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Published: March 1st 2016
I have a couple random topics that I'm combining here and then...I'll be caught up!
1) Waihi Beach Open Water Swim: On January 17th, I completed my first Open Water Swim. Some of my Te Awamutu Masters teammates did the swim too. They encouraged me to sign up and I'm glad they did. I was nervous about it, big surprise, but it turned out well. I bought a wetsuit a couple weeks prior, but I didn't actually use it until the day of this race. We parked at the finish and then it was a couple km walk along a walking path to the race start. I developed a couple blisters on my toes from my new sandals I wore for the first time. Great start to the day, right? Then when I was at the beach putting on my wetsuit and just waiting for the start, my feet got attacked my sand flies. They are the worst things ever, even worse than mosquito bites! I seriously got at least 15 bites between my two feet. The bite itself feels like a little poke and the itching and redness lasts forever. Paul is a freak of nature and either doesn't
get bit or doesn't react to mosquito or sand fly bites. I'm happy for him, of course, but it's also totally unfair! Anyway, the itching lasted for over a week and the redness lasted for at least three weeks. Yuck! Then it was race time. The race officials said there was a little chop, but it clears up after you get out a little bit. I warmed up a touch to try to get used to the water temp, the salt water, the waves, and my wetsuit. This race was my first time actually swimming in the ocean. When I was a child, I'd go out into the Gulf of Mexico in FL with my Dad to jump over waves and such. Then I went in the ocean a touch in Mexico and with Stephanie in Vero Beach, FL in 2008. In FL, the waves were pretty strong and they knocked me over. Then in 2014, I went in the Gulf of Mexico in AL with Noel. I really do love to swim, but not so much in the Ocean so I was already kind of nervous, but I went in with her. I figured if I'm going into the
Ocean, who better to go with than a Marine Biologist, right? We had some fish jumping out of the water around us, but I got over that. Then I thought I was relaxing a little bit but had enough so we walked back to the beach. Noel said there could be some stingrays in the water so I should shuffle my feet and I'd be fine. Right? Wrong! I was literally 2 feet from the water's edge and I got a sharp poke in my right foot. I was shuffling my feet, but I had them in like a V-shape, so I must have come up behind a ray so I got poked on the interior of my foot. At least it wasn't on the bottom! Well we rinsed it off quick with some water, but it was still bleeding (just a touch) and it burned (a lot). The area also turned red and swollen. Needless to say the beach time was over and we went back to Noel's place while I held my foot trying to be tough. Noel called up some coworkers who know about rays and they suggested to run hot water over my foot and go
to a Dr for antibiotics because rays can carry a bacteria or something. So, I didn't try to urinate on my foot because that's for jelly fish stings, not sure if that actually works, but hot water is supposed to help negate the toxins and stop the burning. I did that for about 20 minutes while Noel kindly searched for an urgent care that was open then drove me 30 minutes to it in Mobile, AL. My foot was still pretty sensitive, but I got into see a PA/MD right before they closed. They prescribed an antibiotic and painkiller and sent me on my way. Thankfully, like magic, my foot stopped hurting the instant I left the clinic. Crazy. Well, I didn't fill the painkiller, but I completed the course of antibiotics. We determined there was no stinger left in my foot so didn't have to dig that out. Well my foot stayed red for like a month. I even saw my primary MD in Wisconsin because it was still red and kind of swollen. Needless to say she didn't know a darned thing to do. Not that I blame her. Eventually it went away and now I'm just left
with a red spot as a reminder. Not that it's something I could easily forget, especially as I'm heading back into the Ocean. Also, the week before this Waihi Beach swim, a customer at the swim school said they were evacuated from the beach a week or two previous for a shark sighting. Awesome! Oh, also, the swim went from Orokawa Bay to Waihi Beach. Know what Bay is in between there? Shark Bay. That's right, and with my luck in the Ocean? Not cool, but here it was time to start swimming. My teammate, Bruce, was in front of me so I went for it and followed him out. That didn't last long because he zoomed ahead of me as I struggled a little bit to get through the waves on the way out. There were a couple buoys out in the water, but they were spaced pretty far apart. There were kayakers and boaters around the swimmers too, to keep everyone safe, but as the race went on the swimmers got spaced out. After I got past the big waves on the way out, I turned right at the area that was supposed to be more calm, but
it wasn't really so I could only breathe to my right to try to avoid getting a mouth full of salt water. I was unsuccessful twice, and I started gagging from the saltwater. I continued, though. At one point I had a kayaker near me tell me I was getting too far out into the Ocean. Eventually I must have made it closer to the path because I swear the kayaker disappeared. In fact, at one point I felt I was totally alone out there, in the middle of shark bay. Ahh! I wasn't too far behind a couple people, but at times a wave would get in between us and I couldn't see anyone. My goggles fog up which doesn't help, either. Anyway, the swim wasn't easy for me. Maybe I should've researched open water swim techniques, but I didn't. At the same time, I continued, I just had a tough time getting into a rhythm. About 3/4 of the way through the race my neck started to burn from friction from my wetsuit. I forgot the body glide at home and thought I'd be fine. By the end of the race, my neck irritation turned into a stage
two pressure ulcer. The skin was raw and moist. I put aloe on it because I figured it's good for sunburn it should be good for open wound healing, too. Not sure if it helped, but perhaps it did. Wish I had a WOCN consult for my neck. Another con about not working as a nurse at Froedtert! So I finished the swim by making it around the final buoy and finishing strong. My time was pretty slow so I came out of the race with a scowl on my face. After a couple minutes, the disappointment over my time disappeared and was replaced with happiness about finishing the swim. I mean, I was out of my comfort zone but I did it and survived. Also, no sealife sightings. Whew! To end it, I also won a spot prize so I picked out a 3 pack of travel toothbrushes. Cool and useful. I may not be fast, but I'm great at winning spot prizes and really isn't that what's more important?
I didn't think there was much to be seen in Waihi, but Paul and I learned about the Gold Mining history of the area. There is still a
current gold mine in the area and we peered into the old part of the mine that is no longer used. On Sunday after the swim, we stopped to walk around the Karangahake Gorge which is a pathway that was once used for gold mining. The path went through the hillside so I'm glad our phones have flashlights. What would we do without smart phones? It opened up into the gorge with the Ohinemuri River running through. We didn't do the whole walk because there were a couple different tracks, but it was a really pretty area.
One thing that traveling around NZ has helped me to realize is to appreciate what's around you. I mean, we are gone almost every weekend here doing something and Paul and I thought if we do that here, why can't we do that in in WI? I mean, there is so much stuff in WI I haven't seen. For instance, I've never been to the Apostle Islands. That's crazy. I guess that's a downside to 7/70 and working every other weekend. :/
2) I saw in the local newspaper, I think, that there was going to be a big Volleyball tournament at Lake Karapiro which is like 10 minutes away from my house. There were two tours in NZ, a National and a Pro level. One of the pro tournaments was the same weekend as Carrie and Greg's visit and when we did the Tongariro Crossing. So I went to the local National Beach tour. I think the winners of the National tour were competing for a spot to play on the Pro tours. I was surprised that there were barely any spectators. I mean, it was in the middle of the day on a weekday and the finals were going to be later in the afternoon, but still, it seemed like it was only family members there and me. So I had a front row seat on the grass by the courts. There were four courts being played on at a time and I had a hard time following who was winning, but it was still fun to watch for an hour or so before I had to go to work. Cambridge is such a neat area because it's in the middle of some world class sporting facilities: the Avantidrome for indoor cycling, Lake Karapiro and Waikato River for rowing, this beach volleyball tournament, and Equestrian events. I haven't actually seen any equestrian events like jumping, rodeo, or polo, but I'm sure we'll see some while we're here.
3) Getting out with new people. I think I mentioned previously that Paul and I met another couple from WI: Emily and Sam and they invited us over for dinner. It had been awhile since we were around to meet up with them again, so I contacted Emily to see if she wanted to go to the zoo with her children. I hadn't been to the Hamilton Zoo yet and I figured it was a family friendly event, so we ended up going 2 weeks ago on Feb 21st. It went well and it was great to catch up with Emily and her kids had some fun. I liked the zoo, it was smaller, but the exhibits had a fair amount of space for the animals which was nice to see. We went first thing in the morning, as well, so we got to see the animals being fed and they were lively. It wasn't mating time, so nothing weird to have to explain to the children, haha. You never know what you'll see at the zoo.
I also went out with some coworkers after work on a Thursday evening for two of their birthdays. I know I'm older than a lot of my coworkers because they're in college, but I figured we were just going out after work to Shenanigan's for $3 pizzas. I know, $3 NZD. That's a $2 USD pizza, including gratuity! I mean, that's an amazing deal. The beer was $6, but that's still not that bad for NZ. It was fun and it reminded me of the old days at Leff's on Sunday nights after work. Oh man, those days were the best. Too, bad they don't have deep fried cheese curds here for $3, too. I mean, it's probably actually a good thing they don't, otherwise I wouldn't be saving any money because I'd have to buy a whole new, larger, wardrobe. haha. Anyway, things were going well at the bar just talking about work stuff and then I asked my coworker, Abby, how old she was turning. I mean, I knew she was younger, but I was quickly reminded just how old I was, when she said she turned 19. I mean, I'm immature so I've always gotten along better with people younger than me. In high school, I hung out with some cool freshman girls. I mean, I'm just that cool. It was a fun time until I got home and I told Paul about the night. He then said, "wow, Laura, you were at a teenager's birthday party." Haha. Oh yeah, the drinking age here is 18 years old. But anyway, yeah, it's all good.
4) Another swim: Last Sunday (Feb 28) I competed in my third open water swim here at the Legend of the Lakes Swim in the Blue Lake/Lake Tikitapu in Rotorua. It was a freshwater swim in the NZ Ocean Swim series so they had a really good turnout. They offered a couple different distances: 3.5km, 1km, 300m, 300m x 3 relay, and 200m for children. I went with the 3.5 km swim, but the lake isn't that big, so to get the distance we swam around the perimeter. Instead of the typical square, triangle, straight line, etc. It was cool, though. Actually, I really enjoyed this swim. When I first entered, I put in my estimate time of 60-65 minutes. After I thought about it, though, I increased my time to 90 minutes. 90 minutes put me in the slowest wave, but that was fine. I wasn't sure how I'd feel because I developed a cold the previous day and didn't sleep well. Everything went well with the swim, though. Putting on the wetsuit is getting easier, and I didn't feel panicky at all at the start of the swim. The weather was originally supposed to have a chance of rain and possible lightning so they told us about the protocol if lightning is nearby. There was no need to worry about that, though, because the weather was great the whole time-nice and sunny. The water was pretty calm and I was able to get into a rhythm right away. I even did pretty well at swimming in a straight line. There were large orange buoys which made it easy to see the route. I didn't make the same mistake of swimming the day before the race like I did before the Huka River swim, so I didn't feel tired or sore. At the half way point, I was thinking, I still feel pretty good. Around the 2/3 point, I started feeling a little push from the water and I found myself swimming a little wide from the course. I was able to recover well and swim straight on into the finish. I knew I was swimming pretty well, or at least better than I expected, because I was catching up and passing people throughout the swim. Each wave had a different color cap and the waves went off 45 seconds apart. I saw caps that were 2-3 waves before me so that was encouragement to keep pushing on. My final time ended up being 1:07.39. The winner finished in 37 minutes, so fast! The event MC said there was a photographer at the end so to make sure to smile at the end. Well, I actually felt good about my swim and came out smiling. It was a nice change. 😊 Paul didn't catch me at the end, but maybe he just didn't recognize me after the swim with a smile on my face instead of the typical scowl. haha.
After the swim, Paul and I drove down the road to check out the Whakarewarewa Redwood forest and walking trails in Rotorua. We paid for the Redwoods Treewalk Rotorua walk on the suspension bridges. They weren't so high up that it was scary and it wasn't that long of a walk so I don't know if I'd really recommend this activity. I enjoyed it, but after the bridge walk we went for a walk on the Waitawa trail around the forest on the ground and I think it was just as good of an experience. The Redwood forest is made up of some Californian redwoods. Rotorua has a lot of foreign trees that were planted as an experiment to see which would thrive the best. There was a need for this because a lot of the native NZ Kauri trees forests were decimated and they're very slow growing so they needed something quicker to rebuild the forests.
Oh yeah, and we stayed at the Holiday Inn Saturday night before the swim. It was really nice and the best part was the hot spring pool and hot tub. I wasn't feeling so good from my cold but the hot tub helped. I don't know how warm the pool was, but I think it was fed by a hot spring so it was probably pretty warm. It's also one of the few areas where there is a chain hotel instead of a smaller mom/pop hotel...not that those are bad.
5) I have booked my flight home for April/May! I'm flying into Milwaukee on April 25th. On the 28th, I'm flying to Washington DC area to visit my friend, Amy, and attend her wedding!!! So excited 😊 Then I fly to Ft. Myers, FL on May 9th to visit my Grandparents and Aunt Loretta. Unfortunately I'm gone from NZ for four weeks, but that doesn't actually leave a lot of time to be in three different places, so I fly back to Milwaukee on May 12th. Then I leave MKE to fly back to NZ on May 20th. I'll be in Madison for my little sister's Bachelorette Party on May 14th. Not too much time, but I hope to see lots of people and have lots of fun. Unfortunately Paul has to stay in NZ and work. Sorry Paul!
6) Well, I'm still sick with my cold but I'm kind of starting to feel better. I'm loading up on zinc and vit C so we'll see what happens. I spent my day yesterday working in the morning then taking it easy by watching the entire season of Fuller House. Ashamed? Kind of. Do I regret it? No, not at all. Besides, Paul is out of town for work, so I had all day to do whatever I wanted and I didn't want to clean so netflix it was. I actually really enjoyed Fuller House until the last episode. I think the corniness works because full house is that kind of sitcom. I think the way it really works, though, is it felt like I was watching old friends and that I was almost a part of it because I understood their "inside jokes." The dancing scenes were fun and the DWTS and Bachelorette references were corny but funny. Anyway, I hope I feel better by this weekend because Paul and I are headed back to Taupo to volunteer for the Full Ironman. Perhaps I can do another swim in Taupo on Sunday if I'm feeling good. Oh yeah, and speaking of volunteering, Paul and I helped out with the REV Race on Feb 20th. We helped out with two time frames. In the morning, we were responsible for helping out on the 60 km course to direct riders about the upcoming sharp turn. The beginning was slow until the riders turned up, but then it went quickly. During the afternoon, we helped out on the REV Classic UCI 1.2 (138 km). I thought the UCI race would be exciting to watch, but the course was 4 laps and Paul and I were on trash pickup duty. There was hardly any trash to pick up so it was basically just waiting there for them to finish. It was exciting when they passed by us, but it's so quick and then it's another 30 minutes or so to see them again. There were like 3 groups of riders instead of a constant stream of riders like in the morning. Also, we were at the feed/drink checkpoint so it was just family or team members handing the riders new bottles so there wasn't really cheering. It was underwhelming and I didn't really feel like I was helpful, but we're glad we did it. It's always fun to help out with different events and to be a part of it instead of just cheering. Plus, we each got a t-shirt in our real size so that's cool. I mean who doesn't like a free t-shirt, right?
7) Well, I think I'm officially caught up on my journal here. Hope to see lots of you when I'm back home in the USA. I'm sad to say it's officially Fall here in NZ and the weather has been pretty rainy for the last two days. Just matches how I'm feeling. On the plus side, that means Spring is on it's way for WI. 😊
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