Yesterday morning we went out for a 14k row in straight (cox-less) fours. As I had the most experience with bowing boats, I was in bow seat. It was my first timing bowing a four and it took some getting used to. As bow seat, I had to keep an eye on the course. However, it is the stroke seat who actually has control of the rudder via his toe. Thus cooperation between stroke seat and bow seat is very important. Additionally, two seat takes control of power calls and race calls. So the job of the coxswain is divided up among the boat. Except for three seat. Three seat just sits there and pulls.
The weather was beautiful again. Apparently my first week here was unusually rainy and somewhat of an anomaly. As I've increase my sample size of days here, I've concluded that New Zealand is not just cold and miserable.
Next, we went back to Sandfly Bay to play some rugby. We wanted to get accustomed to the rules of the game before the evening's rugby match.
The Dunedin Highlanders played the Christchurch Crusaders at the Forsyth Barr stadium right next to our boathouse. Watching the match live was a lot of fun, even if I did it wearing my rowing trou instead of pants. Although it would have been more fun if the Highlanders had won, we all had a good time.
This morning we loaded up the van to start our road trip to Invercargill and Queenstown. The van was entirely full - we are bringing groceries and luggage along the way so no space was wasted. We had bags of potatoes under seats, a box of peanut butter, nutella and jelly as foot rests and granola bars in every bit of free space. This made for quite a cramped ride.
Along the way we stopped at different spots in the Catlands. There was a beautiful light house from which we could see far into the ocean. At another spot, we hiked through a forest with beautiful water falls. I've attached a couple pictures at the end.
The Kiwi landscape is always extreme and variable. One moment, you'll be walking through rolling hills and next, you'll find yourself in a jungle-like forest. Then you keep going and you're in mountains that look over beaches.
While we are here in Invercargill, we are training at Waihopai Rowing Club. Glen's father is a coach there, and today we spent some time on the water with his rowers. We did a 14k in quads. As we were all tired and hungry, the row felt like it went on forever. It was worth it though, because we all got great technical advice.
After a hearty meal of pasta and chicken in the evening, we're ready to train again tomorrow morning.
I have many videos of me rowing, but I can't upload them until we're back in Dunedin. Here are some photos I took today.
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