Ashtanga Traveler

So long in fact that I did not click in that it was the 4th of July yesterday until about 5 in the afternoon. Weird.....really weird, call me an ex-pat I guess.

I have been rather homesick though, especially since I went home in March. Like so homesick I have been checking out jobs in NYC, pushing C to do the same.....also have been having a lookie at a few other places in the US......like oh, some place really nice in Cali.......you just never know.....

then again maybe it would be VT......

Because:

Eaten by Taniwha pissed off that American Ex-pat is tramping around their river

Sink into mud so deep I am paralized

Swallowed by giant genetically modified trout, oh wait this is NZ, forget that option

turn into popsicle and become next totem attraction for the track

bored to death (maybe because of conversation or lack there of, as C has this tendency to take off while tramping so I end up walking alone, and god knows no one else is going to do this walk in mid-winter)

stepped on by a Moa (because they are in fact not extinct)

grabbed and then shredded by Giant Eagle (same as one above)

Get totally lost, and of course their is no cell phone coverage, not that I know how to use my cell phone anyway

Therefore, AT signing off....wish me luck.

BTW, will return assuming none of the above happenes while I am away.

SO I am back in one piece, as is Craig. We did not kill each other despite having 3 days together, solid...no kids. It is bloody weird....both of us were looking over our shoulders anticipating the childish whinge....but it just was not there....what can I say, we missed them like crazy. Little whipper snappers do make life quite exciting.

The day started out with some disappointment.....the track that Craig had chosen, loop with two huts along the way, 3 days walking....was not all the way open because of felled trees (snow, apparently). I am thinking...well if the trees cannot stand it, how am I supposed to....

So we opted to head over to the Coromandel Peninsula and just wing it.....we left on Friday after my lunch time yoga class....and got to Coromandel Town around dinner time...booked in at this cabin place we had stayed at before (Long Bay)....heated up the Indian food we had grabbed on the way out of town.... I think they called it "curry".... and watched some dumb TV.

We both slept in til 10:30am, no shit.

The plan was to pack up and head north to the top of the Penninsula for two nights walking and camping.....ah, but I had other things in mind....

We stopped in town for coffee, flat white for me double flat white for Craig....date scone....and then we walked past the pub.... All Blacks vs South Africa, 7:30 tonite.....

I mean how could we pass that up...... so we quickly decided to go back to the cabin, dump our stuff and do a nice day walk on the east coast....come back to Coro Town, and hit the pub for rugby..... it was a great call..... another night in a bed for me..... with a heater.

The game was really quite good..... Daniel Carter's boot is seriuosly unbelievable....he did not miss a single kick. The all time best try was a Carter/Weepu....number, had the Uh, AHHHH, sort of thing going..... South Africa, well, they cheat, what can I say.....okay maybe not cheat, but come very very very close, and are off sides much of the time...

Anyway, we won.....do I have to say OF COURSE. And I am sorry I do have to throw in the American Football is for pansies....no, seriously....

Sunday we packed up early and headed to Fletcher Bay.....did the coastal walk to Stony Bay and back, last 2 hours in the dark, no moon of course, but some peak at the Milky Way.....that was interesting.... about 7.5 hours or so...I have a blister the size of a small plum off the end of my heel.....just about every muscle in my legs and hips are tender..... do I even practice yoga everyday?

Cooked on an open fire, slept in the tent, cows on the beach in the am......

Drove out yesterday.....picked up wee kids off the Ferry (they stayed with the inlaws on Waiheke).....home for cuddles, a few whinges here and there, but otherwise ....

I skipped practice this am....cold air not good for my festering head cold....and it is the New Moon anyway, so why push things.....

Have lots to share about THE PLANZ.....but will wait just abit longer to unveil.....

....well spring has not yet awakened here in the Southern Hemisphere, and why should it.....still the last day of July......another few months of winter to go. I could complain for a very long time about the winters here..... let's just say I miss "real" winter and would have it in a heart beat.

My ashtanga practice has not been my friend at all for the past few months....when it hits hard it hits hard....but today is another new day, another new week, so we will see where I end up....

I am looking forward to my practice this afternoon....I teach at 5:30....so I will be going on the mat about 2:30......a bit of a battle perhaps, I hope not.

Life changes are still brewing....and are still not out in the open yet...but I am getting sort of excited....so that is all good.

We had a great weekend...a nice long walk along the Mt Auckland Walkway with another family....Huxley was great, Conrad....well, let's just say he had a few shoulder rides....just so he would shut up and stop moaning.... Craig was peeved that I gave in.....but let's face it, we would still be in the track two days later if Conrad did all his own walking....

Craig and Connie

Rare moment when Conrad was being cute

New Fern (Coru)

Hux at the top with specs

Oh the Sound of Music....

Just a few pix taken before the battery died....

Coromandel....

Nikaus

Waitaia Bay - wanna live here....?

Looking South

I just about never talk about my practice anymore... probably short term memory loss more than anything else, maybe I am just too busy so when I leave the mat....well, I leave it.

I have had 2 reasonable practices, full second series....it has been awhile, trouble knee and general malaise I guess.....so as I sit here I can feel the tenderness around my knee, but lotus is feeling better....even moving in and out of lotus, carefully is okay...and have been able to get in and out of lotus in Karandavasana, slowly, without pain....but the problem then becomes that I have to hold the forearm balance for a lot longer....and I am so fucused on my knee that the pose just sucks.... so I guess you could say I am having trouble......but oh well, one day at a time....it was better yesterday, pretty shit this am....what can you do. Other poses like Mayurasana and nakrasana are much much better.....stronger. I think I am pretty much holding mayurasana correctly and for 5 (rather quick I must say) breaths. Vatayanasana is okay on both side, just move slowly and work the hip a lot, careful with each transition in the vinyasa..... I think the tightness of my IT bands is really the problem in this pose.....

Supta U, P, Vajrasana on the first side is so much fun....and I can stay bound...on the second side, combo of bad knee and bad shoulder....well, totally different, very un-co, no grace, generally land in giant heap with arms and legs strewn out all over the joint....oh yes and with a big thud to boot. But I do know how to do it, meaning I figured it out on one side....guess I just have to wait til the second sit falls into place....I am just so patient (sounding anyway, anyone who knows me will know that is a load of crap).

Headstands are good too....now yesterday b4 headstands....welll I did the first 3 poses of Third....I know I know.....bad girl....okay BAD GIRL is probably more like it, but it was a what the hell sort of day and I had the time which I rarely ever do.... I live those first three poses too! They get things going.....maybe one day i will be doing them for real....like when someone other than myself says..."yeah yeah give it a go...." I do not know if that will ever happen....

Back bending sort of stunk, no surprise there....but I did grab my ankles solo in CB after drop backs.....so that had more or less become part of the norm these days...I have to figure out how to move my hands up my calves though....I grab the ankles and just hang out there....but if I want to push my shoulders then I suppose I should be pushing that a bit....I like doing this by myself because I have to "stay strong" throughout since no one is there to support me....in fact I just about like doing everything on my own nowadays, except when I absolutley need it....so it is a funny place really...to not want adjustments.....

Second series does not really amp me up anymore, then again I am not doing it at light speed, Guruji style either.....just going at a reasonable pace, keeping the breath calm....Pasasana thru the 7 headstands in 1 hr roughly....does that sound reasonable? With Salutes, standing, backbends and finishing....coming in at about 2 hrs 15 minutes.....I like to keep it at 2 though, otherwsie I get to hear about it when I arrive back at home.....a bit late....kids still half naked eating breakfast.....oh well...cannot have it all.

My teachers are back tomorrow, teaching next week....will be wonderful to see them, hear about the stories in Mysore....hopefully see photos as well. And that also means less teaching...which I am quite looking forward to....6 classes a week has been too much.