New Zealand

The Royal Zealand Yacht Squadron defended its title this weekend, winning the 44th annual Governor's Cup race at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach. The Kiwis bested a field of 13 teams in the annual junior racing regatta. William Tiller, Harry Thurston and Shaun Mason won the final two races for the title on behalf of Royal New Zealand. A round-robin format decided the winners. The New Zealand team was followed by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, which finished second with a team made up of Chris Segerblom, Connor Bathen and Kieran Chung from Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

Bill and Pat Manning Pat and Bill did the shot! If you're going to New Zealand, be sure to include the wild jet boat ride on the Shotover River in Queenstown. Both of us say it's a thrill of a lifetime, and you will get wet as well. A Disney ride, only for real. The driver of the high-powered, 12-passenger jet boat executed 360-degree turns through narrow gorges with lots of close calls but nary a scrape. We met quite by chance several months after our spouses, Allen and Kay, had passed away.

A 16-day tour of New Zealand brought together my husband, Ted, and I, our friends Ray and Jennifer Woolsey of Lake Forest, and Jack and Linda Seelhorst, formerly of Newport Beach who now live in Sisters, Ore. We flew into Auckland, and our first full day was spent with a Maori guide hiking the hills of Mt. Eden, learning about Maori history and the early days of New Zealand. We spent the next day on Waiheke Island, one of the many islands off the coast of Auckland, which we reached via the local ferry.

The Corona del Mar High girls' water polo A team won the bronze medal at the 2006 Panasonic Pan Pacific youth tournament in Auckland, New Zealand. Over the course of the five-day event, completed July 10, the CdM A team posted a 7-2 record. The girls lost an early-round game to eventual champion Marist Red, 5-1. Corona del Mar lost a 5-4 heartbreaker in the semifinals when its opponent scored the game-winner with no time left. Corona del Mar then won the bronze medal game, 8-4. The team has been training and playing against national and club teams in Australia and New Zealand since June 30. The Corona del Mar B team was sixth with a 2-5-1 record.

Judy Louie took in some sightseeing in New Zealand recently. But that wasn’t the extent of her trip. The Corona del Mar resident also helped a U.S. women’s tennis team to a bronze medal. Louie won three doubles matches with her partner Carol Clay of Ft. Lauderdale, Fla., as part of the Americans’ third-place finish in the Alice Marble Cup, an international tournament for 60-year-old women in New Zealand. Louie’s team, a group from the United State Tennis Assn.

Standardizing lifeguard ranks and training methods dominated the discussion when Newport Beach lifeguards hosted the annual California Surf Life Saving Assn.’s board of directors meeting Thursday. About 75 representatives from 28 lifeguard agencies from Santa Cruz to San Diego gathered in the Balboa Pavilion. Three Huntington Beach Junior Lifeguards were honored at the meeting for their work saving a friend who suffered a major neck injury in the surf of San Onofre. Kylie Cuccinotti, Paige Bisson, and Carley Zylsta were honored for assisting a Junior Lifeguard who seriously injured her neck.

In the stands on the pool deck at Newport Harbor High there was a life-size poster of Kaleigh Gilchrist for the girls’ water polo home opener last week. It wasn’t a cutout picture of Gilchrist shooting into a cage. Instead, the poster — made by her friend Chris Craib — was of her with a surfboard, signifying her prowess as a surfer. Gilchrist juggles her schedule with the ocean waves and the tussling in the waters of the pool. She’s about to improvise some more next month.

A pirate-clad ukulele player and a septuagenarian celestial navigation buff sit down at a dinner table. What do they talk about? How do they pass an entire night together? It’s almost a rhetorical question given the improbability of this pairing, but about a dozen people now know the answer thanks to a transpacific sailing expedition that recently ended in Newport Beach. The Alaska Eagle, a 65-foot aluminum sailboat that just returned from a yearlong, 20,000-mile trip to New Zealand and back, was staffed by a motley crew of sailors, and they didn’t just eat one meal together.

The Corona del Mar Polo club's U18 team earned third place at the 11th annual Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival in New Zealand recently. The CdM Polo program participated in New Zealand's premier water polo tournament. CdM sent three teams in the U20, U18 and U16 divisions with 140 other teams from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States. The U18 team included coaches Barry O'Dea and Kareem Captaan and players, AJ Santa Maria, Ari Marks, Ben Zepfel, Bruce Bearer, Charlie Howarth, Chris Robertson, Emery Molnar, Evan Ramsey , Hayden Leach, Miles Carpenter, Nicholas James Treadaway, Wes Sherburne and Will Havercroft.

Obituary Notice for Mary Isabella Macdonald On Sunday, March 25th we lost a Newport Beach Icon.  Mary Isabella Macdonald who had been hospitalized at Hoag Hospital in a coma for a week, passed away peacefully surrounded by friends and family. Mary, who was 85 years old at the time of her passing, was the third oldest child of Neil and Maggie Macdonald.  Born in Suva, Fiji Islands on October 31, 1926 she was educated at the Suva Grammar School, then left Fiji to continue her studies in New Zealand at Brown's University.  She left New Zealand after a number of years and lived in Italy for a short time before migrating to New York City where she lived for several years.  She then moved to Newport Beach where she has resided for the past thirty years, running her nanny/Babysitting agency (Sitters Unlimited)

Esper Keiser Jr. Legendary coach remembered as a kind, caring individual by Pat Yarborough Esper Hardy Keiser Jr., a prominent figure in athletic education in Claremont for four decades, died in his sleep on June 24, 2011 at his home on Balboa Island. ‘Coach’ Keiser was 74 years of age. A ‘local’ from the beginning, Coach Keiser was born on February 1, 1937 to Esper Hardy Keiser and Christine Rodrigues Keiser in Pomona. His father was in the insurance business for many years.  He grew up and attended schools in Pomona—Emerson Junior High and Pomona High Schools.

The U.S. national women's water polo team — which includes Newport Harbor High alumna Anne Belden — defeated China, 10-9, Saturday in the semifinals of the FINA World Cup in Christchurch, New Zealand. The victory propels the Americans into the title match against Australia, as Team USA assured itself its first World Cup medal since 2002. It was the first time in five games that Belden, who also starred at UCLA, has not scored. She had three goals in three games and a single tally in another previously in the tournament.

SYDNEY, Australia — Anne Belden, a former Newport Harbor High standout, was named to the all-tournament team after she helped lead the USA women's senior national team to second-place finish at the Six Nations Tournament held at the Sydney Olympic Park Aquatic Center. The U.S. women's team lost to Australia, 10-8, in the tournament final. The game was a rematch of the famed gold-medal match from 10 years ago in the first Olympics for water polo. Kami Craig of the Americans was named the tournament MVP, while Brenda Villa and Lolo Silver also joined Belden on the all-tournament team.

The Royal Zealand Yacht Squadron defended its title this weekend, winning the 44th annual Governor's Cup race at the Balboa Yacht Club in Newport Beach. The Kiwis bested a field of 13 teams in the annual junior racing regatta. William Tiller, Harry Thurston and Shaun Mason won the final two races for the title on behalf of Royal New Zealand. A round-robin format decided the winners. The New Zealand team was followed by the Newport Harbor Yacht Club, which finished second with a team made up of Chris Segerblom, Connor Bathen and Kieran Chung from Newport Harbor Yacht Club.

The Corona del Mar Polo club's U18 team earned third place at the 11th annual Pan Pacific Youth Water Polo Festival in New Zealand recently. The CdM Polo program participated in New Zealand's premier water polo tournament. CdM sent three teams in the U20, U18 and U16 divisions with 140 other teams from New Zealand, Australia, South Africa and the United States. The U18 team included coaches Barry O'Dea and Kareem Captaan and players, AJ Santa Maria, Ari Marks, Ben Zepfel, Bruce Bearer, Charlie Howarth, Chris Robertson, Emery Molnar, Evan Ramsey , Hayden Leach, Miles Carpenter, Nicholas James Treadaway, Wes Sherburne and Will Havercroft.

Stephen David Royds, a convicted drug dealer who kept his girlfriend's body preserved on dry ice in a swank Newport Beach hotel room for a year, has returned to his native New Zealand after being released from prison, federal officials said Thursday. Royds, 49, was paroled in May after serving more than a year and a half of a four-year sentence for felony drug charges. Immigration and Customs Enforcement deported him June 25, ICE officials said. Royds, who went by the nickname "Kiwi," was arrested in March 2008 by Newport Beach police officers.

NEWPORT BEACH — One of Kaleigh Gilchrist’s friends lugged her around in front of the Newport Harbor High bleachers. Fans cheered every time the friend lifted Gilchrist in the air. Well, it was a life-sized cardboard cutout of Gilchrist in a wetsuit. The real Gilchrist was in the pool playing in a crucial Sunset League girls’ water polo match against Edison. Surfing wasn’t in the plans Wednesday night. The senior still wiped out the Chargers. Gilchrist recorded four of her five goals in the first 7 1/2 minutes, allowing the Sailors to cruise to a 9-3 home victory.

In the stands on the pool deck at Newport Harbor High there was a life-size poster of Kaleigh Gilchrist for the girls’ water polo home opener last week. It wasn’t a cutout picture of Gilchrist shooting into a cage. Instead, the poster — made by her friend Chris Craib — was of her with a surfboard, signifying her prowess as a surfer. Gilchrist juggles her schedule with the ocean waves and the tussling in the waters of the pool. She’s about to improvise some more next month.