Groveland, SoCal and New Zealand (Week #1)

My last blog post was from Groveland, CA where I was housesitting and taking care of three dogs - Lulu, Penny and Timo. They were a real joy to be around and were keen runners although Penny’s short legs only allowed her to go about half of the distance of the other two. I also took them into Yosemite National Park one day which was rather ambitious as I had to have them on leash the whole time. Have you tried walking three dogs on a leash all at the same time? I don’t recommend it especially if they’re dogs who are mostly free range and aren’t all that accustomed to being on a leash. The craziest part though was right when we got to the park, Timo, the puppy, bolted for the snow and managed to escape from his collar which was slightly too big on him. He’s then bounding in the snow, which I think was a new concept for him, while I’m chasing after him with the other two dogs in tow. After some shenanigans, I managed to pin Timo in a snow bank and get his collar back on him only to have him escape again a few minutes later! The next time I caught him I really ratcheted up his collar as tight as it would go and the wriggly little bugger was in it for good this time. We had a great visit though and the park is so majestic and scenic even as seen from the front country. See photos below of Penny and Timo and a few shots from the park. 

Meanwhile, Ginny was visiting her folks in Taipei the entire month of November as it was the first time she was allowed to enter the country since Covid-19 hit. From the sounds of it, there was a lot of food involved.

After the Groveland housesit was over, I drove south to Southern California to visit family in Santa Monica and Lake Arrowhead. My aunt Nina and her boyfriend Mark are Christmas obsessed so we had lots of fun hanging wreaths, stringing up lights and Mark was even constructing giant candy canes out of PVC pipe and pool noodles! We went up to Lake Arrowhead for Thanksgiving where my aunt Nancy and uncle Steve live. We had an amazing Thanksgiving dinner with no less than six pies to choose from - of course I had to try them all! Two days later we celebrated Nancy and Steve’s 30th wedding anniversary with a disco party. Yes, we all learned how to do the hustle! Living in a van, my wardrobe is pretty minimal so it was a little challenging to pull together a disco outfit. I hit a Salvation Army in Santa Monica for a polyester button down shirt and realized that my running tights had disco glitter on the inside so I turned them inside out and voila, I’m John Travolta incarnate! It was a great party though and definitely one that Nancy and Steve will remember forever. 

After dropping Gemma off for safekeeping at a friend’s, we flew out of LAX last Monday night and have been in New Zealand nearly a week now. Within a day of getting into Auckland, we already had doctor’s appointments at our old medical clinic thanks to Ginny’s extraordinary organizational skills. Two days after landing we had bought a used car and were off to the races. On Saturday I went out to run Parkrun which is a 5k that is held every Saturday at parks around Auckland. It felt great to run fast which is not something that I’ve done much of the past six months with all my ultramarathon training. My time was the slowest I’ve ever run on that course but I’m excited to do more 5 and 10ks around Auckland over the next few weeks as there are many low-cost weekly events to choose from. With a car at our disposal, we decided to do a last minute trip to the beach for the weekend and have been staying at an AirBnb near Waihi Beach. The weather so far has been ‘a bit rubbish’, as Kiwis like to say, which is typical for New Zealand this time of year. We’ll be in Auckland for three more weeks before we head south right after the New Year to explore other parts of the North Island.