Greetings from the B-side of the earth. We are hanging in Hamilton, New Zealand right now awaiting the start of the Tour of Southland. New Zealand is absolutely beautiful. Very green, very rolling, very diverse. It seems to have a bit of everything really. We should have some time to be tourists this week as our legs need a spot of rest before the tour starts. The Sun Tour was some great (hard!) racing and we came out with some decent results. Yesterday we raced the K2: a 192km mountainous, windy affair that our director Glen has won like 13 times (or so). It was Epic (notice the capital "E"). We finished 2, 3, 5, and won the KOM title. The victory eluded us but beyond that is was a successful day. And the weather was georgeous so no complaints there. At one point on a descent, there was this incredible view overlooking the Pacific and beach towns and I nearly dropped myself from gawking at the view rather than steering my bike! No worries - I stayed upright. The Kiwis know how to have fun with the races too. All along the course they had all these signs with short quips for us to read and apparently possums are their main roadkill victims because they had like 5 or 6 of them tied up to sign posts dressed up in baby outfits holding beers. I thought they were stuffed animals until told otherwise by locals after the race. I'm sorry if you work with PETA, but that's pretty funny right? Think of the time and effort spent with these roadkill just to get a chuckle out of us during the race! Our hosts from Hamilton, Scott and Debbie, are friends of Glens and live right on the Waikato River. Scott is actually filling in for poor Teddy at Southland, because Teddy is recovering back in New Hampshire after his scary crash on the first stage of the Sun Tour. Thank goodness he's okay. Also, let it be known that Teddy was absolutely flying before he flew off the mountain. Back to Hamilton, We have a park and river path right outside the door. Very nice! Today, for recovery, we are planning the watch the water ski races on the river with plenty of beverages at arm's length. Should be fun. Theres been talk of caving, bungee jumping, and lounging on the coast for this week but we'll see if theres time for all that and resting up too. Sorry there are no pics. I'll make an effort to break out the camera or else I'll pay off Zwiza and use his pics.
Take care.
