Koahsiung Taiwan

Sunday 12th July: The team had a good flight over from Singapore to Taiwan. As one of the first international teams to arrive, everyone was very excited to see us. It too was exciting to arrive in Taipei and be escorted throughout the entire airport by security men with guns! At customs there was a special line for World Games athletes too!

We headed down south to Koahsiung from Taipei on the High Speed Rail...ie the super fast train that gets up to 330kms per hour. Arriving in Kaohsiung we were greeted by the World Games Canoe Polo organisers. They had a special Canoe Polo sign and everything! So as they lead us out of the train station we followed like a snake behind the Canoe Polo sign hoisted high in the air! They had a bus ready and waiting for us and took us to our hotel. All around Kaohsiung we could see World Games posters, flags, massive big billboards....all sorts of advertising material! Very sophisticated!

Step one of the acclimatisation process started Sunday evening. The team ventured out into the hot muggy night in search of something to eat. With english beginning a rare spectacle, the team had to rely on pictures to guess what they could eat. After some serious umming and aaahing the team spilt into a couple of different directions to test out the culinary delights taiwan had to offer. One group dined on dumplings while the other feasted on a good hearty meal of a steak and egg!

Monday 13th July: Water Park Day!! Nick had been waiting ever so patiently for the past 4 months or so for this day to come! Half of the team opted for the more mellow route of some site seeing on a wee island off Kaohsiung, while the others heading on the subway to the Blue Lagoon Water Park, which had a good couple of water slides starting 10 stories high!! First on the list was a four person raft water slide where you casually went around a wee curve then plumited for about 60m leaving your stomach at the top. Being the keen bees we are we were first up the top only to be told we couldn't go on the waterslide with out a sexy lycra swim cap. After a little negotiation and alot of hand movements, we persuaded them to let us do just one ride to get down to the bottom then we would go buy some. The eagerly awaited clothing item was a real fashion accessory with most opting for a lovely florescent pink! The rest of the morning was filled with lots more rides then back to joing everyone else back at the hotel at 2pm. We filled the afternoon with some ball throwing in the rain and dinner out at the dumpling restaurant. This place had no pictures through, so we took a gamble and ordered one of everything from the menu! Luckily for us it worked out well and we had a tasty dinner!

Tuesday 14th July: We headed into the centre of Kaohsiung to complete accreditation. Kaohsiung City Hall was decked out with masses of advertising material and was a big place where all the accreditation was taking place. After the team having their temperatures taken to make sure no one was sick, they waited in team area while all the technical stuff was taken care of. Once we got our passes we picked up our WG's bag of goodies and headed over to the catering centre for lunch. It was a plush place similar to the Park Royal! The volunteers were so friendly nodding and saying hello to everyone.

After refueling we headed to the Lotus Pond to check out the Canoe Polo venue. It's situated on a pond surrounding by temples. Looks like a real atmosphere will brew with loud speakers blarring out music across the pond on competition day. The team are getting excited about getting onto the water now! Back at the hotel the team is just relaxing till we head away to have dinner and explore the night market.

The Paddle Ferns Arrive in Singapore

It can be reported that so far this has been a really uneventful trip! Everyone arrived at 8.45am at the international part of Christchurch airport, checked in, said our goodbyes to our faithful supporters and headed on our way up to a rather empty international lounge. Following a small wait we boarded onto our Singapore Airlines plane headed for Singapore. As we settled into our seats we mussed over the fact that in a little over 10 hours we would be in a different climate, different country and having a whole lot of fun. The plane trip was filled with lots of movie watching, eating, and a bit of card playing.

As soon as the team left the plane, they were hit by the heat and the humidity. But to be honest, it wasn't that bad! A nice change from the freezing cold winter of New Zealand.

The team spent a night at the Allson Hotel in Singapore, before arriving back at the airport at the crack of dawn. The team is currently enjoying a light bite to eat for breakfast, before they head down to their gate to make the 4.5 hour flight to Taipei.

Spirits are high, jet lag seems to be a thing talked about only in the magazines, and a golden sunset appears to be on the horizon.

A big thanks to all our supporters, from the Paddle Ferns

The Team is Ready to Fly!

The excitement begins to boil at new levels. Tomorrow morning, the team will board a big Air Singapore plane and fly over to Singapore, have a quick stop over and nap in a Singaporean hotel, before piling back onto a second plane and jetting over to Taiwan. After arriving in Taiwan the team will catch the train and head down south towards Kaohsiung.

The team gets a couple of days to acclimatise before the boats arrive on Wednesday. Some light training, scrutineering, etc will keep the team busy on wednesday and Thursday before all the action starts Friday morning!

The New Zealand Paddle Ferns playing schedule: (All times are Taiwan times)

FRIDAY 17th July
8.20am NZ v France
10.30am NZ v Great Britain
2.50pm NZ v Australia
4.40pm NZ v Chinese Taipei

SATURDAY 18th July
7.45am NZ v Germany

Saturday afternoon also has semi finals and finals.