Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 5,

Oct. 18, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

”What a day for a day dream”

I woke up early, had a light breakfast, closed up the house and figured out how to put the key in the security box all by myself. I spent 1 hour trying to change my method of payment on the Uber app. AI finally gave me a hand. Some of these apps are not made for people with white hair. I called an Uber and the driver arrived in 15 minutes. He refused to take my bicycle and would not drop down the back seats. He wanted to charge me $8.00 as according to him, I was cancelling the ride. I threatened to give him a bad report so he relented and cancelled the ride himself.

My neighbour offered to drive me to the railroad station but by that time I had already summoned up a new Uber. We had a nice conversation and he told me that he had built the semidetached house and sold the other half for $1.9 million. Real estate is very expensive in this area. The Uber arrived and took me to the railroad station. I had 2 bags of luggage, a knapsack with my souvenirs from the triathlon and a bicycle. It was obviously unmanageable. A nice gentleman of similar vintage to me took charge and helped me get my baggage onto the train. They were doing work on the train line so I had to get off the train and take a bus. The gentleman accompanied me for a few blocks to get to the bus station. People are so nice here.

The first bus was too crowded to take me with my bike. The second bus arrived 15 minutes later and gave me the same lame excuse. By that time I had run out of battery. I went into a Dominos Pizza Restaurant and the waiter called an Uber for me. He would not accept any payment! The Uber arrived and refused to take me with a bicycle. He did accept to call a bigger Uber. I arrived at the train station and somehow boarded the train to Sydney. An Uber took me to my Ibis Budget Hotel. I checked into the hotel and decided to bike from the airport to downtown Sydney to drop off the bike. The GPS lady told me it should take about 35 minutes. That might be possible for an Australian but certain not for a senior Canadian. I ran out of battery life 1.5 hours later, so I stopped off at restaurant to charge up my iphone.

I was hungry so I had some sushi. It was the worst sushi that I have ever eaten. By the time my iphone was charged up, I had to purchase more data. That is not easy to do if you have no data left to go online and buy more data. It was a vicious circle. Eventually, I got in touch with the Livelo bike shop to drop off my bike. The shop was closed. The man told me that he was in Wollongong picking up bikes. He gave me the address of his house which was supposedly 2km away. It turned out to be 5k away through a lovely hilly area of town with much parkland. I dropped of the bike and headed off to the train station to go to my Ibis Budget Hotel. The train took me to Central Station but there were no connecting trains to the airport as there was track work being done. They did supply an airport bus several hundred meters away. The bus dropped me off at the Domestic Terminal and I proceeded to my hotel on foot, 15 minutes away.

I am sitting in an airport hotel restaurant, finishing off a nice fish meal and sipping my second pint of Australian beer. I am wondering if I should have a 3rd one.

Tomorrow, I fly to Auckland, New Zealand.

”What a day for a day dream”

Love,

Brian

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia-New Zealand 4

Oct 17, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

The Parade of Nations was great. There are 4000 athletes here from 73 different countries. We all marched along, one after another representing our countries. Australia, the home country marched out last. The Canadian delegation is about 200 strong. When I saw the Israeli Team I introduced myself and asked if I could join them. We talked about my experience volunteering in Israel and they were very happy to meet me.

The house that I am staying in is wonderful. It is very modern, situated in a middle class, very well kept neighbourhood. Being next to the sea, everything grows well here. I have never seen such thick grass. We have a nice terrace overlooking a small garden. We are 15 minutes away from the triathlon.

We were up early this morning to get to the triathlon 1 hour early. We had to check in and have a last minute check up of our tattoos and helmets. We brought our bikes to the transition zone last evening. I will not wash off my tattoo for as long as possible. The weather was just perfect for a race but the water was a little rough. They changed the course several times before the start of the race. In spite of the adjustments to the course there was still a strong current. I was blown off course several times and completed the swim in 26 minutes. Usually I can swim 750m in under 20 minutes. I finished the race in 2:12 hours which is rather long for me as I usually complete a sprint race in under 2 hours. I am not a kid anymore. I was happy to finish the race and get a finishing medal arriving 21/21 in my age group. I was exhausted after the race and sat around for 1 hour to recuperate. I met up with Paul, and we went out for beer and chips.

Luisa lent me her bike for the race. What a nice thing to do. So Canadian… We came home after the race and had wine and cheese with Paul and Katerina. I invited Luisa and her husband for dinner. Luisa and her husband Alex picked me up at 6:00 and we went out to for tacos and nachos. The restaurant was noisy with great atmosphere, obviously catering to the 30 year old age group. I was easily twice as old as the general population. What fun!!

Love,

Brian

Australia-New Zealand 1

Australia- New Zealand 3

Oct. 16, 2025,

Hi Everyone,

I woke up this morning feeling great and knowing what a great day this would be. Boy what a surprise I was in for. I went to bed at 9:00 pm, still not being used to the time change. I woke up at 6:00 refreshed and ready to start the day. My friends Paul and Katerina went off to do a 2.5 hour hike up and down the local mountains here. I set my gps for the local police station to make a police report on my missing ipad. The GPS mal functioned for 1 hour until I ran out of battery life. I arrived at a small police station only to find it closed. I some how found my way back to my house an hour later by following the beach road until I recognized my street.

P and K arrived at the same time as me so we went off to a beach side restaurant for a light lunch. Paul and I then went over to the triathlon site to check in. They took one look at my bike and said that I could not race in a world championship using a road bike with straight handlebars. I had never heard of such a thing but apparently it is written somewhere in the handbook. Paul immediately went onto our web site for Canadian triathletes called Slack. He sent out a request for a bike hoping that someone would have raced in the olympic triathlon today and so would not need the bike for the sprint race tomorrow.

Within minutes a nice girl, Luisa, from Ottawa accepted to lend me her bike as she had finished her race and did not need it tomorrow. What a wonderful person and what a great sport. We met at the transition area and had the bike mechanic adjust the seat and change the pedals for me as I use a different type of racing pedals. I then registered the bike and left it in the transition area.

I will race tomorrow at 8:10 am in the 75 to 79 age group. I will meet my saviour later in the day and have invited both her and her husband out for dinner tomorrow evening.

This evening we got all our stuff ready for the race and put on our tattoos. You can only have your bike, running and bike shoes and a wet suit in the transition zone. They are very very strict here.

Love,

Brian