www.JamFreaks.com

I've been back from New Zealand for about a month now and decided I'd better get all my memories & experiences down before I forget them. Above is a slide show of most of the pictures.

As you can see from the photos, NZ is such a beautiful place! Very green and lush. We spent most of our time in Auckland, but I hear there are many different climates and terrains within NZ. It was winter there. Someone told us it was one of the coldest winters they've had. Most days,  the high was about 60F...slightly colder than our winters.

There seemed to be birds everywhere we went, including INSIDE. One day, we were at Esquires (a cafe) and a bird came in and made a quick swoop for Mike's muffin. He missed, got embarrassed and flew off. There were always birds inside the restaurants... they were even in the mall.

We took a ferry around the harbor one day. We looked out the window and saw a bird flying next to us (picture above). He was obvious racing us and kept pace with our boat for a good 2-3 minutes. Then, he showed off and flew ahead of us.

The day after the filmings were over, I took bodyjam with Gandalf. Unfortunately, I got the time of the class wrong and didn't get there until it was half over. The part I did get to do, was soooooooo amazing! G took bits and pieces from the last few releases and tossed them all together and threw in a little free style funk. He is so talented and the energy in the room was like nothing before.

Gandalf always had a swarm of groupies attack him after every class, wanting to talk to him and get pictures of him. He always appeared to be in a big hurry to get somewhere. He's obviously a busy, busy guy. I ran into him a couple times on the streets while walking to/from the gym. Surreal.

The day after the filmings wrapped up, I went to jam class, which I thought was going to be taught by G, but Sara Robinson and another girl were teaching. They started off by saying, "we're going to do some stuff you may have not seen before." They were right....turns out it was bodyjam 50. I still can't figure out why most, if not all, of the class wouldn't have already seen or done it? Had the club not launched it yet? If so, why were they teaching it before launch? When class was mostly over, I noticed that Carla was at the back of the room and apparently was assessing the instructors to give them feedback. Cool.

The Les Mills Aukland club is essentially 2 buildings connected by a tunnel walkway. The club spans 4 stories and is very confusing. To get to studio a, you have to walk up a set of stairs, then down another set, through the tunnel, back up several sets....oh forget it, I'm still confused. Mike kept laughing at me cuz I would always get lost and turned around. They have an uh-mazing deli in the lobby with absolutely delicious dishes. I had a spinach pumpkin salad. I took some pictures of all the yummy choices. They also have a day spa right off the lobby. Mike and I went one day for a massage that was great. And, they've got a small clothing store, which has the exact same stuff with same pricing as online. I rarely saw anyone in there.

We took many walks up and down Queen's Street, which is filled with shops and restaurants. They have a couple of really cool intersections where, when the signal turns green to walk, you can go anywhere in the crosswalk, including diagonal. The first time we saw it, we were quite confused.

In NZ, they drive on the left side of the road. We didn't have a car and I'm glad, because it would have been too confusing. Even when crossing the street, we'd look the wrong way to check for oncoming traffic. One time we were trying to cross a street and a car was approaching. Mike was getting nervous that the driver wasn't even looking at us or the road. Then, he realized, he wasn't looking at the driver....he was looking at the passenger! Hahaha. They also WALK on the left side, such as going up and down the stairs.

The money also took some getting used to. It became a running joke that Mike would pay the wrong amount. It seemed like everytime he'd pay for something, he'd mess it up. He blamed it on the fact that their 50cent pieces look just like our quarters.

We did have a chance to go through the Auckland museum. That was cool. We liked all the culture and history of the Maori's. We even went to a presentation, where they talked a lot about the culture and showed us some of their songs and dances. We got some pretty good video of it.

The last day we were there, I had my Make More Freaks interview.  I got to go to NZTV (the local Tv station) for hair and makeup. I could go for that EVERYDAY! Then, we met the camera crew and headed to Victoria park. We had done a brief "rehearsal" the day prior, so I kind of new what to expect, but was still very nervous. I was interviewed by Ish, who plays "Max". He's a cool guy and it all went by very fast!

Afterwards, Mike and I headed over to the Victoria Market, which is kind of like a swap meet with all kinds of NZ tourist stuff. I wanted to find a little something to bring back to all my jammers, but didn't have much luck finding the perfect thing.

I spent a little time during the trip with the other Freaks winner, Dede. She was very sweet and had tons of awesome ideas on how to run a successful GF program. Her club is very lucky to have her.

The plane trip home wasn't too bad. I was really dreading it, but I just popped a dramamine and was nice and sleepy. In fact, I was trying to watch a movie (Knowing) and had to rewind it 6 different times to catch up on the spots where I dozed off.

Overall, this truly was a once in a lifetime experience. I had an amazing time and will cherish these memories for-ev-er! Thank you Les Mills!!!!!!!!!!

Raina is a local who blogs about all the tapings. She just made a post about the jam filiming and is obviously much better than I am with blogging. She's got lots of details and somehow captures the highs that you feel when you are there. Check it out....http://sweaty.mmmarshmallow.com/2009/08/body-jam-51.html.

Filmings officially wrapped up last night with the taping of Bodyjam +. It was sooooo packed. I literally had about 6 inches of moving space on each side of me. Gandalf taught all by himself. Before class, he said he was nervous.

We didn't do the entire class straight through. Instead, we started with a brand-new, Dance 4 Life warm up bonus track and then we skipped to track 3, where he added in a new side kick option.

We then went, I think, from the last track of the Tribal Salsa.

We did the entire 2nd half block. The + version is pretty different than the base. He added in some fancy foot work that I couldn't quite master and, get this, a Triple barrel roll! Yes, a triple! It's so fun! He had given us a little heads up before we started and explained how to spot, which you've got to do or you fall over. I loved it! Being so crowded, I'm sure you can imagine, we were all landing on top of each other.

Of all the releases that have the 2 versions, I think this release has the most variations between the base and the +. Not so much on the first half, but definitely on the back half.

I'm taking jam again today at noon. Now that the filmings are over, I'm curious to see what we'll be doing.

Today, we'll be rehearsing for the Make More Freaks interview. I'll pretty nervous. We tape the real thing tomorrow.

I also took bodypump last night after jam. Sara Ostergard was teaching. She's a great instructor....excellent connector and just super cute and likeable.

I'm going to try to get more pics of the club today when we go.

Cheers!

Hey everyone! Thanks to everyone who stood up for me and Fitness Works on the last blog post. "Whoever" wrote it chose not to leave their name, but really threw some punches where it hurt. I've been trying to not let it bother me. So, anyone else from our "little gym" who wants to give a shout out to let the world know that we are a force to be reckoned with, go for it! Just make sure you use spell check...hahaha. Just kidding. I just want to stay positive and focus on what I know to be true! I won't let mean people make me sad!

The filmings were once again awesome. They were held later in the evening, so it seemed like it was more crowded. Dan Cohen was the MC and he's so funny and so cool. He kept us laughing between takes and between classes.

Bodystep was first. Mark presented with Sara, Lisa O, Susan Tolj another girl (Victoria from the UK, maybe?). It was super fun. You start with your bench turned vertical. I LOVED the music! Lots of sing-a-longs.

Jam was next. It wasn't just packed. It was JAM-packed. (Sorry, a little cheesy.)  I could barely move, but it made the energy that much more incredible. My legs were pretty fried from bodystep. It was so cool to see the release evolve in the past week to the final product -  polished and perfect. They nailed it. G brought out his baby at the end. Check out his little camo pants and headphones!

Ahhhhhhhhhhhhhhh.

Bodyflow (bodybalance) was next, but I was seriously too tired to stay. I've had a head cold the past couple of days and my head felt like it was about to explode. I also missed rpm earlier in the day (sorry my flow & rpm peeps).

Bodyjam + taping will be tonight. I'm excited because I have no idea what the + options are! Oooooo, the suspense.

Yesterday we took a bus to Rotorua, which is a city north of Auckland (Yeah! I spelled it right! :-) and has a strong mauri presence. Our bus left at 8am and we were told it was a 3-hour ride. We made lots of stops, so it ended up being a little over 4 hours and we didn't get there until about 12:30. We ate lunch at Nando's (Portuguese food...yummy) and then went on a gondola ride. It was absolutely gorgeous!

We got to go on a couple luge rides. This was so fun! Our kids would have loved it. Mike sped up on the last ride so that he could get a video of me coming down, but he couldn't find the camera in his pocket. He assumed I must have had it. Nope. We started getting pretty stressed and went to go look for it. Not one minute later, a nice family behind us came and gave it to us, saying they found it at the bottom of the luge track. It's all dinged up now, but it still works!

The day before we had taken a ferry to Devonport, which is a nearby island. It was also absolutely breathtaking! It used to be used as a military base. They used this weapon that they would use water to hydrolically lift out of the hole in the mountain to come up, shoot, and go back down where no one could see. Freakn awesome.

This hideout is at the top of the island, which is a big climb. Check out the gorgeous view!

Yesterday was fairly uneventful. We slept in, went to the cafe and talked with the other Make More Freaks winner (DeDe), shopped a little, went to bodyjam and then watched a movie at the hotel. It was really cold, but fortunately no rain.

I thought Chris Richardson would be teaching jam, but it was Gandalf, Carla & Danny again practicing for the filming (which is today). I'll be excited to do a different routine after today. The class was packed! It was in studio 2 (the smaller room) on a Sunday afternoon.

Today, we're just waiting for our laundry to finish and then we'l be heading to the ferry to go to Devonport, a nearby island. If we have time, we'll go tot the New Zealand museum.

The filming begin this evening for bodystep, bodyjam, bodyflow and rpm. I'll be doing all of them except rpm. They'll do the base bodyjam version tonight and the + version on Wednesday evening. Should be a good time.

I realized that I forgot to write something about the pump filming last week... The instructors use FAKE weights! Everyone in the class uses the heavy silver bars, but the instructors use lighter black bars with weights that look like the same ones we have at the Mesa & Gilbert Fitness Works (bulkier). The participants use the weights similar to those at Chandler, that are slimmer and more compact. ...Just an FYI. I've got a couple more things to say about the filmings, but you'll have to ask me in person ;-)

Here are some pictures from our Harbor tour a couple days ago:

Above is a view of the Aukland skyline. Our hotel is right by the tall tower.

Above is a view from our harbor cruise of a small island.

Sorry it's been a couple of busy days so I didn't have time to blog so much. Friday night, we went to the "party" at the LMI offices for all of the international visitors. It was in  a tiny room, very hot and crowded. We didn't stay long, but it was so nice of Philip Mills to arrange that. Afterwards, I took jam again from Gandalf, Carla & Danny? I think. Again, they were rehearsing for the filiming. They're getting better. It's cool to see the improvising G will do. You can tell by the looks on the other instructors' faces that he's just spontaneously throwing things out.  Awesome class. I got pics with them afterwards.

Saturday, we went on a ferry tour around the harbour. It was very cold and it started pouring. We also walked around some of the shops again. We took a few pics and I'll put them up later.

Then, in the evening, I went to take jam. It was a class with Annie, who is the one who showed us around on our tour of the LMI offices. After the warmup, she invited me and a couple of other instructors to come up on stage with her. It was so fun. We did rio de janeiro, hip hop and freakn fakn house. I had a blast. After class, people were asking for our pictures....funny. One of the other instructors had her camera, so she's suppose to get me copies.

Afterwards, Mike & I went to the movies and saw The Breakup. Hilarious.

Not sure what we're doing today yet, other then taking jam from Chris Richardson this afternoon.

Yesterday was a super long day. If you read the post, you'll remember that we woke up at 3am. In the morning, we toured the LMI offices. Very interesting. They employ about 60 people and they all (including the program directors) sit in one room. I was surprised to learn that the PD's do not have complete autonomy over their programs. They work with researches, consultants and have management that directs where the program goes and how it is delivered. While there, we met Lisa O and Chris Richardson. Chris is the GFM for the Aukland gym. Because of their facility and resources, when celebrities come to town, they go to Les Mills for personal training. Apparently, the Black Eyed Peas will be coming soon. Les Mills uses the local news stations makeup people and camera crews.

We got to see the "choreography rooms".... 3 small rooms down stairs with mirrors and a stereo where all the chorey is created and practiced. Carla (bodyjam presenter) was practicing while we peeked in. It was also fascinating to find out that the new releases are pretty much created start to finish in only about the 2 weeks prior to filiming. They fly in the presenters and they just plow through it in two weeks until they film it. Bodyjam will film on Monday and since I've gotten here, G has taught every jam class, practicing the new stuff. When he's not teaching, he's practicing with his team. You would never know that when you take his class because he teaches as if it's still fun, fresh, new and exciting to him.

The international office is just a about 50 feet from the Aukland gym. The Les Mills gym is pretty big. They have 15,000 members and on the tour, they said that their retention is very high. It spans through about 4 different levels and feels pretty much like a maze. I keep getting confused, so it’s a good thing Mike is here to show me where to go. They say that Studio 1 can hold up to 200 people. It doesn’t seem THAT much bigger than our room at Fitness Works. It's probably about as wide, but a little deeper. The sound system is incredible and sounds awesome. The stage is nice and roomy. They have a little room off to the side of the studio for the sound room. Annie was the person who was giving us the tour. Apparently, the presenters have often said "Turn it up, Annie" in the videos. She was very nice and friendly. There are SO many fit people here. I feel like a cow!

They do a lot of things similar to Fitness Works. For every class on the schedule, there are 3 or more instructors waiting to get that class. Also, they share mic's during normal classes. I don't really understand why because they always have a mic for everyone during filming.

We had some time between our tour and filmings to grab some lunch and walk around on Queen Street. There were a lot of little shops and little places to eat. Walking around, I see the fashion here for women is to wear leggings (usually black) with ug-type boots or worse, white shoes. I’m sorry, but it is just plain wrong to wear white shoes with black pants. The boots & leggings are kind of growing on me a bit though. All the guys in suits are wearing pin stripes or even wide-stripes suits, often with the long pointy dress shoes. It was cold and started to rain on our way back to the gym. The streets are hilly, so walking can get intense at time.s

In the afternoon, we attending the filmings. They did 4 classes yesterday and will do the other 4 on Monday. We got there really early to make sure we got a good spot. Pump was first. Susan, Glen, Emma and another guy presented. Wait til you get a look at their outfits....very futuristic....haha. Don't kill me, but we didn't take a single picture! Sorry. They actually are pretty strict about letting cameras in during the filming. They only allow pictures afterwards. But, we're meeting everyone tonight...they're having a party for all the international people in town. We'll try to get pictures then. I always feel like a creepy stalker asking for pictures anyway. Ok, back to pump, it was good...pretty typical release. The emphasis was on adding 3/4 range to keep the muslces under tension longer. The bars are a lot heavier so I never really got my weights right. They were either too heavy or too light. Mike took the class and did awesome! We had to stop and start over a couple times due to choreography mistakes. Susan had a really hard time with her intro before the bicep track. I think we did probably 5 takes. The crowd was really cheering her on to get through it. The thing that surprised me the most about the tapings is that it is SOOOO "Hollywood", so staged. I knew it was, but not to this extent. The presenters have their hair & makeup done and are pretty ho-hum until the cameras come on and then they "turn it on" big time.

Body Vive was next, but I didn't stay. We went back to the hotel real quick to call our kids before they went to bed. And then, I snuck into studio 2 to take 15 minutes of bodyjam. Ahhh. I love G.

Then, Bodyattack. Lisa presented with a little hot chick from France and 2 NZ presenters. I can't remember their names, but the blonde girl was the one that Kimm Theobald's kids love. The other one was a guy...pretty good. We had to start over a few times, but it was mostly due to technical problems with the music or the mic's. The running track is insane and a complete mosh pit when you run into the middle of the circle.

Combat was very cool. Dan & Rach presented with a girl from Norway (I think) and a guy from the US (Angel maybe?). Again, not too fond of the outfits they wore. The theme of the release was to combine many different types of martial arts into one workout. There’s a new move – an ankle sweep. It was introduced by Dan in track 6 maybe? He was about ¾ way thru the track and stopped, saying it wasn’t world-class and he had some ideas in his head how to make it better. He apologized to everyone, saying that he was debating in his head between pizza (which they’d be having afterwards) and re-doing the track. It was funny, but pretty cool of him. He re-did the track and changed the way he cued it. Even though the first time around was good, the next time was even better. The muay-tai track was awesome. They had fog coming out of the stage and the music was eerie. Everything felt very authentic to martial arts, like a real fight. Awesome. Dan seems like a cool guy. Funny and personable and just outright cool.

They invited everyone to stay for pizza afterwards, but we were just so exhausted by the time it was over (about 9:30), especially since we had gotten up at 3am that day, that Mike & I just went home and crashed.

Sorry for the raw nature of my writing. Just trying to get it all out as quickly as possible. I was told to "dish" more. So there you go. Oh! And by the way, I met Raina, the local who writes the Cardio & Eathquakes blog. She's very nice. She seemed a bit flattered when I told her I'm a fan of her blog and that me and the other jam instructors all talk about it. (I feel a little like her now...it's hard not to include all the many, many details that make this place amazing!)

Keep writing your comments - I love them. And yes, Kristen, the people here DO take it for granted what they have in their own backyard!

Today, we woke up feeling great and energized....at 3am! Haha. Our bodies are still on AZ-time. I'm sure I'll get my rush of energy tonight because we'll be attending the filming classes for bodypump, bodycombat and bodyattack. So excited! Mike is going to take pump with me so that will be super fun. But before that, we are scheduled to tour the offices of Les Mills International this morning. I'm very excited to meet all the behind-the-scenes peeps who create all this amazing schizzle.

Ok, so back to yesterday, Gandalf (Bodyjam choreographer) was scheduled to teach at 6:10. So, I got there a little early and stood in the back of the room while bodycombat was finishing up. Dan was teaching. He was incredible. Amazing energy. I took a few pics on my ipohne and then looked over to my side and Rachel was sitting there, just watching the class. Then, I felt like a stupid American tourist. Oh well. G taught with Carla and a guy instructor who I don't know. They'll be the launch team for the next release (jam 51). They've got 5 more days until the filiming and it's a good thing cuz they need some practice. Not that they aren't amazing instructors, but quite a few flubs on cueing, chorey and performanc stuff. Regardless, it was sooooo fun. I kept having to remind myself that I wasn't watching a video in my bedroom and that it was live. There's a sweet warmup, LOVE the isolations track, followed by some latin and ending up with, you guessed it, a house block. I introduced myself to G after class and found out it was his birthday yesterday. Happy birthday Geezy!

We made it here! After a REALLY long plane ride, sitting next to an extremely chatty passenger, a cheesy Matthew McConaughey  airplane movie, a bag of buttered-popcorn jelly bellies (yum), and 2 lackluster airplane meals, we have arrived in Aukland. To give you an idea of how long it took, Mike's sister dropped us off at the airport on Monday at 3:30pm (AZ time). We checked in to our hotel at 11:30am Tuesday morning (AZ), which is actually 6:30am Wednesday here...have I confused you yet?

It's was freezing and raining this morning, but things are warming up a little. New Zealand is opposite seasons than us, so they are in the middle of winter here. We didn't realize that we'd need outlet adapters and electrical transformers, and I even blew the circuit and created a big spark when I plugged in my blow dryer. Luckily, the hotel provided us with some.

Our first impressions of Aukland.... Things are old, air smells dirty, people are friendly, wet & rainy.

We took a walk this morning and we found that we are just a 5 minute walk away from Les Mills gym and international headquarters. I picked up their schedule and plan to take Bodyjam from Gandalf tonight....OMgosh! Krazy! I may try to go early because Dan & Rach are teaching combat right before. The tapings will be tomorrow, so I'm sure I'll have more juicy news then. I heard that if you go to the classes on the days prior to tapings, they are basically "rehearsals" for the real deal.

Silly me. Didn't bring the cord to my camera to download pics to the blog :-(

More tomorrow..