There is no better place for an altitude block in NZ than at the Snow Farm. Good accommodation, so many running trails and beautiful scenery.
I was there last year at the same time and wasn't ready to race and preferred to stick to training. But this year I planned to race in the Wanaka Contact Tri race. The 7pm start time was quite cool, a lot later than usual, so plenty of time to prepare with a run and swim beforehand. There was a good line up with Debbie Tanner and Soph Corbidge coming from Auckland and Rachel, Danne and Sarissa from the Netherlands. The 6 of us were the front bunch.
Onto the run, we had a group of 4. I ran out the first km with Debs with Rachel 5 - 10sec back then made the final winning surge in the sprint finish against Rachel. 
And an hour later Laurent won the "Doddsy International", in a fast race with Ryan Sissons 2nd and Tony Dodds 3rd.The support for the event was huge! It was a criterium style race, great for the crowds which were so close to the action.
We spent all of January at the Snow Farm, put a lot of km's in the legs and got quite tired. We had a mixture of weather and then a few days of freezing weather where we woke up to snow up at the 1580m lodge.
Now it's back to Christchurch for some recovery time and sea level training.
Andrea
Triathlon's golden couple victorious in Wanaka
