Dear Frodo,
I am pleased to inform you that my stay in your hometown has been beautiful. We were treated very well and I am extremely impressed! Will definitely come back again!
Best regards,
Terence
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Hi all! I am back from the land of New Zea... There are many things that struck me during my short stay there but one that really impressed me was the size of the Maoris. Omg... These people are mega! Take my word, never get in a fight with them. They look mean and huge and testosterone pumped. The women are huge too by the way. It's in the blood man... Size aside, did you know that NZL has a population of 4.2 million? That is less than Singapore's but with land size gazillion times bigger!
The other highlight was the B&B we stayed at. If you ever have find yourself headed towards Auckland, do yourself a favour and book in with the Nautical Nook! The owners Keith and Trish(Patricia) are THE best hosts you can ever stay with. We almost died of gratitude from their helpfulness. This couple would go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Not to mention, Keith is an avid sailor as well and he takes his guests out on sailing trips if they fancy! It pained my heart to learn that Keith recently was diagnosed with a terrible illness and I have thus made it a point to say a little prayer for them every night.
As it turned out, sailing was a roller coaster of events. On our own budget, without a coach, we rocked up the day before the regatta and hoped to have our 6 year old charter boat working ok. After a short sail at 5pm, we were dismayed to find out the gasket had fallen out which meant at least 2 hours of repair. Not to be discouraged on a trip with no support team at all, we opted for before-the-first-race repair. So Roy and I headed to the club nice and early the next morning to fix our race craft.
The first day's racing was mixed and saw us in second spot. However, a super light and insane second day race surprised even ourselves as we finished the only race of the day more than 5 minutes ahead of the next boat and pushing us up the leader board to gain pole position. A pitiful third day with more downs than ups lost us our lead and slip to second. The last day of racing was smooth sailing as we managed to increase our point differences between the boat behind us and catch up with the leaders. However, the penultimate race which carries double points was not enough for us to overhaul the eventual winners despite us winning the race. All in all, we had a great outing in Auckland and felt the money was well spent. The only disappointment was to find out that our country's pride - Singapore Airlines, whom we asked for sponsorship, and so quickly rejected us, actually were the main sponsors for Sail Auckland... Whenever Singapore Airlines was thanked in the speeches of the winners at the prize giving ceremony, it felt like a knife was being stabbed in my back for every mention of their name. A pity our national airlines endorses foreign athletes...
Our journey did not end there, unfortunately... After driving us for an HOUR to the airport's B & B, Trish gave us a hug each and bade us smooth sailing to our goals. Roy arranged our new host to fetch us to the airport at 7.15am only to realise our flights were AT 7.15am. (Loud buzzer sound). Our folly saw us fork out another couple of hundred to get us back to Sydney, DOH! And alas, that was how the New Zealand cookie crumbled...
I am pleased to inform you that my stay in your hometown has been beautiful. We were treated very well and I am extremely impressed! Will definitely come back again!
Best regards,
Terence
____________________________________________________________________________________
Hi all! I am back from the land of New Zea... There are many things that struck me during my short stay there but one that really impressed me was the size of the Maoris. Omg... These people are mega! Take my word, never get in a fight with them. They look mean and huge and testosterone pumped. The women are huge too by the way. It's in the blood man... Size aside, did you know that NZL has a population of 4.2 million? That is less than Singapore's but with land size gazillion times bigger!
The other highlight was the B&B we stayed at. If you ever have find yourself headed towards Auckland, do yourself a favour and book in with the Nautical Nook! The owners Keith and Trish(Patricia) are THE best hosts you can ever stay with. We almost died of gratitude from their helpfulness. This couple would go out of their way to make you feel comfortable. Not to mention, Keith is an avid sailor as well and he takes his guests out on sailing trips if they fancy! It pained my heart to learn that Keith recently was diagnosed with a terrible illness and I have thus made it a point to say a little prayer for them every night.
As it turned out, sailing was a roller coaster of events. On our own budget, without a coach, we rocked up the day before the regatta and hoped to have our 6 year old charter boat working ok. After a short sail at 5pm, we were dismayed to find out the gasket had fallen out which meant at least 2 hours of repair. Not to be discouraged on a trip with no support team at all, we opted for before-the-first-race repair. So Roy and I headed to the club nice and early the next morning to fix our race craft.
The first day's racing was mixed and saw us in second spot. However, a super light and insane second day race surprised even ourselves as we finished the only race of the day more than 5 minutes ahead of the next boat and pushing us up the leader board to gain pole position. A pitiful third day with more downs than ups lost us our lead and slip to second. The last day of racing was smooth sailing as we managed to increase our point differences between the boat behind us and catch up with the leaders. However, the penultimate race which carries double points was not enough for us to overhaul the eventual winners despite us winning the race. All in all, we had a great outing in Auckland and felt the money was well spent. The only disappointment was to find out that our country's pride - Singapore Airlines, whom we asked for sponsorship, and so quickly rejected us, actually were the main sponsors for Sail Auckland... Whenever Singapore Airlines was thanked in the speeches of the winners at the prize giving ceremony, it felt like a knife was being stabbed in my back for every mention of their name. A pity our national airlines endorses foreign athletes...
Our journey did not end there, unfortunately... After driving us for an HOUR to the airport's B & B, Trish gave us a hug each and bade us smooth sailing to our goals. Roy arranged our new host to fetch us to the airport at 7.15am only to realise our flights were AT 7.15am. (Loud buzzer sound). Our folly saw us fork out another couple of hundred to get us back to Sydney, DOH! And alas, that was how the New Zealand cookie crumbled...