New Zealand -
Jan 19
Our trip from
Renmark to New Zealand would have us travel through the major city
of Melbourne. We had a three hour lay-over in Melbourne before
we caught a plane to Wellington, New Zealand.
Pictures taken during our stop-over in Melbourne
Pictures taken during our stop-over in Melbourne
Our first stop in New Zealand is
in Wellington. Our first day started off with a trip to the
Wellington Hospital to visit Brenda Groen and see how she is
recovering from her barefoot jumping accident a week earlier when
she fell at the base of the jump and hit her head flat on the jump
at 40+ mph. Brenda had been in ICU for nearly a week in a
comma. We had heard that she had awoken two days earlier.
Brenda's condition has improved from being near death in a comma for
nearly a week, to now being able to sit up and make eye contact with
people in the room. You can tell she is having a hard time
communicating and staying focused. She nods occasionally when
asked questions, and at other times, she just stares.
Brenda's good
friend Claire was at the hospital when we visited. There we
flowers all around the room from barefoot friends around the world.
I was shocked to see that Brenda has about a six inch laceration on
her head. After seeing it I was amazed that she survived the
fall. It really brings to reality the magnitude of risk
barefoot jumpers take every time the make a jump.
Footers and
friends from around the world are praying for Brenda. Her
family is extremely appreciative of the support and well wishes they
have received from skiers all around the world. Brenda has a
long road to recovery ahead of her, so please keep her in your
thoughts and prayers and keep the well wish cards and letters
coming.
After we left the
hospital, we spent the rest of the day in Wellington sight seeing.
We took a cable car ride to the Wellington Botanical Gardens.
It was absolutely beautiful. They had outdoor concerts going
on, flowers we had never seen before, and a huge rose garden.
The gardens were packed with runners, walkers, and photographers.
Pictures taken during our sight seeing around Wellington
Pictures taken during our sight seeing around Wellington
At dinner time, we took a walk
down to Courtney Place in downtown Wellington. It's a strip
where all the cool bars and restaurants are located. We found
a Sushi Bar and pigged out. We were then back at the hotel by
8:30 pm. Walking all day can wear you out more than endurance
barefoot racing.
Tomorrow, we plan
to meet Fred Groen at the hospital again to visit Brenda, then we'll
follow Fred to his private ski lake (about an hour North), for a
quick ski with Fred. We'll spend the night at Fred's then wake
up at around 5 am on Saturday to drive about 5 hours North to visit
and ski with Kathy Duxfield and Alan Clare. We will spend
Saturday night with the Duxfield's on their dairy farm in Putaruru
(just South of Hamilton), and then fly from there to ChristChurch
(on the South Island) on Sunday afternoon. After a couple days
in ChristChurch, we will catch a Qantus flight back home thus
completing our Australian/New Zealand adventure.
New Zealand -
Jan 20
Our second day in
New Zealand started off with a trip to their famous museum (Te Papa).
It's one of the coolest museums I've seen. It's very modern
and has a ton of interactive Discovery Zones for kids. It was
a great place for Michele and I to learn about the history of New
Zealand and how the native inhabitants lived and how they developed
a treaty with Great Britain. Some of the cool exhibits that I
remember is the Indian Motorcycle that set the land speed record
that still stands today, and the fastest sport motorcycle that was
hand built by an Australian. The native art and craftsmanship
also blew us away. There was so much to see, but unfortunately
we only had a couple hours. It's definitely worth your time if
you ever visit New Zealand.
Pictures taken during our visit to Te Papa Museum
Pictures taken during our visit to Te Papa Museum
After the museum visit, we headed
back to Wellington Hospital to pay another visit to Brenda Groen.
This time, Fred and his family would be at the hospital to meet up
with us.
 |
|
Back: Teresa Old, Rob
Stevenson, Ryan Groen, Gwen Stevenson, Vivienne &
Jonathon Walker, Michell Groen
Front: Michele, Lauren & Jarna Old, Tyler Groen |
When we arrived,
we found the entire family in the lobby outside Brenda's room
waiting to go in to see her. Fred was not there yet when we
arrived, but we were greeted by a very friendly lady (Teresa Old).
Teresa is a long time friend to the family, used to barefoot
herself, and has two young daughters who are very active in
watersports (Jarna and Lauren). Another family friend (Claire
Willard) was also there to great us and we had a good conversation
with her as well.
We got to meet
Fred's father (Martin Groen), and Brenda's mother and father (Rob &
Gwen Stevenson). Three out of four of Fred's children were
there as well. We got to meet Mitchell-14, Tyler-12 and
Ryan-16). His daughter Georgia-9 was the only child not
present at the time. The entire family was very nice and made
us feel very welcome. We sat for a couple hours and shared
stories and got to know each other. I brought my computer
along and was able to share pictures of our trip so far. I
keep copies of all the BFC videos on my notebook computer, and the
kids enjoyed seeing all of them.
Fred arrived
around noon and went in to spend some time with Brenda. He
came out very excited. He was happy to see she was improving
every day. She was able to talk time him a little more that
day than she had in previous days. So that made everyone else
feel great.
Fred had called us
the night before and insisted that we still visit his ski lake for a
day and go for a ski. So after visiting Brenda, we loaded up
and headed about an hour North of Wellington to the Groen family ski
lake. The drive up the coast to the lake was gorgeous.
It reminded us of Hawaii. Teresa Old had packed a lunch for us
and we ate it during our drive to the lake. When we pulled
into Fred's ski site, I was blown away. I don't think I've
ever seen a prettier set up. It was like looking at a Norman
Rockwell painting. We skied all that afternoon and had a
blast. It was the first time the boys had skied since Brenda's
accident. The jump is always in the water and we all had a bit
of an eerie feeling when we first drove past it. But Fred
shared his experience and explained the whole thing to us. He
was extremely proud of how his kids reacted and helped out during
the accident. Fred's dad Maarten Groen was also at the lake
with us and was very into barefooting and skis himself. He was
really into helping all the boys, as well as Fred improve. It
was fun to watch the whole family interact. They are all very
close and have a great time together.
We spent the rest
of the day skiing and having fun. Fred kids around with his
boys a lot and visa versa. They are all very competitive and
are constantly looking for ways to improve. They asked if I
would share some of my learning experiences with them to compare
styles and techniques. We just had a blast skiing together.
At the end of the day, I taught them the Barefoot Racing Transition
technique and we practiced it for about an hour running up and down
his lake. That was a total blast for everyone. Fred
comes from ski racing and found the idea of barefoot racing in the
Cup Series very exciting. He wants to compete in a barefoot
race next September if he can work it in after the Worlds.
That's assuming the girls will have him. I told him he was too
much of a wimp to compete on the men's teams. haha Just
kidding! If the Groen family trains as a team, they could be
an excellent racing team.
Pictures taken during trip to Fred Groen's Lake
Pictures taken during trip to Fred Groen's Lake
After skiing, Fred took us to his
favorite local restaurant for dinner. It was called Stephan's.
We had a wonderful meal and talked barefooting all evening.
After dinner, Fred and his family drove back to Wellington so they
could visit Brenda again the next day, and Michele and I went back
out to the lake and stayed the night in Fred's cabin attached to his
boat dock. What I remember the most is the stars. I have
never in my life seen some many stars in the ski. Bright and
vivid and the depth of them astounded us. We woke in the
morning to find fog on the water. It was very cool.
New Zealand -
Jan 21
We left Fred's
lake around 6am. We planned to drive from Fred's ski sight
about 5 hours North to a town called Putarura. It is Northwest
of Taupo on the North island of New Zealand. We had been
contacted by a BFC Team Member by the name of Kathy Duxfield.
She just happened to call us to place an order while we were in
Australia. When we called her back and told her we would be in
New Zealand, she asked if we could spare a day to visit her group of
skiers up North. We agreed and that's how we got to meet
Kathy. To read more about our visit to Patarura, click on the
link below
