part 1: Oceanias

Being the lucky wee lass I am I headed off to Thredbo Australia last Wednesday the 21st to go fry sum shreemp (shrimp) on the barrrrrr bee (bbq). Unfortunately for me there was neither shrimp nor bbq so I had to resort to bike riding. This was the Oceania’s and is hotly contested between the kangaroos and the kiwis. The DH track was rather long coming in at 7 minutes. The track was pedally and had several intense switch back sections within the woods. I didn't feel that I was riding all that great and really just needed a boot up the butt(is that classed as smacking) to get my A into G. There were 3 kiwis and several Ausie girls out to attempt world domination for the weekend. Included in that was Scarlett Hagen (current nz champ/ 04 jnr world champs) and Tracey Hannah (current junior world champ). With these two competing I had largely accepted that I wasn’t likely to win. In saying that you would understand how hard my jaw hit the ground when I won by 8 seconds including a crash. I believe I have to thank my fitness from couriering for that one. I also competed in the mtnx (BMX for mountain bikes) and managed 2nd on my DH bike, but thats only thanks to Scarlett who took out the competition. In all it was an awesome few days. check out the photos of all the hung over kids taking a break from bus trip and cameron one of the kiwis riding.

i like to ride my bicycle

I had a weekend down in Rotorua so that I could get out and ride my bike without the distractions I suffer from in Auckland ie:couch. Intending to head down on Friday after a hard days work mums house and free bed (really means fridge and couch) were very persuasive in having me stay in Auckland..... So I did. I thought id set my alarm for 530am so id get an early start in leaving. That didn’t work either and I got out of bed at 7am and ventured south for a weekend of biking. Saturday I spent most of my time at the BMX track and worked on my skills before heading out with Jarrod one of my good friends for a cross country ride that went very badly. Sunday Jarrod and I headed out early at 7am for a ride before he was due at work at 10. This went much better and we managed to get some awesome riding before heading back with big smiles and tired legs. Jarrod was also a very happy lad due to the fact that he had just brought an awesome bike off Vanessa Quin a fellow DH racer. This was it’s madden voyage and he had a blast running it in. wooo wooo. Now its back to work for 2 days before heading over to Australia for 6 days to race oceanias.
Here is Jarrod about to go for a different ride.

Slacker take 2

Its now the third month of 2007 and this is my first update. WELL. . . . january was spent traveling the south island with Peter my side kick in a van filled to the brim with 2 mountain bikes and 2 pit bikes(smaller motor bikes). This was due to the NZ national mountian bike series that was going on. My new year started in the south island then met up with Peter and continued working our way through all the major cities trying to cause as much havoc along with the rest of the Nz Downhill gang. First race was at Treble cone where the track had alot of corners and a chair lift to make life grand. The rugged road up to the race took its tole on our econo maxi van (maxi pad) and it decided to get stuck in 3rd on the only non stopping area on the mountain. Lucky there are some good people that i know and we managed to get a $500 job get done on our maxi pad half way up an alpine gravel road.
Race 2 was coronet peak and rocked. This was up untill 20 minutes before our race where it pored with rain and made the track more slippery than somehting. . . . slippery(it was VERY slippery). I then celebrated my 21st in Queenstown and managed to drink wayyyyyy too much but had a fantastic time. I haven't had a cake for my birthday yet but ha i haven't even had a prezzy. So after that amazing 21 to set records we continued to dunedin where peter stayed with his unkle and i stayed in the van. This was not my week after crashing in my first practice where i hurt my hand and didnt race due to not being able to hold on. It turned out that it rained so i wasnt overly gutted that i missed out.
The adventure continued onto christ church where we did 2 days of riding, got a pom arrested (actually he did that) and hung out with some great friends. This was mid week before heading all the way to nelson to hang out with my awesome addopted parents (i addopted them).
Our arrival in Nelson threw a challenge of trying to get up Simon and Julies driveway ( i give myself 9/10 after seeing peters later attemps). The track in nelson was awesome and long. I found it challenging due to having a sore hand still and that the transport to the top of the hill sucked too. My race run was really fun and good but a few situations killed any chances of finishing high up.
Peter and i headed home back to work and the not so glorious lifestyle. Though i did discover after 3 painful days of cycle couriering that my hand was infact broken. Thats the end to that fantastic story and ill give another update as to the up comming exciting events about to happen in my life. yay
over ans out