Rest Day

We started our day off with a very tough water session down at the beach. Swimming, running, relays and jumping included. Rachels group being at a huge advantage thanks to her exceptional size (choice of shallow water may have proved a smart decision as well).

We then headed back to the hotel to get ready for our excursion…a boat taxi ride to the elusive island that keeps disappearing. The coaches Pauline and Nam decided to do their weeks exercise by paddling over to the island. Unfortunately after some great canoeing, snorkelling and relaxation the weather turned bad on us and we had to make a move back home.

Back at the hotel we enjoyed some personal time and headed out for a team dinner while the coaches taught the New Cal girls some new tricks. Off to bed to prepare for game three.

Tuesday

Alarms were set for 6.15am before another early breakfast of bread and jam – the French side of New Caledonia coming through in the breakfast selections.

After breakkie we went to our 8am training session which was scheduled to be at a new stadium (we’d heard it was an $18m stadium specially built for the upcoming Pacific Games that are being hosted here at the end of the month).  Our joints were a little bit excited at the prospect of having a training session on a floor other than conrete covered with 1mm of paint.  However, not all turned out well.  Whist walking in our footprints became obvious across the court and we were a little concerned given the clear skies outside and no rain overnight – there were no wet feet here.  Instead, we realised that the court was covered in a thick layer of some kind of grease and that training would prove to be a little bit difficult.  We decided to start cautiously with some slow moving passing but within 10 seconds our resident Bambi (Sophie Godfrey) had a bit of difficulty staying on her feet and almost pulled her groin in a rendition of the side splits.  Coach Manser, although not sure that the incident was entirely to be blamed on the slippery floor, decided that it was better to be safe than sorry…. “we’re done here!”.   Instead, we ventured outside to find some more concrete (we’re more used to that at the moment anyway), and did some netball style warm up shuttle to the displeasure of the local canine, who made his distaste quite obvious by chasing us around and barking fairly aggressively at us.

After our training (consisting of warming up and stretching) we headed back to the hotel and straight to the beach for some recovery – a swim to the pontoon (also know as platoon by Rhiza) and some searching for sea creatures by Rachel, we enjoyed the best of New Caledonia – perfect clear water and some sun.   Showers followed – it has proven difficult to get everyone through the one shower whilst sharing in a room of 6 girls – needless to say the bathroom is looking a little worse for wear (its the only room that hasn’t been attacked by Rhi, our resident pottering queen).  Somehow Heike managed to find some time in the shower to create a Picasso on the wall made from her hair – charming.

A walk to the shops to stock up on some much needed supplies (and replenish Sophie’s chocolate collection that has been devoured by the rest of the team) was then followed by lunch.  Afternoon naps were the ticket of day, particularly in Sophie’s lounge room where they were accompanied by some angle grinding next door.

We headed to the stadium for our game early and trained for about an hour and a half before we played to make up for some of the session we missed this morning.  Defence was the focus, and it came through in the game, with another convincing 3 set win to the Aussie girls, seeing some improvements from yesterday’s match.

We came back to the hotel for dinner, showers and bed, in preparation for our early morning conditioning session tomorrow, before heading to an island nearby for some snorkelling and fun in the sun on our rest day.

 

Nighty night.  Room 102 – Two fruits Orchard, Rhiza “love puff”, Bambi, non-poo Lou, Ginger Ninga Nat and peg leg Jensen.

Day 1 in New Cal

It was an early morning rise ready for baguettes and jam, and a big happy birthday to Nat. We headed off to training to check out the gym only to discover a reasonably non-knee friendly court of concrete covered with a small layer of rubber. Training focussed on passing and defence, to prepare us for our first game against the New Caledonian national team later that night.

After a good workout we came back to the hotel for a quick recovery dip and pontoon stretching session, unfortunately it was clouded over…which made our recovery all the more effective.

Lunch followed, a special birthday celebration for Frosty. We all enjoyed some non microwave food, chowing down on some great burgers and salads. After finally being satisfied and full, we headed back to the hotel to prepare for the game… everyone keen to see what the New Cal girls had in store for us.

Traffic on the Island, plus an extended opening ceremony saw us kick off a little later. Seeing the New Cal girls for the first time in the warm up we were all keeping an eye on them as well. We knew it wasn’t going to be the most conventional, with the Pacific game a complete relaxed approach, a little different from the normal disciplined opponents we see ourselves up against in the Asian region. Let’s say there was a little friendly fire in the hitting warm up.

First set was a bit rusty, finding our groove and working the New Cal girls out. The game got better, we got better with the next two sets finding us working on our own game and focussing on ourselves. A strong win in three, a great start to the series. We stayed to watch the boys carry on our good start with a strong win in four and headed home for a late microwave dinner. After one slice of cake and another happy birthday (New Cal is a little more expensive than Vietnam) for Nat, we all headed to bed with new goals, ready to build a good foundation and grow throughout the series.