Katy's First Gym Competition!

After missing out on last years gym competitions due to being in isolation and then lockdown happening, Katy was desperate to participate in this years. As the days ticked by the pressure built wondering if covid would strike again and cause an upset. Luckily though it didn't and she made it to competition day. Having never been to a gym competition it was another learning experience for us parents - two in two weeks!

Gymnasts were required to be at the gym by 7,45am which meant an early wake up for Ella who beautifully braided Katy's hair as per instructions! It was impressive that she was willing to do this for Katy seeing though Ella loves her sleep ins!

We were at the gym early securing a good viewing position in the limited seating area. All very formal and offical, the coaches ran their girls through their warm ups together on the floor before competition started. Dividing into smaller club based groups, the girls rotated through the four different apparatus. 

Each apparatus had it's own method of warmup and competition - for example the vault had everyone completing two practices then each gymnast had their two attempts back to back; on the floor everyone warmed up together then each gymnast did their routine in turn.

Katy's group started on floor. She had a fantastic start to her first competition scoring a 9.1.

Her group then had a break before vault. Katy scored a 7.8 on this one.

Next up was parallel bars. Katy mistimed her mount not gaining enough momentum to get her legs over and had to start again. Despite this the rest of her routine was lovely and she scored 8.5

Katy's final apparatus the beam demonstrated her nerves of steel with a great performance scoring a 9.0.

It was wonderful to watch Katy put together all the skills she has learnt. We were really proud of her performance. Katy placed 5th in floor and 6th for beam in there division. Overall Katy scored 34 placing 10th. She is already looking forward to her next competition in a months time and so are we!

Day 2 - Alpine

Up even earlier this morning for a busier day. Ella and Max had their Alpine competition while Mira was going to compete in both of her events! Traffic was just as busy but road conditions were better. We arrived just in time to watch Mira compete in her first event the alpine slalom.

With a blue and red course, the girls and boys raced side by side but not actually against each other. Mira looked relaxed in both of her races. While the others skied loops, I was happy to remain at the bottom of the course (with an unhappy swollen knee) being occasionally sprayed in snow by a competitor in their attempt to stop!

Ella and Max's group was up next. There were more girls than boys so Max had had finished his two run before the girls had started their second run. Max looked fast and again improved in his second run. Like the ski cross, Ella improved on her second run by 1.5 seconds finishing in a similar position 54th out of 72.  We headed over to the ski cross for Mira's event. Similar to the alpine, Mira had a quicker time for her second run.

With the inter school competition now out of the way we skied over to Basecamp for a delicious lunch. Post lunch, our group split up for a few runs before eventually converging again at front valley. Still needing to drive home we left the slopes a little earlier than we normally would have.

Day 1 - Ski Cross

One of the main stressors about the ski competitions was getting to Perisher in time to get a carpark. This season, the perisher carpark has been filling up resulting in the National Parks closing the road by 8.30ish. We assume that a few things have contributed to this noticeable increase of people at Perisher - Selwyn ski fields delayed opening; Thredbo season pass almost doubling in price and good old covid / lockdown saga.

We were up and out the door early joining the slow crawling line of cars snaking their way up the mountain. Snow was falling lightly. The program for today was ski cross for Ella and Max around midday. Blue sky broke through the grey clouds and with recent snowfalls meant the snow was lovely. We spent most of the morning skiing the runs and making new tracks adjacent to the ski cross course. Opting to head up to mid station area for lunch, we ran into trouble with a massive crowd at the quad chair so took one of the nearby t-bars instead. Deciding to venture over to Leichhardt chair was another mistake as a large horde of skiers were waiting there too. No other options were available here so we joined the line and waited.

Eventually we made it to mid station for lunch with enough time to get back to Jump City for the ski cross competition.

The ski cross competition was interesting. First up the course opened for inspection - this involved the group of participants slowly snow ploughing down the course taking notes. Being Ella's first ski competition she just followed the others! 

Next participants in bib number order skied the course for their first run. With over 70 girls in Division 2, this took awhile! Eventually Ella skied down on her first run looking good taking 37 sec. The kids were encouraged to take the t bar straight back up to the top of the course and wait for their next run. Ella skied faster on her second run taking 1.5sec off her first time. She finished 53 out of 63 skiers only 8 sec behind the winner - it was a close competition!

 

Max was up next. There were slightly less boys in his category. Like Ella he improved with his second run 
Post event we decided on a short loop before calling it a day and returning back to the Station to recover.

Interschool Ski Comp Weekend

We made our way up to the snow on Sunday morning for our first taste of an Inter school ski competition. Ella, Max and Mira made their debut at the ACT / NSW Regional Inter school Ski competition with all three participating in Alpine and Ski Cross events.

As the lodge was full, we booked a room at the Station on the outskirts of Jindabyne for the two nights. 

Sunday was spent cruising around. We skied over to Smiggins so Katy and Mira could meet up with their good friend Alia. At Smiggins we all went in different directions, occasionally bumping into each other at the bottom as all the runs funnel into one area. Ella was getting busy trying to adapt to her new skis.

Late morning we attempted to have food at Smiggins but the crowds were terrible and the bistro was not open. Instead we gave up and headed over to Perisher Pub Food Court finding a table and a variety of food to satisfy everyone. Meanwhile the boys had headed off for a few loops of interceptor before stopping for food.

Post late lunch, there was not much skiing done. My swollen knee was complaining so I pulled the pin. Eventually all the others converged as various times to ski a few more runs on front valley before the snowy cold conditions got too much.

Belated Birthday Festivities

Katy finally got around to organising a belated birthday party. The celebrations began with a few girls coming over for dinner, movie and sleep over. In the morning more girls arrived. We all took the bus (masks on) into the city where we dropped the girls off to do an escape room at Kingpin. Meanwhile Andy, Ella and I did a spot of shopping.

The girls smashed through the escape room and we headed for a Boost juice before catching the bus back home. Lunch was followed by an impromptu beauty session! Fun times!

Sunset Colours

End of the week sensational sunset run with Indi up Mt Painter. Although the temperature was crisp, the colours were gorgeous! During this run, my left knee had multiple acute random pains and post run it blew up. Unfortunately and unbeknown to me this was the start of a new journey.....

 

Bye to the Bay

A quick morning run before embarking on the long drive home! We deviated out to the Fingal Bay lookout and subsequently lost Andy in the process.

The drive home was uneventful. Indi was particularly tired after such an active and social holiday with Leo. The sleeping theme continued once we were home too!

Showery Day

Today was a wet and windy day. Cath and I started our run under a triple rainbow! We made our way south along the single trail dodging puddles in an attempt to keep our shoes dry. At our turn around point, Big Rocky, we took several minutes to admire the rough surf. On a sparkling summers day, this place would be a great area to spend a few hours exploring.

Rather than return on the single trail, we opted for the large fire trail. Turned out to be a bad choice as there were several sections of literally rivers of water streaming across the road and no chance of keeping our shoes dry!

Back home no-one was inspired to do much in the showery conditions. Eventually after a few hours though we came up with a plan which everyone was happy with - visiting a nearby Koala sanctuary followed by beach combing at Big Rocky.

The Koala Sanctuary at Port Stephens boasts a Koala Hospital, Story walk and a Skywalk. The Story walk meanders between the rows of glamping tents with info board every so often and large koala sculptures leading to the hospital and Skywalk.

Unfortunately the state of the art koala hospital was not running a clinic when we were there so we entered the compound to the Skywalk an elevated tree top viewing platform 225m long offering unique perspective into koala life. Essentially either side of the loop walkway were pens containing a koala (or two) each with their own story. Most were permanent residents - either they were too old to be released or too injured to survive in the wild.  Several of the koalas were actually awake and enjoying a gum leaf snack. The whole experience took us less than an hour.

From the Koala Sanctuary it was a short and slow drive (avoiding large deep puddles) to Big Rocky. The walk from the car was a little longer than normal given the closure of the carpark due to repair / improvement work being undertaken. On arrival to Big Rocky, Cath and I were stunned at the level of the water - much higher than when we were there earlier. The rocky outcrop we easily walked to was underwater! The waves were ferocious and not much beach combing was to be done!

 

  

Morning on the left and afternoon on the right

After admiring nature at work, Andy suggested walking back to the house and unexpectedly all of the girls agreed to join him! Eoin went along too meaning Cath and I drove the cars back home. They covered the 3.5km trail taking as long as it did for us to drive back! Unfortunately for them though, the drizzle during the day meant big puddles had formed and they all got wet feet!

Holiday Fun

Parkrun was the first activity of the day with most of the gang participating. The course was out and back in both directions. No one broke any speed records but we were all pleased to have pulled up without injury! Breakfast at the beach cafe after was well deserved.

It was then a few hours of lounging around before Cath and I decided to take the dogs for a short walk. We   took them to Barry Point Lookout and then for a short explore in the rock pools below. Indi was keen for another dip!

Meanwhile back home the girls had concocted a plan that involved going to Toboggan Hill Park which boasted a 1km long toboggan ride. On our arrival at the ticket counter we were greeted with a sign saying there was a 90min wait on the toboggan run! After a brief consultation the girls decided to purchase a book of tickets anyway.

Other activities on offer were rock climbing, a maze, roller skating, arcade games, mini golf, a tractor ride. Once inside we went to the rock climbing wall where another sign greeted us saying that the belaying would be only done by a staff member! With only 1 staff member working the wall it looked like a bit of a wait. Not quite what we were expecting.

Someone then spotted the Gyro Extreme! Ella was first up. Firmly strapped into a seat, the ride began with the seats rotating in 360° in any manner! Looked like a vomit ride to me but Ella hopped off buzzing. Katy and Aoife then had a turn and loved it too!

With more tickets left, the girls searched for other options. In the meantime, Cath and I sacrificed ourselves and stood in the line to the toboggan. Mini golf was a no goer. The maze was ruled out as you needed to catch the tractor to get up to it and the line for the tractor was too long. Ella decided to do a rock climb while the others watched.

Back at the toboggan line, Cath and I chatted away and literally inched our way closer! The gang returned and then disappeared again. This time they went off roller skating! While they were busy, we had figured out why the line was so slow to move. It seemed that people would stay on the toboggan continuously for however many rides they had paid for! Also the staff would wait until there were enough free toboggans for each group before starting their rides! What a joke!

The girls returned and we eventually made it to the front of the queue - over 90 mins of waiting! Off they went for their 1km long toboggan ride. Luckily they all enjoyed it but we will not be returning any time soon ever.

  

  

With a few hours left of the day and the girls content on hanging around at home the adults headed off to do the Tomaree Head Summit Walk. A short 2km hike up Mt Tomaree which stands 160m above sea level.  What a stunning evening for a walk as we were treated to a sensational sunset! Could not have asked for better and more perfect way to finish the day!

Later that evening the adults submitted their best photos for Holiday Photo Competition! We gathered around the TV to critique each submission. Andy's photo was chosen as the winner!