Author Archives: dipidydoo
WMOC Sprint Qualifier
The first official race of WMOC 2017, the Sprint Qualifier. Most age classes have two heats, and the top 50% in each go through to the A final, leaving the lower 50% to run in the B final. Everyone has different aims – the speedsters who know they will make the A final have to […]
The End of the Road
We left Rotorua behind yesterday morning and drove into the traffic snarls of south Auckland. After a very slow crawl along the motorway, we skirted across towards the west, leaving the suburbs behind. Shelly Beach is a tiny spot at the end of a twisting narrow road. It consists of three roads, a cluster of […]
A Control Has Been Removed Due to Thermal Activity
You’ve got to love an event where you arrive at the arena to discover the following overnight occurrences: A circus has set up camp in the north west corner of the course. Warning: circus not mapped. Please run around it A control has been removed from the course due to “thermal activity”. Visions of pushing […]
Confession Time
Now that the Middle Earth Middle Distance race is officially over, I can confess that we were guilty of visiting the Redwood Treewalk while it was embargoed yesterday. We hadn’t read the fine print in the program, and we thought the Treewalk would be an interesting thing to do on our day off. It was […]
Relaxing In Rotorua
A very welcome rest day in Rotorua – slept in, then did some relaxed pace sightseeing around town. The theme was definitely thermal – steaming pools, bubbling mud, and the pale yellow tinge of sulphur – the smell pervades the town, but you get used to it quickly. We visited the Government Gardens, where the […]
Muddy Middle (in the Middle of NowhereO)
It was a day much like all the others so far – waking to a pleasant day with the promise of fine weather, only to have our hopes dashed as we headed towards the hills and watched the rain clouds roll in once again. Today we left the dunes behind and headed south to Onewhero […]
Rainy Relays
We parked the car in a paddock on a hilltop and strolled down to the arena, sun shining, clear sky, all was right with the world. Relays awaited, and the area looked inviting. I headed to the team lists to find our number, only to discover my team was not on the board. At Info, […]
Oceania Long Distance
An early start and a longish drive brought us to Woodhill Forest, which runs the length of a peninsula on the west coast, about 90 minutes from Auckland. Thanks to the rain, we parked a long way away from the arena, but it was a nice walk in. We were told to allow 30 minutes […]
Cyclone Cook – Storm in a Teacup
Last night the news was full of dire predictions of gales and torrential downpours as Cyclone Cook was to make landfall somewhere along the east coast. We woke up to bright sunshine, clear skies, and not a puff of wind. Probably just as well. If I was the organiser of today’s Oceania Sprint, I would […]
Auckland Arrival – Land of the Long Black Cloud
All the talk has been of Cyclone Cook, predicted to bring gale force winds and torrential rain to much of New Zealand’s north island today and tonight. So far we have had a couple of heavy showers and no wind to speak of. The skies are very dull, but stories of cyclones have so far […]
dipidydoo 