxed, mocha and latte fueled drive to Solvang, whereas the men busted out of the place around 6 am to have enough time to complete the 100 mile day. Sipping our lattes, we arrived in beautiful Solvang just in time to check in and head out along our 50 mile route towards Lompoc. There was barely a trickle of people heading out of the start when we set off. For a ride with +5000 participants, this was unheard of.

Here we are at the start.

The road was all ours.... at least on this section!

We met up a mile from the end for a triumphant ride to the finish.

None of us really had any preparation or training for this ride, in fact, I think the last ride I had done was back in October as part of the Triathlon, not counting a 12 mile jaunt to work one day.

All in all, it was a great ride and despite the cloudy weather and a bit of saddle sore, it was a wonderful half century.