Nick - Day 13

My chance to shine - and I wasn't up to the task!!

Today saw the Epic Camp 400m Individual Medley Champs. A camp tradition according to John - dating back to the original epic camps. Gordo can even remember the fastest times that have been swum and even where they were swum.

The Geraldine pool is no olympic facility, but it was suitably decked out with Backstroke flags, starting blocks and pool lifeguards. Plus the film crew had gone the whole nine yards with water levels cameras and the usual big ones panning the lanes. Pete and I did an intro and then we were off. Steve and Molina duelled the first heat and finished in 5.55 and 5.57 respectively. I was in the second heat and unfortunately had no one to push me. Nonetheless I gave it pretty much everything I had and I haven't hurt like that in a while. 6.01 wasn't good enough though. Finally the last heat saw John go it alone as well, but he went one better and equalled Scotts 5.57. I had hoped this could be a chance for me to maybe burgle an extra point or two, but 400IM is a race of fitness and mine just isn't quite up to the elite level of some of these guys.

After breakfast, we rolled out of Geraldine and headed to Oamaru. The first 50km was a pretty fast paced ride led by big DC. Drinks were pretty quick and we continued on our way. About 10km in I suddenly realised I had been on a wheel for three days straight and I was in danger of letting the South Island pass me by. So I pulled the pin and dropped out of the pace line to ride by myself for a couple of hrs. Rob Q decided to join me and we rolled pretty well until he was hobbled by hayfever and dropped back. Following lunch I hopped on the big boys train and after traversing the Waitaki river, headed to Oamaru. Its here that I realised I have driven this road probably a hundred times back in the nineties, but never taken the scenic route and never really looked around. At Oamaru we hung a left and headed down the Coastal rd through Kakanui and onto Wainakarua. It was a stunning piece of road and I realised it was the reason I originally wanted to do this trip. As well as challenging myself in the epic camp environment, I wanted to see NZ. Now that I don't live here, I think I appreciate it even more when I come back for holidays. Its cold as hell - as this 2nd week has proven - but with that comes scenery and wilderness second to none.

We finished the day drinking beers out the front of a fantastic B&B here at Wainakarua. Now that the points comp is all but decided, its great that some of the players on the camp can enjoy a beer or two with us. Steve Lord has a great sense of humor and when he is not pounding out the kms he is an easy guy to talk to. Bring on Balclutha - I have a nagging feeling there might be quite a crowd there to see me.