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 […]

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 […]

No surprise to wake up to more drizzle, although at one point a stray sunbeam fell across our door.  It was fleeting – Ilze was in the loo and missed it entirely.  So we shoved raincoats and spare socks into our backpacks and resigned ourselves to another evening of washing and drying clothes. The organisers […]

I thought yesterday was wet, but overnight it just didn’t stop, and there was no sign of it letting up today.  The forecast was for “rain periods, heavy at times”, and this turned out to be all too accurate. Meanwhile back home, events are being cancelled due to extreme heat.  A compromise would be nice […]

Overnight our world turned wet and dreary.  Drizzle continued on and off as we got ready for our first race, but it was never heavy enough to justify donning raincoats.  We drove to Taradale, a suburb of Napier and home to the Eastern Institute of Technology, or EIT. The map was described as one of […]