Land of the Kiwis A runner in New Zealand

Month 2: It’s Been A Month!

Take that all you doubters. I've survived. It took a little more time in the purple bubble than most, but I think I'm getting the hang of this real world thing.

I find myself, for the second day, in the ocean, next to a pier, trying to trick my mind into thinking about topics interesting enough to override the incredible monotony that is aqua-jogging.

Moderately successful, I completed a full 30min tempo simulation with 10 minutes easy leading in and 10 leading out. There were a bunch of people around to aid in distracting me. One dad was especially funny, entertaining his 3 girls (poor guy) with big splashes and various aqua-batic feats. He chatted with me a little bit, at least recognizing my sanity, opening with, "Good spot for an interval workout, huh?" Anyways, really good guy. A good character role model at least, but now the kicker: he doesn't look the part, balding with various Maori tattoos and a bot belly. I was just talking to Ian about the book Blink (Williams psych dept recommended novel on accuracy of instantaneous judgments*) but a snap judgement would have failed me with this guy.

50min aquajog. 1 mile run

Now for today's main attraction. AVATAR!

Mt. Monganui Shoreline

To follow that up, Ian took us to downtown Tauranga where we sipped Irish beers and marveled over the movie. Nothing compares.

Finally we got back in the car and in the waning light explored the Mt. Mangonui (mong-guh-NU-ee) coastline. It was glorious and Cary and I knew we'd be back for some sun tomorrow.

We also got another dose of awe-inspiring entertainment watching Ian's DVD of Circue du Soliel. Some pretty incredible people in that show.

*why does spellchecker say "judgement" is a word but not "judgements". Instead it says "judgments"...
Fact: Wikipedia says either is fine. Whatever.