The Magic of Sport

I will try and make this 'entry' as chronologically correct as possible so you few people who are reading it will get a good idea of what I've been doing the last twoish days.

When I last left off, I was suffering from some serious tiredness and had a nap. After I woke up, Ann, Hilary and I took a walk around the city to explore a little bit. While I was asleep, Hilary had bought a phone and Ann was trying to get hers fixed (it wouldn't hold a charge) and they had also explored a little. We bought, for dinner, Subway, which I have seen at least 3 or 4 restaurants of within an ~5 block radius. One thing I like about buying things here is that there is no tax! The price on the sign is the price you pay, which I guess only differs in North America? I will have to travel more to verify this ;). I'm doing pretty decent with spending, albiet it's only been what, three days? Anywho, so that night, we went to the lounge and attempted to learn a card game called Golf from Hilary. There was a group of cute South African boys drinking punch that invited us over to their table to play a 'Canadian' game, which neither of us knew any, so we just ended up BSing, joshing eachother about our accents (apparently the Canadian accent is not neutral, no matter what we think) and drinking some rather delicious lime-sprite-vodka-ade before the Opening Ceremonies.
For those of you, okay so all of you, who didn't get to see them, they were pretty cool, and the Kiwi that I was sitting with was pretty stoked that "Kiwis did that!" It was sort of like the Vancouver Olympics with the lighting on the stage/floor and dancers, but with a unique New Zealand twist; it told the traditional Maori story of how New Zealand formed and there was Maori dancing and singing, it would have been sick to be there. I got to watch the players- All Blacks vs Tonga- get ready and run onto the field, but was called away before the Haka to help Ann, who had imbibed a little bit too much. After we got her to bed, at the shameful hour of 9ish, I was pretty much pooped and hit the hay- when I looked in the mirror, my eyes made me look like I was ripped out of my mind!

The next day, my body-clock still on Canada time, I woke up at 6 am, got up around 7, and Hilary and I (Ann was PTFO) went across the street to trainstation, which conveniently houses a supermarket (aka grocery store) to buy some grub for brekky and beyond. Food is kind of expensive, or everything is rather, over here, but I managed to get two small loaves of cheddar-bacon bread, a banana, a small bag of bulk trail mix, and a six pack of yogurt for $15.70NZ. That lasted me all day, and a into the next, so I guess to extrapolate it, it's cheap...ish. After breakfast, we went to Micky D's- the poshest McDonald's I've ever seen- for a tea and free internet (you have to pay for it at the hostel, also I deduced from the interwebs that I have viral conjuctivitis, but it's going away!), then came back to the hostel to drop off what we weren't going to eat during the day, and, Ann still passed out, went out into the city to both explore and find certain shops: Hilary wanted to find the Auto Association and Visitor's Center, and I was looking for somewhere to unlock my iPhone for me. Depending on cost, I might just not unlock it and be phoneless (kind of refreshing), but then again I feel the maps feature could be very useful... On our exploration mission, we stumbled across the Wellington Underground Market, which is kind of like a big craft fair; there's lots of pretty jewelry and knitted things for sale. A few hundred meters beyond the Underground Market, is the Fanzone. They've set up a big stage for various performances- a dance troupe when we were there- and big screen for all the matches. I'm pretty sure there's beer available somewhere there too ;).

Speaking of beer, I forgot to mention that when I was watching the intro to the first match of RWC 2011, one of the drunk South Affies offered me some of his beer. It was a darker beer, so I was pretty hesitant, but he persisted, and it was delicious! Annnd- this is mostly for Hannah- guess what?! It was Tui! So yummy! Needless to say, when Hilary and I returned to the hostel later that day to watch some rugby, I ordered us some (enjoyed it for ya Han!). We watched the Namibia vs Fiji and France vs Japan games. Didn't pay too much attention to the first one as there was free pool and a supersized version of connect four, also Jenga, that we played, but the France-Japan game was a good one; Japan almost got ahead! Though they lost 25-42 in the end. All that beer and boisterous cheering for the underdog had tuckered me out, so again I had an early night, trying to get prepped for last night and our first stadium match, South Africa vs Wales!

Yesterday was nice. We walked A LOT. We spent a large chunk of the day at the Te Papa museum, which is this huge museum to do with the history of New Zealand and Maori culture. It's pretty cool, there's lots to see (and it's free!), though I didn't take too many photos as I'm still kind of a [sick] zombie. Hilary and I went through this virtual learn-the-haka thing, along with some other people. It's not too difficult, but you look hilarious trying to pick up on the movements, which you find out when you get out of the room via a TV that by standers (and staff) snicker at, though you can't really blame them. After that, we went up a couple floors to see this Maori dance show, and we're pretty sure we saw the president of South Africa, and if not him, then somebody really important from South Africa; he had body guards and hangers-on, how could he not be? As it turns out, this was actually the Vice President of South Africa, which I found out from my South Affy chums later in the evening.

So the evening! Wales vs South Africa. What a game. Wales, which I think I should mention is who I was cheering for, really should have won, but the ref didn't call a conversion as through...bugga! Even the SA's I was hanging with after said yeah, it should've been called through (plus SA played like shite, so they weren't too proud of their team). I took not very many pictures because I was trying to watch the game and because I was so far up, my camera wasn't up to the task :(, but what I do have I will post on facebook. Besides, it wouldn't have been able to capture the feeling of the place; I'm sure it's the same with every large event where there's a bunch of excited and boisterous people, but it was just the coolest thing to be in a place where a bunch of people came together to appreciate a really special and awesome game, that's the magic of sport I suppose. There were two fans, sitting probably ten seats and one row apart, both drunk, one Welsh, the other Boka (nickname for the Springbox I guess), who were having chanting wars with eachother; as soon as one would start up so would the other, and it was a contest to see which fans could chant louder. I helped out on the Welsh side of things :). I am excited to see what happens in my next game, which is again South Afreeka, verses Fiji on Friday. Should be interesting!

On the way into the stadium, Hilary and I were accosted by a really atractive Kiwi offering a draw for Finals tickets on behalf of Land Rover, which of course we obliged. Because we all bought our tickets seperately, Ann, Hilary, and I weren't seated together; I was seated at the very top, in the middle of a section- good seat, get a full scope of the action- and Ann and Hilary were seated apart, but in the same row, about midway up and midway in one section over. It was okay though, because I sat beside this rather handsome Kiwi. He was really nice, and I almost invited him for a beer after the game, but because Je suis un petit poulet, je ne le fais pas. Just as well because after, we ended up going out with a bunch of South Africans (said ones previously mentioned) + one Amurrcan in South African colours who now lives in Cape Town. We went to a bar/club called The Establishment, which had a really good atmosphere, lots of people, both in Welsh red and Springbox green, though I can say the two weren't making any efforts to socialize together. The Welsh guys I talked to were really funny, good dancers, having a good time. The South Affies were decent gents, but I was glad to take my leave of them (they're just...South Africans) when we headed to back to our hostel around 2:30. And that's all I have for now! The plan for today, is to hang out at the hostel and watch rugby on the telly as the weather here is gross; windy and rainy, not conducive to good walking conditions...