Day #6 (the drive home)

This is going to be a short post because there weren't many highlights today.

We woke up in Mt. Maunganui to find that there was only one bathroom to share between all of us. Six women and one bathroom can be chaotic. Luckily, I'm well trained in the art of being quick so my teeth were brushed and my contacts were in in less than three minutes.
We got in the car and went for breakfast on the beach.
The weather was overcast and cool.
After breakfast, Alissa had received a message that she left her Spongebob bikini at the room so we went back to pick it up. Hee hee hee!

We hit the road by about 10, and drove through the countryside. We stopped maybe a million times to try and get a 'thank you' gift for Ross. I ended up finding him Christmas lights shaped as Havaianas (Brazilian flip flops). I knew he liked colorful design-type things. They turned out to be a hit!

Finally we made it home by about 4. Becky, Miriam and I were anxious to get moving after a day in the car so we went to an Attack class. We all felt much better except I pulled a Hammy. Ouch!
After class, Miriam and I met some people at Sale St for dinner. I ate what would be equivalent to another lumberjack special; two steaks, chips and a salad. I felt great after that. I love to eat.
Mir and I walked home to find that Becky had done both her and my laundry. Sweetie!

Time for rest for the filmings tomorrow.

Day #5 (Mount Manganui)

Becky's phone continued...

Poor girl didn't sleep well last night. She was feeling pretty distraught about her phone. I can't blame her. I would have cried if my iPad was taken or misplaced. She got up at about 6:30a and went to the gym to see if someone had turned it in. Someone did. Mir and I were soooooo happy for her.

Alissa picked us up in her boyfriend's pimped out minivan at 8a.
The van.
Well, it looks like a carbon fibre bumble bee. The wheels are super snazzy (and yellow); the sound system was pimped right out and the whole thing was just black and yellow all over. Trust me, I will post pics of it. Alissa and Ross designed it together and it is great. We got tons of attention when we drove it down the street.

We picked up Kim and Alissa and Miriam's friend, Mel, and we hit the road for "the mount".
The drive was wonderful. New Zealand is so pretty. I sat in the backy back with Kim and we searched the hillsides for sheep. We found them. There were more cows than sheep.
We stopped first for breakfast and then in Paeroa for some L&P.
What in the world is L&P?
L&P is a fizzy drink called Lemon and Paeroa. Alissa treated us all to bottles of L&P and we took some pictures of all of us in front of a giant concrete bottle of it.
We hopped back in the car and drove through some more beautiful scenery. We stopped again soon after because the L&P went through me real fast and I had to pee.
About an hour after that we arrived in Tauranga and then at Mt Manganui. This place is beautiful. We parked the bee-car in a nirvana parking spot, stripped off our clothes, applied sunblock and ran onto the beach. It felt so good to soak up the sun and relax. We posed for some artsy yoga poses on the rocks and then went swimming. The waves were amazing and there was an outrigger canoe race going on today.
The race was entertaining because there were men walking around in their swimsuits and wearing the most ridiculous bathing caps. They look like the lifeguard caps that the lifeguards wear in Australia. Becky and I agreed that they looked weird and that we should bring back the whole outfit (including the brightly colored speedo) for my sweet husband. (Don't worry Alex, I forgot my wallet in Miriam's bag so I missed my opportunity).

While we were at the beach we met up with more friends: Dai, Will and their daughter Laz. Laz is adorable.
Dai came hung out with us for the rest of the day while Will stayed with Laz.

After The beach we had to find a hotel to stay in. The whole town was packed because of the long weekend in Auckland (for Auckland's birthday).
Dai found us a place and it is great. We are staying in a suite with two double beds and a separate room for a King! All six of us fit comfortably. It was wicked cheap too. We all payed $53 for the night.

We went for dinner and drinks at a Brazilian bar. The food was okay but the service was lacking. They didn't charge me for my drink. It was bizarre but they had a gluten free menu. I'm finding that its really great to eat here. I can be in the more remote place and still find GF food.
At dinner, Kim was lamenting about how she didn't get any colour. Well, after a couple of hours, she had colour alright. In fact, even with all our sunblock, all us Canadians toasted. Kim has a burn on her chest; Becky has one on her shoulders and chest; and i forgot to get my tummy. I look like an inside-out Carebear. I was so careful too. I was wearing SPF 45. I learned that it doesn't matter the SPF as long as you can remember to put it on everywhere.

After dinner Alissa, Miriam and I went out for Gelato. I had Cherry. It was good but not as good as some of the stuff I've had in Israel or even Toronto.
Everyone else was having drinks. I've learned something interesting about myself on this trip. If I am going to invest myself in consuming calories for an activity, I would much rather be eating than drinking alcohol. Me love food!

We met back at the restaurant and grabbed our swimsuits for a dunk in the hot pools. They are hot spring water pools infused with a cocktail of chemicals to keep them sanitary. It was okay. The pools were only open until 10 so by the time we got there, we couldn't stay longer than a half an hour. That was fine with me. I was tired and burnt.
We came back to the suite and half of us went for drinks while Miriam, Alissa and I stayed home. The town was dead so Mel, Becky and Kim came home around 11.

Day #4 (Kristin and Miriam)

Before I begin, I would like to apologize for the lack of photos. My iPad is a wonderful tool but I can't seem to figure out how to transfer pics onto my blog or facebook. I'm sorry everyone.

So today was supposed to be a rest day but when you are on a fitness vacation its hard to rest.
We woke up at our usual time (6:30), and paced around the apartment for a while. Becky and I were a little hung over from the night before but fully functional.
We met Kim at the gym for a 10:10 Attack class. It was a lot of fun. The instructor was a presenter on previous releases and he was great at coaching the class. It was lot of fun.
After our morning workout, Becky and I were pretty hungry. I was supposed to meet my friend, Kristin, for lunch. I invited Becky to come along too and meet Kris.
Well, Kristin is a very old friend of mine. We went to elementary school together at Armour Heights back in the day. Kristin's family eventually moved to Kelowna and Kris moved here. She's been living in Auckland for 6 months and working in marketing.
We met her at the Nike store at Victoria market and continued to Sale St for lunch. Because Becky and I were so hungry, we offered what was the equivalent to the lumberjack special. So much food, all so delicious.
Becky was pretty tired so she went back to the room while Kris and I caught up. It was so nice Kristin is really happy here and she was simply glowing. I want to come and visit her again next year.

I went back to the room because I had a few minutes before our second Attack class of the day. Luckily I was there because just as I was about to leave, Miriam and Alissa showed up. Alissa is Miriam's bestie and she lives here. I am so happy that Miriam is staying with us. I love her and I'm so happy she is loving her new job in Australia. I miss her like crazy.

The afternoon Attack class was a preview team taught class for the presenters. It was so much fun. I met Becky there and we worked it. The music is great and it looks like it is going to be amazing at the filming.

Alissa and Miriam met us at the gym after our class and we were crazy tired. We were invited for dinner at Alissa's partner, Ross', house. We hopped in the car and made our way to his amazing flat. Alissa and Ross are both designers and his house was so neat. Everything was creative and beautiful. Alissa had bought him a line of mini robots labelled in their Pantone colours and he made it into a lightbox.
Ross and Alissa are some of the warmest people i have ever met. They were wonderful and it was a lovely dinner. We had an amazing time.
After dinner, Becky realized that she had lost her phone.
We searched everywhere for it but it was no where to be seen. (We do find it but not in this posting).

Stay tuned to find out the conclusion to Becky's phone story...

Day #3 (Becky, did that just happen?)

This post is not going to do justice to the amazing day we had. I will do my best to explain it but this is a day that I'm sure Becky and I will remember for the rest of our lives.

We got up early as a force of habit. There were no morning classes on the schedule at Les Mills that neither Becky nor I were particularly interested in. I am still a bit sore from Thursday but Becky wanted to get her "ya-yas" out so she planned to head to the gym for a run. The plan was that I was going to stay home until about 11 and then meet the whole Canadian crew at the gym and we would walk to Les Mills International head office together.
Becky went for a cup of coffee before her run and bumped into Kim at the coffee shop. Becky asked what Kim was wearing for our daily adventure and told Becky that we should be wearing dresses. At this point, I was still at home, happily strutting my board shorts and an oversize blue t-shirt. Becky ran home and we both changed. She didn't get her run in but it didn't matter.
While I was home, I had noticed that I had misplaced my sunglasses (the non-prescription ones). I figured that they were misplaced in the blackout. I did go back to the gym to see if they had been turned in. No luck. We went to replace them with cheapo glasses at Victoria market. $12. Done.

After these piggies went to market, we met Kim and Jim. Trisha wasn't feeling well so she stayed home and got some rest.
We walked to the LMI offices completely unaware of what was about to come next.
We got there and had a tour of the building. WOW!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
It was surreal. This is the real Mothership of all the programming and people that make our passion!
All our 'heroes' were there as was Mo. After our quick tour, we all hopped into cabs and went to the ferry docks for a ride to Waiheke island.
We sat down on the boat with Rachel Cohen (the Sh'Bam and Body Combat program director). She was great. We asked her tons of questions and snapped a few photos with her.
When we arrived on Waiheke, it started to rain. We got onto a bus and headed off to the Stony Ridge Vineyard for lunch. We were shmoozing with the owners of Les Mills (Philip and Jackie Mills) and all the international presenters. It was unreal.
We sat down for an amazing lunch of lamb, chicken, fish and salads. We drank tons of wine and laughed and shared stories for a couple of hours in the afternoon. The wine was good but not worth picking up. (The white was waaaaaaaayyyyy better than the red).
After lunch we boarded the bus. I turned to Becky and said, "did that just happen?". She confirmed it did as we stumbled onto the bus.
We got on a 4 o'clock ferry and sat with some locals. They were happy to meet us. We laughed with them and I got a super funny pic of Becky with them. Its nice to meet locals.

We got off the ferry and decided to walk in the rain back to the LMI offices.
En route, Mo decided that she wanted to stop and shop. She pulled us into this store on Albert St. It was a store that sold clothing that was what I can only describe as Hippie-chic. Please remember that Jim was with us at this time.
Mo bought a very expensive hooded sweatshirt in a beautiful colour blue. The shirt itself was not my taste but it looked great on Mo.
We puddle jumped all the way back to the offices and were greeted by Trisha. There was a reception for us upstairs. Once again wine and food was provided. We took this opportunity to drink more and scarf down some pizza. I didn't do any pizza scarfing but I did partake in more wine.
We took tons of pictures and enjoyed evey moment.

At LMI, they have a drinking game called Buffalo.
The rules of Buffalo are simple:
1. Drink with your left hand
2. If you are caught by anyone drinking with your right hand, they can lift their elbow at you and call "buffalo"; wherein at this point you must chug the contents of your glass
3. If you chug with your right hand, you get "double buffalo-ed".
4. If you call Buffalo when someone is not drinking alcohol, or drinking with their right hand, you automatically get Buffalo-ed.

Kim got double Buffalo-ed but Susan Renata (Body Pump superstar icon). Because Kim is the instructor of the year this made the whole experience even better.
After we were all sufficiently toasted, we cleared out of the offices. Kim, Jim, Becky and I continued the party at thte Drake pub, down the street.
I ordered a tray of GF chips and Becky ordered shots. After 3 shots each, we called it a night. Kim was cooked.
We stumbled home in the pouring rain. Everything was soaked.
We dried off and went to bed. Neither of us could sleep because of the amazing reality bestowed upon us.
We finally called it and we were sleeping by 11.

Day #2 (the blackout)

Today was super great and not just because we found the grocery store.

Buying food is always a treat for me but I found a whole gluten-free bakery section today. Yay!!!!!

We spent the morning reading and relaxing because we had the afternoon filmings.
At abut 1pm, we went to the gym.
I was not as excited about the filmings as I has previously hoped but I think that was because Attack wasn't on the schedule for the first filming. As we approached the gym I was. Starting to feel Revved up.
We arrived super early and met some women from Switzerland. Apparently there is a 15 person delegation from Switzerland here to cheer on one of their presenting instructors.

We found our team around 2pm at the entrance to the main studio. There are 6 of us here; me and Becky, Kim (Goodlife's instructor of the year), Mo (VP operations and BodyVive presenter), and Jim and Trisha (a father-daughter team from London, Ont).
The first filming class was Body Flow/Body Balance (they call it 'balance' here). We rushed the studio hoping to get good spots. I wasn't prepared to be packing in there like sardines but apparently that's how they roll. I stood behind Mo and next to Becky. In some of the positions i was pretty close to being kicked in the head by Mo but i just shimmied myself backwards and tried not to kick the person behind me in the face. It was a really nice class and a hard one to boot!
I've never sweat like that from a Flow class before.
Next up was Pump. I saved Becky a spot while she changed. I don't particularly like Pump so I wasn't planning on doing it. I stayed and talked to Mo and watched the class instead. The music was great but there were a lot of hiccups in the filming. The whole class lasted about an hour and a half. Most of the issues were a result of the production rather than the instructors.
Up next was Sh'Bam. I have been dying to try it. Basically Sh'Bam is a dance class that follows a format where every song is different choreography with patterns. It has a similar structure to Attack and Step but it's all dancing and fun. I loved it. I was giggling and smiling the entire time. We don't have Sh'Bam in Canada yet but when it's introduced, I'm definitely going to the training for that. I was soooooo sweaty and gross but super happy.
There was a scheduled break after Sh'Bam and before Step. I met up with Becky, who watched me dance my pants off and went to change into something less wet. Just as i sat down in the change room, the power went out. Becky ran upstairs to snag steps for us and I changed in the dark. I met her in the studio with Kim and we sat in the dark, thinking that the power would be on anytime.
There was a man sitting on the step behind Becky name Eddie. Both Becky and I found him rely obnoxious. He told us that he was born in Canada and that his family still lives there. He asked us where we were from in Canada and wanted specifics. He was not only nosy but a know-it-all. It didn't take long for us to learn to ignore him. We sat with Kim and she bust out one of those nifty flip video cameras. She took some footage of us sitting in the dark.
Soon the production manage came out and told us that if the power didn't come on until 8:30, then they were going to postpone the filming of Step. The power never came on. Both Step and CX30 are postponed until Tuesday.
We hung out with Kim and Mo in the dark and had the opportunity to dance around on the main stage. It was HUGE! After many giggles and a few photos we went out for dinner with Mo and Kim. Jim had shown up randomly and wanted a beer so he came along too. We ate at a 24 hour Kebab joint and waddled home.
I don't think I can stress the amount my muscles hurt so off to bed with me.

Day 1 (the longest day of my life)

We made it. After traveling for what seemed like an eternity, we finally made it.

The flights were uneventful except that Becky sat next to a woman on the flight from Toronto to LA who was a "piece of work". She told many bizarre stories that sounded like total fabrications. She told Becky that she was asked to go to New Zealand once by some man she had met but she couldn't go because she owned a restaurant in the country. I quoted her for most of the flight to Auckland (to make Becky smile).

Once we arrived in Auckland, the airport was a breeze. I thought I was going to be frisked by the bio-cops for my LARA bars, but I was fine.
We hopped into the most expensive cab ride of our lives for a slow ride to our hotel.
The hotel we are staying in is really great. Its apartment style and really close to the gym.
Our room wasn't ready for us when we arrived so we dumped our bags and went for a walk. After the walk, we got into the room, cleaned up and headed out to the gym. On our way, we passed by the Body Attack team (our idols!!!!). We kept our cool even though it was tough.
At the gym, we had a tour and then stayed for a Pump class. Neither Becky nor I like pump that much but we did it anyway. The bars here are waaaaaayyyyy heavier than in Canada.

We came home and decided that we needed some quiet time. Both of us fell asleep. Good thing too. By 5pm we were up again and getting ready for our first Body Attack class here in Auckland. The class was disappointing. The instructor wasn't charismatic or particularly good. We stayed until the end and sweat it out anyway.

So, the gym is a neat place that deserves some explanation.
Les Mills World of Fitness is here in central Auckland. The whole complex spans over a two buildings and is a sprawling mess. It looks like any Goodlife Fitness in Canada only old and with stuff everywhere.
Also please note that it is summer time here in NZ and there is NO air conditioning. So the whole complex smells like sweat and has little circulation in the studios. Luckily all windows
are open all the time but I would hate to do this on a really humid day.

After the class we showered. I have a sunburn. It only took one day and my shoulders are pinky pink. There is no pain but they don't look good.
We ordered dinner from a place that is waaaayyyyy toooo expensive (this is the second time today we have done that).



Until tomorrow!

I'm going today!!!

Okay!

I have figured out that I can post pictures. I will try and do this from my iPad on my travels but first for the test photo.  That's Rufus. 

Thanks. 

So, 

I leave today and I couldn't be more excited! I have a few more things to do (like sew one final patch onto one more sports bra and pack my workout clothes) but I'm almost there. 

I have baked snacks for the plane and organized everything except for my travel wallet. 

The last two weeks were agonizing and stressful but I feel really good today. Even after Marley (our cat) woke both me and Alex up at 5:30am for some cuddles. I went back to sleep and slept until 8. Not too shabby considering how excited I am. 

Alex is taking us to the airport today from my parents' house so I didn't have to say 'goodbye' this morning. Good thing!

Next time I speak to you, I will be somewhere warmer (LA or NZ). 

Stay tuned for the really exciting stuff (and hopefully pictures). 

New Car!!!

Hello fellow readers,

Just a quick clarification on the blog; I haven't left yet. I'm blogging now so that when I look back on this, I can remember just how excited I was before I left.

Anyway, today.

Alex and I met our friends Danny and Steph for coffee this morning. Today was Steph's birthday and the last time I was going to see them before I left. It was really great and they were bursting with great news. I wish them all the best. :)

After coffee, Alex and I went to Oshawa to look and test drive a car for Alex. We were really close on signing a deal but the dealership wasn't being flexible enough for us. Luckily, we found what we wanted when we got back to Toronto. The dealer in Toronto was great and Alex ordered a new car. It will arrive in late April. Hopefully his current car will last that long. Just as we were leaving the dealership, Alex's "check engine" light illuminated on his dashboard. The last time the car complained, it just wanted premium gas. We are soooooooo happy to be getting rid of it.
With all the excitement of a new car, I didn't do anything to help me get organized for Monday's departure. Luckily, there's tomorrow. I foresee tons of laundry and some baking of snacks for the airplane.

The snow was pretty bad late this afternoon in Toronto. We were expected at our friend Zach's for dinner. After an hour long TTC excursion, we finally made it. Oye!
Dinner was amazing and it is always nice to see Zach.

With one more full day before I leave, I've become more anxious and freaked out about leaving for a whole month. I hope this feeling goes away soon. Its exhausting (but exciting!!!!).

Two more sleeps!!!!!!!

Waxing and polish

I promise that this won't be gross.

Today was Becky's last Attack class before we leave on Monday. It was great!
There were tons of members and we were feeling really great throughout. All and all the morning was great.

After the class I went to get waxed and polished. My toes are a lovely summery pink and my legs are nice and smooth. :)

Not a super exciting day but as Monday draws near, our excitement builds.

Becky is going through some personal issues (which I will get to at a later date). She is really excited about the trip however, this trip is more than just a vacation for her; its a new beginning. For this, I'm super proud of her. She is so brave and I hope that this journey is really special for her.

I'm now counting down in sleeps:
3 more sleeps!!!!!

Finally...New Shoes!

This is a short post considering that I don't have much to day.

1. My shoes finally came in and I saved $100 by ordering from this wholesaler dude. Woot!
The shoes themselves are pretty comfy but they need some working in. I've taken my insoles out of my old pair and put them in the new ones. I have a bit of a rubby toe on my left side but I think that has to do with the insoles. Problem solved.

2. Sick people: Stay away! Everyone is getting sick. Please everyone, feel better but don't get me sick in the meantime.
"This is how Emma washes her hands 50 000 times a day!"

Countdown: 6 days!

One week!

So we are officially one week away from take-off!

As I mentioned in my last posting, I've been feeling anxious. It has been a combination of leaving my husband and getting ready for the trip. Little did I know that there was one more hurdle I would have to over come before some of my anxiety would dissipate.
I'm talking about today's body attack class.
I found out last Monday that I had to learn all new music and choreography to teach to my class today. To put it politely, I was pretty freaked out.
I spent the week cramming choreography and getting organized. Its too bad that the two activities don't jive. If they did, I could have been doing high-knee running, list writing, and shopping all at the same time. That would have been great; but even the greatest 'multitaskers' can't pull something like that off. Body Attack requires most, if not all, of my attention when learning it.
I arrived at my class and I had Reena (a fellow BA teammate) shadow me. This was great. She totally calmed me down and I taught one of my BEST release classes ever. I can't thank her enough for helping me focus and being there today.
The members had a riot. The class was busy (18 members at a lunch time class is great!).
Now that that is over, I'm feeling a whole world better. :)

Shoe update:
Well,  my shoes have not arrived yet and I'm getting antsy but I'll remain patient. Tomorrow. If they aren't here tomorrow, I'll pull the plug on this operation and go to sporting life or the running room.

Outfit update:
I called the Lululemon mother-ship today (and my friendly neighbourhood Lululemon) to ask them how to attach Canada Flag patches to their clothing. I spoke to the head seamstress and she told me to hand sew them. That mess starts tonight. I'll do Becky's tomorrow. Hopefully I won't wreck the clothes.

Finally, the trip:
It turns out that all the fun we are going to have in Auckland is already organized for us. Yes!!!
I received the filming schedule today so that we will be able to attend all the filmings of the new choreography and music. The two Becky and I want to be front row center for are Body Step and Body Attack.
Les Mills also has two new programs that we don't have in Canada. There is a brand new one called CX30 which sounds like P90X and Sh'Bam. Sh'Bam is an easy to follow version of Body Jam; like Zumba. I can't wait to see what they are!
We are still waiting on confirmation on our complimentary gym passes. They should be back to us shortly.

That's all!
Countdown: 7 Days

New Sneakers and general trip jitters

Well, today was a little disappointing on the new shoe front.

I ordered new sneakers for both me and Becky for our trip. I decided to order them from a distributer rather than buy them at the store because I'm hoping that we can get a better than retail price.
I called the guy who was supposed to order the shoes today at least 3 times. After getting on his nerves, he said he'd call me when the shoes were to arrive. He called me back to tell me that Becky's shoes had arrived but mine hadn't. :(
I said that we would pick them up on Monday.
I was really hoping to have the shoes for the Body Attack team practice tomorrow.
Oh well.
Not very exciting news, I know.

I'm starting to feel anxious about the trip. I'm really excited and I'm proud of myself for going but there are always details that jog the mind before a big trip.
Growing up, I spent most of my summers away at camp. I was always a little nervous about leaving my friends and family for the summer. The anxiety I'm having now is similar to that feeling. I'm most worried about leaving my husband for so long. I know he'll be fine. I'm still going to miss him.

10 days!!!

City Oaks :(

I've spent most of my day in bed. Because in January, everyone in Canada suffers from the mid winter sniffles. I'm no exception.

We had a pretty decent snowfall last night so I had to dig my way out of my house to get anywhere today. Luckily, the only place I had to go was the post office.
I shoveled the walk and decided to be a decent neighbor and dig out some of the cars parked on the street. When I came in after shoveling, I was a snot-monster so I curled up in bed with my cat and a cup of tea.

During my "nap/movie", the phone rang. It was my travel agent. She tried to book us an apartment in Auckland called the City Oaks. Unfortunately, the place was booked up. Instead of panicking, we looked at our options. There was a very snazzy place a few blocks away from the gym but it was going to be really $$$. Jenn then found another apartment-style hotel around the corner from the City Oaks called Quest. When she quoted me the price, I nearly fell out of bed. It turned out to be $400 cheaper than the City Oaks and it had all the same ammenities.
BAZINGA!!!!
Booked!!!!!

Now that we've saved all that money, I can buy myself some new running shoes!!!
(That story is for Friday because that's when Becky and I pick up our special sneakers I ordered this morning).

12 days!!!!!

VP Operations...neat!

This is going to be a short post considering that there wasn't much planning today.

On Tuesdays and Thursdays, I train a client early in the morning. When I got up today around 6, I checked my email.
I found a darling email from Miriam about her awesome life in Australia, and an email from the VP of operations of the fitness club chain that I teach Body Attack at. The VP was informing me that she was going to be in NZ at the same time as Becky and I. She also wanted to know how long we were going to be staying in Auckland so that she can get us complimentary passes to the filmings and general gym access. Wooooooooooo!
I love free stuff; especially if it's something that I was going to pay for.
So, at 6:03am I wrote back and explained our lodging and plan for the trip. I also profusely thanked her for thinking of us. It turns out that Miriam set this up and for that I'm soooooooo thankful.
This is going to be super!

Countdown: 13 days

New Outfits!!! Oh la la!

Today was a relatively uneventful day in the life of Emma; other than the fact that I got a snazzy new workout outfit and booked accommodations in Auckland!

I woke up, taught my Body Attack class, and went to the chiropractor. Not very exciting.

After a much needed readjustment, I picked up Becky and went to book our accommodations in Auckland. We have been dealing with a super travel agent at the flight centre (shout out to Jenn! You rock!).
The deal with the place that we want to stay in is that it is a one bedroom apartment (with couch for extra guests...Yay Miriam!) and a full kitchen.

In 2005, I was diagnosed with Celiac disease. This is going to make the trip very interesting because Not only am I going to have to find my way in a new land, but I'm going to have to find places to eat without being poisoned. Becky and I figured that staying in a place with access to a full kitchen would help me be in control of my diet.
For five years, I've been extremely careful and I am proud to say that I'm feeling great.

Once we finished with the booking details, we went to Lululemon.
Miriam had previously mentioned that if we want to be on the videos we should wear clothes that are not overtly branded (ex. We won't be wearing anything with a giant Nike swoosh on it).
Lululemon seemed to be a good fit because the clothes are durable and comfortable without a huge logo across it (only the little LL on the backs and legs).
The Body Attack video is the main event for us so we want to match. Thanks to Becky, I have a white tank top and black shorts. We are going to somehow put Canada flag patches on the white tops so we can be identified by our peers without looking ridiculous.  Sorry everyone, but doing Attack in a hockey jersey is never a good idea.
Lululemon didn't have anything in Canada-red so black and white it is.

Countdown: 14 days!

Two Week Countdown

Hi Everyone!

I'm leaving for New Zealand in two weeks and my adorable sister helped me start a blog.

A word about the title of the blog:
The name stems from everyone's favourite Kiwi comedy duo 'Flight of the Conchords'. As for Rebeccanoceros, she's my travel companion. Her name is Becky and we are about to embark on a really exciting adventure together.
Neither of us have been to New Zealand and we can't wait to go.

About Me:
I'm Emma.
I own my own mobile personal training business and I teach fitness classes at a large Canadian chain of fitness clubs.
When I finished University (some years ago), I dove right into work. I had some amazing vacations with my husband, but I have never taken the opportunity to go on a real adventure on my own (or with a friend who I'm not dating or married to).
I'm looking forward to this opportunity to learn about NZ, Fitness, Becky and Myself.
There is only one thing I want to get out of this trip: lots of laughter.

About Becky:
Becky is my mentor. She and I have been friends for about two years.
When we met, she was teaching the fitness classes I was attending and she motivated me to try instructing. She has been a huge motivation for me to become an instructor and personal trainer. Becky is always inspiring and amazing to be around. I'm looking forward to embarking on such an incredible journey with her.

Why are we going to New Zealand?
Becky and I are fitness instructors for a company that is based out of Auckland, New Zealand. We both teach a high impact, sports-based cardio program called 'Body Attack'.
Four times a year, we receive packages from NZ with music and videos of world-class instructors performing the classes. We decided that we wanted to be apart of the master-classes where these videos are filmed.
We also want to escape winter to a beautiful summery destination at the end of January. ;)
Auckland is our first stop. We will be travelling NZ for a total of three weeks and then heading back to North America. Hopefully the weather will be better when we come home.

We are meeting up with our friend Miriam. Up until last November, Miriam was our boss. She moved to Australia and she will be in NZ with us. I'm really excited to see her. I miss her.

Stay tuned as the excitement builds!