Early Days in the Olympic Village

First full day in the Village in London. Arrived to a cold and wet day yesterday.  The systems at Heathrow were surprisingly good. Must admit though, for all the lives we gave in two world wars, how come they park Air NZ so far away??

I was “lucky” enough to be on the first morning that the official transport began.  So greeted at the airport. Good start. Brand new bus 15 mins away. Good. Bus arrives – then it won’t start. One hour later the replacement bus arrives and off we go. Ten mins down the road the driver remembers he has to go to Terminal 3 as well.  Back we go. No-one at Terminal 3. Now it is raining and the route to the Village is directly through Central London.

If no-one had been to London before then it was a free look at all the landmarks – London Eye, Buck Palace, Tower of London etc.

Then we get lost in the sumptuous back streets of East London ... luckily it is not dark.

So three hours after boarding the first bus we arrive in the Village.

It is a very cool set-up – superior to Beijing. Smaller footprint so walking distances much less than in China. Excellent accommodation. Food so far is fantastic but of course not too many in the Village yet.

We have the men’s football team in – and spent this morning doing media with Ryan Nelsen who is an absolute quality individual. For a super-wealthy sporting star he is extremely humble and loves the NZ environment here in the village.

They head out tomorrow to fly to Belgium for a pre-Olympic game.

The women’s hockey team arrived also – to get sorted and get their bearings before they head away for their final camp.

Cyclists begin to come in from next week.

Today we had media this morning and then did a run with our official transport around the Village to the Main Press Centre – that’s where we run all conferences and where we take athletes following success at venues.

TV1 (for the first time), TV3, Radiolive and Radio NZ are all non-rights holders which means they are not allowed into venues. They do have a single access each to the MPC. All the venues around the village (main stadium, swimming, velodrome, hockey, basketball, handball) are within the Oly precinct which means they cannot even talk to athletes outside those venues. But the MPC is common ground. We need the access from village to MPC to be stress free because by the time an medal winner gets back to the village from the venue (after media, mixed zone, official conference, drug testing) is up to 3 hrs after the event – and then we need to entice them to the MPC for a further hour.

The system worked well today in the test.

Tomorrow we begin checking out each venue as well.

Now for the NZ Village. The team has done a fantastic job. They pride themselves in providing an environment that is fun, relaxing and motivating. They have done a first class job – with four pou at the entrance and great village courtyard.

And we greet every group as they arrive – something special to NZ. This afternoon it was the equestrian team.

Superbly done.

We created quite a hit in Beijing with how they dressed our part of the village. The Australians have reacted – to produce giant letters on their building.

The picture shows the Australian building complete with signs Aussie, Aussie, Aussie, Oi, Oi, Oi ... they are indeed a nation of real class and subtlety.

On the other side is A, U, S, T etc each in giant letters on each floor. We reckon they chose the only 9 storey block in the village so it could fit their sign. All the other buildings are eight storeys. May be they paid for the extra floor so their signage would fit?

Nice day today although right now the rain is setting in again. Tomorrow we start on the venues around the village and Thursday out to rowing.

Go the kiwis ...

IAN HEPENSTALL