Revolution and gourmet night at Sprints.

The sporting world is no stranger to brave acts of protest. Think Colin Kaepernick taking the knee, Tommie Smith and John Carlos wearing black gloves at the 1968 Olympics etc. Well this morning the waka world experienced a similar event as the inmates of Camp Otorohanga woke to this revolutionary scene.

You will notice in the background the uniform, establishment stacking of bowls and cups in the patriarchal drainer but your eye will more likely have been drawn to the rebellious placement of a cup and glass on the draining board. The perpetrator of this act of resistance has yet to be identified but rumours are already swirling around amongst the Krakenz 60 that Kommandant Rodney may be conducting interrogations after racing.

And so to the Lake.  A big day for all three MOCC teams. The scheduling meant it wasn’t always possible to watch each other racing but there was huge mutual support and encouragement from the whole Maitahi contingent.

Both Hine Tahi and Nga Manu Whaitiri had exceptional days. NMW were first off the block with their 500m race. Their time of 2.36 was just a couple of seconds shy of what they needed to progress to the final but it put them 14^th out of 23 teams. In other words in the top two thirds of the best teams in the country on their first sprint nationals. Part of that success was definitely down to their small but vociferous junior supporters club. 

Next up were Krakenz 60 in the 500m and their third place in 2.15 saw them comfortably through to the final on Saturday. They were swiftly followed by Hine Tahi whose 2.31 saw them ease into tomorrow’s 500m semi-final.

The combined might of Hine Tahi and NMW took to the 12 and comfortably qualified for the final with a highly competitive time of 2.18. If they can find a bit more basic speed on Saturday they will be contenders.

Then came the turns races. Another fairly cruisy third place eased Krakenz into tomorrow’s semi and the chance to set up a final day with two chances of medals. Then it was the last MOCC race of the day which our crew actually had a chance to watch, NMW were out of the blocks quickly, had two great turns and were in second place but then ran out of gas a little in the closing stages, finishing fourth but comfortably into the semis. A tricky final turn killed a bit of boat speed and as we discussed afterwards, it sucks a bit of energy out of the crew and disrupts rhythm. But the bottom line is everyone is going to have one of those turns and they battled on, regrouped and held themselves together to do what they wanted to do. Progress.

The stifling heat saw us all pack up early. Krakenz headed to the national Velodrome for a quick tourist stop. Amazing facility and the bank was pitched at an amazingly steep angle. Then it was off to New World for such essential items as Cadbury’s Cream Eggs (thank you Rodney) and Prawn Cocktails chips.

Then it was back to Camp for a chill out, a cuppa and eventually dinner. Krakenz are renowned for their domesticity and are almost fully house trained. Now is probably the time to announce the release in the later part of 2023 of the Krakenz Christmas Cookbook. As a teaser and free giveaway we are releasing one of our premier recipes to public. 

Jeff’s Famous Garlic Bread. 

1. Buy a tub of pre-made garlic butter from the supermarket.
2. Get Pete to turn the oven on.
3. Get Pete to cut the bread that Pui made into halves and spread the garlic butter on it.
4. Open the oven and put the bread in.
5. Get told by Pete to take it out because the potatos have only just gone on.
6. Get Pete to put it in and take it out at the right time and then cut it up.
7. Serve and call it Jeff’s Famous Garlic Bread.

More recipes will be released later in the year as publication date approaches. As a disturbing footnote to the above picture Jeff claimed that when we took the washing in Rodney’s undies were still slightly ‘damp’ and that he was drying them out by wearing them. Independent verification of this claim was impossible so we can only hope for Rodney’s sake that Jeff was just showing off.

Of more immediate concern are tomorrow’s races. Good luck everyone !