Harbour to Surf Swim - almost!

Here it is.........the first Wordies New Zealand Challenge!!! Due to injury (aquired during a family game of rounders!) Senior male Wordy is still 'out of order' with a dodgy knee so I took it upon myself to take on the challenge. I had been thinking about this swim for a while but couldn't decide wether to give it a go or not. I finally decided that it would be a good training session for my Taupo swim with Helen but by that time I had missed the final postal date and would need to enter on the day. The swim is a 4km swim from the harbour (Pilot Bay) around the Mount ( a bloody big extinct volcano!) and back in to Main Beach (the main surf beach at Mount Maunganui.) Sounds fun eh? I was raring to go by the weekend of the event and prepared in my usual fine style! Those of you who have trained with me will know that I like to be fully prepared for any event so in true tradition (and with Sarah and Rebecca in mind!) I spent the Friday night on a girls night out! I was invited around to a friends house where a group of us ate and drank the night away. Several bottles of wine later I rode my bike home at 1.30am! I did manage to get home without incident so that must be a good sign!!! So, preparation complete I managed an early night on Saturday night in readiness for the challenge on Sunday morning.
Sadly, due to very windy conditions the Harbour to Surf swim was cancelled (only the second time in 26 years!!!) and we instead did a Harbour to Harbour Swim! A 4km swim which consisted of 3 laps around Pilot Bay. Not quite the same but a good first ocean swim for me!
So...here they are...the photos you have all been waiting for........


Here we are...all lined up and ready to go. Can you spot me? Notice the rather large cruise ship lurking in the background! Well...I'm not on it!

And they're off - you will notice that I am the one I the lead.........NOT!



Here is the container ship that cruised in while we were swimming. Neil thought our container was on it but apparently not. Ours came in the Wednesday after - we think! And I didn't even notice it....too busy concentrating on winning!

Here I am.. not quite first but obviously very pleased with myself. I really enjoyed the swim and managed it in 1 hour 18 minutes according to Neil. Not bad for a geriatric first timer!!!!


Luckily for me but not so for you I accidently deleted the first photo I had lined up for you....a mad woman in yellow swim hat and goggles - don't know who that could be?! That photo is now available upon request only!
I hope you have enjoyed our first challenge. The next one will probably be Helen & I at Lake Taupo unless you have any other suggestions and wish to come and join us for one? Keep tuned!

The Water Boys & Girl!

The Water Boys & Girl!

So here we are mid January and still spending most of our spare time in some form of water!

With Christmas over with, the attention here turned quickly to the New Years celebrations. Alas, being new and with the same amount of friends as Billy NO MATES! (what's so different here compared to the UK I here you mutter!), it was a quiet affair for us, unlike our next door neighbours who seemed to have invited the whole of the Southern Hemisphere to a party on New Years eve....without telling us! It was a cross between the old boys trips to Taunton camping and an image of Greenham Common in the 80's! Not good!!!!!!!!!!

All went off after a couple of days and we are now back to normality....well if you call 32 degrees C normal! (that should make the whole of the Northern Hemisphere jealous!)

So the kids are still off school for another couple of weeks taking advantage of the sea, local pool and two anguished parents who will lobby Parliament here for shorter summer holidays in future!
Max takes his 6 foot (1.829m for the metric brigade!) down to the beach every second day to practice his surfing....much better than DAD I'm afraid!




T is just T and a chip off his mums BLOCK! (Nice try Neil....he apparantley is a clone of me....attitude and all....Sorry Mum & Dad for all those years of Torture...what comes around goes around!) T here is practicing his dive bombs...his back flips are most impressive! at the local pool which is attached to their school.



And after all that summer fun...food is required. My boys are very rarely fed, that's why the van looks so appealing!?! And before any comments come back on the Blog (not that many do....so that's a dig if ever there was one!), no it's not my new job serving chips and hot dogs!




And after all that fun....the beach to ourselves again!



Hope you all have a wonderful 2008. We are eagerly awaiting all our visitors soon. Jane & Peter from Australia, The Robbos from Feniscowles, Blackburn (will NZ ever be the same 'POST KEV???') and Helen from Chorley, who is escaping the UK for a month to come and swim with Clare in Lake Taupo....she's actually trying to avoid a mad woman from Next Generation!!! Hey V???

and our container which arrives here in NZ on the 20th Jan.....I need my bikes!!!!!!!!!!

Take care and more comments please

Senior Male Wordy signing off