Rotorua half-marathon

So I've been running for the last couple of years and I try and sign up for some kind of race to help keep me motivated.  My friends Andrew and Sarah were going to run the Rotorua Marathon and tried to convince me to run the marathon but I hadn't been the healthiest, but I knew I could run a half marathon, so that's what I signed up for.

Rotorua is a geo-thermal area.  Basically this means that the volcanic activity isn't that deep under the ground.  You can see that by the boiling mud pictured above! 

I rode up with Andrew and my friend Erica, who also was going to run the half-marathon.  That steam you can see coming out of the vents is more of the geo-thermal area. 

It is also fall and you can see the changing of the leaves in this photo. 

Here I am with the geo-thermal activity behind us.  I agree with her that I'm not cool with living there!  Haha...good thing I don't! :-) 

And here we are before going to the awards ceremony that night.  Erica finished in 2:06 and I finished in 2:08, which is much faster than my last Great Forest Half Marathon which was 2:22!  My goal for the Wellington Half Marathon is to complete it in 2:00! :-D

ANZAC day/Hamilton Zoo

The Kiwis celebrate those who lost their lives fighting for freedom and it is called ANZAC day.  We get the day off to honor and celebrate them.  Because we were going to have the day off, I took another day off of work so that we could go up to Hamilton to attend the temple.

We got to do a session a day and it was wonderful.

We also went to the zoo.  Here is one of the native birds. 

They also have what is called a red panda.  It is always in the trees, you can just barely see it!

And we found an awesome Thai restaurant.  They had the best coconut fried bananas...oh they were good! :D

Guys n Dolls

Kiwis LOVE to dress up and they use any excuse!  There is also a theatre her called "The Embassy" it is very retro in design and every once in a while they show old movies.  They showed Guys n Dolls recently and a few of my friends went...and we dressed up!

Here I am before the movie all dressed up!  I'd never done my hair 50's style but it looked really cute! 

And I just happend to have the entire outfit in my closet! 

Here I am with Delwyn all dressed up before the movie!  She is super cute and fun and enjoys dressing up.  I was the only one who had seen the movie beforehand.  It is still a movie that I enjoy, no matter how many times I see it. :-D