Rosedawn Ramblings

It's not often that you get to life the life you love to full effect... other stuff nearly always gets in the way. But for two weeks at least, I'm getting the perfect opportunity and it's worth every uncomfortable and sleep-depriving moment of the 27hr journey. In our first few days, there has been time to watch the sunset and sunrise, skim stones, climb hills, see the stars, walk along the riverbank and read haiku carved in stones, soak up the culture, investigate the history, watch cricket, play crazy golf, go to the movies, drink gin, eat cake, read all the books I brought with me and then go shopping to re-supply,  take in the scenery, chat with the locals and love every moment. And of course, there's been a parkrun too... the route through the Kopurererua Valley Reserve was lovely and we were made to feel very welcome. It has been a fabulous first week of our holiday... looking forward to what comes next!

I t's been a while and I'm not sure why. I've been running a lot until this last week, got a new job, visited lots of new and interesting places and had lots going on. I've just got out of the habit of writing and I feel a bit sad about it... it's like I lost my voice (which is a pretty desperate state of affairs for a chatterbox like me). Two things have shaken me from my silence... Last week, I went along to a reception hosted my Peter Hooper from Cox Bank Publishing, the man behind the Sporting Stories initiative. It was a gathering of authors - it was great fun and I particularly enjoyed chatting with paralympian swimmer Jenny Booth and finding out what motivates her to get up at 4.30am for training sessions at the pool. But I felt a bit of a fraud... my blog has been without an update for so long, did I still count as a writer? Photo Credit: Cox Bank Publishing And then at the weekend, I received this message via Twitter: And that got me thinkin...

On Sunday, we said a sad farewell to Western Australia, as we flew from Perth to Auckland to begin the next part of our adventure. We've really enjoyed the three weeks spent in WA and packed quite a lot into our last weekend too. We had a day at the WACA, watching England against India in a one day international. Strangely for us, we actually got to see England win a cricket match... that didn't happen at all on our last trip to Australia in 2011. It was a steaming hot day on Perth for our cricket visit... The humidity was making it feel more like Columbo (according to Jon anyway, I've never been to Sri Lanka). I just knew it was hot. Our booked seats were in an uncovered stand but we managed to sneak our way undercover after about an hour of play. We were still hot but at least avoided sunstroke! Before play started, we were able to seek shelter from the heat with a vist to the cricket museum, a rabbit warren of a building that used to a private house. Each room was a trea...