Last few photos....

Chicago, stunning!!

Boys and more Levi's!!




Closest we came to a run in with the law

Me driving, them sleeping.....

Laurence SUP, Duluth

Me, SUP, Duluth whilst Geoff tried a new boat out
Self explanatory....


Absolutely brilliant plank exhibition found on top of kayak statue. Thanks and goodnight!!!! See you all next year.

Party Rock Anthem - LMFAO [OFFICIAL LYRICS]

This tune may have been cranked up on the radio a couple of times.......

Wrap up

Well the journey home with the kayaks turned in to yet another mission. We had to pay at every airline. Kelly, Marcus and Geoff spent the whole day in LA after getting an earlier flight. Thanks to them we managed to make our connection to the AirTahiti flight even though we were the last people to check in for the flight. Kelly also managed to talk them down on the price they charged us per boat. Finally back in NZ we ruched over to domestic transfer with Marcus and Geoff and paid to get their kayaks on. Lou then drove them to the domestic terminal , only to be confronted by yet another issue, the airNZ rep didn't believe I had paid for the boats so wouldn't allow them on the flight so the boys missed their flight and had to wait 2 more hours for the next after Lou paid extra and got a parking ticket too.
Thanks heaps to Jackie and the other lady at Virgin America and the guy at Air Tahiti as well as one person at AirNZ for being the only 4 airline people we met all trip who made any effort to help us.

The group that had stayed in Chicago got packed up and went back to the windy city to walk the 'Magnificent Mile'. Full of tops brand names.....sorry Jill, I couldn't really afford the beautiful rings at Cartier !!

Kelly had some fun on the flight home, passed out in a deep sleep she shouted "Dale" at the top of her voice and then kicked me hard enough to give me a dead leg. It bought a much needed smile to our faces!!

Well, that's about all from me folks, I'll post the last photos in a second.

Thanks kids for a great trip, you all were fantastic and your parents should be very proud of you.
Thanks again Dale and Wendy for organising such a great trip. I hope you're enjoying a much more relaxing time in Europe. Everyone is already looking forward to next year.......
I hope I helped you all have a fun trip and you think of great memories in a couple of years, the next time you hear "Party rock anthem" and you crank it up loud!!!!!
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pIOOwhmkoLo

Andy Fuller, coach, mentor, driver, rule fracturer, ice cream container cleaner (I somehow lost 3 KGs on the trip anyway!!) and now I'm off for a nap.

we got all the kayaks on for free

YEAH RIGHT!!!!!!!!!!!! And we had to pay for our normal bags too. Matthew now has no kayak for 10 days and Kel, Marcus and Geoff are heading to LAX with a headache to sort with air tahiti. 10 kayaks, 14 paddles and 7 passengers.....
back to sleep, that was a bad 5 am start.
At least the airport parking guy had a sense of humour and after scaring the shit out of me.....let me off the $160USD fine for leaving my van at the kerb with Laurence trying to talk his way out of it.....very happy to see me run back out....

close to home

well, at last we got some kayaks on a plane when Dale and Wendy left today.
Meanwhile the 8 left went shopping at a huge mall in Chicago.
Straight after we shot in to Chicago city and went up the tallest building in North America, the sears/willis tower. I even braved the glass floor section 103 stories up!
We then shot back across town to Wrigley field, home of the Chicago cubs baseball team. We arrived late, found out I had been led astray by the online puchase and had tickets to tomorrows game. A few frustrating minutes and several $$ late we were in our seats. Locals told us the cubs would be thrashed (I hoped this as I have had many friends in Phildeliphia who were playing).
The Cubs thrashed the Phillies though and the kids sang their theme tune all the way home ....."go Cubs Go...."
A highlight was Bill Marray actor from Ghostbusters singing during the 7th inning stretch.
Poor Matthew, every time he got up to get a drink or a souvenir he returned to find he missed another home run!!!!!
Off to the airport at 5am for the first flights.......

Numbers.....

Hi everyone, it seems like many of you have had a great laugh at our expense. Don't worry, 95% of the time we've been laughing too!! I just didn't think it possible for so many random things to happen on one trip! Anyway, we were going to write a list of numbers on day one but this list will be way more impressive as we have our last breakfast together.......well sort of together, shared with about 30 other people in a crowded hallway of a motel near the airport in Chicago.

1 team

28 days away (or 56 for Dale, Wendy, Finn, Carl)

13 people

10 athletes

1 coach

9 kayaks at departure

0 kayaks at arrival

3 kayaks for the lucky few…shipped from Europe

8 days waiting for kayaks from LAX

4900 KMS my car has driven

5400 kms Wendy car….lots of trips to supermarket and Garmin getting her lost!!

4700 ish kms wendy drove

1500 ish for dale

5600 kms for me including trip to fetch kayaks.

25 pieces of luggage at start, 14 arrived in Ottawa

46 hours time to get to Ottawa from Auckland

72 hours for Dale!!!!

4 flights of stairs to get kayaks to our rooms in this hotel

97 sets of roadworks

Score….Andy 34, Garmin GPS 3 (That’s roughly how many times I was right with no map and Garmin was wrong!!)

17 hour drive from Niagara to Wausau

10 hour drive last night from Duluth to Chicago

4 days, roughly how long we have spent in the cars!!!!!

8 baseball caps bought

2 overloaded minivans with 12 kayaks on the roof with 4 large bits of wood.

00 yes zero run ins with the law…..so far.

165455463654646 hours kids spent combined on the internet!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

1 hour spent doing homework (combined for whole team from what I can work out)

72 loads of washing

1 foreign ’hookup’….but the boys are still trying……

8 different accommodations

9 kayaks and 14 paddles......that 7 of us are going to attempt to fly home with....

23 times we thought about hitting the bottle…….but 0 times we did

Racing, meal, SUP and lazer tag

The race course was pretty interesting at Duluth. It was a very hot day and just kiwi vs aussies.
A big drop, an up in the middle of the flow and a very tight surf in a big hole that was fast enough to give you whiplash. Our guys sucked it up and raced pretty well considering the nature of the course.
Laurence was top kiwi in 3rd, Finn 4th , Carl 5th, Cole 6th. Marcus 10th.
Kelly won C1W.
In the evening we went back to the course at 6 for a great italian meal where we watched racing from the 90's (Yes I had a 10 second clip!!) and surf and big drop movies. Many of the team went for a SUP (Standup paddle board) on the lake, many with trembling knees, worried about falling in.
When we got back we shot down to lazer tag.......I found something I can beat the kids at still....top scorer on both games. We played 8 kiwis against 8 USA plus Cole and Laurence. NZ DOMINATED!! I think Laurence shot some yanks!!!!!
Just leaving now for the sprint race and a 10 hour drive to Chicago. Foxy left this morning to go to Ottawa for 10 days more paddling, with our usual airport dramas, 330am, closed roads, detours a forgotten paddle and a refused kayak.....so, the fun begins again!!

Duluth photos

Middle hole/gate 10

Bottom drop

View of Duluth lifting bridge from our hotel

Matt, doing the video link from almost in the river!


Big drop at gate 3!! off the slab was the only route

Rugged landscape of start area. I can't call it the start pool as there was no pool, only rocks!!

Conjoined cold idiots!!!!