Home Sweet Home

Home sweet home

Wow what a journey.

After over 40,000km air travel, about 25 bus trips, 19 nights, 15 aeroplane meals, 11 flights, 9 airports, 8 cities, 3 races, 2 lakes and 1 A Final we have all arrived back in the homeland. 

I was the last to return to my house as I couldn't get a flight back to where I live until today. The last flight home was lovely. There were only about 20 people on the whole plane and the flight was so short it felt like we were descending just shortly after being at top altitude. And a bonus, I also received an ANZAC biscuit on the flight, a nice taste of home.

I am writing now from my flat in Dunedin and I have never been so happy to return to New Zealand. I'm not sure quite what it is about home that makes me so stoked to be back. Maybe it is because everyone here can speak English or or the friendly strangers that smile in the street. Or maybe it is because of the beautiful mountains, green grass and fresh air that we have missed after being in concrete jungles for some time. A few things I am looking forward to here are real milk, green lettuce (as opposed to white lettuce) vogels&marmite and being able to drink tap water.

Our time away was really incredible. We were very lucky to have many unique experiences while away. Racing at World University Championships was probably the best highlight of our rowing careers so far.

We trained as hard as we could at home and gave it a good shot up there on the world standard level. We knew we would be racing top crews from around the world. 

We woke up on race day feeling nervous and excited. For all of us this was the most important race in rowing so far. We went for a pre-row first thing in the morning an then checked over our boat making sure every nut, washer and bolt was firmly in place. We then put the boat away and went up to the locker rooms for second breakfast and to put on our uniforms. Once we were ready it was about an hour wait until we could get back on the water to warm up for racing so we sat inside listening to our iPods and going over the race plan in our heads. 

Once the wait time was over, we got back on the water and did our normal pre-race warm up including some speedy bursts and practicing our starting sequence. Then we headed for the starting blocks. Once we were in it was about a five minute count-down until the starting officials lined up the bows of our boats then did the roll call and start "Ireland, Poland, Russia (which he seemed to say with extra emphasis), Netherlands, Ukraine, New Zealand…... Attention....... (a few seconds that felt like forever passed) GO!" Within the space of half a second, the traffic light changed from red to green, our boat holder let go and we were off. We had an excellent start and went straight into our race plan. Russia pulled away in the first 500m and the rest of the crews were within a boat length of each other. We stayed focused on our boat and when coming through the 1000m we did our piece of 30 on the legs and pulled up on Ukraine, from there Russia, Poland and the Netherlands were ahead and it was a battle for 4th place. We moved up and had a fast last 500m but the Ukraine got us on the line. We placed 5th by half a boat length to Ukraine and had about a length ahead of Ireland who came in 6th.

We raced some fast crews that day and were upset that our efforts didn't win us a medal. I think we all found it pretty hard coming 5th. We spent a lot of energy to get to Russia, and to come away with 5th was really hard for me and the girls. However, we learnt a lot and 5th won't make us quit, it will make just train even harder for next time. In hindsight we gave it a really good shot and who knows where the next journey will take us. 

I think everyone on the trip learned a lot about a lot. 
Rowing, racing, traveling, team work, organization and the vastness of the world, especially Russia. 

After racing the team slowly went their separate ways. All of the athletes headed to Moscow for a night or two and the coaches headed back to Auckland. While in Moscow we stayed at a very cheap backpackers hostel in the city called TNT. It was a very cheap hostel and seemed very strange when we arrived as it was nestled inside an old apartment building. The hostel had no signs outside, just a whole lot of scaffolding and construction equipment. I followed the address given to me while the others waited outside. I went up some stairs into the apartment block and knocked on a door with no signs on it except for the number 6. It looked like what I thought was a bedroom in the apartment building. The door opened and a woman named Olga invited me in. To my surprise, there was a hostel inside and she showed me to our 8 bunk dorm which looked out onto the wall of another apartment building. 

Olga and the staff at TNT were very helpful. They spoke English and gave us great advice for what to see and do while in Moscow. Olga, well the other Olga (there were two!) seemed very grateful when I left them my New Zealand flag. A small token of our appreciation for their help. 

While there in Moscow we did some sight seeing and visited the famous Kremlin and Red Square. The girls and I went up a large bell tower and got a beautiful view of the city while the boys went to the armory museum, where I'm sure they had a great time looking at guns and the like... Boy stuff...

We also managed to take a trip on the metro, a huge complex of underground trains that network the entire city. Trains arrive every two minutes and only cost about 25RUB or 1NZD per trip. We also went out to a market just out of the city that sold many Russian souvenirs including items from the Russian civil war and many of the typical Russian Matryoshka dolls. The market place was surrounded by castle like buildings giving it a Disneyland-like appearance.

We also dined out a few places including метро (Subway) which like most places in Russia had beer on tap. Also we went to a restaurant called Елки Палки "Yolki Palki" where we ate traditional Russian meals and Matt Glenn ordered a jug of beer which looked to be about a litre! Sarah and Esthie tried some Russian cherry dumplings too which they said were delicious.

After Moscow Luke and Laura headed back to NZ while Matt and the Lightweight double headed to Europe. The girls from the four and I also headed off and managed a stopover in Dubai. There we were lucky enough to stay one night at Shane O'Brian's (fellow West End Rowing Club member and Olympic Champion rower). He lives in a housing area of about 600 houses which have pools on every street.

An extra bonus of the trip was staying our second night at Atlantis The Palm Hotel. The hotel is famous for being the 'eighth wonder of the world' and the hotel was an experience in itself. We managed to get a super-cheap deal of WotIf.com and we loved the irony of being poor students in such an extravagant place with a whole lot of rich people!
The hotel had within it 7 restaurants, a mall, 3 cafes, a 65,000 fish aquarium and Aquaventure - a hydroslide waterpark with the famous 'leap of faith' slide which goes through a see-through tunnel in the 50ft shark tank. That was a great 24hrs and then we began the long journey home, a taxi, three flights and a car trip from the airport.

So what now? Well I would like to say that we are already out training again but unfortunately the focus at the moment is unpacking, resting our bodies from peaking in Russia and catching up on a LOT of university study including two weeks of missed classes. Our coaches have advised us to take some time off rowing training, which is hard for us because we already miss being out on the water. However, in order to recover properly we have to rest up for another week or so and then cross-train and slowly get back into intense training for the summer season.

Now that we are home in New Zealand we would again like to thank every person who supported us on our journey of being selected, training and racing in the New Zealand Rowing University team. Thank you to all of those who messaged us, read our blog, sponsored us, wished us luck and gave us advice. There is no way we could have raced without your help. We really mean that. Thank you again and we look forward to the next challenge, whatever that may be.

Kirstie, Sarah, Esthie and Kirsty.