Napier Holiday Recount!

Napier Holiday Recount.

I was settled at Napier after a long ride through Auckland last week! I was there for a few reasons, well actually one for Waka Ama. My Dad, Mum and sister all went, in a compressed car full of gear needed for our week.

My family and I arrived in Napier, weary and exhausted and prepared to sleep, but unfortunately and fortunately we went to support three of my Waka group members, Nu’u, Victoria and Danni for their singles races at Perfume Point/Napier Sailing Club! We were a tad late and didn’t get to see them commence the race but we did get to see the finishing, which was definitely astounding, I rapidly pulled out my phone like a cheetah and snipped a few images of Nu’u, Danni and Victoria coming in and finishing off their race.

As soon as I had finished taking photos, I set off to the front of the Napier Sailing Club to help bring up the wakas onto a trailer and also congratulate the girls on their race. I ran quite gradual, as I was extremely tired but I did end up finding Nu’u and talking to her about her race, “The race was tiring, but fun and I came 15th place”, she replied in a sluggish tone.

I was so relieved and excited to hear she had come 15th place out of 89 paddlers. She too was extremely tired from her race, so Nu’u and I walked to her hotel happily-ish!

Approximately 30 minutes into our walk, we arrived at her hotel, Bluewater Hotel and went to her room, place 21. As we arrived, we both saw other girls apart of our team and asked them to come with us, Mikayla, Serenity, Trenneyce, and Victoria followed as we dashed upstairs and into the room. She quickly changed and I relaxed with her mother, Serenity and Mikayla’s mother too. We whipped up some eggs and toast for a quick breakfast and jammed out to some ‘oldies but goldies’ music! Nu’u had finished changing and we set back to Perfume Point to see the other paddles and show some courtesy to them.  

After a while sitting in the sun, wanting to have a tan, I set off to go back to the hotel, leaving some of the other girls,  with Victoria's mother and a few other children, including Maia, Sanni, Nelsen and my personal favorite Trenneyce. Again, reaching our destination at the hotel, I packed some snacks because I was in one of those ‘just in case’ moods and began to eat, just cause!

A few hours into the relaxation and eat session at the hotel, it was time to get ready for dinner, held at the Gintrap. We walked to the Gintrap since the hotel wasn’t as far and kindly demanded seats for 32. The restaurant Gintrap, decreased the size of our menu since we had a lot of people, but the menu was still large. Majority of our waka group “Team Pure” turned up to celebrate our coach’s birthday but as soon as our coach came to the restaurant, we ordered our drinks and food. I and Nu’u, Victoria, Aarmione, Mikayla, and Serenity, each took a glance at the menus and all ordered the same meals, which was lemonade and chicken caesar salad with bacon bits and croutons! We all waited patiently for our meals and talked about our life, goals, and everything a normal group of thirteen years old’s would talk about! Several laughs, chuckles, jokes and slurps of our lemonade later, our chicken caesar salad had arrived looking, fresh, appetizing and exquisite which I loved especially the taste. It tasted like a normal lettuce salad with hints of crunch and precisely cut chicken pieces combined together, it was pleasing and the best.

Devouring our meals I then decided to go outside and freshen up while we also let the adults talk! Stepping outside, smelling the breeze of Napier was good but we did take it up a notch and take some memorable photos. To finish off our night we finished our photos, had a little play, be weird and chuckle at embarrassing things and then finally went back inside to get ready to go into our hotels. Everyone each paid for their meals and drinks said their goodbye’s and went to their hotels to sleep.

Overall my day was weary, lively-ish and fulfilling, I enjoyed my first day in Napier. I can’t wait for Sprint Nationals in Cambridge.

(Starting from left - Aarmione, Aaliyahna, Victoria, Nu'u, Mikayla and Serenity)