Extreme Players

The weather finally cleared up last week and we were able to get outside without getting wet, finally! Wednesday evening we decided to take a walk on the beach. We walked quite far, from St. Clair down to St. Kilda, tossing the football and enjoying the fresh air and setting sun. As the water is still pretty nippy, we were walking well above the incoming tide line. That explains why I was shocked when out of nowhere blasted a lone renegade wave that swamped us both up to my rear. So much for keeping warm by wearing pants!
Thursday was even better, with temps in the 20's (70's) and lots of sunshine! We had been wanting to check out some Dunedin golf courses so I found this place online that sounded perfect. It actually is a place where you can go horseback riding but they also have a 9 hole golf course and you can hire clubs. So, we drove out there, up this super steep windey driveway and came to a house. The guys (Leon and Oliver) were waiting for us. We then had to get in their truck to be driven up this crazy road/driveway to the course, waiting for a horse in the road on the way! We get to the top and there were sheep and horses, super hilly, and an old barn/shelter thing. In there were 2 sets of clubs, same size, so we just shared one. Leon gave us instructions on how to make a horse move out of the way by swinging a club, because this apparently is a frequent occurrence on the course.


Katie swinging on the farm

It was really gorgeous because it's situated high on a cliff over the ocean. But it really is just super hilly farmland that they threw 9 holes onto. There was animal poo everywhere. We lost quite a few balls, not because they were terrible shots but because it's a field and we just couldn't find them. And when we got to the 6th hole, there were about 15 horses standing around it! It was a pretty funny experience, our lack of talent with golf clubs was confirmed, but the views and hikes between holes were great! Oh, and the horses were very friendly.
Friday after work, we quickly packed up the car and headed over to Central Otago for the weekend. Craig wanted to participate in the Citroen Rapid Race (kayaking of course) on Saturday. The race was only one rapid but it was a fairly long, class IV rapid. We camped Friday night, got little to no sleep because of high winds and a barking dog, and drove down to the Kawarau River in the morning. After registration, we drove back up to the spectator meeting place where we met a local guy who showed us where to go to scout the rapid (Craig had never been on that river). Looking at the rapid from high up on a cliff, I almost pooped, partly because it was so high and partly because the rapid looked gigantic to me. Craig said he thought it looked "fine" so we headed back to the put in. After a briefing on race rules, I left Craig with a good luck smooch and drove back down to the take out. The race coordinators had arranged for a jetboat to ferry spectators up the river to watch the race, as there was no way to hike down to it. The boat dropped me off on a large boulder on the side of the river and left me to scramble my way upstream to the rapid (about a 30-minute ordeal). It was quite a hike, not so much a trail.
When I finally made it to the rapid, all of the racers (about 45 guys and 10 girls) were there, checking things out and waiting to get started.


Top of Citroen Rapid

Finally it did, and the first few racers did nothing to calm my nerves (or Craig's apparently) as they took the harder line through the rapid and got beat down.


Random racer battling the turbulence

No major mishaps though, and only one swim recorded. Craig finally took his turn nearly last and did awesome! He looked better than a lot of guys who paddle that river regularly, and made it to the finish unscathed and in the top half for the time trial. Great job!


Craig rockin' the right line of Citroen


Craig with a tight lead in the head-to-head

After each racer completed an individual time trial, they were matched up for the head-to-head competition. In this part of the race, 2 boaters launch at the same time and whoever made it through the rapid first moved on to the next round. It was pretty fun to watch this part because there's only so much room in the fast lane of the water! It sometimes looked like bumper boats. Craig got to run the rapid twice more, was beaten by a hair, but somewhat gladly because he was exhausted (the portage back up to the put in was a long boulder climb/scramble). All in all, Craig did great and I had fun watching and taking pictures.
Sunday morning we packed up camp and drove part way home, stopping in Alexandra for some mountain biking in the hot sun. There were tons of trails and it was a great way to break up our drive.


Katie on the trail

As the rain rolled in, we threw the bikes back in the car and finished the drive back to cold, rainy Duds.

Sporty Pics

This week it's back to work. They're actually calling for snow tonight, in the middle of our stinkin summer. BOO! Oh, and FYI, with your "spring ahead," we are now 17 hours ahead of you Eastern Standard Timers, 16 ahead of Central, 15 of Mountain, and 14 of West Coast. That will change again in April when we "fall back."
Happy Bday to Kristen, Taryn, Jeff, and Jason!