We haven't been very good about posting lately! So I'll try to just hit the recent highlights. In mid February I went to Melbourne for a work conference. The conference was really good, but the best part was getting to seeing Melbourne - running along the river in the morning, dining out at great restaurants (paid for by work is always a plus!), and wandering around town after the conference each night. One of the main highlights was a private tour of the Melbourne aquarium, and their new penguin exhibit. The younger penguins were very inquisitive and waddled over to the glass when they saw us coming, and then would walk back and forth checking us all out.
I also really liked the sea dragons (never even knew there were such fish!) but apparently they live off of the southern coast of Australia.
I have to go back for another meeting next week and I am really excited about that.
The weekend after, Eric and I joined the PDP team for the Round Taupo Relay Race. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Australia/NZ, and it is basically the crater of a volcanic explosion in 186AD (Eric happened to be looking it up in a travel book, haha). It is 239 sq miles, and the relay race was about 160km. Here is a picture of Eric during his leg of the race (he actually had a pretty scenic view with the lake on one side, but not much shoulder to run on and the road was not closed for the race). It was cloudy and drizzly for most of the legs, but the sun decided to come out and roast Eric on his leg - but he did great!
After the race, some of our team went for a swim in the lake. One of our team members knew a certain part of the lake with geothermal activity beneath it; while we were in the water we dug our feet into the sand and it was so hot! There was a big bbq for our whole team that evening; the Kiwi bbq consists of lamb, steak, sausages, and ribs - no complaints from us!
At the end of February, we went to the Auckland Cup horse race. They dress up here as well but the girls wear hats with feathers, not wide brims. We won about $12, but the races were really good. The big $2.2 million race was decided by a photo finish (and then the winning horse bucked off his jockey, who broke his heel, and had to be brought out in a wheelchair to accept his prize). Exciting day at the races!
I also really liked the sea dragons (never even knew there were such fish!) but apparently they live off of the southern coast of Australia.
I have to go back for another meeting next week and I am really excited about that. 
The weekend after, Eric and I joined the PDP team for the Round Taupo Relay Race. Lake Taupo is the biggest lake in Australia/NZ, and it is basically the crater of a volcanic explosion in 186AD (Eric happened to be looking it up in a travel book, haha). It is 239 sq miles, and the relay race was about 160km. Here is a picture of Eric during his leg of the race (he actually had a pretty scenic view with the lake on one side, but not much shoulder to run on and the road was not closed for the race). It was cloudy and drizzly for most of the legs, but the sun decided to come out and roast Eric on his leg - but he did great!
After the race, some of our team went for a swim in the lake. One of our team members knew a certain part of the lake with geothermal activity beneath it; while we were in the water we dug our feet into the sand and it was so hot! There was a big bbq for our whole team that evening; the Kiwi bbq consists of lamb, steak, sausages, and ribs - no complaints from us! 
At the end of February, we went to the Auckland Cup horse race. They dress up here as well but the girls wear hats with feathers, not wide brims. We won about $12, but the races were really good. The big $2.2 million race was decided by a photo finish (and then the winning horse bucked off his jockey, who broke his heel, and had to be brought out in a wheelchair to accept his prize). Exciting day at the races!
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