Quote:
|
Originally Posted by NAC
Shelagh, still waiting on your down under report. Did ya have some fun? Where were you hiding? Highs, lows
|
We only got back to UK yesterday and didn't really have chance to go onto Tenths while out there, so this is hot off the press.
Whole trip was fantastic and simply not long enough - we only really managed the centre/east of the North Island but still managed to cover about 1500km in the hire car (mostly up and down and twisty bits). The scenery was spectacular everywhere and what can I say about the weather! 31C on the Friday of the race meeting! Could have done without the wind and dust on the Saturday - my face felt like it had been scoured!
We spent the event working at Point 3 with Steve Collier, Charles Lloyd (both expats) and Matthew and had a wonderful time. Although we were looking after Turn 4, we had the braking zone into the new final corner just behind us - awesome stuff, especially the last NZ V8 race. Can't remember the last time I saw such carnage! We didn't do much for Team GB's performance, though! Have managed to watch the sprint race but sleep caught up so still got the main race to view.
Big thanks to Cathy for getting the passes to our Motel so they were there when we checked in and to both her and Rob for looking after us. It was great to meet everyone and we were made to feel very welcome - even if you all thought we were insane (and it really was meant as a joke that we don't do the Brands Hatch round because it is too far). Apologies for not catching many names etc - but there were quite a lot of marshals!
Ended up sitting next to 4 Portugese lads in a restaurant on Friday night, including Joao Urbano. Very impressed when we bumped into him on Sunday night and HE said hello to US and started a conversation. With manners like that the lad should go far!
We had such a good time at Taupo that Steve and Charles persuaded us to do the following Sunday at Pukekohe - we flagged at the hairpin. Historic meeting with F5000 and FJunior amongst others. Great racing, great cars and another great day. Again, we were impressed by how friendly and interested everyone was - even if they, too, thought we were mad!
Must also say thank you to Steve and Charles for looking after us so well. Charles gave us a bed on the Sunday after Pukekohe, took us sightseeing on Monday and gave us a lift to return the hire car - thus reducing the stress levels to zero. And, to top up a great Monday, we had a lovely barbecue at Steve's house and met his family.
Now coming back down to earth with a large "bump". Will start saving up so we can come back - as we didn't win a fortune on the Lotto!