Bye Bye NZ - Bienvenue en Suisse

After 4.5 fantastic years in NZ we are no ex Kiwis in Switzerland,

we said good bye to all our great friends in NZ and to this beautyful country and island

See you all in europe and we hope to come back some day

King of the Bays - the second try

2 years after my first start at the King of the Bays in April 2006 we decided to give it another go this year. After a summer without any steady training due to recurring colds (I know it must be age related, the big 40 is lurking around the corner!)) I wasn't sure at all what to expect from myself this year. On race day the sea was very choppy, so we decided to start slowly and finish fast, yeah right...that at least was the theory. But surprisingly enough experience really helps with these sea swimms, the lack of training was more then compensated by better drafting behind other swimmers (well you have to learn to be opportunistic with fading fitness!) and better navigation skills (avoiding to swim extra meters as I had done the first time!).
The surprising result was that I finished 5 minutes quicker then 2 years ago, 144th place out of 903 finisher and as 34th of my age group!

MARKUS LIPPSMEIER, AUCKLAND, 201, 0:49:18, MALE, 144, M30-39, 34, YES

http://www.nzoceanswim.co.nz/default.asp?PageID=14342

Rotorua - Action Weekend

As the last weekend arrived for Oma and Opa after 3 months in NZ, we decided to give it our best and head down to Rotorua for a weekend packed with action.



Marie decided to go Flying



and Bennie, Juju & Opa joined the Kama Te Haka with the locals....

As my birthday present I offered myself a start at NZ's toughest offroad triathlon event the Xterra Blue Lake Triathlon together with the french german tria dream team Eric the Massai and Camille the running machine.

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A Day in windy Wellington

After I learned that in order to request a new german passport it was required to go to the german embassy in Wellington Marie and myself we decided to take the opportunity and spend a sunday in Wellington.

Monday morning Marie went on her business trip around the south island and I spend 15 minutes in the embassy in order to get my finger prints scanned.

138$ later I left and went to visit Te Papa Museum the capitals main attraction.

Auckland City of Sails

Thanks to Stephane and Truby we had the chance to see Auckland from the sea sailing the beautyfull Hauraki Gulf .

Yes it was a race, the Rum race they call it, we had some beers on board and a bbq afterwards.

Greetings from the city of sails.