April 2016 – The Flying Scotts

Race Time

A little late, but I thought I’d share with you my first taste of racing in New Zealand…..Somehow racing the Panasonic triathlon after a 3months absence from riding my bike and after a set of 7night shifts turned out to be quite enjoyable. The race took place at Mission Bay, a 30min drive from our house. It was a lovely calm morning when we arrived at the beach and we were treated to a lovely sunrise while setting up my spot in transition.

I was a bit unsure about whether or not to wear a wetsuit as it didn’t really seem worth it for 500m but I changed my mind once I saw that everyone else was wearing one. I probably should have stuck to my instincts as I struggled to get it off in transition and probably wasted more time peeling myself out of it than I saved by wearing it!

I managed to exit the water as first individual female and then made my way out on the bike course. As mentioned previously, I haven’t ridden my bike for the past 3 months so I was expecting to lose quite a lot of time to the other girls! There was a LOT of drafting going on with some huge packs forming. Determined not to be part of it I would drop back when overtaken by a pack, or sometimes try and overtake the packs (with little success!). It was quite frustrating to see other girls freewheeling behind a pack of guys and going at the exact same pace as me!! It wasn’t until after the race that I learned that it was actually a draft legal race and that I should have just sat in with the packs and use them to my advantage! That will teach me to listen to the briefing next time!! Despite my lack of bike fitness and solo ride, I managed to average 36.1km/hr over the 20km and posted the 5th fastest female bike split.

I definitely paid for the tough ride during the run and really struggled to find my legs. I managed to lose 5minutes on the run to the fastest runner, which was a little frustrating, but not unexpected given my lack of preparation.

I ended up finishing 4th in my age group and 6th overall. According to the results the 3rd place in my age group was only 4 seconds ahead of me – a little strange as there definitely wasn’t anybody right infront of me on the finish line! I was 3minutes behind the overall winner, an encouraging thought as I’m fairly confident that I could knock off 3minutes once I get some fitness back.

It was great to get back in the saddle and get a taste of the sport I love in this beautiful country…..next time though I’ll be much fitter! It is the end of season now so I have plenty of time to get my fitness back over winter.

Home sweet home

We have (pretty much) got all the furniture we wanted now so I thought I would put up a few pictures of the house. The dining table and chest of drawers for the bedroom were delivered this weekend – watching the delivery man single-handedly run up the stairs with the chest of drawers was impressive. We even sat down at our new table for our evening meal.

Easter Travels

After a tiring few weeks at work, we decided to make the most of the Easter long weekend and headed south to Lake Taupo. We set off from Titirangi on Friday afternoon and drove the 300km down to the Motuoapa Bay campsite on the south east end of Lake Taupo. We pitched our tent close to the lake and after getting eaten alive by all the bugs decided to hide in the tent and read our New Zealand travel book (thanks Mum!) and make some plans for the weekend.

On the Saturday morning we got up early and were greeted by grey clouds and pissing rain – standard camping trip for us! Fortunately the rain disappeared as we headed 40km north to the town of Taupo. Our first stop was at the Huka Falls on the Waikato river. Although the falls are a lot smaller than High Force back in the UK, the colours of the river were spectacular and it was definitely worth a visit.

After the Huka falls, we headed to the nearby ‘Craters of the Moon‘, an impressive geothermal area with lots a large craters and steaming mud. We were quite hungry after all our exploring and so headed into Taupo to get some food. We ate (far too much as usual) at a lovely little Cafe down by the waterfront and then did a wee bit of shopping in order to buy some hiking clothes in preparation for Sunday’s expedition.

Sunday morning was another early start as we got ready to do the famous ‘Tongariro crossing‘. We drove to the finish of the track and met with Rosemary and Katrina, two of my friends from work, before catching the shuttle bus to the start of the hike. Initially we were a bit sceptical about doing the walk as the weather looked quite poor, but we are both glad that we went ahead with the hike as it actually turned out to be a beautiful day. The Tongariro crossing is said to be the ‘best one day hike in New Zealand’ and we can certainly see how it has earned that reputation. In general the hike is not particularly technical and the views are simply stunning. Particular highlights include the views of some active volcanos (including the famous ‘Mt Doom’) and the Emerald Lakes. The hike was approximately 20km in total – it is safe to say that we have definately earned our easter eggs this weekend!

See below for some more pictures of the weekend.