Made it to Cairns

Debbie, Zoe and I arrived safely in Cairns just after lunch on Friday and without having to pay any excess on our luggage thanks to some good sweet talking to important people before we left. We were picked up by our chaffeurs Chrissy, Scotty and Greg and whisked away to our accommodation much to the envy of the other New Zealand teams who were waiting for a shuttle. On arrival at our accomm we unpacked our bikes and moaned about the heat. Viv our new teammate wasn't far behind and thanks to Chrissy again was transport to the accomm of course we spent the next few hours getting to know Viv and sharing stories about past adventures and adventure races. Saturday was spent doing the shopping for the race and getting our Macpac gear and equipment sorted and labeled with our individual colours. Deb is yellow, Zoe is red, Viv is blue and I am green. Sat night was spent living the high life up at Chrissy and Scotty's place at Kewarra Beach. Man were we spoilt we got to walk their Rotweiler on the beach, sip gin and tonics, eat prawns and kanga on the barbie mate, and scoff the most amazing chocolate mouse cake you have ever seen .. wow was it scrummy. It seems Viv is not so strong when it comes to cake eating .. she let the team down and couldnt finish hers so was awarded the "harden the f..... up" wristband by Chrissy. This wristband will complete the race with us and be given to the person who really needs to just ... harden up... we have nicknamed it the wimp award ... Sunday was spent doing more shopping and doing more preparation of bike boxes, gear bins and food. We also took a dip in the pool to test our snorkels, masks and fins out. Apparently i was a bit of a wimp when I got in so guess who is wearing the wristband now ...!!!

Things get a bit more real tomorrow with competency checks, photos and gear checks. All hell will break loose on Tuesday when we will be given the course..... bring it on.

Will upload some photos tomorrow.... off to cook some pasta now.

Ciao Anne