Our day didn’t get off to the best of starts this morning when those rushing out the door to head up to the stables discovered some cheeky bugger had flogged our golf buggy. I mean seriously – it is well branded so they weren’t going to exactly be able to just slyly sneak around in it.

Turns out, they just used it to get up to the first car park and the story has a happy ending.

It’s been a massive cross country day. Everyone had one eye on the weather and the other on the horses – sorry, we’re right into the weather already! When asked about it by journalists Jonelle Price said she felt she was in England it had been discussed so often.

But seriously – the weather is having a huge impact on everything. Today organisers shortened the time between competitors in the eventing to just three minutes. While we had a few passing showers, conditions were near perfect with a slight breeze, lower temps and much less humidity than we have been used to.

It was a tough course and claimed its fair share of victims. There were plenty of media on hand to interview our riders – from FEI TV to the BBC, a Swedish channel and loads of others from across the globe.

The call has been made to cancel the musical freestyle – they did try to move it to Monday along with the eventing showjumping however, it just wasn’t going to work and they have completely pulled it. Eventing has its second horse inspection tomorrow afternoon and the jumping the following day. It’s not a decision that impresses everyone.

As I write this the rain has started to really come in steadily. Our NZ House is well stocked with all the essentials. Luckily we’ve got lots of spare mattresses too – they’re getting well used and the lounge has been used marae-style the last few nights.

Even the locals are worried about the hurricane – they were keen to get us all out of the media centre by early evening, urging everyone to go home before the weather really came in. So the place is in lock down and tomorrow will be a rest day of sorts.

We’ll keep you posted as we can about the hurricane and all the news on the New Zealand riders. They all really love to hear your messages of support, so keep them coming!

By Diana Dobson, New Zealand team media liaison