Work and Play
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Sun 2 Oct 2011 11:14
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It's been a fine week weather wise, sunny days and most
importantly, no rain. So we've got a lot of good work done on the boat. It's
been mostly on the bottom, sanding and filling were necessary in preparation for
antifouling. The Hallberg Rassy blue lines just above the water line are painted
on and are both looking a bit tatty in places - all those miles have taken their
toll, so when the local boat builder here said they had a super machine from
Sweden that could match any colour of paint and they could respray it, a
quote was requested. This was too much, so we've done a deal whereby we
will do all the preparatory work, including all the masking up and sanding,
and they will supply the paint and do the spraying. So the last couple of
days have been spent on that. Masking up two close lines means putting on
4 lines of masking tape and getting these straight takes a lot of
concentration and is very slow and tedious, especially when it's quite
high up above the ground. We're glad that's over! Sanding the lines
is near enough complete and as soon as the good weather returns the
spraying should go ahead. Rain is predicted for most of next week, so our
attention will turn to work inside the boat.
Worked stopped on Friday night and our week-end has been
dominated by rugby again. The South African game on Friday was being shown live
on Maori TV, so we could see it on the boat. And then it was off to Auckland on
Saturday to see the England game against Scotland at Eden
park. It rained most of the day. It rains every time we go to
Auckland! The game was at 20.30 and luckily the rain stopped after the first 15
minutes, so we didn't get too wet, and as we had all our oilies on,
including waterproof trousers, we stayed warm. The game was really exciting
and it was a great atmosphere with 60,000 fans, but from an English point of
view, an agony to watch. Most New Zealanders were supporting the underdogs,
Scotland, so we were outnumber where we were sitting, high up in the stands
directly behind one of the posts. It's just as well that Jonny Wilkinson
couldn't hear what they thought of his missed kicks! The last 3 minutes
were much better and it was good to walk home having
won. Walking home was possible as we were staying in a motel 45
minutes walk from the ground, and we got back just in time to see the full
replay of the game on Maori TV. For some reason England didn't look so bad on
the TV. Perhaps it was because we knew they would win! It
was still overcast with some rain again today, so it was
a visit to Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic Encounter and Underwater World
(lots of penguins in an Antarctic-like setting (with lots of man-made snow)
and an underwater perspex tunnels with sharks, rays and lots of other fish
swimming around and above us. The journey back from Auckland to Tauranga
was arranged to catch as many rugby games on TV as we could. So it was New
Zealand v Canada in McDonald's in Hamilton, and Wales v Fiji in the Crown and
Badger in Tauranga. Unfortunately it wasn't possible to see the
Ireland v Italy game as it clashed with a big rugby league
game involving a NZ team playing an Aussie team, which everyone here was
showing. All the remaining games of the World Cup are going to be
shown live on Maori TV, so we hope to watch them in the comfort of home on
the boat.
 Red sky at night over the boat yard -
heralded a fine day to follow.
 Not a cloud in the sky. She's quite high off the
ground to work on and there's a lot of getting up and
down and moving trestles around. Note the World Cup nations flags - that's Georgia
to the left and Japan
right in front.
 Two bikers arrived yesterday - both new BMWs. We
thought they were couriers, but it turned out to be
two New Zealand friends we met when
coming across the Pacific and hadn't seen for a year. Cathy
and
Werner sailed their boat
Legend II around the World and we
first met them in The Marquesas and crewed
for them in a couple
of races in a sailing regatta in
Tonga. They've swapped the excitement of sailing
for the excitement of
biking!
 A true English fan!
 More fans outside Eden Park
stadium.
 A Maori dance group outside Eden Park, with
England supporters joining in.
 The new temporary stand - all built with
scaffolding, a bit like giant Meccano set (see
below).
 Stairs in the background - we had to climb up all
of these!
 The view once we got there. The teams warming
up.
 A Scottish band playing in the middle as the
teams warm up. Try and spot Jonny Wilkinson!
 All standing for the National
Anthems
 King Penguins at Kelly Tarlton's Antarctic
Encounter. (Don't forget that Antarctica and South
Pole
are relatively close to NZ - about 1/7th
of the distance from here to London).
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