Rugby - New Zealand Expects!
Aurora_b
Mike and Liz Downing
Tue 27 Sep 2011 10:57
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Rugby has taken over New Zealand. Flags of the nations taking
part are every where you go and many of the bars and restaurants
are showing the games on big screens. Rugby is the national sport and the nation
is taking great pride in NZ hosting the World Cup and even greater
pride in the All Blacks position as the No.1 team in
the World. As a result there is of course a great expectation that
they will win, and, although few will admit it, a great fear that they
might not. They do appear to have the best team by some way and it
will be a surprise if they don't win. Sky has almost a monopoly on
showing live games. The Maori channel is the only terrestrial station
showing all the games, but most are delayed, i.e. shown later in
the day or the next day. However, they are showing 1 or 2 of the bigger
games a week (usually involving the All Blacks). So we've been seeing
a lot of Rugby - walking into town to see the England games live at the Crown
and Badger and seeing the other games on the Maori channel with our £17 portable
aerial, bought specially for the World Cup!
But on Sunday it was the real thing - a trip to Auckland to
see Fiji v Samoa at NZ's equivalent to Twickenham, Eden Park.
It involved a 2 1/2 hour drive to the outskirts of Auckland,
a 45 minute special supporters train and 2 supporters buses to get to the
ground, but we made it with 30 minutes to spare before the 15.30
kick-off. It was our first rugby international and with a sell-out crowd of
62,000, quite an experience! Even the cold wind and occasional rain (and most
of it is not under cover!) didn't dampen the spirits of the crowd
which delighted in frequent Mexican waves. We decided to drive back
via Hamilton as although it's longer, the road is better, and stopped there
to swap over the driving. Pulling into a McDonald's to get a drink and make the
change over, we discovered they had Sky on a big screen and the Scotland v
Argentina game was just about to start. Never before has a McFlurry and hot
chocolate lasted so long - 1 3/4 hrs! On the final whistle it was back
on the road to Tauranga, arriving just after midnight, all rugby'd
out.
In between games work has continued on the boat. All the
preparation work needed before antifouling, so a lot of scraping, wet sanding,
filling and more sanding. And when we want a change, it's cleaning
and polishing the topsides. At times like these she seems a much
bigger boat! The clocks went forward here on Sunday morning
so if it's not too cold (and it has been - with a biting wind at times) we
have longer evenings to get work done. It doesn't get dark now until
about 19.45 and we've gone from being 11 hours ahead of the UK to 12
hours ahead. (When the UK clocks go back in October we'll be 13 hours
ahead.)
 The teams warming up before the
start.
 Cold and wet!
 Every one stands for the national anthems lead by
the choir between the 2 teams.
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