Anywherefit New Zealand: Day 1

Anywherefit New Zealand finally commenced on January 30th, 2014 in Auckland.  Sven, Asta, and I were in town a day early to get things organized with the rental bus, the hotel, and the grocery store, but the rest of the gang showed up that Friday.  As soon as we had everybody checked in and unpacked we shot off to Mission Bay for our first workout of the trip: Paddleboarding.  Few of the group had ever attempted this before, let alone out on the open ocean, so we were keeping our fingers crossed for calm waters.  As we took instructions from the SUP staff, I watched white cap after white cap roll in towards the bay and I had a flashback to the AWF Iceland 2012 ocean kayaking trip.  Shudder.

Thankfully, by the time we were out on the water things were starting to calm down.  People took their time getting to a standing position, but soon everyone was up on their boards.  Which meant it was time to either race or start pulling out the stupid human tricks.  Cue handstand attempts (all failures), headstand attempts (most failures), and overhead squats (few failures).  This was no crushing workout, but it was a ton of fun and a great ice breaker for this group of 12.  For me, it felt like I was knocking dust off after a series of long flights.

From Mission Bay, we went straight across town to CrossFit NZ to hit the weights.  Darren and his crew out there were more than accommodating, allowing us to christen their new barbell room with power snatches and back squats.  Everyone was given 4 attempts at unbroken sets of snatches (90%, 80%, 70%, and 60% of 1RM).  During this session, Sven and I were able to walk around the room and give small cues and coaching advice to some of the less experienced lifters.  Starting the trip off with a WOD like this helped me to get to know everyone's ability level when it comes to Oly, their mobility level, and gave us the chance to expose any injuries that might need working around.

Afterwards we worked up to heavy doubles of back squat, then hit a short and sharp team WOD.  Can't say enough about the members and coaches at CF NZ for their hospitality, only wish we could've stayed longer.  But the first 6 night of this trip are all in different towns… an unfortunate necessity when you want to drive to Queenstown in less than a week.  Not to worry though, there's plenty to do along the way.

Below is a few video clips from our first day.