Long time no post! Internet is even more diffucult to come by now that we are in a motorhome. We left Sydney Friday morning and flew to Tasmania. Got organized with our motorhome and set off to find groceries. We started off on the Tasman Penninsula and visited Port Arthur, a convict colony from the late 1800's. Spent two days in the area exploring the sites. Went to a Tasmanian Devil Conservation park to get as close as anyone wants to get to the critters. We're now further up the east coast in Freycinet National Park. Lots of bush walks and beautiful beaches. Last night went on a night tour to see the Fairy Penguins come back in from the sea for the night. Kids loved that! Will work our way back to Hobart over the next couple of days then fly back to Sydney in preparation for our big flight home

Yesterday was very hot! It was 35 dc! I went to the Sydney Opera House. It is so big and beautiful.

To find the design they had a contest. The design today was actually in the discard pile! Wow,

how could they get rid of something like that! that night I saw the musical Wicked. It was awesome! This might be the last time I can write so I will say goodbye. Maybe.

It's a long time since we went to the caves. We went to the Blue Mountains and walked in the rainforest and there was three rides. One was a train and the seats tilted back 52 degrees,there was a sky walk the middle of it was plexiglass that is fogged up but when it starts moving it unfoggs and the other is the same thing except without the plexiglass. After three boring days watching kayak racing, we came to Sydney and took the ferry to Manley Beach. We played in the sand, Ben and Amber went walking along the rocks. Today we went to the aquarium. We saw platypuses, crocodiles, sharks and dugongs.

Last Games Update

Kayak Day 3: Another stunning day! Darrell's K1 was again a difficult race with a very strong field. Amber and Darrell took bronze again in the K2. The K4 group changed categories as they were put in the 40+ when they should have been 45+, this put them in the very last race of the regatta. The 200m races are a flat out all or nothing style race. Many boats flipped even in the calm, because when you are pushing that hard any little mistake will put you over. Anyway...the K4 came off the start with a bobble and the other boats came out ahead. The lead boat off the start was an Australian crew all wearing colourful clown wigs. Darrell's group decided they weren't to be beaten by clowns, recovered nicely and powered through for the gold! Unfortunately, the officials were so far behind in the results that they weren't able to be presented with their medals. We left the regatta centre, packed up our room and moved into Sydney Darling Harbour for the rest of the week. Attended the closing ceremonies to watch the official hand over of the World Masters Games flag to the delegate from Turin, Italy the host of the next games in 2013. Bit sad that after 4 years of work up it's all over so quickly, but we're all looking forward to being able to relax and enjoy the rest of our time here in Oz!

Day 2 of kayak events. After some confusion yesterday over the result of the mixed K4 1000m, today we found out that they took the silver. Today Amber and Darrell were both in the mixed K4. Amber's inexperience was glaringly apparent, even in the beautiful conditions we had today (finally). Out of the start we pull way off to the left and realized we had lost our rudder. We managed to zigzag up the course and finish only to end up disqualified for leaving our lane. Bummer! We hopped out of the K4 and into the K2 with only one race in between, and zoomed back to the start. Had a cautious race and took bronze again.

Looking forward, since it may be awhile before we have internet to post again...

Tomorrow will be a short say of racing as we are only at the 200m distance. We will be moving from Penrith into Sydney for a few days, and hope to attend the closing ceremonies at Darling Harbour tomorrow night. The kids are overjoyed to finally be done with all the boring racing and to get back to the vacation part!

Competition Update

Top: bad light, but that's us on the podium

Bottom: Darrell under the Olympic rings

Rowing Day 5: Amber, Diane, Matt and Wally did a practice row, then our mixed 4x race early in the morning. Started off in the pack, but we got too close to the lane markers and whacked them a couple of times with the blades. These things are rock solid, so we lost a few strokes and ended up well out of the medals. The wind kicked up again late morning (gusting to 80km) and the schedule was cancelled again. Bit of a sad way to end the regatta, but what can you do about the weather?

Kayak Day 1: Kayak racing is a bit different than rowing. Masters rowers only race 1000m, the canoe/kayak/outrigger crowd does 1000m, 500m and 200m. Today was the 1000m day, Sat will be all 500m and Sun will be all 200m races. Today was again windy, but it seemed to remain a steady head wind making for bumpy but not impossible conditions. The wind did slow down progress though, the first race was at 8 am and the schedule was half an hour behind by 9. With that preamble: Darrell did his K1 but did not advance. Darrell was invited into a mixed K4, they think they took silver but there seems to be some confusion so we don't know for sure yet. The last race of our afternoon was Amber and Darrell in K2. Despite Amber being completely out of her element, and almost tipping out of the boat at the start line, we managed to take bronze in the 35+ age category. Yes, there were even more than three boats in the race. so, to Amber's complete surprise, she is finally brining home hardware even if it isn't from her sport of passion.

Rowing Update

The Day 5 mixed schedule is going ahead as planned. All yesterdays races are cancelled and that's that, so Amber can go down in history as being a semifinalist at the World Masters Games. Today Amber, Diane, Wally and Matt in Mixed C 4x, then we split into Mixed C 2x boats. Should be a fun day of racing as long as the 30 knot winds have died down!

Jenolan Caves

Top: a selection of crystal formations in the cave

Middle: 10 caves to choose from...let's go to Lucas

Bottom: At the Games

Do you like crystals? I do! They're so pretty and sparkly! I got to see them in caves. The caves are older than dinosaurs! That's old! There are these sheets of crystal sheets and they look like curtains hanging from the ceiling. They are called shawls.

I also saw stalactites and stalagmites. Stalactites have to hold tight to the ceiling, thats how I know which ones are on the ceiling.

Did you know that there is one more object like the stalactites and mites. They are called helictites. They are all twisty and

turny. I also caught a glimpse of an under-ground river! The water was so clear, but very cold! It was 14 degrees! Berrrrrrrrrrr!

Well that is pretty much what we did yesterday. Now on to today. Today was windy, windy, windy and more windy! The rowing finals

were cancelled because of it. Talk to you later! BYE!

Rowing Update

Top: Amber Bottom: Diane

Rowing under the Olympic Rings as we exit the race course

Sunday Oct 11: Amber and Diane in the double. Bad news...finished 6th in the heat with only two to advance. Good news...had their best race ever and came off the water elated! Of note the winner of our heat was one of the two boats in our category to finish with a sub 4 minute time, former national champs. Total of 122 boats in our category.

Tuesday Oct 13: Amber had her 1x heat, top 4 to advance to semi so in a 9 boat heat odds were pretty good, they became even better when only 4 boats arrived at the start line. Went through the start, was ahead of one boat so just ticked it along to finish 3rd in the heat. Wind picked up shortly after which caused some delay in racing. Just launched for the semi final (against her better judgment, but some of the other women were already heading down), when everyone was turned around and rowing was suspended. The wind was so strong that a group of men lifted a 4x out of the water and almost blew off the other side! Water was crashing over the dock, perfect water for an outrigger but not a rowing shell. After waiting at the Regatta Centre for two hours to see how the weather would go, all rowing was cancelled for the rest of the day. Will have to check later and see how that affects our mixed events tomorrow.

Of note: Bumped into Wally on the bus back from the Regatta Centre. He's been having a great time, some equipment difficulties prevented him from starting in his 1x, but was out in a 2x with an Aussie guy and picked up race in an 8+ as well.

Racing Day 1: Checked the result board to find Wally was a did not start...haven't made contact yet so not sure why, hope all is well. Amber and Wally have a training row Sunday evening so will get more info then.

Diane had her single race today...laid it out and finished 3rd in her heat with a PB time, but sadly only top 2 advanced. Amber and Diane had a training row this evening in the double with Matt on shore giving us some last minute tweeks. Went well, feels good, hopefully some good news to share tomorrow.

Top: Sunrise at the Sydney Regatta Centre

Middle: window ledge visitor (everywhere like crows) Bottom: part of the accreditation line

the people facing the camera have about 200 m to go before turning around and heading back towards the entrance. Many hours of waiting ahead!

We are settled in here in Penrith. Our room here is teeny tiny compared to our 2 bedroom/bathroom apartment in Brisbane. We got up really early this morning to go over the the Regatta Centre so Amber could do a training session in her single. Will head back over in a bit to see Diane race her single.

Yesterday we flew into Sydney from Brisbane, weather is much cooler here that it was there. Went from the airport to the Olympic Park, to get our accreditation documents that give us all access to the venues and transport. The line wrapped around the building and then around itself!

It was 5 hours from the time we got into the queue to the time we left the building!!! They had so many problems with their printers that they just started handing out blank accreditation cards. With 28 000 registered competitors, it's a bit disappointing that they weren't better prepared for this process. Once we escaped that zoo, we hopped on a train for the hour long ride to Penrith suburb. Ben is very excited to find a golf centre right behind the hotel, full golf course, mini golf and Aqua Golf (a driving range into water), will make good use of this I'm sure.

Top: Crikey! Middle: ice cream at the zoo waiting for the thunder shower to pass

Bottom: Surf's up

Yesterday, we took a bus ride north to the Australia Zoo, owned by the Irwin family. Got to see lots of crocs, boy do they have big teeth! Also saw more koalas and roos, as well as dingos, red pandas (aren't really pandas at all) and tigers (they may be extinct in the wild by 2020!).

Today, we took an even longer bus ride south to Byron Bay in NSW. We all got to give surfing a try. Ben and Stephanie did really well, got up on the first try! They both have noodle arms now from all the paddling back out to catch waves! I didn't do as well...they don't make a board small enough for a bee, I just flew along beside them.

Flying to Sydney in the morning. Hope to be able to post more frequently once we are settled there, and even get some picture up.

Top: Finally in Brisbane Bottom: Sunrise from our Bribane room

After a very long flight (13 hours) we arrived to our hotel in Brisbane 31 hours after leaving our house. Spent Monday exploring the neighbourhood and planning our few days here. Tuesday, Ben and Stephanie went to the Lone Pine Koala Sanctuary. I was so jet lagged that I slept in and missed the trip, but they tell me it was really cool. Stephanie's favourite thing was holding a koala. Ben's favourite thing was having a cuddle with a grey kangaroo joey. Internet in the hotel is really expensive, we are at a cafe now so time is limited. Wednesday off to Australia Zoo, Thursday down to Byron Bay for surf lessons. Will post again when I'm able!

Airports

ReLAX Lounge

One of my Friends at YVR

Right now I am in the reLAX lounge in the L.A. airport. Hours before, I was in the Vancouver airport. I saw a bear, a moose and a really cool fountain. That was only in the airport! On the plane the view was super awesome! Now, as I said, I am in the lounge in the L.A. airport. I'm so close, but it'll be hours till' I even get on the plane. Hope I get there soon!

THE FRENCH WORDS OF THE DAY!

1. aeroport ( airport )

2. avion ( airplane)

3. arrivee ( arrival )

4. depart ( departure )

5. salon ( lounge )