28 October 2007

Auckland - Les Mills

Yeah, back in Auckland and I'm sore already. Had an early morning yesterday. BC 08.10 with Dan & Rach. When I was walking up to the gym I saw Karin and Claudia our 2 dutch trainers who will be presenting. They just got in in the middle of the night and Claudia had to join BC after only a couple of hours sleep. After BC I stayed at chatted a bit with Karin and after that I joined BA with Mark S. I just love him. He's so good with connecting in class. In the afternoon I did another BA class. First I wanted to join BP as well, but I was pretty tired after not working out for 2 days, I decided it would be better to give my body a bit of a rest. Showed Claudia around for a bit, went to the supermarket, sat down for a coffee and later that evening the three of us went for dinner. Claudia didn't present yet, but Karin did, and I think she did great. Especially when you think of the fact she'd hardly slept over the night.
This morning Claudia presented BC for the first time. Cool! I'm enjoying this BC release, and after not doing combat for a while, I can really feel my shoulders. After BC I joined the Team teach BB class together with Karin. We both needed a good stretch. A beautiful release it is.
This afternoon I will be doing BP and BA (of course) and I'm not quite sure if I will be doing BC, might just watch Claudia and take a couple of pictures. I'll see.
Wow, it's so good to be back!

25 October 2007

From South to North

Yeah, I made my way up to the North Island. And wow what an amazing trip it was yesterday. The train left Christchurch at 07.00 am already. A shuttle goes through town and stops at the hostels to pick people up. Good service as the train station is pretty far out of the way.
The train was comfortable and the nice thing about is, that there is a viewing balcony. It's open and good to take pictures. I really enjoyed the trip. Saw so many things go by. Most impressive to me are still the mountains with snowy tops. So weird to see those when you see the Pacific on the other side. Also saw penguins and seals swim in the ocean. Later on, the landscape changed into vineyards, as the weather is good for that at the top of the south island. The train arrived 5 hours after it departed in Picton, but time went by so quickly. Than went on the Inter islander ferry. It was amazing how beautiful it was the trip through the Marlborough Sounds. I'm so glad I finally got to this ferry crossing. I already know my pictures will not show the beauty I saw in real. You just gotta go and see it for yourself.
Got to Wellington late afternoon, but for me it was just to spend the night as I left early this morning to go to Napier.

I love this city. I love the art deco. I have been walking around for just about the whole afternoon, enjoyed the sun for a bit while having a frappuchino, walked all the way up to Bluff Hill Viewing point, wearing my flip-flops, or should I say jandals while over here in Kiwi land :-)
Had good dinner at some place near the boulevard and then played around with my camera, trying to make good pictures from the colourful fountain.
Auckland is getting closer and closer ....

22 October 2007

Stewart Island - Ulva Island

Here I am again. Where do I start..... Let me think. I left you guys in Christchurch, so I'll begin from there. The bus trip took forever. It was a nice ride ... but way too long, so during the 10 hours on the bus I had decided that no matter what I was going to take the plane going back to Christchurch. Anyway ... the ride was beautiful again. For a long time I could see the Southern Alps again. We were going through a lot of small villages. Every once in a while a stop to stretch eat or do other stuff :-) Well 10 hours and 40 minutes later I arrived in Invercargill. The weather changed a lot, so by this time it rained, the temperature had gone way down and the wind was blowing. So bad that the ferry did not go that day to Stewart Island.... uhhhh any other possibility??? Well I just waited until the next morning. Still they could not tell if the ferry was going. But anyway I could cancel the whole thing and fly over to Stewart Island. Surprisingly enough, the flight were still going. Off to the airport then. The tickets were made out hand written, the reservation system was a cardboard separated into several boxes with 8 places to add the names. Really old fashioned, I think my dad used to work like that when he started working with KLM over 40 yrs ago ... haha. Anyway I hopped on the flight and when we were about to take of I got really scared. You know to small parts in the paper which tell those stories like, small plane missing in bad weather. I could already imagine this in next days paper. Luckily it did happen and I arrived safely at Stewart Island. A bus took us to Oban, the main city, or actually only city, or shall we call it 1 street village. I dropped my bag at the hostel and picked up a map to do a walk. There was this nice 6 hour walk I decided to do. Even though it was raining and really cold. The track was mostly through like a jungle.Too bad the temperature didn't feel like a jungle. Heard more birds than I saw. Passed beaches, bridges. Listened to the sounds of the birds, the wind, the rain. It felt like I was the only one there. By the time I got back I was freezing, but it was a great walk. I could really feel my feet and legs and I was tired, but it was a satisfying feeling. I had promised myself a hot chocolate and they served carrot cake as well. That was a nice treat after this walk.
Went to bed early and because of that I woke up early as well. I decided to go for a walk, as the weather seemed to be better as the day before. Went to a look out, then walked along the shore and at 8.30 I got back and went to the visitors centre if they had any options of going to Ulva Island. There was a water taxi leaving at 09.00, so I had to hurry. They also arranged my flight back to the mainland. I checked out the hostel and went on to Golden Bay Beach were the water taxi would be leaving from. It was still windy and cold and every once in a while it would still rain, but at least the sun was shining too. The weather is really amazing. Within 5 minutes it changes from sunny into rain, dark grey sky, into bright blue sky with the sun shining again. Anyway the waves seemed to be pretty high, and this boat is fairly small. Crazy .. but with this good captain it was all okay and I arrived safely on Vulva Island. This is completely national reserve. Few tracks have been set, which can be followed. The walk was beautiful. The sounds of birds, the wind blowing through the trees, the waves approaching the beach. The tress were making scary sounds like they could fall down any minute and then all of a sudden it was quiet, the sun tries to reach through the trees. I stop walking and enjoy this moment of silence. Then the birds come out again, all making different sounds. After while I see the beach coming up. Walk a long the beach see a seal sticking his head out of the water. It feel like I'm the only one on the Island. Amazing. After 2 1/2 hours I'm back at the were I started. Have to wait for about 30 minutes until the boat comes again to pick me up, right on time to catch the flight. I get to sit all the up front next to the pilot. Nice views and the flight was better than the one yesterday. The weather clearly as cleared up luckily. I arrived in Invercargill. Arranged my ticket to fly back to Christchurch and cancelled the bus ticket. Walked around in the city for a bit, got some food for tonight and also arranged the train to Picton and the ferry to Wellington. Finally I'am going to make the ferry crossing from South to North. I hope it's not too rough on the water and that the weather will be good enough to take pictures. Let's keep the fingers crossed.

19 October 2007

AMS - KIX - AKL - CHC

Wow that was quite a trip. Flew after a day of work to Osaka. Had a great flight 3 seats for me and was able to get a pretty good sleep for about 4 hours on board I think. Arriving in Japan I was very glad there were signs in English as well so I managed to get my way to the train station. Bough a day pass which would get me to Kyoto and back. I was right on time catch the 10.15 train. The doors closed right behind my backpack. The train ride was about 75 minutes. Arriving in Kyoto was an experience. How to get out. The only words I understood were Arrivals, departures and Exit. Well you would think with exit it's easy to get out .... uuhhh which exit .... Just took a guess and picked the right one. Started walking and after a while I figured out how to get to Gion, the area where the geisha's are. It was nice walking around after an 11 hour flight. The weather was great (23 Celsius) the sun was out. After about an 1 1/2 walking through smalls streets I got in another different world ... you the book about the geisha? Well that's where I just arrived. Amazing! I was told the geisha's usually don't get out before 4 pm ... but I saw quite a few walking around. Waiting patiently for people with camera's. I walked around for a while, saw some temples and then I decided to go to the station and then the airport. After almost 4 hours of walking my feet were tired. I still had some time left for the flight. Slept for a bit and ate and drank.
On the next flight I did not sleep at all. It was quite a full flight. Read, watched a movie, some comedy's, played games and then it was time to land. Immigration etc in Auckland went pretty fast this time so I managed to get a 1pm flight to Christchurch. Found a place to sleep there and more important .... a hot shower. After arranging stuff to go to Akaroa and Stewart Island .... I was knock out and fall asleep at 7pm. Woke up only once during the night and this morning my alarm woke me up at 7.30 Left the hostel at around 8.15 to get a coffee at Starbucks (Yeah!) Exactly like 1 year and a half ago. At 9.00 the bus left for Akaroa. Awesome views all around the banks Peninsula. Clear blue sky, we even got to see the Southern Alps all covered with snow.
When I arrived in Akaroa I walked around for a bit, sat in the sun even though it's fairly cold, had lunch and then went to the wharf for a swim tour with the Hector Dolphin, the smallest Dolphin in the world, only living in this area. The dolphin will be maximum 1.20m (female)-1.40m (male). After a little while we saw penguins, but still no dolphins. Finally there was one, but this one was probably still hungry and getting his fish. No interest in playing. Then all of a sudden 3 dolphins came up to the boat .. all curious. I don't think I was ever so happy and quick in cold water as I was now. So cool..... 3 dolphins swimming around us, coming up to you, I can't describe how that is. After about 35 minutes the called us in the boat again as the dolphins had left. I think my body temperature went down about 10 degrees. I was shaking all over, but is was well worth it. I spilled my hot chocolate all over as I kept on shaking. Arriving at the wharf again, took of my wetsuit and could only get a quick shower as the bus was waiting for me. Wow what a great day!!!
Tomorrow I'm off to Invercargill and Stewart Island.
Keep you posted. Big hug!

13 October 2007

Fitvak Utrecht Demo Team

Claudia, Corine and I did a demo again in Utrecht at the Fitvak. It was fun again. One more day tomorrow. Below some pics which have been taken today during the 20 minute demo of 7 LM programs. BP, BS, BV, BB, BC, BJ and BA. By the way: something very unique happened. What?! Haha .. do you like to know ...... I did BJ .... Thursday evening we have been practising until 01.45 am and again at 07.45 am. Just so you know. I am not a jammer and learning 2 routines is pretty difficult. Deng ..... but I did it !!!!!





















03 October 2007

Sorry haven't been too good in writing my blog that last couple of weeks. I don't know where the time goes. On one hand that's good, because that means I get to go to NZ sooner, but on the other had, there's still so much to do.Last week I have been adapting to NZ time for a bit since I was working night shifts for a couple of nights. Too bad I had to change back to Holland time again. Furthermore I have mostly been living a Les Mills world. Learning choreo's, doing the club launch last week. I I'm happy to tell BA was best visited class. It was crowded and everyone was so excited, including me :-) It was great energy and passion. Thank you guys!What else?! BB was a low priority for quite a while, because there weren't a lot of classes to substitute and I do not have my own class. Thanks to LM NL, I was able to postpone my exam tape, but now it's time to do it. At the club I have asked for an extra BB class for a couple of weeks, so I can finally work on my BB exam. They let me do Thursday evening (after BP & BA which isn't that easy). It starts to feel better and better. I have been taping my classes and watching it. Got some help from my friend Claudia as well. She really gave me some great advice. Yesterday I filmed a pretty good class, and I will have one more chance tomorrow. Then I will have a choice between the 2 videos to send in the best one. Still I think it's a difficult class to teach. I love it, but it ain't easy. It's so hard to stay calm and be quiet for me. It's a challenge which I love to take. Life would be boring without any challenges right?!