Hello from New Zealand! Team USA made it here safely on Saturday after having left the States on Thursday. We crossed the International Date Line on our flight here so we missed Friday altogether! All of us Bandits are adjusting well to the time change and finding our bearings after the long trip.
From the moment we stepped off the plane, the people here have been really kind and welcoming. At the Auckland airport we were escorted through special customs lines just for the athletes. Our bus drivers have given us tours of the area as they drove us from the airport to the hotel and on our daily trips to the race course. We are so impressed by the landscape. There are tons of rolling hills, lots of sheep, cows, and horses, and beautiful mountains in the distance. It's springtime here, and everything is so green!
Rigging the boats and getting all of the measurements perfect is proving to be endless (it always is!) but I think we're getting close. Training on Lake Karapiro has been great so far. The venue is awesome: huge grandstands, plenty of room for the boats, and beautiful surroundings. Unlike most of the lakes that we've visited for international competitions, which are usually the length of a 2k course plus however much water it takes to stop the boat after the race, this one is really long. We have been able to take advantage of the full 5k length of it for training, which is so much nicer than doing tons of laps on the 2k course.
Strange little tidbit: When Victoria and I were waiting for the rest of the US team to come out of customs, we met a guy who is living in NZ now but spent six years in Bellingham, WA. It's a small world!
The internet here is expensive and they limit how much information you can send/receive but we'll do our best to keep you updated on our progress!
Lunch at the course
Yeah! So glad everything is well. Always look forward to updates.
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