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Annabel wrote this from , before the of the s. Her to qualify for Friday's final, which you can .

Before arriving in New Zealand, I knew it for its rugby, as a destination for many British travellers seeking adventure tourism, and as somewhere my parents went a few years ago and described as being "a bit like Cornwall".

Being from a proudly Cornish family, I knew this was the biggest compliment they could pay any country. So before discussing the rowing, I'm going to first establish: is New Zealand like Cornwall?

There are many similarities. The first thing that struck me is that, like Cornwall, it's a long way from Henley-on-Thames.

To get to New Zealand I saw the sun rise over London, set over the Atlantic somewhere, rise again over the Pacific and finally set in Hamilton, a few hours south of Auckland, on the imaginatively named North Island.

Admittedly Cornwall is a bit closer, being four hours down the A303, but it's still a long way away, OK?

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