I work as a volunteer in Zealandia, an urban wildlife sanctuary in the heart of Wellington, the 'coolest little capital' in the world. Here you can follow some of the things that I do, such as nest monitoring, feeding and talking about one of the rarest birds in the world or showing visitors the wonders of this amazing little valley.
When not in Zealandia I spend a large part of my time enjoying the wonderful outdoor environment Wellington has to offer. Biking, running, roller -blading, swimming and dragon-boat racing are some of the pleasures to be had amongst the tree clad hills, the winding roads and the ever changing harbour.
Living in Te Upoko O te Ika (the Maori name for Wellington meaning The Head of the Fish) is never boring with its wild climate and rugged terrain. I hope you enjoy my blog as much as I will enjoy describing this amazing place and its animals to you.

Tuesday, 26 March 2013

The Auckland Regatta

Our team - well - half of it!


The weekend was a busy one. Our dragon boat team flew up to Auckland on the Friday and settled into our motel ready for the next day.
On Saturday we had seven races. The morning was devoted to the three 500 metre races. Hard work  but the day was settled with only slight winds, making for lovely conditions. We came second in our finals much to our dismay - we had hoped we would finally be able to overtake our competitors, the Boobops - but alas it was not to be.
The breast cancer survivors teams then came together and rafted up for the memorial flower ceremony. A spine tingling haka rang out from the shore to honour us as we thought about paddlers who were no longer with us. It is such an emotional event - our energies totally spent in the race, then coming together united in the fight against breast cancer.

After lunch we had had three 200 metre dashes. Last year we managed to cross the line first in our final and this time we managed to cross the line first again and were thrilled with our efforts. Coming ashore to applause we heard over the speakers the result - with us second!! What had happened? Evidently three boats had been moving forward at the start but one had been still so the start manager decided to alter the results and place Boobops first. Not again!! We questioned the result to no avail and were again awarded silver.
Finally we had our two kilometre race. It consisted of two laps of the course, involving three sharp turns. Our sweep had been practising her turns and we managed better than in the past when we veered wildly off course. Pleased with our effort we had to leave immediately after the race and head to the airport.
We later heard that we were placed third in our category.
We flew back to Wellington late in the evening feeling somewhat deflated.
In two weeks time we meet again in Rotorua for Nationals. Will we be able to pull something out of the bag? We have three practices and Easter before then so who knows.

We live in hope of course!!
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