SURF LIFESAVING: Taiwan trip throws up challenges | Hawkes Bay Sport | Surfing, Rugby, Soccer, Football, Cricket in Hawkes Bay

You can never have enough vegetables and every universal health foundation will tell you that.

But veges for breakfast?

Now that's something two-time champion surf lifesaver Nikki Cox, of Hawke's Bay, finds hard to stomach.

``They serve vegetables for breakfast over there and there's lots of rice,'' the 24-year-old Waikato University student told SportToday on Friday night in Napier after the end of her World Games campaign with the New Zealand team in Taiwan last week.

Luckily Taiwan is a country where visitors are likely to bump into shops, with several of them within almost 100m of each other. It boasts 8058 convenience stores in an area of 35,980sq km of more than 22 million inhabitants.

As of this year it championed 4800 7-Eleven stores, thus having the world's highest density of those outlets too per person.

``We just went to the shops and bought some cereals,'' said Cox, a Waikato University Blues Award recipient this year, who was making a whirlwind trip to Napier to visit friends and family before returning to varsity on Sunday _ after watching the Magpies' win _ for final-semester exams.

Cox won a gold medal in the board race at the games, was runner-up in the board rescue event and finished third in the ironwoman category.

``Winning gold in the board race means I've defended my world title,'' she said, adding the field was relatively unknown apart from an Australian and South African she had raced against previously. The games had three competitors from the top-eight nations in the event.

``I was quite nervous going to the start but it was pressure I had pretty much put on myself,'' said Cox, who suspected water contamination had something to do with the collywobbles and headaches she had to endure on the final day.

Fellow Westshore Surf Lifesaving Club member and ironman champion Daniel Moodie was also part of the Kiwi contingent.

The 21-year-old beat world champion ironman Shannon Eckstein, of Queensland, in the men's board race in 1m swells at Sizihwan Bay, in Kaohsiung City in the southwest.

With rice a staple diet, Cox said the Kiwis had to adhere to a diet that was close to their training regime.

``We ate bread and didn't try too many different foods,'' she said, agreeing there was a cruel twist to sporting excellence which opened new doors to exotic locations with limited sightseeing and a narrow eating spectrum on offer.

She spoke highly of the hospitality of the Taiwanese people. ``They were friendly and looked after us well. Our volunteer guide showed us the city and introduced us to their language.''

The country's principles are built on Confucianism, which stresses duty, loyalty, honour, filial piety, respect for age and seniority, and sincerity among values which individuals are urged to embrace.

Cox is unsure what this summer holds when she finishes her management studies degree at varsity but she will head off to Wellington in February to start work for PricewaterhouseCoopers.