NEW ZEALAND - CANOE RACES

NEW ZEALAND April 2017

                We left home at 5am on Tuesday 4/18 and arrived in Auckland at 4:30pm on Wednesday.  While the clock is only two hours earlier than Kauai, the calendar is a day later.  My computer is even confused by crossing both the International Date Line and the equator.

Crossing the Pacific

                After getting stopped in customs so they could examine my packed hiking boots for soil (which in theory I’m in favor of, but, I had cleaned them) it was irritating to have my luggage opened – we were so tired.  We just crashed at the hotel and woke up to a whole new world.

Sunrise over Rangitoto Island, a 600 year old volcano in the Hauraki Gulf, due east

DAY ONE – AUCKLAND

                We are staying at Takapuna to be close to canoeing events, but we needed to ferry back over to Auckland to get the accreditation passes.  We enjoyed an afternoon in the city, walking around.

Ferry traffic, Devonport to Auckland

Downtown and the ever present Sky Tower

Albert park with huge trees

We dropped in at the art museum next to Albert Park. Only one exhibit caught our fancy, portraits of very old Maori men and women done between 1910 and 1940.  Fabulous.  C. F. Goldie, artist.

               

They break your heart don't they?  

Lake Pupuke

                Late afternoon, back at Takapuna, we checked out the venue at the lake.  With no little misunderstanding on the bus system, we were glad we did the recon as it made the rest of the days go smooth.  After enjoying seeing white swans everywhere in Europe, I was thrilled to see the NZ ol’ blacks.

Double hulls rigged and waiting, Yippee!

Sprint venue

THE PADDLING

                Who is Anuenue? (ah new eh new eh = rainbow).  This is a traveling paddling team from Oahu that have been enjoying waters around the world since 1983.  These men and women have all reached their 70s and beyond!  This year they recruited a 60s team from Kauai that included Gil.  One Oahu guy, Bernie filled the 60s canoe. 

Kauai guys – Jack, Christian, Steve, Gil, and Art

The first race was a V12 500 meter. Two 6 man canoes are connected with 4x4s to make a double hull. This was a combination of the 60s and 70s men.

V12 

Bronze finish

Wanted Gold (of course) but happy to place

                Our friends Greg and Linda from Kauai that are in the volleyball event later in the week, came to support Gil his first day.  We went to lunch at a fine Irish pub called Florie McGreal’s and caught up.  Good fun.  Both Greg and Linda got great shots of events including this one of the 50s Tahitian team that Steve and Christian jumped in on (far left front and back row).  

Tahiti 50

               Christian and Steve also competed in the V1 races, a rudderless one man canoe.  We watched them each win their heat easily and Steve got a silver at the final.

Christian - leading the pack

Steve - no one else in sight

6 Man Races

                The first heat of the V6 was the biggest challenge.  These 6 man canoes are entirely different from the Hawaiian canoe – they have flat bottoms, higher sides, and are 100 pounds lighter.  The 1000 meter course is four 250 meter legs with three turns.  They had watched a video and practiced for once week doing the turns at home.  Since the ladies went first, the guys studied each position hard as the boats were maneuvered around the tiny flags in narrow lanes.  First in their heat, they moved to finals next day.  There were six more heats to see who they would run against.

That evening was the opening ceremonies.  While there are 500 participants in the canoeing events, there are 28 sports, 100 countries, and 25,000 participants in the area!  The international feel is really fun.  I met a woman here swimming for Austria and saw a very excited Russian in our hotel that just won Silver for weight lifting.  One of the volunteers we met was cycling for Canada.  We took a bus to catch the Devonport Ferry to Auckland and then a train up to the stadium at Eden Park.  Not everyone attended, the general feeling is that once is enough and at the end of the day we agreed. 

Stage

         

V6 1000 Meter Heats - Saturday Afternoon

                With lots of NZ teams to compete against, no one knew what would happen.  Not home court advantage but home canoe advantage, for the Kiwis.  It wasn’t enough for the Salty Dogs from South New Zealand, they flipped their boat (huli) on the first turn.  They were allowed to continue to play-offs which everyone thought was generous for the sport, showed a lot of Aloha spirit.

Before 1000

Front: Bernie, Art, Christian,Jack   Back: Steve, Gil

Salty Dogs – South NZ

Huli

SUNDAY AM

Anuenue 60s won Silver in the V6 1000 meter.  Soon after, they took Silver in the 500 meter (no turns).

1000 finish

Again, lucky weather, cool but pleasant for spectators and event was really well run.

Spectators

and more spectators

  

                                                  

and food

V6 500 Silver medals, also color coded hats each win

MONDAY AM – Marathon

                Moving to the long distance race, or marathon as they say here, the venue went from the freshwater Lake Pupuke to Takapuna Beach on the ocean.  We have been graced with no rain all week but the breeze/wind is wicked cold.  I spoke with the Cook Islands women’s team and they said they would never come back here – ugly water.  It got measureably worse by the time the men went at noon (instead of 11am). 

Takapuna Beach

                Anuenue was in full force; the 70s women won their 15km race.  In the men’s, the 70s course was also 15km while 60s men had a 22km to run.

60s 22km team, boat already safety checked

70s                L to R:  Harry, Hardy, Jon, Sam, Australian (?), Nappy

        Side note, the Australian filled in for Ted who was hit by a car the night before!

Heading to start

Waiting

Takapuna Beach Park, very nice, in the lee of the chilly breeze most of the day

NZ Magpie 

NZ Surfer

I almost felt guilty having an organic, GF salmon crepe (gallete).  Yum               

             The water was so rough, the officials shortened the later mixed (men and women) race course to 20km and Legend Nappy Napolean steered again for them, another 15km, at age 77!  FYI, he will race Molokai this coming October for the 60^th consecutive time.  (far right in 70s photo above)

 

Kauai’s 60s coming in at 2 hours 26 min, second of five – all the others from New Zealand.  

                 Bar none, they complained about the awful conditions and sloppy churning water (these all being veterans of many channel crossings).  They were teeth rattling cold, came back at almost dark for the awards.  Most of the team agreed to skip the one man race tomorrow, brrrrrrr!

Results

3 medals – Grizzly Gold NZ: gold; Anuenue USA: Silver; Terminal Velocity: NZ, bronze

L to R: Gil, Christian, Jack, Bernie, and Art (Steve didn’t quite make it back).

            Steve Cole actually did race the next day, took gold in the OC1 60s and came in third overall, beating many younger guys!  Now everyone just asks how many hats?

             I cannot convey the wind's chill, the excitement, the multi languages, but I did try to capture some of the team shirts and personal decoration.