Last night on the harbour was brilliant. Getting there was not so brilliant. Where did all the traffic come from? The working year must be starting in Wellington.
As we did our warm-up walkabout I noticed the many people having an after work drink in the sunshine in front of the Whare Waka. There were also queues of suited types with their jackets slung over their shoulders sweating it out as they waited to go into a large marquee to take part in the Pinot Noir Festival which has been happening this week.
Boys and girls were jumping off the wharf with gay abandon. Further along the waterfront a high diving platform has been erected over a cut out area allowing access to the sea below. This is where the 'Real Deal' dive in to entertain passers by and hopefully drench the sedentary and slow moving.
Out on the water was pretty crowded as well. There were kayaks and paddle boards to avoid as well as rowing sculls and runabouts. The pedalo-boats had been all called in and were being put away so that was one less type of craft to avoid.
We practised stamina and starts, and concentrated on correct technique. Our sweep practised turning the boat in a smaller arc as one of our longer races will involve a quick turnaround at each end of the course. As our coach was stuck in traffic we trained ourselves and did just fine.
We watched other dragon boats acting more like caterpillars, their paddles moving consecutively rather than simultaneously. The paddles splayed out to the side rather than being parallel to the side of the boat. Easy to see the faults in others. So hard to see our own faults!
Once home I watched the golden disk of a moon rise from my window. Earlier on in the week Mark Gee from Weta Digital videoed the moon rise above Mt Victoria, Wellington's lookout point and placed it on his website. It is a marvelous piece of photography. To see it, go to this link: http://vimeo.com/58385453
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