Maadi 2014

Maadi is the New Zealand rowing championship for secondary schools and this year Meggie and her crew were chosen to attend to represent Marsden. Not all the rowers get to go to Maadi so she was thrilled that she and her crew qualified. Each year it alternates between a North or South Island venue and this year it was held down south in Twizel on Lake Ruataniwha. Dugald and I were very excited to attend for a few days to help out a little bit and cheer a lot.

Parental selfie in the rental car.

Dinner the first night on beautiful Lake Tekapo.

Twizel really welcomes Maadi - here a drawing in a store window with the Samuel Marsden zootie drawn on the bottom row.

Day 1

Meggie and her quad row down to the start, she's farthest on the left.

My friend Jen was camp mom and did a great job looking after the girls. Here she is with her daughter Annabel.

Marsden hydrangeas outside the tent.

Support team - L-R, Anne Field (teacher), Teresa, Rachel, Annette, Jen and me.

Waiting for iced chocolates after a hard first day. Izzy (assistant coach) in front.

Morning fog, day two.

Cold girls! Lucy, Jesse, Meggie, Grace, Lily and Lucy.

Proud parents.

The novie eight rowing their hearts out.

Getting the boat out of the water after their race.

The novies!

Meg and Soph.

Hard working Izzy (assistant coach), Andrew (chairman of rowing committe) and Tamra (head of sport) were so supportive. 

The girls and their coaches before the big party with other schools on the last night.

March Activities . . .

Katie with her buddies Lottie, Saro and Evie

Katie

One of the highlights of March for me and Dugs was going to Auckland with friends to see Bruce Springsteen. It was a treat to get away together and stay at a nice hotel AND we got to see The Boss who put on an amazing show!

In the Koru lounge ready to go.

We were in the standing area right in front of the stage, great tickets!

Meanwhile back in Karori Meggie did the Mt. Kaukau run with her rowing buddies. It was a cold morning when they started on their 10K run up hill and down dale.

Ellie caught a fish one night at Cubs.

And she is also the bug whisperer - here she's carrying her cicada down to the butcher.

Josie was in town with daddy and spotted one of the special Whittaker's eggs for the egg hunt.

I managed to snag a video of Meggie and Bria while they were at our house practicing for their NCEA music exam duet - they both got "Achieved with Excellence" so they were thrilled. At this practice Meggie is still learning the song, she got even better!

NISS - North Island Secondary Schools championship regatta

I was parent-help for this regatta so while Dugald held down the fort at home Meggie and I headed to Lake Karapiro with the rest of the crew to compete at the North Island Secondary School championships. Meggie and I rode up with Annette Smith and Ruby Leverington from Wellington on a beautiful Friday. I've never seen such a clear view of Mt Ruapehu as we did on this trip!

Amazing view of Mt. Ruapehu

We all stayed together in Karapiro, all 30-something of us - I was consigned to a mattress on the floor in someone's closet. At least we were very close to the lake. It was my first time going as parent help and while it was a lot of work, and not very comfortable from a sleeping point of view, it was totally worth it to get to know the girls better and to watch them race on beautiful Lake Karapiro. Meggie and her crew in the 8 made it through to an A-final which was fantastic.

Megs and Sariya

Fellow camp parents Rachel and Teresa, Tamra Thompson our Sports Coordinator, and me.

Sariya, Meggie, Liv and Annabelle.

Meggie, Claudia, Sariya and Annabelle.

Sun on the water

Coming off the water after their A-final.

Debriefing with the coaches.

Meggie and I were beyond thrilled when Christy brought sweet Ricky down for a visit!! They live very close to the lake so we had let them know we were coming to town and she brought him down to hang out with us for more than an hour. He was as happy and smiley as ever - just a joy. I loved having a chance to get to know Christy a bit better as well and rejoiced again in the fact that Christy, Michael and Ricky are a family.

And look who came to visit!! 

The boat trailers

 It was really cool seeing all the different North Island schools that were at NISS - which of course included Wellington Girls so Meggie got to catch up with her friend Zoe.

Meggie, Zoe and Lucy

Lily, Meggie, Annabel, Annabelle, Jessie, Grace and Laura

Zooties hanging out to dry at base camp.

Waiting for the morning fog to lift.