New Zealand

There was another regatta at the weekend in Cambridge, which is just outside Hamilton and that meant a 7 hour drive! It was just me and Brad for the road trip but it was good fun driving up there, he gave me all the info of all the places we went through so the drive was also a learning as well as a cultural experience. The scenery seemed to change every hour or so as we drove through forests, plains, towns, mountains and a town called Bulls. After a stop or two on the way, we got into Hamilton at about 11 where we met up with Rob, Jack and Lou-Li (still not sure how to spell it) at Jack’s aunty’s house where we were to be staying  – Hamilton’s only about 15km from Cambridge so it’s close enough.

It was another early start, we were down at the boat club at 7 and I think the first race was sometime around 8 and that’s where I made my competitive coxing debut, coxing for the girls four (2nd team) in their novice race. It wasn’t the best start to my career, I’d never even trained with the girls before so obviously I don’t know them as well as the guys but we did ok, my steering wasn’t great and we ended up in 5th out of 6 but it was a good learning experience anyway! The guys had a novice race later but Erin was coxing for that but I coxed for them in the club four (an open race that can have senior teams in it) and that’s where the sparks began to fly. At the start, we couldn’t really get too straight because there was a bit of a current and side wind (those are the excuses I’ll forever use) and once we’d powered ahead at the start, we began to cut off the West End team but I couldn’t see any of this happening because I was sat in the front  of the boat (apparently it’s faster if the cox is at the front). Anyway, there was a bit of a collision and some colourful language from those West End schoolboys, the marshalls got us apart again and we got underway once more. All that seemed to put me off just a bit but I gathered myself somewhere around the 500m mark and we made really good progress trying to catch up with the other crews but because of the angle I was looking at, it seemed like we were much closer than we actually were so I was constantly screaming at the guys because “we were getting real close”! In the end we came 4th out of 7 and only 4 seconds of third which would have taken us into the C Final but considering there were some senior crews in the race and our collision, I think we did really well and we could have probably made the top 2 otherwise.

We watched the well-hyped Mahe Drysdale – Rob Waddell singles race, the result certainly caused more than a ripple within the New Zealand sporting community, and then drove back to Hamilton. Jack’s uncle owns a bar there called the Riv so he took us all there for a couple of drinks and a meal, it’s so cheap even compared to Wellington prices and the beers went down a little too easy! It turned out we were served by Colin Meads’ granddaughter! I guess that shows the kind of circles I’m mixing in these days, Olympic/World Champions,  Rugby legends (family of) and all.

The guys had their C Final for the Novice Four on Sunday morning, with the much much more experienced Erin as cox and I think they came third or fourth. After that we packed up the gear and loaded the vans before making our way home. Brad suggested we stop off in Taupo because he knew of a natual spa that flows into the Waikato river so we met up there with Rob, Lou-Li and Jack. The spa was probably one of my favourite things that I’ve done so far in New Zealand, there were a few pools carved/eroded into the bank where the water flowed into and then out into the river. It got pretty hot in the spa so we alternated with swimming in the cooler river water and then back into the spa, it wasn’t that busy either, just another four or five people along with us five. The views upstream were amazing, towards the forest and the way the river was bending away into the distance. It was a strange sensation feeling the hot and cold waters mixing into each other, I could have one leg in hot water and the other in cold, it kind of all just randomly flowed together. I think we were there for about 45 minutes or so before we dried off, got some food and then drove back. I couldn’t believe I was swimming in a river in December, even though it’s spring here I still have to remind myself that it’s December and probably dark, cold and miserable back in Britain. Ah well.

Yesterday was one of the Christmas events at work and we all went over to the croquet club for some croquet action, there were some fine displays of skill and determination, as well as outright competitive rivalry between Intranet/Internet/Online Channel, with the Intranet claiming many victories. It really is the glue that binds us all together (at least that’s what we tell ourselves whilst in the shadow of our more glamourous Internet colleagues). It was really good fun though, we played Golf Croquet (as if I knew there were varieties) and it probably got even better as the drinks were consumed. Excellent views of the city and harbour too from the top of old Mount Vic. There’s another night out tomorrow with the Dev guys but I doubt that’ll be as sophisticated as croquet!

It took a while but Brad (one of my flatmates) finally convinced me to cox for the Wellington Rowing Club Men’s Novice Four, which is his team and I really enjoyed it. Last Monday I went with him to one of the training sessions up at Petone (it was too windy at Wellington harbour, funnily enough) and coxed for a couple of hours, didn’t really have too much of an idea of what was happening but I understood the bare essentials of what I needed to do and got on with it. The other guys in the boat (Jack, Rob and Lou-Li [if that’s how to spell it?]) helped me out with what I needed to know, so that made it a lot easier.

At the weekend there was a regatta over at Wanganui, which is about a three hour drive from Wellington so we left for that on Friday night in Brad’s car, got there at about 11 or so and parked the trailer down by the river before heading to the Union Rowing club boat house. The other guys and the girls eight arrived earlier so they were already asleep, we had our sleeping bags so everyone just slept upstairs in one of the boat sheds.

We got up at 6 in the morning on Saturday for the regatta, I think the first race was at about 8, so we had breakfast in the club house and went over to the river. Even though it was a bit of a shock to the system to be up so early, it was such a nice day and the water was all calm and tranquil. When we got down to the river, the other Wellington teams were starting to arrive too (including the U16 boys, girls and seniors) and there must have been about 60 or so from the Wellington club in total. I think there were about a dozen clubs in total racing that day, including our neighbours and rivals Petone. Each club has it’s own vest colour and Wellington’s is maroon with a white hoop, I can’t remember what team it was, it might have been Hawkes Bay, but they had blue and white hooped vests and it made them look like pirates! Well, in my head it did anyway. I wasn’t involved in any of the races that day but it was good to talk with Erin about the art of coxing and I picked up some good advice there. Brad’s team, the Four, won their first race but stopped halfway through their second due to technical problems and they were due to compete in an Eight with four of the girls but the girls weren’t really up for it so they scratched that one.

Brad pointed out that a couple of the New Zealand Olympic teams were competing too so we watched those races with interest, they are pretty big guys! I was also shown who Mahe Drysdale was (a famous Olympic rower) and I thought it was so good that all the New Zealand teams were just wandering round the embankment and competing with everyone else without being hassled or bothered by anyone. I can’t think of any other sport where Olympic champions and national athletes would just be able to mix freely in and around people like that, certainly wouldn’t happen in Britain.

After the racing, we packed away most of the boats and the guys rowed back to the club house with me as cox. It was about 5km but we were there in good time and I managed to steer without too many problems. We got showered and had something to eat when we got back to Union and went to bed soon after.

Another early start on Sunday for training, got up at about 5:30 and we were on the water not long after 6. Again, the water was so calm and there was a little bit of mist, so it all looked good, definitely made getting up worthwhile. We trained for a couple of hours, I was coxing, and started to get a little bit better. The guys were great though, they have so much strength and power which made the boat go fast and the timing and everything is coming along too. When we got back, the girls went out for their row and we went out again when they got back. It was good hanging out with the guys during the times when we weren’t on the water, Jack had his rugby ball so we were throwing that around and doing general boat maintenance and things like that.

When we were getting ready to leave, an ambulance with all its lights on drove up to us and asked if any of us had phoned for an ambulance before moving on! We just started to laugh but felt quite sorry for whoever was waiting for the ambulance! The drive back to Wellington was a good one, a lot of the scenery kind of reminds me of home as it’s similar in many ways, just the heat that’s very very different.

So, yeah, that was the weekend. I never thought I’d get into rowing but I really like the close team aspect of it all and it gives me the chance to see other places at weekends.

In other news, the combined Intranet/Online Channel quiz team were victorious at the New Zealand Post Corporate Christmas Quiz last Wednesday! We beat the Chief Executives’ team in a tie-breaker, we were in two minds whether or not it would be a good idea to beat them but we just went straight for the glory. I think that’s the first quiz I’ve won for a while!