Wellington Champs

This year we stayed at home and attended the Wellington Champs. It was a lovely sunny day, and the water was nice for the most part...
It started like any other day, well actually a bit earlier at 5:45 because first races were at 6:45. It was a bit stressful in the boathouse. The first crews rowed their boats over to the racing, and while you gotta love getting out of boating rigging and trailer loading, when some of the boats have problems it's tricky when no one is around cuz they are already at the races.

But man, isn't the harbour lovely early in the morning.
I will so miss this. What makes it even nicer is that you know that you get to share it with people you know, that they are waiting for you while you drag yourself out of bed and down the hill to morning training.

Then comes the heat and waiting around of race day.

Here is our coach giving our new coxswain some pointers.

And we eat...
And at this regatta dogs are allowed... too bad that just about when this photo was taken, Traveler accidentally side swiped one of our rower's parent's cars!

Owen hopped in the boat for a 'dry' row to check his feet. And then they raced in our mighty mixed crew... too bad the officials didn't let them acutally race and they had to race down the outside of the course. There was only one other crew in the final for this one, so rather silly that they were turned away at the start.

And the mighty club women modeling their guns and new crew gear.
Not the best of racing for my crews this day, but I still walked away thinking, Man this is the last time I race on our home water with my crew. It's like senior year all over again. Everything feels like a "last."

wainuiomata day

This week I was greeted on my drive to town by a rainbow arcing into Somes Island. My camera is broken so I was only able to capture it with my phone camera - but look closely and you can just make out the rainbow. What a treat after a week of storms - in the sea, in my heart, and in my head.

We were driving to Wainuiomata to buy some chicken feed. People often put down this area of Wellington... but it reminds me of home. There is just something very 'grove' like about this valley. I mean really, we pulled over to text the friend who told us about the animal feed shop and a lady pulls over to ask if we're okay. We say what is happening, and she has us follow her to a nearby shop taht sells chicken feed. Not only that but the shop hands open the store 5 minutes early because they see us waiting outside. So cool! Then on the way back we paused to take in the view from the lookout.