Love NZ

Yesterday Vic and I went for an afternoon stroll and found a huge (we're talking one mile around) horse racing track.  Ursh had already found it, run around it a couple of times, and come back to the hotel gushing about how cool it was.  So naturally we had to see for ourselves.  What we weren't expecting when we got there was that you have to hop a few fences to get on the track.  It was well worth it though.  We're going back tonight.

On our way back from the track, we spotted this gigantic tree:

I'm not sure either of us knew what to think of it.  It was like fifteen trees in one.  

Report from today at the course: the quad is good to go, we had a little run-in with the "minefield" on the course, found the awesome NZ recycling bins, and the weather has held off despite a brief rainshower today.  

First, about the quad: We had a good row today and I think (finally!) that all the rigging stuff is done with.  G-Man helped us tweak the steering today so that it's just right.  

About the minefield: For some reason the NZ people have set up rock hard plastic buoys just beyond the start line, where the long distance training begins.  Two lines of them (about 50 meters apart) stretch across the entire lake and the orange ones are so close together that not even a single could fit through without hitting its oars.  One might think that the two red and green buoys would be where crews are expected to pass through.  That's what we thought, until we learned (via Vic smacking her oar against the green one) that not even the little boats can fit through there.  We've named it the "minefield" and every day we dread when we have to go through it.  We've consulted the cox'ns/bow people of other Team USA boats and no one can figure out the best way to cross over these buoys without risking disaster.  Luckily our run-in with the minefield today wasn't boat damaging, but we did hit an orange one with the bowball.  We'll figure out a good way one of these times...

About the recycling bins: How great is this logo?

About the weather: Overall we have had sun and good water, although according to Malcolm (our trusty bus driver who drives well above the speed limit, much to Ursula's delight), the rain and wind are both coming soon.  

Off to dinner!!

Day 5 in New Zealand

Technology is failing me today.  I've been trying to upload a video we took at the course today but the internet will not let me do it.  It also won't let me rotate photos, even after rotating them in iPhoto, so you're going to have to crane your neck to see them.  I'm working on fixing this issue but hey, at least it let me do three whole pictures!

Update from today: We're back from the course after having a successful couple of rows in the doubles and a yummy lunch.  Abby and Ursula are hanging out in the altitude tent that's set up in their rooms, and Vic and I will get in after dinner.  The weather here has been gorgeous so far and from what we've heard, we're lucky because last week it was horrible.  

Thanks to everyone who has sent us good luck emails and supported us through donations.  We're still fundraising for this trip, so if you want to help us out, click here for the link.  

Signing off from Wednesday in NZ...for those of you who haven't seen Wednesday Oct. 27th yet, it's a sunny one!

The sign on our altitude tent.  Mt. Cook is the highest mountain in NZ and its summit also happens to be at the same altitude as the tent.  Who can guess what MF stands for?  It's a good thing Abby brought her arts & crafts because we're clearly getting a lot of use out of them as we sit in the tent.

Abby at the launching area

Favorite = Kiss & Cry Zone

Made it to New Zealand!

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

Gettin' Outta Town!

With a perfect evening of glassy water here at Samish, we are all packing, cleaning, and furiously running around the house trying to track down lost heart rate monitor straps, eating apple after apple (we had about 20 to eat up as of yesterday), and putting our bags on the scale with crossed fingers that they aren't over 50 lbs (they of course always are).

The entries are in as of this morning and it looks to be a group of talented athletes from around the world that should produce some great racing.  Click here for the quad's entry list and here for the double's entry list.  For those of you who are new to rowing and as we head into the big races, a few clarifications: "LW4x" denotes the lightweight women's quad and "LW2x" is the lightweight women's double.  Racing starts for the double on Sunday October 31 at 10:17 am.  Translated into U.S. time, that's 2:17 pm on October 30th on the west coast, 5:17 pm on the east coast.  Confusing!!

Once we get to NZ, we'll be updating this blog with links to results and video streams of the racing, so keep checkin' back!

As a final note, many of our friends/teammates/college teams are racing at the Head of the Charles in Boston this weekend.  GOOD LUCK to all those racing.  We're hoping it's better weather than last year's sleet and snow!

Tis the Season...

FOR PUMPKINS!  We were sad that we are going to miss Halloween this year so we decided to celebrate early by carving pumpkins.  It was so much fun!  Ursula had just as much fun snapping photos!

Pumpkin GUTS

The finished products

A bonus one!

Row2k Photo Gallery

Yesterday, Erik Dresser from Row2k came to practice to take photos of the double and quad.  Row2k is doing a photo gallery for each boat headed to the World Championships.  He took 400 photos of the quad alone.

By clicking HERE, you can see the full gallery of the 80 best ones he picked out.


-

Viking Visit!

This afternoon we got a visit from the Western Washington University Women's rowing team!  It was a lot of fun.  We showed them around the house, got to know them, shared stories, and fielded questions about nutrition, training, New Zealand, and racing.   Like us, the Vikings get to row on Lake Samish, but they have been practicing way earlier than we have.  They're launching at 5:15 am...we're adjusting to NZ time so we're asleep until about 7:30.  Since it's still dark outside when they practice, their coach shines a spotlight on them to see.  Crazy!!  Here are some photos we snapped of the event:

Checking out the altitude tents

Thanks to the girls for coming to visit and for John Fuchs for helping set up the event.  As always, you can email us with questions/comments at: bellinghamquad@gmail.com.

After the visit, we cooked up a delicious dinner that we ate family style (my favorite!) at the big table.  Since the WWU girls were interested in some of our recipes, here's the first of the recipes we'll be sending your way.  On the menu was an Abby & Kristin "slaw" creation and some fish.

Fish: Rockfish with olive oil, thyme, salt, pepper, and lemon slices on top.  Cooked at 400 degrees for 10 minutes, then broiled for about 5 more minutes, until flaky.
Slaw: We made a huge slaw so we'd have leftovers tomorrow.  We chopped up a whole head of savoy cabbage, a head of purple cabbage, about four leaves of kale, and half of a red onion.   Then we shredded a big ol' beet and some carrots on top.  After adding sunflower seeds and the juice from a lemon, we drizzled some of Ab's homemade salad dressing on top (apple cider vinegar, olive oil, dijon mustard, honey, flax oil, salt, and pepper).  Enjoy!

What's left of the slaw