ALL OVER

After 40 hours of travelling we finally made it back onto home soil. We stopped in Dubai on the way back. Being an Arabic country the women are completely covered and me being stupid waltzes off the plane wearing short shorts and a tshirt and boy what stares did I get from all the men in the airport. At passport control the men serving me kept me for like 10 mins for no reason except to make convosation with me, making me feel pretty uncomfortable and very under dressed! We only stayed in Dubai for a couple of hours so didn't see much except road and the hotel room but still at midnight it was 32 degrees and so muggy and humid. Now back in NZ it's feezing. Just want to say a huge thankyou to Sue for all her hard work, top manager!!! We couldnt have done it without you! Big thanks to Kidda, our coach, everyone made huge improvements and had an awesome time, Top man too! Thanks Johann for all his coaching too, helped us heaps. And too everyone else who has helped me and supported me, it's really appreciated. Thanks again XOXOXOX

Julia and me.

PICS FROM THE OPENING CEREMONY

Photos of the opening ceremony

opps how could I forget the teams!! We had teams racing today and beat the Aussies!!! I pulled out two runs that I wishes I had earlier in the day!! Hate how that seems to always happen! We got a 50 which put us further back in the rankings but we beat the Aussies, how super cool is that!!!

JUNIOR WORLDS

Well the big day is now all over for me. Didn't pull out the two race runs I was hoping for, infact had two nightmare runs! Think my nerves got the worst of me!! Ended up coming 44th after having a major resurt in my first run and dropping low into every upstream and my second run wasn't much better. The other girls both qualified, luuka 33rd and lou 39th so they will both be hammering it in the semis. Hamish had a really good first run, CLEAN!!! It was mint and put him in 40th position, his second run wasn't as good and he touched a gate moving him to 44th place, same as me. The competition over here is so fierce, one mistake and you won't qualify. Both of us were really gutted but I guess sometimes everything works and sometimes it doesn't, today just wasn't our day. We are both going to have a good night with some of the other nations who didn't qualify and will be supporting the K1 boys and C2 tomorrow. Thanks for all the good luck messages, they were all super cool and I can't wait for next year to rip it up over here!

LAST DAY.......

And the day before has arrived and everything is really heating up! It's super exciting and slightly scary too! Thanks heaps to everyone for all the good luck wishes. We have lots stuck up on the wall in our team room!! Will let you know how the racing goes. Girls and Hamish are racing tomorrow plus teams runs also, rest of the boys are racing on Sat, with finals for all classes on Sunday. Wohoo all go......

HAPPY BIRTHDAY

Happy Birthday to my big bro who turned 22 today!! Wohoo!!! Hopeyou had a good one James. XO

JULY 4th

Wow the countdown to Junior Worlds is really becoming a reality! Racing begins on Friday for me so not too long to go! Have meet lots of people from heaps of different places which is super cool. It has been really good watching all the other Juniors paddling, they are amazing. It's hard not to get intimidated, especially by the Germans who arrive at the river all matching in their sponosored adidas gear looking like they are ready to kill, but it is kinda funny at the same time. They look like they are straight from a miltary camp or something! Lots of really talented paddlers in their team tho. Down at the course everything is starting to heat up with big marquees being put up everywhere. The nation flags will be up soon too. We have the opening cermony on Thursday night so that should be exciting. Its all go!!!!!!

PREP FOR JUNIOR WORLDS

Today we arrived back to Solkan for the buildup to Junior Worlds. We trained twice today, quite a few more nations here now than last time we were here. It's getting super exciting!! Will be here until after Junior Worlds. We are staying in a nice hotel, far nicer than the Uni Hostel!! Keep up with the posts and emails, I'm missing everyone heaps, XOX