Coffee break

Luca has never been a long napper since he was born. If I am lucky I get an hour in the morning and afternoon each day.

I discovered he loves sleeping in the buggy and this will last much longer as a nap - 2 hours or more sometimes. So this afternoon when I had enough of chasing both boys I put Oliver down to nap and strapped Luca in his buggy.

10 min later...



Time for me to have some coffee and some NZ magazines delivered personally by Merryn!! Ta!!

A visitor

Today my long time friend Yukari visited us at our house. She has been my friend since we were at kindergarten! She hasn't changed at all, we talked and giggled about everything.



Her boys are already teenagers so they didn't come along but my boys really enjoyed playing with her. It is such a wonderful feeling to have a lifetime friend :)

IKEA addict

You must be proud of me Boel! - I am an IKEA addict. I love browsing on their website to check out their new products and going there to shop. Yesterday I saw something I wanted in their new range. I didn't have to get them ASAP but since Matthew had a day off and we needed to have lunch we hopped on a bus and went there - just because we can!

This time I was more prepared to face the number of people around me and the noise. So even though it was very crowded I wasn't too stressed.

We came home with bits and pieces - even the boys got something today:

I also wanted to get this guy but they sold out of them already :(

Why did I want to get these for Oliver?? - Well... One of Oliver's favourite bedtime stories is called "Oliver Who Traveled Far and Wide" and in this story Oliver goes to bed with his teddy, fox, owl and bat (I haven't found a nice looking bat yet).

These Oliver books are cool, he also has "Oliver who was small but mighty" "Oliver who would not sleep" and "Oliver and the noisy baby"

Anyway I now have another excuse to go and browse in IKEA - Sorry hubby!  But I love it!!

Pretty certificate

Mt. Kinabalu - Conclusion

Having completed the amazing climb I can answer these questions:

Was it hard?
- Yes, but no as we had such amazing weather. I think I couldn't have done it if the weather was bad. Too slippery and cold.

Was the air thin?
- Yap it got worse on day 2 from Laban Rata to the summit.

Anything you should bring that you didn't?
- Isotonic water or tablets.

Climbing gear?
- I was very happy with my climbing boots which gave me good protection around my ankles and gave me a good grip. The gloves I had were great. They stayed dry and had extra padding where I needed to hold onto the ropes.

Do you recommend it?
- Absolutely YES!

Anything else?
- You need a good partner or friends to go with to make the experience even better!

P.S.
- Leaving my baby Luca (11months old) with my husband for two days he got weened completely and now sleeps through the night. Thank you Mt. Kinabalu!!

Beautiful things I found in Mt Kinabalu

Here are things you may find in Mt Kinabalu if you take my picnic in the park approach...

There were lots of pretty birds but I couldn't capture them on my camera...

Mt Kinabalu challenge - Day2

For sure my body wasn't ready for this.  It was way too early to have breakfast and get dressed in full gear at 3 am! It was pitch dark and yes it was very very cold!

We were almost one hour behind the most of the climbers as our guide decided there would be too much waiting and he was sure we would get to the summit before sunrise - we had 2-3 hours to get to the top. 

It felt so much harder to take each step. I was already puffing after 10min or so. You could really feel the air getting thinner at this height. Plus you couldn't really see what's ahead of you... 

Still a bit of a walk till the summit...

Unlike the walk on day 1 the last 2km or so was very steep and most of the path you needed to hold onto the rope to pull yourself up. I was very pleased I had a very good pair of climbing gloves on. 

We were divided into 3 groups, Peter, Phil, Simon and Isabel had a much faster pace so went ahead.  I found it easier to walk by myself at my own pace so was alone and Rowdy the guide and Amanda stayed together. Lots of the climbers thought it was very strange for a little Japanese person to be climbing the mountain alone and asked me lots of questions. But it made me feel safe having people talking to me :)

This photo must have been taken around 5:30 am when the sunrise started. I was still 120m away from the summit where there was a flat platform. I decided to stay at this spot instead of pushing myself to the summit to see the sunrise from there. There were only a couple of people around me so I had this awesome panorama view to myself. 

In no time it got lighter and I was surrounded by breathtaking views!

After quite a long break (the view was too amazing to just carry on the climb straight away...) I finally decided to hit the summit - then my team appeared and took this cool photo for me! They had already been at the top and were on the way down. I felt so lucky to catch them at this spot :)

Yeaahh!! Group photo time!!

Well this is how steep the last bit was, can you see the small dots at the top!? Yeah that was where I was heading...

But hey, it was so worth it. Look at this awesome view!!! I was there after sunrise so the lighting was completely different from what the rest of the team had. 

Here are some photos Peter took. Sunrise shots from the Peak. Amazing ha!?

I really didn't want to go down - I finally reached the top after two days of walking, you know. But it was very windy and cold so I couldn't stay any longer.

The walk down was ten times easier - I guess my body was getting used to the thin air plus I was full of adrenaline!! I purposely made myself stop every 15min or so to enjoy the view and look back where I had been. On the way up it was too dark, I couldn't really see where or how steep the path was.

The summit looked so far away already...

Again I was by myself most of the way back so I had to talk to my gummy bear to keep him company.

I came down quite a bit but still I was way above the clouds!!!

I was back at Laban Rata around 9am. I had some breakfast (yes, second time for the day!) and got ready for check out. To my surprise it was very easy for me to descend - I was almost running!!

Again we had amazing weather all the way down to the bottom and I really enjoyed being in the greenery looking at plants and birds. It almost felt like I was in the NZ bush somewhere :)

And guess what? This is what hit us when we completed the climb and needed to get into the van to go back to the registration office. We got soaked!!!

The whole experience was just so amazing. I am so glad I got to do this. Thank you my wonderful friends and my darling husband who encouraged me to do this and looked after our boys for 3 days while I was away. Next time we can do it together!

Mt Kinabalu challenge - Day1

We were up nice and early at 5:40am to get ready for an exciting day. My only concern when I got up was - Is it raining outside? Nope! It seemed to be a pretty nice day :)

After a lovely breakfast at the hotel we got in the van and headed out to Kinabalu National Park. I knew it was a fair way from the center of the city but didn't know it was 2 hours away! Well... it gave me a chance to catch up with my friends Isabel and Amanda. 

Very excited girls! (obviously we didn't know what was waiting ahead for us).

When we got out of the van we felt quite chilly so I quickly put on some more layers - I guess we were already quite high above sea level (about 1800m).

We are ready! Bring it on!

Boys were much calmer than us.

I couldn't even reach on the map, but this is where I am supposed to go...

My personal tag.

I even got a packed lunch. Boiled eggs, spam sandwich and some fruits. 

I started off quite cheerfully. Just enjoying being in the nature, looking at the waterfall etc. But I found the first 2 km very hard. I was already panting - It got very steep very quickly.

There was a pondok with a toilet and resting area at each km marker. We stopped at each one to make sure we drink water and eat some snacks. I quite enjoyed this approach as I felt not hurried and had a chance to reset my body for the next km ahead. 

Amanda, Peter, Isabel, Phil and Simon 

We made sure we were following the right trail. 

It was the weekend so there were quite few people climbing the mountain. You can use a porter/guide to carry the things you don't need until you get to Laban Rata. So that's what we did. Our guide Rowdy had to carry 40kg in total... But he was super fit and very experienced so no worries (he has been doing it for the last 12 years).

There were a few lady porters too. Some were carrying things for the climbers, and others were carrying things for the restaurant at Laban Rata such as eggs, veges, gas bottles etc etc. They were chatting away and texting and talking on the phone (there was cellphone coverage all the way to Laban Rata) as if they were just walking - not climbing the mountain!  

As we got closer to Laban Rata, the view got better and better!  

I was slightly slower than the others but made it to Laban Rata in one piece and was still smiling!!

Group photo time! Such an awesome moment!!

Things even got better when we checked in at Laban Rata. We found out that we were staying in the VIP room! We had our own shower and toilet and even had these! 

Dinner was served at 4:30 so we had an hour or so to relax, look around and play monopoly....

Dinner was actually very good. Good selection and freshly made. I enjoyed the wintermelon soup the most, I had three bowls of it. (it is a kind of vegetable that looks like radish but bigger). I guess my body was craving for some salt.

Time for an amazing sunset - we waited and waited until it was perfect!

I was already full of an accomplished feeling - making it to Laban Rata and being above the clouds to see this fantastic sunset. YES! all the hard walk was worth it!

We were in bed by 8pm as we need to get up at 3am. I found it a bit unsettling with the noise and thin air but finally fell asleep...zzzz

(to be continued...)