Ski NZ

To celebrate Josh's 31st birthday and our 6th anniversary we decided to endulge and booked ourselves a wild and crazy activity - a weekend ski trip to Mt Hutt in New Zealand! We found a swinging deal on flights, boutique accomodation, and lift tickets. And although we didn't think twice about the ski conditions, luckily both the weather and the snow status came through for us with two amazing bluebird days. (We missed the four solid days of storms and wind that had closed the mountain up until the day we arrived!)
Some things about skiing Mt Hutt that are sweet as:
- You can clearly see the ocean from the top of the ski run
- There are no trees to run into, anywhere in the ski area
- Short lift lines!
- Looking at the base of the mountain there are green pastures everywhere (many covered in sheep)
- No altitude sickness with a mountain that is 6,000ft tall
- You are in New Zealand!

Some challenges to skiing Mt Hutt:
- You have to drive 20km (which takes 45min from your accommodation) via a mostly one-lane dirt/ice road that requires either 4WD or mandatory chains that can be hired on your way up
- There are no trees to break the wind or give you bearing on your way down the slopes
- There are very few signs to confuse you - or direct you
- Being so far south, there is a limited time during the day when the sun hits the runs nicely

We had a great time, thanked our lucky stars for the gift of gorgeous weather, and just really enjoyed the experience of skiing in the Southern Hemisphere. We did conclude however, that we'll be taking lessons once we return home as we have quite a few little ski muscles that we've forgotten about while in Oz!

The Big Show

If you want cool, you're lookin' at it! Well, maybe not that cool since we're not dressed up. We attended the opening show of Harry Potter and the Half Blood Prince with a couple of Josh's colleagues and some of the craziest Potter fans in Melbourne. Even better than that, we watched it on the IMAX with portions of it in 3D! The only minor downside was the timing of attending the opening - 12:05am. Yes, that means that we didn't get home until 3 in the morning (on a worknight), but what a small price to pay to be two of the select few that can say they saw Harry first in Melbourne.

Oh What A Night

If you have not yet seen Jersey Boys and you have the opportunity, it is a must do in our book. We went to the show last week and had a fabulous evening! The music of course was upbeat and fun, and it was interesting learning the story of Frankie Valli and The Four Seasons. The show was presented in a creative manner, the on-stage band performances added a nice touch, and the Australian actors were even able to pull off Jersey accents ;)

Gold Coast Marathon

It may be hard to believe (due to the travels we've undertaken), but the past 5 months we have actually been training for our 5th marathon. The weekend finally arrived and we were off to experience everything that Brisbane and the Gold Coast had on offer. Quite a few of our training friends were doing the race as well so we were looking forward to having plenty of folks cheering at the end.

Friday afternoon we drove the hour from Brisbane down to the Gold Coast (probably not the wisest decision to be leaving the city with everyone and their brother on a Friday afternoon), and upon our arrival we settled into our apartment overlooking the ocean and got to work relaxing ahead of the race. Saturday morning we picked up packets, finalised our race plan, and were excited to find out that the stage tour of So You Think You Can Dance (SYTYCD to us fans) Australia had a matinee show at the same convention center that hosted the race expo. We were looking for a way to pass the time and stay off our feet (beyond just cruising up and down the coast in our convertible hire car) so it seemed like the perfect fit. Our seats weren't fantastic but the dancing was great and we got a kick out of seeing our favorite dancers on stage doing their thing for a screaming audience of pre-teen girls. Our last pre-race activity was to make dinner in our apartment (spaghetti of course) while once again watching our poor Tigers lose at footy. We had considered going to the game, as the Tigers also happened to be playing up in the Gold Coast that weekend, but even before the half we knew we had made the right decision because the Tigers were yet again off their game :(

Race day dawned clear, bright and cool, and after scoping everything out the previous day our transit to the start went very smoothly, catching a bus just down the street from our apartment. The shopping centers near the start were open so we didn't even have to queue in the cold for the port-a-loo's! Shortly after the nature stop we met up with a couple friends, dropped off our change of clothes at the 'left luggage' tent, and were set for the start. There were 23,000 people participating in the many events on the day though only 4,000 were taking on the full marathon. It still felt like a massive event and was somewhat crowded during the first half as most of the roads were very narrow. The first 21km ticked by fairly quickly in just over 2 hours and before long we were onto the tough mental part with 10km to go. As the course was sort of an irregular bowtie (long out and back to the start and then shorter out and back the other way) we got some helpful cheers from teammates and coaches as we passed the start/finish that helped us to stick with the plan and continue forward. With the final turn behind us and just 2km to go we were once more cheered on by our coach (now on his bike) and given more encouragement towards the finishline. There wasn't much doubt the entire day of 'if' we would finish, it was more about 'how' would we finish - in the end it hurt, but with a 4:08 finish we were minutes off our best time and thrilled with our achievement.

Post-race (due to our multi-marathon experience) we had already booked massages to help us recover, and though Josh got a bit of a harsh experience it did help and we were able to move pretty well by evening. Our team had a celebration at one of the nearby nightclubs where, much to our surprise, there was actually some dancing among the group!

Monday morning we woke up late, watched Federer win Wimbleton, and then decided we must do what everyone does when they come to the Gold Coast - go to a theme park! We opted for Movie World and with its rides and shows most everything involved sitting down - perfect! It was school holidays so all the rides had pretty long lines and we spent a fair bit of time waiting between screams. Nonetheless we were able to hit the big rides - Superman, Scooby Doo, Batman (Lethal Weapon was closed) - and even did the Shrek 4D show. Just as we finished the last ride it was time to drive back to the Brisbane airport. Another marathon in the bag and smiles all around, we headed home to Melbourne to begin a short week of class and work.

One Final Tick

As you know from reading our blog we have visited all the states and territories in Australia over the past years, including all of the state capitals except one - Brisbane, capital of Queensland. We were unsure if we would actually make it to Brisbane before we left, but when we decided to run the Gold Coast marathon (an hour south of Brisbane) we knew there was no reason not to make a stop and check things out.

We flew into Brisbane the Friday before the race and spent the day exploring the city before driving down to the Gold Coast for the weekend. To begin our day we checked out City Hall and took the original (refurbished) lift up to the clock tower for a somewhat unexciting view of the city. However, the ride in the lift took us through the inner-workings of the clock tower, which was really cool. Then we had a great time wandering through the Queensland Art Gallery and Gallery of Modern Art, followed by lunch in the sun by the Brisbane River that runs through the city. All fueled up we enjoyed an extremely windy walk along the river, through the botanic gardens in the city, past the Parliament House, and back to our car. Feeling like we had seen the highlights of Brisbane, we hit the road and were on our way to the Gold Coast!

Anticipation

We're off on another weekend trip, but this one has us a bit more nervous than normal. We're heading up to the Gold Coast (just south of Brisbane) to run our 5th marathon! It should be a great break from the Melbourne winter, but we do wonder why we keep signing up for these things when we know how much it will hurt. :-)

We're hoping for the best and we've had a fairly good set of training - now we just have to keep it together for the run on Sunday. Pictures and stories when we get back!