Melbourne

I arrived in Melbourne on Thursday - it feels GREAT to be on the road again! Finally sold my car (but really don't want to talk about how much I got for it)...and managed to ship my bike, tent, hiking boots/shoes and various other belongings in one big box to my cousin Tory in London (she doesn't actually know that yet, but hopefully she won't mind!) FREE of hassles and worries about getting rid of all that gear :)





I checked into a backpackers and spent the rest of the afternoon and most of Friday being a total tourist. It was great fun! Its a really nice city, and very easy to get around. I saw the Australian Open Site (Rod Laver Arena), the Victorian Institute of Sport, walked by the Yarra River and up through the Botanical Gardens past the Sidney Myer music house (like a massive ampitheatre). On Friday I went to Fitzroy Gardens and saw Cooks' Cottage and the minature Tudor Village. There are some beautiful parks and gardens all round.

Went through Cathedral Square and Chinatown, and then to the Queen Victoria Market which is just HUGE!! It has everything you could possibly imagine - really impressive with lots of free samples (I could have got quite tipsy by the number of wine stalls, was pretty good fun!)



I'm now staying with the Jon & Michelle for a couple of nights (Jon's dad was mum & dad's best man)...they have two twin girls aged 5 (Caitlin & Rhiannon) and one boy aged 2 (Connor) - very cute indeed! We all went to an animal sanctuary today and saw kangaroos, koalas, wallabies, platypus, pelican, eagles, tasmanian devils, and several other australasian species - I was as excited as the kids :)

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leaving NZ

After the 24-hr race I went back to Auckland to stay with the Richard & Debbie Nicol (friend's of my parents) in Parnell. They are really nice folk, and it was fantastic to have a place to relax and recover for a couple of days. Not to mention getting myself and my gear cleaned up, and my bike + other belongings shipped off.

Debbie & I went to Piha beach on Tuesday - on the twin coast discovery route, and actually quite close to where the race started (French Bay...but I wasn't quite ready to get in the sea again just yet). Walked along the beach and up Lion's Rock for great views - it was a really nice spot. In between the packing & resting I walked through Auckland Domain and Albert Park. I'm really impressed by the number of beautifully kept gardens and park areas there are in and around the city - I can't remember if there's much like that at home, but definitely not in the states!

I flew out on Thursday morning to Melbourne - very excited to be travelling again, but kind of sad to leave New Zealand. It's a very special country with fantastic people - but I'll be back :)

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Arrow 24-hr Race

Here's the full story...!

After a scary coastguard rescue for Dean and many other competitors during the swim/crawl on the first leg across Auckland Harbour (very near hypothermia) we had a run through farmland to reach CP1 (checkpoint), then a short coasteering section to reach TP1 (transition).

Leg 2 was a kayak across Manakau Harbour and up the estuary to Waiuku - 36km and 4 ½ hrs battling a head wind and a strong current. I kept dreaming of beaches in Thailand to keep me going, whilst we all wondered what we find fun about these events. We sludged through 50m of mud to get to TP2, where a very welcoming hot drink & food were waiting, along with a change of clothes. Completing these events without good support crew would be impossible.

Leg 3 was a short bike ride to Ouako - flat and easy which made a nice change! We caught up some time here and had a quick transition. Leg 4 was another kayak up a short section of the Waikato River to find CP2 just before dark, then back downstream to Port Waikato - we really pegged it this leg and caught up even more time...plus we were starting to enjoy it again :)

Leg 6 was the hike/run section which was extremely varied, interesting, challenging, and really good fun. Most of it anyway. Jamie did some excellent navigating and we found CP's 3-6 relatively comfortably. Wish it had been light because the scenery would have been superb. It was a really clear night though which made it pretty spectacular around the coast and in the hills. CP 7 proved to be our downfall...having passed at least 5 teams in the first half of this leg, we then spent 2 1/2 hours looking for a CP we never found. Apparently we'd been given the wrong coordinates which makes it pretty frustrating, but some teams did manage to find it so nobody can really complain. We decided to bag the caving section, which was a shame, but after being told it involved an hour long crawl/swim in a tunnel only high enough to lie flat in, we thought it wasn't really worth it. On to TP 5 and another change plus more energy to take on board. We were all absoloutely knackered at this point (4am) and a bit demoralised by the loss of time and energy trying to find CP 7.

We set off on a bike ride to find 2 more CP's - I felt like I might fall asleep if it wasn't for a long, cold downhill start which definitely woke me up a bit! The ride was actually quite fun, and the sun coming up around 7am gave us all a wee energy boost (much needed). We reached the transition in time to wade through some more mud to start the final kayak section from Ruakiwi to Raglan. This took approximately 1 1/2 hours and we all cruised into the boat ramp at 11am to our own relief and that of our support crew!

I then had the best-spent 20cent shower EVER in the local camping ground, before the prizegiving at Raglan Town Hall. Happy and proud to have completed yet another event full of fun and madness...I'll just have to start finding a new team back in Scotland now :)

The overview...

My third and final 24-hr adventure race in NZ…well, for this visit anyway :) I think it was the toughest mental challenge I have ever endured - beginning with a 2 ½ hr swim/crawl across Auckland Harbour (French Bay to Auckland Airport). In the middle of winter this isn’t a fun start at 7am, we were totally freezing. The rest of the race involved 3 kayak legs, 2 mountain-bike legs and a trek section with an optional caving trip. The scenery and variety of terrain during the race was superb - I would love to repeat it all at a slower pace in daylight if given the chance to come back again! Despite taking a total of just under 28 hours to complete the course (finishing in Raglan at 11am Sunday morning), we were actually third in our category. Very few teams completed the whole course, which isn't surprising considering the challenges set by the race organisers... Click below for the full story, and hopefully a few pics coming soon!!

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ChCh catch-up

Just spent two weeks in ChCh catching up with friends from last year - it was really great fun! Played squash, went to spin, went skiing at Broken River with PD & Dave (the conditions were rubbish but it was a great laugh anyway), and competed in an “enduro go-karting” race as Team Pink - absolute quality!! 60 laps each, intense competition between 15 of us in teams of two - I was so focused I even forgot my helmet at one pit stop and nearly blew the whole race…chuckle J

Went back to “The Bog” (obviously…fond memories of the place) and joined in “Jammin’ with the Jamesons" - anyone can grab an instrument and join in with the band. I don’t even know the name of the massive drum thing I played, but it was fun…and I tried my luck at the spoons as well, although I don’t think I should make it my new profession. Caught up with Marcel, and we even did some salsa-dancing - very good fun! PD & I started making plans for our trip to Oz & Asia, and I paid for & collected my tickets - we’re definitely getting excited…its going to be a great trip. Had dinner with the Robsons, the Pattons, and on the last night went to Arjee Bhajee in Riccarton (pretty good!) with PD, Warwick, Aroha & Dave…fun times indeed.

It was great to see everyone again, and I know for sure I’ll be back in the future…and I’ll not be waiting 25yrs like my parents did either J. The country is truly amazing and the people are very special…I have just loved everything about New Zealand.

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The next adventure

On to the next adventure - I'm heading to Christchurch for a couple of weeks to catch up with friends there which should be loads of fun. Back to Auckland July 23-24th for one more 24-hr adventure race, then I fly to Melbourne. I've got about two months travelling on the east coast there, and planning to buy a backpackers van with PD (meeting him in Sydney) which could be fun. We fly from Cairns to Perth at the end of September, and then on to Bangkok. We're planning about 3 months in Asia to travel around Cambodia, Laos, Vietnam, & Thailand. We're meeting several friends for some rock-climbing in Krabi, Thailand mid-late November, and Tien (friend from AZ last year) is coming out to meet me there at the end of November. He's originally from Vietnam but has never been back, so we're going to spend a couple of weeks there before I head home for Christmas. It'll be my first Christmas at home for 3 years so I'm pretty excited about that :)

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Auckland tennis

Went to a junior tennis tournament in Auckland this weekend with 5 of the kids from Whakatane club. It was kinda fun...and nice to see them all play in competition having coached them for a couple of months now. It made me extremely grateful to mum's endless hours of sitting in an indoor tennis centre watching match after match after match when I was younger. It gets seriously boring after a while...thanks mum! I organised tenpin bowling one evening which they seemed to much enjoy...while the parents had a glass of wine and relaxed, I think they enjoyed that too :)

Had an extremely hectic Monday trying to get rid of most of my belongings before flying to ChCh. Thanks to Linda (a friend of mine who's one of the kids' parents), I managed to leave my bike and some other stuff with someone she knows...to be picked up when I fly back up in a couple of weeks. Its nice to be outa there, and feeling like I'm on holiday now. I just need to get rid of my car and I'll feel even better (its at Turner's auctions just now...grrrr)

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Saying goodbye to Whakatane

My last week in Whakatane was a bit mad - in retrospect I should have finished coaching a week earlier, but somehow everything managed to get done, and it was a great relief to drive away on Friday evening!

I had several fun nights out during the week - saying goodbye to everyone was just a good excuse to go out :) I'll miss the place, having got to know a lot of people quite well over the time I've been there. It's a bit small though, with not a lot of young people around, and I'm definitely ready to move on. The coaching has been fun, a lot more enjoyable than the coaching I did in Christchurch - the kids are keen, motivated and work hard which makes all the difference to my enjoyment in the job. I've coached some really fun adults too.

Working in the pub is something I'm also really glad I've done - meeting a completely different crowd and having a great time there too. I'll probably never do it again, but it was fun for something different!

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Fishing!

Finally finished working at the pub, so went in to sit on the 'other side' of it Sunday night...its certainly fun on that side too. Especially when so many people think its your last night, so they keep buying you drinks - and it would be rude to refuse really.

Monday morning Bill & Danny took me out on the boat fishing...I've certainly felt better, but the wind woke me up a little and it was really good fun. We went out around Whale Island - fascinating (photos coming soon!). Its a volcanic island lying on the fault line, and there are natural hot springs that you can see emerging from the sand. All of the sides were contrasting with rocky outcrops and holes in the rocks, steep red rock followed by yellow limestone, then a forested area before some sandy bays on the western side. I'm really pleased I got the chance to see it! We didn't catch any fish, but I don't think any of us felt like sitting for long, rocking from side to side with our stomachs feeling like washing machines. Back for coaching in the afternoon which seemed to last forever, and then home for an early night...much needed :)

I'm going to get to participate in quiz night at the craic tomorrow instead of having to work for once, so looking forward to that. Have got a few people from the tennis club to come down and form a team, it'll be a good laugh.

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