Hey Folks, I hope everyone had a very Merry Christmas and you are all prepared for a ripper of a New Year!

So, what have I been up to these last couple of weeks?  We said our final good-byes to everyone in NZ, plenty of tears were shed from me, and after having pre-flight massages in the Air NZ lounge (thanks KT), we boarded the plane bound for Chicago.  Usually, flying through San Francisco is much easier than LAX but this time SFO was a nightmare.  Actually, it was our United “experience” that made it hell - us a United “experience” ever pleasant?  And then the wine that we bought from duty free in NZ couldn’t be taken through security so we had to check another bag so that we could keep our 3 bottles of precious NZ white wines.  Luckily, all 3 bottles made it to Chicago safely.  Stepping outside in Chicago the cold wind about sent us into hypothermia but at least we thought ahead to pack out jackets, gloves and hats to keep us from frostbite.

So many things have happened in the last 2 weeks that there is no reason for me to tell a story about each and every thing but I’ll list a couple of the highlights.  On day one we picked up our 2007 Toyota Matrix in Madison (the first car we have owned that is newer than 1989); shared an early Christmas with my family in Rockford; spent a week in Wausau with the Miller’s where we had Christmas (and my b’day on the 26th), met Ben’s brother’s wife and step-son, Mari and Jorge, saw Ben’s very pregnant with twins sister (she looks great!), went snow shoeing, and almost went crazy trying to check email using dial-up (just one of the many reasons that I haven’t been blogging lately); back in Rockford we have seen many family and friends, for New Year’s Eve tonight we’ll have dinner with my parents and friends, and we’ll keep doing workouts on the trainer since the weather outside is atrocious.

Although I am “home”, I do feel like I am in another world. Going from the pleasant summer (well, sort of) in the southern hemisphere to this gloomy, gray, wet and cold winter of the northern hemisphere has been a shock to the system.  We have been in this winter crap now for just over a week and the sun has “shone” its face just once.  How depressing.  Plus, I haven’t adjusted to darkness appearing at 5pm.  It was 8:30 or later in NZ before we had to turn on lights.  Although, it was nice to have a white Christmas in northern Wisconsin.  If it’s going to be cold and miserable, it might as well snow, too.  And Colorado has been blasted with significant amounts of snow in the last week but I can only hope that at least the sun is shining.  What a difference it makes when the sky is blue vs a depressing gray.  Man, I wish I had some snow shoes or cross country skiis.

Ben and I will start our trek westwards 3 days from now, sufficient time for the snow to melt, right?  Well, our new iPod car adapter will keep the iPod charged from beginning to end so we’ll have plenty of tunes to keep our minds off the monotany of driving through Iowa and Nebraska.  We’ve decided to start the drive at night since driving through the flat lands isn’t any better in the day time and it will mean an afternoon arrival in Ft Collins the next day.  The only obstacle  we might face before leaving IL is how we are going to pack all of our stuff into the car.  We’ve got old electrical items that we had left behind years ago when we left the US thinking we would never need them again.  Good thing our families love us and don’t mind giving those things back.  And then there are the many new things that we have received for Christmas and my b’day, like my digital SLR camera, a bitchin’ Kitchen Aide, an iron, clothes, and more goodies that are floating around in our pile of mess right now.

Ok, ok, the trainer is calling.  Time to get this workout done and over with so that we can enjoy this gloomy day in a movie theather or something.

 Happy New Year! 

Meredith

Hot Damn, this new Flock browser is pretty wicked. See, I’ve got plenty of time on my hands to investigate this sort of thing as I am just sitting here while the movers pack up all of our stuff and while Ben is on the trainer. As soon as he is done, it is my turn so I better make this quick.

I guess there is no backing out of our move now since most of our apartment is now tightly packed away in boxes. This guy is very thorough. Oh, did I mention there is only ONE guy packing our whole apartment? Yup. We were hoping it would all get done in one day since we really don’t have that much stuff but there was no way one guy could do it all - at least not how thoroughly this guy is working. So, we are sitting here on the 2nd day of packing watching the rain fall outside and cleaning, riding, surfing the net as our last hours in NZ tick by. We are hoping to have one more breakfast/coffee ride tomorrow for one last chance to say our good-byes but it will all depend on how much cleaning we can get done today.

Anyway, all of our things should be in the container by the end of the day which means we will be having a sleep over at Toni and Aaron’s tonight. I hope their carpet is dry by now. Once all of our things are in the container we can get stuck into cleaning, which hopefully we can get most of it done tonight so that we don’t have to rush tomorrow to tidy things up. It would be nice to have one last cruisy ride before packing up the bikes and lugging our bags to the airport rather than being stuck inside cleaning.

In the meantime, I have added a few more photos of Auckland so you can see some of the wonderful places we are leaving behind. You’ll see the Sky Tower, shopping area in Newmarket (look closely and you might notice the sparse Christmas decor), ferns and koru, West Haven Marina (you’ll see why Auckland is called the city of sails), and Pohutakawa trees (aka Christmas trees because they bloom around Christmas).

I should sign off now. You probably won’t hear from me again until I’ve reached the good ‘ole US of A so until then…keep it real.

Meredith

A few more things happened over the weekend that are worth mentioning. First, we had a great going-away bash on Friday night. The usual suspects were all there, plus a few more who were probably wondering what this crazy lot of people were up to. When food and alcohol get thrown into the mix, you never know what might happen. The dancing and wrestling (yep, that competitive drive goes with us everywhere) weren’t so unusual, but it was when the entire chilly bin (aka cooler) of ice and water was thrown over Ben (who was lying on the floor at the time after being properly pinned by Lisa) did the evening’s events seem to be a bit outrageous. I guess that was Aaron and Blair’s way of saying good-bye, strange as it may seem, but that was just the icing on the cake for a good night. So, we said a few good byes that night, although I don’t think that it all has really sunk in yet.

Then, on Sunday we got to ride our final “coast ride” with our mates. This is a 160km ride that heads south and then swings east toward the coast and then we get to ride north along the coast towards home. It’s a great ride and one that I am surely going to miss. The rolling hills, the blue/green of the ocean water, and camaraderie shared with our friends, I will never forget. I can only assume that the riding in CO is going to be awesome but nothing can replace the ocean. We have lived on the coast for many years now (in California, Denmark and New Zealand) and it is going to be a very strange feeling not seeing the ocean. The sights and sounds of the ocean have been part of “us” for too long to think that there won’t be some sort of emptiness without it. BUT, I love the mountains as well and I can imagine that they will fulfill me in many other ways that I haven’t yet discovered.

The mover is now starting to pack up the kitchen and I better get in there to make sure things are done properly. I guess now that our apartment is beginning to fill with boxes, it is slowly starting to hit me that we are in fact moving.

Meredith

Well, ladies and gentleman, we are now in our last days of living in NZ, but before leaving then land of Kiwi birds, Kiwi fruit, and Kiwi people, I couldn’t pass up the opportunity to race one more CYCO criterium. The CYCO crits happen every Thursday night at the “tank farm” in downtown Auckland and they are perfect races for speed work. The men take these races seriously – do men ever not?? – so they are bloody fast. However, last night there was a separate women’s race as the winners of the women’s and men’s races were crowned Auckland Champs. I figured since I hadn’t participated in a crit yet this series, it was time to give it one last go before moving. Since I will be moving into winter, it seemed only right that I allow myself one race in the summer weather (which it is finally starting to feel like summer around here). It was a good race and I put in a lot of hard digs off the front. With one lap to go I gave it a solid effort to surprise the group hoping to slip away and avoid a field sprint. But, Marina caught me and easily passed me to go on for a solo win, while I cruised across the line somewhere off the back. My efforts were worth something though as I did win a hair cut and blow dry, which I desperately need! So, my first race of the NZ summer and my last race in NZ was good fun and I will be sad to be leaving such a good event.

Another “last” happened this morning. As happens every Friday morning, we shared our last brekkie ride with our mates. Around 6:30am anywhere from 5 to 15 people start to congregate along the waterfront and from there we ride on to a café for breakfast. Each Friday we pick a different café so we have indulged in good coffees and food all around Auckland. These brekkie rides have been a tradition that our friends started years ago and I think it is a tradition we should continue in Ft Collins – if it doesn’t exist already. What could be a better way to wrap up a long week and kick off the weekend?

Today is also my last day of working at Hot Cycles, a place for serious bikes and serious fun. I am a bit afraid of what the guys might have in store for me today, but then again I think they are really just all talk.

5 more sleeps to go…

Meredith

Gotta go see the new Bond flick. It’s edgier, action packed, and well, Daniel Craig is hot. He wasn’t my favorite in the beginning but by the end, mmm mmm mmm. Oh, and his Aston Martin is pretty sweet too.

Well, today is my last Thursday in New Zealand. Sad. I had a farewell brekkie this morning with the women’s group I ride with on Thursday mornings and it was sad saying goodbye. They are really talented and lovely women and I wish them all the best in their endeavors.

I should really give a big thanks to Amy Taylor of Kinetic Edge for coaching me for the 2 years. She put in a tremendous effort to keep my going physically and mentally and I appreciate all of her hard work. I learned many things from her which I will always keep with me. And I want to give a shout out to Roger Stephens at Hot Cycles who has also done a lot of favors and looked out for me the last couple of years. Roger has helped me with equipment and service, he’s put me in contact with people for one on one training, and he has even given me a job when he didn’t really need the help at the shop. Kudos to both of these fantastic people.

As each day goes by it’s going to get harder and harder to say goodbye and to know I might be seeing someone for the last time ever. I’ll be thinking more and more of all the wonderful ways in which these Kiwis have influenced my life.

Cheers
Meredith