Last 2 days

Saturday 9th and Sunday 10th
Its our last weekend in India so we decided to go Jaipur. We were told that it would be a 4-5 hour journey and we planned to go shopping in the markets in the afternoon. So we arranged to get going earlyish 9am. It was an interesting journey quite slow at times, sections of 2 lane expressway with one lane going each way and the other two lanes with no traffic. In the end it took 7.5 hours (with an hour break for lunch). It was incredibly hot and the buses air conditioning was struggling consequently we were struggling as well. Temperatures were mid 30's during the day and not much cooler at night.

Our hotel was quite new and very nice. The local tour operator came and met us and tried to sell us all sorts of additional stuff which we did not want and wanted to get separate transport to take us to a market he recommended. In the end we told him NO go away and we got our driver to take us to a market. After 1.5 hours in stifling heat (7pm at night) we had had some success. Then Pete decided to shout the kids a Tuk Tuk ride. In the end Meren, Pete, Sean and Nicola went for a blat around the block in the Tuk Tuk. It was enjoyed very much by all.

Then it was back to the hotel and some much needed rest before our last big day in India.
Sunday started with check out from the hotel by 8am and a couple of stops before a visit to the Amber fort.
We saw the City Palace and had an up close experience with Cobra snakes.

The visit to the Amber Fort started with an Elephant ride. Quite cool fun. They don't go that fast but the motion is reasonably smooth so not uncomfortable. Only two people per elephant and each elephant only does 4 trips in a day.

Then we took a Jeep ride up a steep path to the Amber fort and had a guided tour of the Fort/Palace. It was really amazing just how sophisticated their architecture was and how well thought through the construction was. Truly impressive. There were a few women in traditional clothes for photo's (10 rupee for a photo (30cents NZ).

It was incredibly hot and we were really feeling it. So we decided to call it quits on the rest of the tours. We dropped off our guide and asked the driver to start back to Delhi. All went really well for the first half of the journey and we stopped for lunch at the same place we tried on the way down to Jaipur. On the restart we were flying along till we hit a major traffic jam. We were stuck in the traffic for at least 1.5 hours. We saw two truck that had overturned and that seemed to contribute to it. For about 10km We had opposing traffic on our side of the road and the same on the other side of the road. It was a really snarl up.

Eventually we made it to the airport at 7pm and the flight does not leave until 23:25. However we were not allow into the airport because James could not locate the e-tickets (Indian security they are called e tickets for a reason). After 20 minutes some paper was found in James bag that was to be checked in which satisfied the security guard. First hurdle overcome ! Then we found the flight check in did not open for 30 minutes. Its the normal travel experience rush and wait, rush and wait.

The Duty Free shops in the airport are offering 20% discount to Commonwealth Games medalists. I asked whether the parent of a medalist counted, doesn't seem like it does. The flight to Singapore went fairly smoothly but we were all a mess in need of a shower and clean up. So it was up to the Star Alliance lounge.
At this point James then set out to Terminal 2 and a flight to Bali for a conference. The rest of the party were off on a site seeing bus trip in Singapore.

Thats the lot for now. I hope you enjoyed the reading

Last day at the track

Another medal for Sam at the track.

Silver in the Team Sprint. They rode a New Zealand record in the final but Aussie were too strong.
A first Commonwealth Games at 19 years old and 2 medals, you can't ask or expect more.

Unfortunately Sam blew a tyre after lapping off and came down.
He is fine nothing broken but a sore hip and bad burn on the shoulder.

He will not be sleeping too well for a few nights.
This put a dampener on his celebration a bit but he is in great hands with the NZ team doctor.

We also got to see Ali Shanks win a Gold medal which was wonderful. NZa first Gold of the games.

All in all cycling got 9 medals - All 4 members of the sprint squad got medals, all sprint events we won medals, and they are all young and improving. Look out the world !

In the evening (while Sam was back in the Village under medical attention) we went to the final night of the gymnastics. We saw the final for the vault, beam, parallel bars and the mat.

It was really interesting, massive arena and lots of locals there. An Indian guy won a silver medal in the vault.

After that we went for a meal at a Chinese restaurant, we had tired of Indian and Nicola had need of some non spicy food.

Tomorrow we set off for Jaipur at 9:00 am as Sam seems to be ok.
Updates to the blog may slow down over next couple of days with travel but I will do my best.

Day 3 Velodrome

We approached day 3 at the velodrome with some nervous. Sam was in the quarter finals but so were some really good riders.

First up was the women's scratch race. It was a great race with Jo K, Rushlie Buchanan, and Gemma Dudley from NZ. Lots of tussles but Rushlie rode away with about 7 laps to go and established a good lead. With about 2 laps to go the field went after her as she was starting to slow up. With 1 lap to go Megan Dunn from Oz exploded away and took the lead followed by Jo K. and that was how it finished. Great ride by the Kiwi girls.

Then the Team Sprint qualifying, interesting to see Wales false start twice and get disqualified. Kiwi's was second to last to qualify and posted the fastest time to date. Australia were last and broke the games record to qualify. So NZ/Oz final.

Individual Sprint quarters sam was up against Travis Smith Canada. Sam won in 2 and looked to be comfortably in control of things.

Eddie Dawkins came up against N, Philip Trinidad and had a great tussle. N Philip was at Junior Worlds same year as Sam and is showing real speed. Eddie won in 2

Then it was the semi finals. As Sam qualified 4th fastest in the flying 200metre he came up against the faster qualifier Shane Perkins in the semi final. Sam has known all year that he would have to beat Shane to win a gold. So he took it to him. In the first ride Sam put on a superb match sprinting performance, he controlled Perkins and did not allow him to dictate terms, when Sam initiated the sprint he did so with power and built a small lead. Shane Perkins was at full stretch and only caught him by a couple of inches.

All in all very good performance, from track side we could see Sam was gutted to lose particularly by such a small margin. In the second sprint Shane was fully aware of what he was up against and took it really seriously giving Sam plenty of respect. Shane rode very well and won it relatively easily.

The loss put Sam into the Bronze medal ride off.

Eeddie Dawkins came up against Scott Sunderland. These two have fought many battles together. Scott seems to have carried great form into the Games and was able to beat Eddie in 2.

Sadly this put our two boys against each other, on a positive note a guaranteed medal for New Zealand.

In the bronze medal ride it was obvious that the two boys knew each other and their tactics, respect was given to each others abilities. Sam was able to win in 2.

Yahoo a bronze medal.

What a proud moment during the medal ceremony, seeing him up there.
After the ceremony Sam crossed the track and we got hugs across the barrier, so good to see him.
At that point we were mobbed by the locals wanting to touch a medalist, one person thrust a young child (not quite a baby at Sam. The kids face was about 6 inches from Sams. The kid just starred at Sam while the parents got a photo. Then there were people wanting autographs etc. It was crazy, eventually Sam was lead off for some media commitments and the remaining people asked Meren and her brother Peter for autographs. I stood clear holding the camera. It was funny.

In the Womens Individual Sprint, Sam's friend Becky James was representing Wales. Becky was at Junior Worlds in Moscow with Sam. She qualified 3rd in the flying 200metres and came up against Karly McCullough from Australia. Becky rode and amazing race and beat Karly much to the surprise of the Ozzies in the crowd. It was fantastic and we were delighted. Becky could could hear the calls from the people in black and even gave us a wave after the first race. Becky came up against Anna Meares in the final. Becky rode really well in the final but Anna showed her class. This got Becky a Silver medal. We were delighted for her.

The Team Pursuit had the Gold Silver ride with Australia. NZ went out really fast, too fast for their current form but they had to, to have a chance against Australia. Unfortunately the pace was too hot and they lost the 4th ride at 2km and then gaps appeared between the other riders and they were overlapped by Australia with 1 lap to go.

So all in all 3 medals from the track today and a total of 7 medals from the track (so far).

Tomorrow (today now) we have Team Sprint and Womens IP (Ali Shanks) with excellent chances of medals.

After that Sam was off for Doping control and we went off to the Athletics evening session. Our driver dropped us reasonably close to one entrance to the stadium unfortunately our entrance was the opposite and with security we had to walk a hell of a distance around to get in. While it was night it was still very hot and even more humid. We got into the stadium to find there was only one place selling food and water in the half of the stadium that we had access to and there was a 20-30 minute queue to get stuff.

So we sucked it up and went to our seats. It was great to be there and we saw Mens and Womens 100 metre finals, Some Hammer throws, I love the image of the song, "Its Hammer time". We also saw Mens Shotput.

The experience at night convinced us that we really got lucky going to the cycling with an air conditioned venue and relatively easy access to food (if you can call the chicken burgers that) and water

Day 2 at Velodrome

Day 2 at the velodrome was an amazing day full of great races.

By this time we knew where to go, how long it would take to get there and what the security check points would be like. The organisation also seemed to be improving with more consistency. There was food available (chicken burgers only it seemed) all day and water and soft drinks available all day outside of the venues.

Sean has not yet recovered from his bugs and is now on another set of antibiotics. Really he has not had a great time of it but he has remained in good humour. I can only presume his normal Sunday morning hangover had provided him with training to keep smiling despite lack of sleep or energy !

The Keiren racing was awesome, what an amazing event it is to watch. We had Simon van Veldhoven competing and he has just returned from many months of Keiren racing in Japan. Simon went smoothly through his heat into the semi final. He seemed very comfortable in the semi final and made it to the final..
The second semi final had some drama with two riders crashing, eventually Shane Perkins of Australia who won the semi final was relegated for coming down on Awang (Malaysia) who in turn came down and hit the front wheel of the South African rider who went down taking out ??? the last rider).

The final was packed with really good riders and racing was fast and furious. At the end Simon was 4th much to our disappointment. There had been some argy bargy in the last lap with Simon being impeded and eventually the winner of the race Awang was relegated for a head butt on Simons hip in the last lap. The lift Simon to a bronze medal. Massive ! What proud parents and a delighted crowd of Kiwi's.

The mens points race was amazing to watch Cameron Meyer from Australia put on  a masterful display and won by a huge margin. In my view Aaron Gate from New Zealand was the second best rider there. Aaron was unlucky with the breaks not to lap the field. If he had managed this then he would have been amongst the medals. We were delighted that Aaron came up into the stands and sat with us for a few minutes after his racing was over.

Obviously for us the Individual Sprints was going to be the highlight of the day with Sam, Ethan and Eddie all riding. In qualifying flying 200m Sam ride 4th fastest, Eddie 6th and Ethan 7th. The times were 10.3, 10.4 ish which are not PBs for the boys but only Shane Perkins and Scott Sunderland went a lot faster.

All went smoothly in the first ride off. The difference in ability of the riders was pretty pronounced. Eddie Dawkins rode a very respectful ride letting his Indian opponent lead him out and only passing in the last few metres. Eddie made many friends in the crowd by indicating the applause should be for his opponent on the slow down lap. Unfortunately in the next round Eddie and Ethan were drawn together. It was a good race and I was really impressed with Ethan ride, he was positive and initiated the sprint when he wanted it. Eddie had to work very hard to pass him.

This then put Ethan into the Repechage. Both of the Repechages were tough with 3 strong riders in each. Once again Ethan was very positive and initiated the sprint, he was beaten but showed that he is getting stronger with each outing.

The day also featured the team Pursuit qualifying, really there is only new Zealand and Australia fielding capable teams and they have qualified for the gold silver ride off. Australia broke the Games record in qualifying but I know New Zealand didn't have to set a fast time to get the ride off tomorrow so we will see how it goes.

There are more Kiwi's in the crowd as most of the cycling parents are here. At lunch time I met a English guy who the brother in law of Wendy Houvenagl (likely to be the greatest competitor for Alison Shanks in the Individual Pursuit). No NZ TV cameras present to day but maybe tomorrow with the finals. Still a few NZ reporters with Andrew Saville from One news and others making contacts with the parents

After the events it was straight back to the hotel for a quick meal and bed.

Pictures of the Taj

Here are a few photo's from the Taj Mahal from 2 days ago.

Too tired the other night to add photos from the Agra - Taj trip. Heres a small selection of 'Just life in India'

First day at the Games

After our long day yesterday we had a leisurely breakfast at 8:30.
We had heard from other Kiwi;s at the hotel (must be 90% of guests) that food was hard to get at the venues.

We met our driver at 9:00 to travel to the Velodrome. The first session didn't start till 11:30 am however the agents we are working with wanted to be sue traffic jams did not cause a problem. In the end the commute took 30 minutes. Typical leave plenty of time and the traffic goes with you.

We had to go through 3 check points to get into the velodrome at each check point they were worried about Merens new camera, we said no video no video and eventually were let through.

As we were about to enter the velodrome a senior army or police guy not sure then said no camera's, despite lots of people working in with camera's eg Bev who walked in just before. He really dug his heels in so we appealed to one of the Comm Games Helper staff who got their boss and after 10 minutes standing around outside they moved away and negotiations continued. eventually we were allowed in with the camera. Pretty frustrating.

The Velodrome itself is very nice high roof and very clear views. we are seated on the opposite side of the track to the finish line but pretty much in line with it.

It was great to see Sam after such a long time even if it was from a distance. See below.

It was a good day results wise we saw Eddie Dawkins get a bronze in the Kilo time trial (he had a mechanical, handlebars broke before the start and replacement set slipped on the start otherwise he would have been higher up). It was a bugger that Myron got a 4th after a great kilo ride.

We saw Jesse Sargent get a Silver in the IP. He was coming back at the Ozzy if only it was one more lap !

Tomorrow we see Simon Van Veldhoven in the Keiren and Sam, Eddie and Ethan in the Individual Sprint qualifying and first round sprint.

After the morning session was over 15:30 we had to leave the stadium it was 32-34C I guess but to our delight their were some food concessions open and we got some chicken burgers. In previous days in many venues the security would not let the caterers in because their passes were not correct or something so thousands of people were expected to go from 11:00 am to 8:00 pm without food.

The Games helpers were embarrassed and started giving out water. At the velodrome there was free water available in the morning session provided you drank it in the lobby. In the afternoon a guard was abusing me for drinking water in the lobby.

Meren noticed a Doctors desk in the lobby and Sean and James decided to try it out, we are both on antibiotics to sort out our ailments. James went later and was escorted under the velodrome past all the security into the doctors office and was examined by about 8 people, before being given lots of pills.
All of this was free, amazing. The average Indians cannot do enough to help you. The security unfortunately is overbearing and has random rules that seemed to change and can be challenged sometimes. Two snack bars and a 50ml container of handwash gels was confiscated.

The evening session was 2 heats of the points race and we were chuffed that Aaron Gate made it through to the final tomorrow.

After the evening session we called our driver and met him about 20 minutes after the end and went to a restaurant for Meren's 50th birthday celebration, shouted by Bev and Pete. Cheers guys.

It even included a birthday cake with a candle.

Agra

It was an early start to Monday with our driver and guide picking us up at 6:00am.

We had a 10 minutes drive to the entrance of the Taj Mahal 'park'.
From there you are taken by small electric buses to the entrance to the Taj Mahal itself.
The Taj Mahal that everybidy knows and sees is surrrounded by a Red Stone fort.
The fort has three entrances, we came in throught the East Gate.

There was a thorough security check, put pat downs for everybody, on the way in and a small number of armed police wandering around inside.
Our guide was a Doctor of History from the Agra University and explained much of the history of the place and also debunked a few rumours eg one rumour is the king had
the thumbs of all the workers cut off to prevent building a similar monument.
Evidently the King wanted to build another Taj Mahal this time in Black directly across the river from the existing one but was overthrown by his sons before this could get started.

Your first view of the Taj Mahal is through a Red Stone Gate which frames the Taj perfectly.
The Taj itself is as beautiful as the pictures suggest and is a little bigger than I expected.
Amazing engineering, the 4 minarettes are built with a slight outwards lean (which is visible to the eye) so that if an earthquake strikes the towers would not damage the central structure. This was built in the 1500's !
When you get really close you can see the central dome had hundreds of metal hooks in it. These were added during the 1970s war between India and Pakistan and a black out curtain was placed over the entire structure.

We have many photos of the Taj. The white marble is stunning and keeps itself clean. None of the mould which is evident on all the concrete buildings in india. I recon Mr Spray and Walk Away has a massive market here in India.

We went at 6:00am to see the sunrise and the effect of the light changes in the Taj's colours.
I heartily recommend this approach, the temperature was more reasonable although it was incredibly humid.

By 8:00am we were back to the hotel for a quick breakfast and on the road to the Red Fort of Agra.
At this point James has to confess he has succomed to a mild stomach upset and spent the Red Fort visit asleep on the back seat of the air conditioned bus. The others seemed to enjoy the visit and found it interesting.

We then drove for some 45 miles to an abandoned city called Fatehpur Sikri. By now it was really hot and all of us were wilting in the heat (Mike, I recon Bev was down to zero layers of wool). This would have been a city of around 100,000 people and the Murgal married 3 wives, one a Hundu, one a Moslem and one a Catholic. He wanted to unite India. Each wife had a separate palace constructed in the style of their background. Really interesting, except for Nicola who was 'forted out' by this stage.

We then drive about 30 miles back to a restaurant near Agra and had a quick meal (Chicken and Chips for James who needed familiar food). Our guide left us at this point and we took a backroad to Avoid the Agra traffic and when I say backroad there were large sections of one lane dirt road with trucks, tractors towing huge trailors full of bricks bicycles, motor bikes etc etc, I recon our average speed on the short cut would be less than 20 km/hour. I was really hot by now 35C+ and the buses air con was not coping. We were all not coping and Sean and James were taking turns on the back seat having a sleep.

Once we got onto the main highway again it was high speed maybe 70 km/hour until we hit a major traffic jam. Turns out a Tiger had mauled 5-6 people and we were waiting for the Police to come and drive it away. Sure enough after 15 minutes 5-6 Police came walking down the road with big sticks. At this point our driver decided the wait was going to be too long and reversed up until we go to a side road and did an even longer and slower 'shortcut' stuck behind massive trucks on one lane dirt roads. This was the real India the local kids all smiling and waving at us, not many tourists come this way I guess. We could see the fields were most of the food for India was grown etc. At one point we had to pull over for a tractor towing a massive trailor of bricks and the driver did his party trick by pulling a couple of wheel stands with the tractor.

Back onto the main road and then a slow journey home with lots of traffic and a few comfort stops for James.

We got to the hotel at 8:00pm a 14 hour day and much of that driving. We were all over the traffic at this stage.

Tomorrow, The Cycling at the Velodrome with Eddie Dawkins and maybe Ethan Mitchell in the kilo.
We dod not know which events the boys have been selected in.

Meren and Bev have clicked off hundreds of photo's and find this place endlessly fascinating.

Well after our fun on Saturday, arriving in Delhi, we decided to have an early night.
After retiring to our rooms to get tidied up we decided to eat in the Hotel.

We met in the lobby at the appointed time but no Pete or Sean. A call to their room revealed that lying on the bed with a paper was a fatal move.

Both of them got an hours sleep.

After a quick meal in the hotel it was off to bed at 08:30.
I can tell you that bed was a wonderful place after 3-5 hours sleep for the past 40 or so hours.

Sunday morning we were out of the room by 08:30 for the 5 hour journey to Agra.
On this trip we really saw the Indian countryside, everybodies eyes were wide open.
I have attached a few photos to the blog but we took over 150 pictures on this journey.

We saw hundred of cows, goats, buffulo, camels, pigs, monkeys and even a sad looking snake being held by the neck while another guy played music.
It looked like the Monty Python Parrot scene.

At one stop the bus was surrounded by people holding monkeys and banging on the windows to attract our our attention. After a bit of a show Nicola gave some money to the driveto give to one of the monkey owners. The driver rolled down my window and the monkey jumped into the bus and Nicola was left wondering if she had just bought a monkey. The driver shoo-ed it out again after a few seconds. But it really gave us a laugh.

It was hot again today and we were in air con in the bus.
We drank huge amounts of water especially Sean who become the first to get a slight stomach upset.
We went to a restaurant in Agra for lunch and were entertained by a magician who then sold us a few of the tricks, great fun.

On arrival into Agra we got our first glimpse of the Taj Mahal absolutely beautiful and so big.
We go for a close look at 6:00am tomorrow, we are all looking forward to it.
Comm Games opening ceremony tonight should be interesting watching it on local TV.

Before you view the pictures I must hasten to add

1. Our bus is not crowded
2. We have a good driver
3. We did not have a crash although a car which cut us off got a gentle tap on its bumper.
4. Bev and Meren are going to b a lot more useful when they have mastered the art of carrying heavy loads on their heads

After a grueling 7 hour layover in Singapore we took off for Delhi at 7:15am NZ time.
It was a 5 hour flight to Delhi and a little bit of sleep was had by all.
Bev got the most sleep in Singapore and on the flight at around 5 hours, Sean got the least at around 3 hours.

The new terminal at Delhi is very nice modern and a heck of a lot bigger than anything Auckland has to offer.
We were met on arrival and transferred to our hotel.
It is in the middle of a shopping district (but not like St Lukes shopping).

See a couple of photo's at the end from out of our hotel room window, 1 of a lady fast alseep on the roof of a neighbouring building and another of other buildings surrounding us.
The hotel is fine inside, but first impressions from the outside were a little worrying.

After time for a quick shower and change of clothes we were downstairs for a briefing on our day tour and off for a quick breakfast, I had a Chickpea curry with a kind of Roti bread. Sean found a fried egg and onion dish to his liking, Nicola was able to force down a piece of toast.

Then it was off on our Delhi city tour. The first stop was the New Zealand High Commission to pick up our Games tickets. Meren was the first person in to pick them up and got to meet the High Commissioner.
Tickets all seem great. High security all around Delhi but especially in the Embassy area. There are Police on almost every corner, huge amount of manpower deployed. Everything feels very safe from a security perspective.

The driving is another matter. I have seen this before in India and Thailand but it was a real education for Sean and Nicola. Our most fun experience was a buffalo ambling down the road in the fast lane not worried about the two lanes of traffic it was effecting.

We got to see many highlights of the City it was neat to get a feel for the place but it was around 35C and so getting out of air con bus every now and again become less appealing.
Certainly lots of sights, sounds (parping horns of cars) and smells (rubbish dump outside of a large Mosque).
Many many dogs, a few monkeys, some squirrels and one buffalo in terms of wildlife.
Tomorrow we are off to Agra. We leave at 8:30 am and its a 5 hour drive. We are then free to explore Agra markets etc.
The next morning we go to see the Taj Mahal before sunrise.

On the way !

After months of its getting closer, finally Friday 1 Octover arrived and we were on the way.

Its funny how different people prepare for travel, James was awake a little after 5am for 13:10 flight, Nicola managed to sleep till 9am !

We travelled to the airport courtesy of Mike Sheehan and Eileen Scott (thanks so much), check in was a breeze at the business counter thanks to the 3 memebers of the party who are Star Alliance Gold (Bev, James and Meren).

After some lets get the holiday started duty free shopping by most of the party (not James) we went to the lounge and found a number of Comm Games bound athletes were there. James said hi to Anna Rankin a Badminton player from down South who knew of the Dawkins.

After a very short time in the lounge it was on to the flight, normal dramas on the flight a lady three seats in front was on oxygen for 3 hours and by the time we got to Singapore she was up and about and looking healthier than most of the rest of us. Its such a small world Andrew Carmody who James has worked with was sitting 3 seats behind us. Lucky Andrew was offwith his wife Janine to Vietnam starting with two days in Singapore and then Hanoi and travelling south to Hoi An.

After a quick tour of Terminal 3 shops for Nicola and a brief look at the Butterfly enclosure (it was now 8pm and dark so most if the butterflys were asleep). we caught the train to terminal 2 and went to the Star Alliance lounge, after a chicken rice meal with chillie source washed down with a beer it was time to update the blog.

The flight to Delhi leaves at 2:30am (7:30 am NZ time) so it will be tough keeping going until then.
My next update should be from Delhi