KA MATE! KA MATE!

• 06:00 - Bbreakfast roll call and all are present and accounted for
• 06:15 - Advance scouting group head to pool to secure seat
• 06:30 - Main team leaves free spirit
• 07:00 - KWA Join 297 swimmers in 6 lanes (+2 for AWD)
• 08:15 - Racing starts promptly at 8:00

...and then the cascade begins wave after wave of PB’s from our team, Boys, Girls, IM, Free, Back Breast and Fly it didn’t matter we were quite simply on fire. Average PB in boys 200IM - 8 SECONDS!!!

It was a great morning you can check out the actual results on the Arafura website as I don’t have them at the moment.

A special shout out to our 12 year olds Eve, Kristie, Kate, Sam and Autahi who all swum with great determination and application.

The meet runs about 2 hours over in the morning so we have staggered groups heading back to the Freespirit. I join the last group and after a 20 minute turn around head back to the pool with our swimmers who would not be swimming in finals (yet). We had a meeting at the pool with some lizards under a tree and then they moved off to complete their afternoon loosen up.

The finalists arrived not long after and we reviewed their plans for the afternoon. The pool is cleared, the officials are on deck, and standing proudly on the end of the Causarina Pool are the KWA boys stripped to the waist. They wait as the crowd quiets and all around the pool people are rushing for their cameras, they know what’s about to come.

Autahi’s voice sounds out clear and strong - A warriors call, THE HAKA! and the Kiwi boys respond with a resounding unified voice and the challenge is issued. The crowd cheers and respond with a feeble ”aussie aussie aussie oi oi oi“ but the moment belongs to the KWA boys.

The meet is a true international event with flags being hoisted for the medal winners and National anthem’s of the champion. With monotonous regularity “Advance Australia Fair” rings out until Cameron Blair steps up in the 200IM for 13 & 14 year old boys.

Still only 13 years old he is top qualifier by over 10 seconds going into the final but coach has warned him to expect some fireworks from the New Caledonia swimmer Damon Theveny in lane 5 and sure enough Cameron is ½ a body length down at the touch after the fly but a superb underwater backstroke breakout puts him ½ body length in front after flags.

Cameron has a great backstroke length and leads by a body length going into the breaststroke leg which was his weakest in the morning.

In the early part of this 50 the Theveny is gaining but Cameron pulls away again in the last 15 meters to lead by 2 body lengths going into the last turn from where he is too strong for both Theveny and Davison from North Shore Swimming.

BLAIR WINS!. He breaks the Manawatu Age Group record, the Northern Territory All Comers Record for 13 year olds and takes 3 seconds of his PB. NZ first, New Caledonia 2nd and NZ third and not an Aussie on the dais.

The very next race saw Muriel and Claudia step up in the Final of the Hundred Freestyle, both had swum PB’s in the heats an after a blistering start Claudia came away with a Silver medal and Muriel came in 6th.

Alex stepped up in the final of the 100 Freestyle after breaking the minute in for the first time in the morning he backed up well moving from 8th to 6th and shaving another ½ second off his time.

Sam and Autahi were both in the final of the 50 back and Autahi had a blinding swim to take a bronze medal from lane 6, Sam was 6th.

In a once every three years event Claudia stepped up in the 50 backstroke and picked up another medal this time a bronze. More importantly she set a faster time than brother Alex had done in his heat so the pressure was on.

The 15&16 year boys 50 back had three Kiwi swimmers James in 6 Alex in 7 and Kurt in 8 and after a stunning start the planets lined up and Kurt walked away with a Silver medal from lane 8!!!! With A 3 second PB, James got 5th only splits off his best and Alex snuck in 0:00.12 (or so) ahead of sister Claudia

Cameron was in the 50 free final and he broke into the 27‘s for the first time finishing 5th.

Kristy Price had a gutsy swim in the 100 fly final after an 8 second pb in the morning and finished 5th.


Claudia and Muriel stepped up again in the 100 fly and Claudia scored a third medal for the day this time a bronze with Muriel a gallant 6th

Ending the finals as he began them Cameron won the 100 breaststroke gold medal with an outstanding 5 second PB on where he started the day.

7 MEDALS, 2 Golds, 2 Silver and 3 Bronze medals on the first day.!

On the way back to the accommodation Muriel was remarking on the pretty sunset, only to discover that she was in fact looking at the moon on the rise!!! Nice

The links between North Shore and KWA grow stronger by the day with the boys Haka and Josh Freemans boyish good looks well enough said ......


Team Meeting at 8:30pm, lights out at 9:00pm. Managers meeting at 9:00, newsletter until 10:00 so I’m beat..

Tomorrow we race....BETTER!!!!

Andrew (International coach of mystery)

Walking the red carpet...

Well what a day-Man eating Water bugs, A round the world photo shoot, a good luck dragon attack and a fireworks spectacular to finish off.

Today we mirrored the start of our first race day by having a 6am breakfast and then off to the pool for a swim.

The insect life of Darwin seemed to be quite at home in the early morning session - from a coaching point it was great, as soon as the swimmers would stop at the end of the pool they would be set upon by water bugs about 1cm long that would give them a friendly nip and remind them that they should probably be off swimming again now!!

Many of our team found this most disconcerting and the screams/squeals and general splashing to avoid the watery demons was quite funny to watch. The range of responses was from Kurt "Bug Tamer" Gannon who was playing happily with his new friends like some sort of insect
world Lion man to Jessica "The terminator" Love who made it her mission to get as many of the bugs out of the pool as she could.

There was also quite a strong showing from the squeal and complain crowd whose names are too numerous to list but ably lead by Emma "get it off me!" Bailey. Even the Northern Territory team was squealing away, I thought they would be used to it.

Sara-Jane and I stayed at the pool for the team mangers meeting and pool orientation tour while the rest of the team hit the supermarket for snacks for tomorrow's competition.

Before lunch the boys had Haka practise by the pool which drew quite a crowd but by the 4th time through I think the crowd got bored.

Lunch by the pool was followed by a team meeting to go over the afternoons plan. It's a shame I didn't draw the plan in simple crayon pictures because for the first time on this trip we were late leaving for the pool!!!!

I hate to be late! Our afternoon workout was short only 45 mins and we shared the pool with the Australian Paralympic team again. Jess must have killed all the bugs in the morning because by the time the afternoon workout came around there were none.

We left the pool at 3;45 and made our way to the centre of the Arafura Games at the Marrara sports hub. We were given a meal and from around 4:30 the holding pen of nations behind the main stadium started to grow.

We were surrounded by (and this is not a full list) Iran, Iraq, Great Britian, Northern Ireland , Brunei, Japan, Korea, Lebanon, Macau, Indonesia, Malaysia all the Australian States and we met up with the North Shore Swimmers, some Muay Thai kick boxers from NZ as well as the NZ Paralympic athletes we met on our first day.

Claudia and Roberta were a big hit with the boys from other teams almost queuing up to take a photo with them. (could be a possible fundraiser next time?)

Emma and Eve started on a collection of photo's with as many countires as they could while Marshall made firends with (of course ) the team from the Marsahll Islands.

Cameron and Josh got to know the girls from North Shore a little better while the pink glasses brigade of Alex, James and Josh were also in demand for the photo takers.

Coach Andrew busted his French out on the New Caledonia equivalent of Weird Al Yankovich who obviously thought I could actually speak French and launched into what I am pretty sure was an earnest attempt to ask me out either that or he was giving me a recipe for quiche.

A parachute dropping from the sky kicked off the parade of Nations and I ‘m sure that the buzz from walking into the stadium will last us all for years to come. Our team were High five-ing the crowd as we marched around the edge of the oval and settled in to watch the show.

That’s when the good luck dragon allegedly attacked Claudia!!

Fireworks, music and dance filled the stadium and as we walked out at 9pm the team was buzzing.

Nothing to cringe about today folks all the team are well and sleeping soundly for our debut at the pool tomorrow.

Tommorow WE RACE!!

Andrew (French correspondent coach)

Snakes on a plane? ... no, on your child!

Day 2:

... started at a much more gentlemanly hour with an 8 oclock breakfast (bacon eggs hash browns cereal toast and about 40 ltres of juice!!!!). A few words with the chefs should put us less in a sinking boat and more in a racing boat mode!

The boys soundly beat the girls on the room inspection tour, well at least that’s what they told me!

And although it didn’t come out till later in the day (so to speak) it would seem that the “Parental Cringe Awards” have a new leader overnight. First some background, our accommodation is cabin style with shared bathroom facilities and to be fair the bathrooms are a long way from the rooms. And also to be fair we did insist that the team drink lots and lots (and lots!) of water. And in the interests of further fairness it is hard to climb down from a top bunk in pitch black. And continuing in our fairness crusade at least our hero didn’t let go on the floor, in bed or on his roommates. And in the final salute to fairness everything that goes down the sink goes into the sewer anyway.........and the name of our hero? (Every boys mum silently praying “ please no please no please no” ) The Midnight Sink Pee’er of Darwin is........ CENSORED

Anyway off to the middle of the Darwin CBD for a tour of the Crocasaurus Cove. This is like an aquarium/croc zoo/reptile house type of place. Crocodiles, snakes lizards turtles and all manner of Australian nasties were there. As you can see from the photo’s there was much wailing and gnashing of teeth but all the swimmers had a go. Even some of the managers got to hold onto an Aussie snake (???).

After Crocosaurus cove we had a picnic lunch. We visited the Dawrin entertainment Centre to get our accreditation badges and all the team were also given a free backpack. The team then let loose on the shop keepers of Darwin and brothers and sisters (and a surprising number of girlfriends, boyfriends and “just friends”) will be pleased to know that many gifts were purchased. Bargain of the day to Richard Rumbal for his $20.00 Ford racing team shirt (marked down from $55 Janice!!!).

All the team made it back to the meeting spot early so the shops must have been done !!We made our way back to the pool where the swimmers had an hour rest time in the shade meanwhile Roger went to a general Managers meeting. While we were resting the Australian Paralympic Development Team were going through their paces.

Our afternoon workout was punctuated by the arrival of Team PNG, around 40 strong they piled into the lane next door to us and their presence did not go unnoticed, especially “that really cute one” !! (Nup, sorry parents not telling).

Our workout was a lot more focussed tonight and as the 120 strong Northern Territory team filled the 2 lanes on the other side of ours the international flavour of the event started to hit home. I could tell by the glint in the eye of the other teams that our gear will be sought after!

After a great dinner we had a team meeting outlining the plan for tomorrow, then we had a managers meeting and now at 10.30 I’m just about ready to hit the hay.

Tomorrow THE OPENING CEREMONY, 14000 SPECTATORS, 25 COUNTRIES WITH 2500 ATHLETES AND US!!

Andrew (Crocodile Coach Dundee)

aussie! aussie! aussie! oi! oi! oi!

BRRrrrrrr it was cold at 1:30 this morning when the bus pulled out from West End Aquatics and another group of Kiwi West Swimmers was let loose on an unsuspecting world!!!!!

The trip to Wellywood was uneventful with Eve “EVEL” Athersuch keeping even the most determined sleeper (me) from catching even the slightest bit of shuteye.

Arriving at 4am we looked great as we strode purposefully through the terminal to begin the worst part of any trip - the ole hurry up and wait! “Ladies and Gentlemen check in for our Sydney service will be delayed by about 10mins” which is airline speak for 1 hour of a line not moving.

All was not lost though as a person of indeterminate gender (Lets call him/her Pat) provided a floor show which had much less to do with talent and much more to do with bucket loads of “P” !!!!

The police came and had a wee chat with Pat who continued merrily/manically pirouetting through the check in process! (Keep an eye out for Pat later in the day!)

EVEL was clearly looking for an early lead in the ”Whose parent will cringe the most” stakes as she left her passport, boarding pass and departure card in the last loo before the border. Alert team managers covering the rest room averted chaos!

Sam Love was next to put a point on the board with his forgotten Up & Go breaching security and disappearing into the bin. Coach Andrew posted a point by leaving his passport at the Explosives random search and Jess Love added a point for Team Love by leaving her cell phone behind.

Onto the plane and much to the disgust of the keep of aeronautical knowledge Rumbal it was not the 737 model advertised on the Qantas website but a far inferior model! Pat was on our flight and the antics of the androgynous one in changing seats in a mini skirt was a giggle for all, just ask Alex, he was in the row behind.(just as well he wasn’t eating at the time)

Frustrated by not scoring any points Ben 10 (Elkington) checked yes on the swim flu monitoring form where it said do you have headaches? (And he does, just not today)So Ben got to say hello to the nice people at Sydney’s flu taskforce centre.

We made it through the rest of Sydney airport with no drama and settled in for the 4.5 hour flight to Darwin. Wiser heads changed into shorts before landing in 32 degrees and we rolled into an airport awash with Arafura Banners and volunteers who couldn’t be more helpful.

We changed plans and swimmers, Coach, Sara Jane and Denise went straight to the Causarina pool in a bus provided by the organisers. We shared the bus with some of New Zealands Paralympics development team (tennis players and wheel chair athletes) while Roger ,Tim and Donna took all the bags to Free Spirit resort in our vans and car.

The swimmers had a 1 ¼ hour loosen swim in the competition pool alongside the local Darwin Team. They looked awesome in their uniform all day and the drink bottles and personalised caps looked great at the pool. Coach had a live interview with ABC NT radio about the team and met with our team’s media liaison person.
An Aussie style BBQ by the pool for dinner here at Free spirit and the day is done.
The Managers and swimmers worked as a great team today through all the hiccups and laughter.

Tomorrow we visit the crocs !!

Take care
Andrew (Coach in the sun )

Darwin here we come....

The swimmers heading off to Arafura, had a training session yesterday afternoon afterwards there was a meeting to discuss safety, procedure and expectations. The swimmers were handed out their team uniform which included personalised named swimming caps, gear bags and tops.

The Arafura team will be leaving from the West End Pool car park at 1.30am on the 7th of May. Travel down to Wellington by Bus, fly up to Auckland over to Sydney then on up to the Northern Territory and Darwin.

After looking at different videos of the 2007 event. This is more than just a trip to Darwin or even a swimming event. It is going to be an amazing experience where they will interact with over 2,500 athletes from all around the world and take part in an opportunity most will never experience.

It’s been 2 years of preparation and a lot of hard work by many people. Kiwi West Aquatics would like to thank all of the members families and friends who have given up a lot of their time to ensure the success of the trip - Have a great time and enjoy the moment.

DAY 110 - SENIOR SWIM CAMP

Earlier this year as part of preparation swimmers travelling to the Arafura games in Darwin had to attend the Senior swim camp. The day started off with a training session at the West End pool followed by lunch then on up to Stratford.

Much of the training was spent at the Hawera 50m outdoor pool where the swimmers were put through their paces with an underwater video camera and analysis software used to help with stroke work

The first of the outdoor 50m sessions in the early morning and then after exhaustive preparations we are off to the beach for the day and back again for another session tomorrow night.

This is the type of day that will really challenge the swimmers not just in the workouts but also in their creativity as well as the Cadbury challenge kicks into gear with the sand sculpture competition.

The team have settled into the camp well, the Managers are functioning well and working great as a team and the coaches are getting into the nitty gritty.

Winner of the beach sculpture challenge went Jenna's team with their Mermaid sculpture. Jenna's team were also the overall winners of the Chocolate Challenge.

DAY 164 - Garage Sale

THANK YOU TO ALL OUR HELPERS

A Huge thank you to everyone who helped out with the Garage Sale on Saturday. Plenty of donated goods were sold, items left over of value will be listed on trade-me to be sold.

Kiwi Allstars have setup a trademe account as a fundraiser to sell any items members or friends of members may want to get rid of.

If you are planning a big clean out and dont mind donating your no longer needed items to a great cause keep us in mind.

We will be sending more details about how the trade-me fundraiser will work.

Keep an eye out for the Swim-a-thon in February 2009