#anettingnewzealandadventure: The Nettings Do NZ

This week felt like a typical busy week, like it would have been in Canada. On Monday, Kensley and I walked to the mall, which was about 35 minutes each way. It really made for a great afternoon and I was really impressed by the mall. We bought her some new, bigger sleepers! On our walk home, we stopped at Gold Eagle Brewery to pick up a few beers for Caleb. On Tuesday, Kensley went for her 6-month immunizations, which were quite traumatic for her. She saw a great doctor at the clinic around the corner and she weighed in at 13.5lbs! Thankfully, the NZ immunization schedule is extremely similar to Canada’s (same immunizations just their ages are slightly different). Then, that evening, we had Jacqui (the mom I met at the coffee shop), Hugh and Walt (her two boys) over for a visit and dinner. Walt, who is 4 weeks old, is almost the same size as Kensley, which is pretty darn cute. On Wednesday, we met Julia and Lucy for a walk around Hagley Park. Thursday, Caleb was on call and Mary was back from Ireland, so she came over for wine and dinner! Funny enough, Mary brought the same wine that I had picked up, for the second time! If that isn’t a sure sign that this friendship is meant to be, then I don’t know what is. It’s not like there are 4-5 wines to choose from, there are like 20-30! Friday was off to a rough start in our household, I was purely exhausted and Caleb’s bike was stolen!!! He was SUPER upset to find this in the morning (yes it was locked up). He was on call and biked from another hospital to the one across the street from us for the evening. When he was done at 11pm he walked home (you can literally see our place from the hospital), forgetting his bike was locked there. We played Friday pretty low key but we did meet Kayla for lunch at the Boat Shed around the corner. While I was feeling exhausted and a little defeated from my half marathon training, I had a hard run to get in on Friday. I was seriously thinking, how am I going to push this run, but my body pulled through and I felt amazing, running my best postpartum 10k yet! Caleb thinks I might be getting faster than him….I know that’ll never be the case because any time we run together he has to be one step ahead of me :P. Nonetheless, I’ll take the compliment. We enjoyed two pinot noirs from Central Otago this week: The Crater Rim 2016 ($25.99) and Driven Snow 2016 ($21.99). Both were good but I preferred Driven Snow and am giving it 4/5 and Crater Rim 3.5/5 – I’m getting more harsh on my ratings. I forgot to take notes on my phone while we were having them so we are lacking tasting notes. I remember Caleb found the Driven Snow had hints of raspberry and it was super easy to drink. He rates Crater Rim 4/5 and Driven Snow 4.5/5 – I think he’s becoming kinder on his ratings.

On Saturday, we did our typical Boat Shed latte bowls, and then packed up the car to head to Methven, the town at the base of Mt. Hutt which is about 80k west of Christchurch. This is Kayla’s hometown and we stayed there with her at her parent’s (Jan and Dylan/Dave) house. Jan was so sweet to Kensley, she had a room set up for her and toys out and was so eager to give her cuddles. Caleb was doing a race called “Peak to Pub”. He skied down Mt. Hutt, hopped on his bike (actually not his bike because his was stolen the day before) to do a 20k downhill ride, then a 12k run that finished at The Blue Pub (there is also a pub called The Brown Pub). I’ve mentioned before, that Kayla has been a blessing to us here. She is always going over and above. She rallied up and was able to find Caleb a bike to use for the race. She also drove him to the top of the hill for the ski, where she then had to remain for a few hours because the roads were closed for the race. Her sister, Lucy, hung out with Kensley and I in town and drove us around to collect Caleb’s bike at the transition and various points to cheer him on! The apple doesn’t fall far from the tree, as we saw from Kayla’s family. They are all gems. Caleb thought he could pull off the race without support, but it was very clear that Kayla and Lucy were essential to our day. And to have a nice home to stay at afterwards with Kensley was great.

Anyways, Caleb had an amazing race! I am so proud of him. He finished 15^th out of individuals racing! There were a total of around 400 people doing the race, some individuals and some on teams with different people doing different portions. He said the bike was “scary” and for him to say this, I am certain that it was probably terrifying. Apparently, people were just flying down the hill on their bikes, clearly very experienced (or just down right crazy) riders. He said it was tough and that the run was harder than he was expecting after the ski and the bike. The run was on some rough terrain and they literally had to swim 15 ft across a freezing cold river in the middle of the run; he said his legs felt like they froze up after that. Nonetheless, he finished strong and we were happy to cheer him on!

On Sunday, we left Methven pretty early so we could get back for my long run. I did 15 k while Caleb took Kensley to a bike store to replace his stolen helmet (yes, jerks took that too) and another bike lock. My run felt pretty slow but it’s done! I’m definitely finding that I’m needing more recovery time than I did previous to being a momma and need to figure out my groove. I finished the run to see Kensley and Caleb playing on the grass by the river, which was such a great sight. Later in the afternoon we met Caleb’s surf bro (only I call him this), Michael and his fiancé, Jess, for a walk and a drink. All-in-all, it was a great week! Oh and with one bike gone for Caleb, he somehow has convinced himself that he needs two new (used) ones...one has already been purchased: one beater/commuter and another mountain bike.