Aloha, I am Timothy Lara and have been travelling through Asia, Australia and Aotearoa, meeting paddlers and having a great time...Mahalo!
I Paddle for Hawaiian Canoe Club and this is my story that I would like to share with you all while travelling around Aotearoa...
I took off from Maui on Aug 26th right after our third race of the distance season and spent the first 6 weeks in Thailand, Cambodia and Vietnam. I didn't do any paddling and I ate A LOT!
I got to Oz and paddled with Pacific Dragons CC on Oct 16th in Sydney and then with Southeastern CC on Oct 21st at 5am in Sydney. I had to wake up at 3.30am to catch a train so I could make it there on time! I went to the Gold Coast where Matt Carter let me jump in with them for the Gold Coast Relay Cup on Oct 25th.
The thing is I had to fly out that day to Newcastle for another race the next morning, so half way thru the relay I had to jump off the escort boat and swim into shore where Matts wife picked me up so I could catch my flight to Newcastle. Next morning, Oct 26th, I participated in a Hoe Hora race series race in Newcastle bgefore heading back to Sydney to fly to Aotearoa.
Harvie, an OC Photographer, gave me a ride to the Gold Coast race and told me he'd be shooting photography at Vaka Eiva. I hadn't heard of Vaka Eiva.
I met Kingi in Auckland and he told me that they were short paddlers for their crew at Raro.I went to meet the boys. They let me join their crew, so I am now officially paddling with a Kiwi crew at Raro!
I put an email out to the Waka Ama site. Troy called me back and I paddled in the Tuesday Twilight race with Te Au Rere Waka Ama in Rotorua. He also hooked up with the Mauao race! I managed to get a paddle in with Mike Nuku in Napier as well, before flying out to Raro. Mahalo everyone!!