Corney Swanepoel: Excitement as team set off for Athens

Departing from Auckland International Airport, I realise that it is not just me and the rest of the team that are excited about the Olympics.

Absolutely everyone that saw us in our uniforms were friendly, asking questions about our events and wishing us well.

The amount of support that people are giving us is a great motivation to go to Athens and give it everything. The expectations of the New Zealand public will keep us going, stronger than ever before.

This past week has been hectic to say the least, getting everything sorted, packing and dealing with the nerves ... or so I'm told.

A lot of the team are getting worked up and running around in a frenzy, doing what needs to be done, checking that they have everything they need, double checking they have everything they need, triple checking they have everything they need.

I must have missed something because I packed on the day that we flew out and I seem to have everything I need, my training and racing togs, caps, goggles, sunblock, and a few changes of clothes.

I guess it's just how all of us deal with these things differently, some people are just more highly strung than others. Other people would get freaked out by my way of taking it easy and making sure that I have enough time to do what I need to before a trip but don't stress myself out.

Instead of getting worked up I'm enjoying the sun and relaxed atmosphere here in Kefalonia, and just keeping my mind on what I need to do in the pool.

All the hard work has been done, we can't go and do insane sets and hope that we will get any fitter. All we can do now is trust that the work we have done in the past few months is enough to make us competitive over in Athens.

The main aim for me at the moment is to keep my fitness level up and work on the skills of my race, getting even the most minute detail perfect.

I don't want any aspect of my race to be less than perfect, because at this level of competition the rest of the field are unforgiving of mistakes.

It's made especially hard when the entire team has started tapering while only me and my room mate Scott [Talbot-Cameron] are still in full training. We will start tapering later than the rest because we compete towards the end of the swimming and need to keep both our feel for the water and fitness up.

It's a tough life, though, we are all struggling to deal with all this beautiful weather, the scenery that we get of the ocean about 5m from our balcony and all the traffic, but we do our best.

Actually it's the perfect environment for us to be in before the Games, no stress whatsoever.

The locals here are more relaxed than most New Zealanders who are asleep.

They sit in cafes on the beach front, having a beer or coffee. I'd like to carry on telling you about their lifestyle and habits, but that's it. Apart from the cafe owners I don't see much else work going on.

The swimming is going really well, and even as good as this island is, we still can't wait to get over there to the village, but most of all to stand in front of a few thousand people, screaming their lungs out and doing what we have waited a very long time to do.