Cruising around my home town has brought back lots of nice memories. I never really thought Dunedin had special scenery before, but now after so long away, I can really appreciate it for the first time!


  ¶ 12:35 AM 0 Comments

  Its just amazing how much stuff there is to do when moving ! I'v been at it for the past month, organizing my life, stuff with my new team, selling off old gear and seeing friends. Its been a super nice autumn and I'v really enjoyed spending some quality time with friends. So in the end I was pretty sad to finally say good bye and head south back to NZ. The plan to return to my 'real home' has been in my head for a long time. I'v been overseas for the best part of the last 13 years and I'v been getting that itch to see what its like to actually live back home again.. so it had to be done. Of course I can't move permanently, as between April-October I need to be in europe for my racing. But I'll be down here for four months, which should be enough time to catch up with a bunch of old friends and get a small feeling to how it is to be a duno's kid again.










Normally I had planned on a 2 day stop over in LA to stretch the legs, but once at the airport I changed my mind.. and my ticket, so to fly straight home. This was great, I thought, as no one was expecting me yet.. I could have a real few days of doing nothing. So I got a big surprise when boarding the final plane from Auckland to Dunedin and in the cue I saw Mr Ken Cools, the NZ BMX coach who I had met in Beijing.. and who lives in Canada. So after a bit of a 'hey, er what the, why?" , he explained that in fact most of BikeNZ were coming to Dunedin for a big conference, built around a big sports science/med conference going on. ah, so much for rest eh.. I couldn't turn this down ! I ended up resisting the jet lag and going to listen to a bunch of NZ's leading coaches, various sports scientists/nutritionists and some super motivational speakers. Some of it was way over my head, but other stuff was smack on and extremely interesting. The best thing though was just meeting a whole bunch of new people and getting idea's for the future.

At the end there was a discussion forum with athletes, coaches and medical staff. Normally NZ's silver medalist, Hayden Roulstan, was supposed to be in it.. but he had pulled out and so then asked me to take his place. I felt very honored just to be asked and be able to contribute my idea's in front of such an important group! I just want to say a big thanks to Raylene Bates, who I contacted just the day before, but still found a way to include me in it all.

Now, I'm hoping, its time to just reelax and enjoy the sunny 25+ dunedin weather .. and no i'm not kidding !!  ¶ 8:46 PM 1 Comments