On the 2nd
of January I took the plane to Napier to volunteer at the Optimist World
Championship 2011. I spent ten days there and helped out in the GPS tracker
area.First I flew from Kerikeri to Auckland,
where I had to wait about 2 hours before I could catch the plane to Napier. At
7.30 pm I finally arrived and was a little bit nervous to meet the host family,
in which I would stay for the next days. I didn’t know for who I was looking for...I
just knew the name of the family. I must have looked pretty lonely and lost. At
the end I got picked up by the three children, aged 13-17. They were very
friendly and I immediately stopped feeling nervous and I relaxed. We drove to
town for dinner and went back later to their house with Pizza and afterwards we
watched a DVD. Late in the evening their parents came home from a party and I
could talk to them before I went to bed. They were very nice and I was so happy to stay
at their house.
The next morning
started very early, because we had to be at the sailing club at 7.30 am. We had
to switch the GPS trackers on, pack them each in a waterproof bag and put them
in a bigger bag for each of the 49 countries. After this job was done, we went
out on a boat to watch the races. It was so exciting to be so close! I’ve never
thought I could even go on a boat!
I knew quite a few of the
participants from last year in Malaysia and from earlier Optimist Regattas in
Europe, but on the first day I didn’t have the chance to talk to them…
We came back in the evening and had to
collect all the country bags and take all the GPS trackers out, dry them and
switching them off. Our last job was to charge them, because they would need to
have a full battery the next day. Quiet tired we were back home at 8.30 pm,
after dinner I went straight to bed.
The next
day began pretty much the same and in the afternoon we watched the Team Racing
on the water. On the 3rd day was a free day for the sailors. Most of
them had a look around New Zealand, went training on the water or sailed the
Fun race, where I helped out. I was on a boat, which got used a mark. It was a
long day on the water with a lot of sun and I was very tired in the evening. The
next days I spent quiet a lot of time with the Swiss Team. I could speak Swiss
German with a friend of my sailing club and French with the others. I was
surprised, my French was still quiet good and fluent. =)
The weather
became worse and worse and we had a lot of heavy rain, but the time ran and
World Champion became a girl from Singapore. The last day I had a look around
Napier and packed my bag. In the evening I went to the prize giving and enjoyed
the last evening with all the others and I used the time to talk to old friends
and had a great time.
On the last
day I helped to pack everything together, (so much work!), it took us about 3
hours!! My flight was in the late afternoon, so I had
still some spare time, which I used to go swimming and relaxing in the sun. For
2 hours I had the chance to go sailing, which I used of course. I took an
Optimist and had a great time out sailing in a nice breeze. It was the first
time I sailed Optimist again since I stopped last January. It was a very
awkward feeling, but everything came automatically and it was as I never
stopped. I really enjoyed being back on an Optimist and I was really surprised,
how well I did, but the time ran and I had to go back to get ready. After
saying goodbye to my host family, I went to the airport.
It was a
great experience and very nice to meet all the people and being a part of the
whole Volunteering Team.
