The next morning (Tuesday), I was up around 7 to catch some free brekky and pack up my tent and my backpack. I was happy that I had enough time left when I was finished to hop in the shower as I didn't know what my accommodation for the night would be and was starting to become a smelly individual. Mike showed up just after 9 o' clock, and as soon as we got our packs into the trunk, we were off!
He's a really funny guy, this Mike. He's 32ish, with a wife and two young kids, but still a very fun guy to be around. The drive was good, a bit long (four and a half hours to travel 300km) and we had to go through the really windy stretch again, our stomachs (especially the next day!) weren't too happy about it. We made a few stops along the way, including the Tui brewery, but we made it to Napier around 2, enough time to try and find accommodation at a hostel, which there wasn't any, no surprise. We checked out this campsite in the middle of town, where they did have room, but it was $27/night, and I, for one, didn't really plan on sleeping too much and I was able to keep my stuff in the trunk of the car, so I backed out. Ann and Hilary decided to spend the night there, and after she got her tent set up, Hilary, Mike and I went to go find a park for the car, and see if we could get into this Irish pub that had gone "loonie" so to speak. Ann had wanted a shower, so she stayed behind at the campsite and we were going to meet her at the pub. However, it was much too crowded, and so we just decided to go to the stadium.
There were heaps of people, many dressed up in costumes, walking there, fans bantering at eachother, I photobombed some people, it was fun. After we'd gone through bag check, Hilary and I headed to the merch' tent to pick up a Canadian jersey. I was in line first and unluckily, there was only one game jersey, the one we both wanted, left! Because I was already wearing my '03 RWC Canada jersey and she only had a red tank top, I let Hilary have it. They have them at stores and will be at the Canada vs NZ game, so I didn't mind giving it to her. I bought some beer- Heinekin tastes awful out of a can- on the way to our seats, and we painted faces while we waited nervously for Ann to show up as we knew she wasn't going to be a happy camper; there was a communication breakdown re: cell phones, so Ann didn't know to go straight to the stadium. Anywho, she arrived, before kick off, I painted her face, and we both got right into the game, her unhappiness very soon forgotten in our chanting and screaming. She had also procured a Canadian flag, which we drew a beard on with black face paint.
It was a great game to watch, a close game, and the best thing ever to be cheering for the home country. I was yelling at the players, taking so many photos on Ann's camera, being an entertaining and happy drunk, supporting Canada, openly admiring KB's beard (it's seriously so magnificent, even Santa Claus would be hard pressed to replicate a beard of that magnificence!). Our boys played well, with heart, but they couldn't sneak the win, finishing the match with a 23-23 draw. After the end whistle blew, the Canadians walked around the field, and so Ann and I, jumped up and down, waving our bearded flag at them. They all pretty much smiled and waved (some of them were soooo hot!) and took a team photo, then walked to the other side of the field and mingled with the Category D fans. Mer :(. Ah well!
The walk back to the car after the game was just as fun and jovial as getting there; people were laughing and cheering, although boisterously drunk (or more so)! We got back to the car, and drank some Tui, bought earlier at the brewery, on the beach and BS'd until we were ready to go out. First we went to that Irish pub, The Rose, but it was PACKED and we had to wait in line for ever, where we met some guys from Williams Lake, of all places. Luckily Mike knew somebody who was on the patio, so we just waited until the bouncers weren't looking and woop! snuck in! Like I said, it was packed, so we chatted with some Frenchies, then peaced to The Blue Water, a bar/hotel(?), about an hours walk away- which you can bet we cabbed! We went there because we heard that that's where the Canadians were. They were, but they were upstairs, which you weren't allowed to go to because of that fact. No matter, we met more Canadians hanging out, and Phil Mackenzie, the #13 (Inside center), came down. I couldn't work up the courage to talk to him, parce que je suis un petit poulet, but I did eventually say hi, after Steve, one of the new Canadian guys we were with, started talking to him. It was just a hello, but no matter, we were enjoying ourselves. It was hilarious: so Mike had ordered a big bottle, 750 mL aka a two-six, of Speights, but the bartender had given him a little glass, a sippy cup really, to drink it with, whereas I, a small, blonde girl, ordered a giant mug of Tui. Hehe!
After we were done with The Blue Water, we headed to the Thirsty Whale, a bar/club about ten minutes walk away. It was a good atmosphere, and it was here that I met more Canadian players, and some Japanese players as well. I was fairly drunk when we got there, but somehow, magically almost, people just kept buying me beer. Sidebar: I drink so much beer, like pretty much every day I have at least one. Beer gut is forming, must do some preemptive excercise! Eventually the four of us had split up, Ann and Hilary having gone home around 1/1:30am, and Mike and I were off doing our own things respectively, though we had agreed to meet at the door when the bar closed. Anywho, so during the odd hour and a half, I ended up bumping into Matt Evans, the Canadian fly half (#10) who has a very Cary Elwes-esque handle bar moustache, though I was a bit rude and said "What's with the 'stache?" Obviously he didn't like that, and cut our conversation short. I continued on my way and ended up hanging out with some really tall Canadian gents (not players) who were props. They picked me up a la scrum, and then we got some more people in on it, possibly-probably some Japanese players (I was pretty intoxicated) and had a scrum in the middle of the dance floor! Ha ha! Good sports! Then the Japanese guys were trying to get me to do a shot, but I knew I wouldn't be able to stomach it, so I cheersed them with my beer, or rather, "Kumpai!"d. After that, I probably went to the bathroom, and then made my way back to the bar, trying to find Mike. I ended up talking with a couple Canadian players, Jamie Mackenzie (the other brother) scrum half, and the number 22- sorry man can't remember your name- who came in for Pritchard during the game. After we finished our conversation, I continued on my search for Mike, who I correctly thought had left, then returned to the bathroom- apparently this is the most calm place in a bar- where I met this other Canadian chick who was very kind and said I could catch a ride with her to wherever I needed to go (which I didn't know where that was!). I can't wait until I get my iPhone situation figured out, having the maps will be invaluable in situations like this! Anywho, I returned for one last look around, then found Steve whom I caught a cab back to the waterfront with around 3am. Mike was in the car, thankfully, and so he and I BS'd for a few minutes before we both PTFO'd. It was a ridiculously fun night, and in the morning I was in definite need of some coffee before we drove the 4 hours back to Wellington.
Mike dropped us off at the Te Papa museum. After all our stuff had been expelled from the trunk (passers by wondered how it all could fit in the trunk), we said our goodbyes and thank yous, and parted ways. The girls and I headed to the library to get on the internet, which unfortunately didn't work on our laptops because the connection sucked. When we were done, Kieth picked us up and we headed to his house to spend the night.
We picked up some steak, and I bought a new adaptor, which I am happy to say does not fall out of the wall and my plugs stay in. Once home, I plugged in my computer, then went down to the kitchen to help prep dinner, peeling potatoes, chopping onions, etcetera, etcetera. I was feeling pretty grungy and gross, and also majorily hungover, so I hopped in the shower before we ate. When I came back down, I was pretty surprised to learn that I was in charge of cooking the steak- I know, right?! For those of you that know me, my prowess in the kitchen doesn't equate to much. It turned out to be a pretty swell evening, good food, good wine, good people. Matt, the ranger from Matui-Sommes, stopped by for a few minutes too. After dessert, we headed upstairs to watch some Leonard Cohen before calling 'er a night around 10 to get some very much needed sleep!
Thursday, well today, was a very relaxing day, up around 9, and we had bacon and eggs for breakfast! They cut their bacon in circles over here as opposed to strips, but it still tastes the same, so yum! Heh I whisked the eggs this time, and they didn't drop! I seemed to have redeemed myself! Although later, I spilt tea all over myself, so maybe not... Ranger Matt came over for breakfast which was nice, after which Ann and I headed out for a walk along the beach in the sunshine and suprisingly gentle wind! It was glorious, I snapped some great photos, and we collected some shells to make necklaces out of. After about an hour, we headed back to Kieth's to pack up our things before heading out to Simon's house. We met Simon on Saturday at Kieth's, and he lives closer to Westpac Stadium than Kieth, so we've decided to bunk here for the weekend. Once we got here, we got internet figured out, and Ann and Hilary went to the grocery store to buy some food while I opted to just chill out and get some much needed catching up done on my writing! I guess they got side tracked by a Dollar Store because they came back with a ton of red and white stuff for the Canada-NZ game! I can't wait, it's going to be so much fun!!!! And that's all I have for now! I will update all on Monday morning with plans and such, as that's the day we're planning on starting the trek up north to Auckland and beyond!
Thursday, 29 September 2011
Wednesday, 28 September 2011
Paradise Found
It was a bit of a rough morning, I was tired as all get out, and there was a particularely windy stretch of raod through some mountains that made me feel a bit queasy. We took the South Highway 2, which goes up towards Napier (on the east coast), to Masterton, where we bought some food to have a picnic: salami, ham, cheese, bread, butter, juice, bananas, and some chocolate covered almonds. Masterton is a quaint little town, in the east and middle of the southern part of the North Island (heh say that five times fast!), famous for it's wine and vineyards, my kind of place. We joked about tasting some wine, but we moved on as we still had another hour and a bit before we would arrive at our destination. It was down a twisting gravel road that passed through some massive sheep stations. Maa'aan those sheep were everywhere! At one point, there was even one running down the road, scared for it's life. We sang songs (The Beatles, Fleetwood Mac, Disney, etc.) and listened to Kieth's stories to keep ourselves entertained on the drive, stopping for lunch at an old station house/shack. I managed to snap a quick picture of the door, turquoise paint peeling, before, rather unfortunately, my camera died. There was a stream running through the property we were on, which Kieth's friend owns I guess. It was a great little stop for lunch, and I saw some wool hanging off a bush across the creek, and me, being ever a collector of odd mementos, jumped across and retrieved it.
We packed up our picnic and jumped back in the van for another twenty odd minutes, until (at last!) we rounded a bend and laid eyes upon the most breath taking place I have ever seen: Gropu-Pahau. I will try to use words, but I feel pictures are probably the best way to understand what I'm talking about. The sunlight glinted off the waves crashing onto the sandy beach that stretched between two outcrops of limestone (?) rock. Due to tectonic movements, these rocks had been thrust up through the sand, and there they sat, like a poorly stacked deck of cards, absorbing the sheer and awesome power of the sea. Like kids, we ran down to the water, then tried to sprint away from the foam that washed up with every wave. It was a hopelessly fun excercise, to say the least. I got to play photographer while Ann climbed the rocks further away, and from where we were standing she looked about an inch tall, while Hilary opted for the rocks closest to us. They were able to see a seal out in the water from their respective vantage points, although I was able to catch glimpses of its head. I went for a wander down the beach and found a sweet piece of dried seaweed that I seriously contemplated taking home to use as a beard when we dressed up to support the home team. However, I wasn't sure if you're allowed to take things from beaches, or if I really should be removing it from the environment, so I left it. Ah well, I took some pictures to remember :). So yeah, we just hung out at this beautiful spot and took in the beauty of it; the blue water, the white sand, the bleached driftwood (there were massive piles of it), and the green of the hills behind us was so intense, I almost thought we should be in Ireland! Of course there were sheep there too. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to talk about the fishing! I took a few casts, but we didn't end up catching anything, not that it mattered because just to have been there, to have seen it, was enough.
We left around 3pm and made it back to Wellington by about 5:30 or 6pm. On the drive home, both Hilary and Ann passed out, so besides their snores (especially Ann's!), it was a quiet one. Kieth invited us over for dinner, however we decided to decline because we had to get our poop in a group to be ready to leave early the next morning for Napier, and the Canada-Japan game. After a couple loads of laundry, a sandwhich, and waiting for my camera to charge while pratiquer mon francais avec une fille qui vient de france, I called 'er a night around 1am.
We packed up our picnic and jumped back in the van for another twenty odd minutes, until (at last!) we rounded a bend and laid eyes upon the most breath taking place I have ever seen: Gropu-Pahau. I will try to use words, but I feel pictures are probably the best way to understand what I'm talking about. The sunlight glinted off the waves crashing onto the sandy beach that stretched between two outcrops of limestone (?) rock. Due to tectonic movements, these rocks had been thrust up through the sand, and there they sat, like a poorly stacked deck of cards, absorbing the sheer and awesome power of the sea. Like kids, we ran down to the water, then tried to sprint away from the foam that washed up with every wave. It was a hopelessly fun excercise, to say the least. I got to play photographer while Ann climbed the rocks further away, and from where we were standing she looked about an inch tall, while Hilary opted for the rocks closest to us. They were able to see a seal out in the water from their respective vantage points, although I was able to catch glimpses of its head. I went for a wander down the beach and found a sweet piece of dried seaweed that I seriously contemplated taking home to use as a beard when we dressed up to support the home team. However, I wasn't sure if you're allowed to take things from beaches, or if I really should be removing it from the environment, so I left it. Ah well, I took some pictures to remember :). So yeah, we just hung out at this beautiful spot and took in the beauty of it; the blue water, the white sand, the bleached driftwood (there were massive piles of it), and the green of the hills behind us was so intense, I almost thought we should be in Ireland! Of course there were sheep there too. Oh yeah, I almost forgot to talk about the fishing! I took a few casts, but we didn't end up catching anything, not that it mattered because just to have been there, to have seen it, was enough.
We left around 3pm and made it back to Wellington by about 5:30 or 6pm. On the drive home, both Hilary and Ann passed out, so besides their snores (especially Ann's!), it was a quiet one. Kieth invited us over for dinner, however we decided to decline because we had to get our poop in a group to be ready to leave early the next morning for Napier, and the Canada-Japan game. After a couple loads of laundry, a sandwhich, and waiting for my camera to charge while pratiquer mon francais avec une fille qui vient de france, I called 'er a night around 1am.
SCOOOOOOTLAND vs Las Pumas!
So as I mentioned previously, Ann and I had these yellow tartan blankets with us. We turned them into kilts, then painted our faces the blue and white Scottish flag. Also, we wore fleece pants, and I had the absolutely BRILLIANT idea of wearing bright coloured undies to flash the camera with! :D. This was the only game we had sitting all together, and it was unfortunate that Hilary didn't have a blanket, but it was the most fun I've had at a game yet! Our seats were about halfway up, and halfway in on the side of the oval. The crowd was a good mix, though let me tell you: those Argies sure know how to cheer for a team! They had drums and whistles in the stadium, and had a good chant that they'd all sing. I would say one of the best, and rather key, components of RWC is the fans and costumes; we create the atmosphere, and it's a very peaceful gathering of boisterous and drunk and LOUD people. It's great :).
Anywho, so we got to our seats, and looking over our right shoulders, who's sitting there but the Scottish players who weren't playing that evening! And they were so attractive! Ann and I were brave enough to go over and snap a quick picture, and I don't even know who they are or what positions they were playing, but I got start struck! They were good sports about it and smiled for the camera. My hands were shaking and my legs felt like jelly as we walked away! We watched the first half, laughing at the two bickering Scottish and Argentinian fans a few rows below us, and actually at one point, it looked like it might get a bit sour, so when the crowd quieted down a bit, I bellowed "Oi! Boys, settle down!" in classic keeping the peace Canadian fashion :). So after the first half, Ann and I, both anxious to get on the jumbo tron, moved to the near empty Category D seats behind the Argentinian try zone. It was raining like a SOB and windy, but those seats were just great; it was like you could reach out and touch the players. The camera man situated behind the try zone turned the camera on us, though I don't think we got on the jumbo tron. Ah well, points for a valiant effort though, as we stayed behind for half an hour, hoping we'd get on screen with all the cheering Argentinian fans. After the game, it was back to the hostel for a supposed change, then out on the town, still dressed in our game attire. It was a fun night, though we had to get up early the next day because Kieth was going to take us fishing by the sea, near the Kapiti Coast (or so we thought, turns out we were on the opposite coast!).
Anywho, so we got to our seats, and looking over our right shoulders, who's sitting there but the Scottish players who weren't playing that evening! And they were so attractive! Ann and I were brave enough to go over and snap a quick picture, and I don't even know who they are or what positions they were playing, but I got start struck! They were good sports about it and smiled for the camera. My hands were shaking and my legs felt like jelly as we walked away! We watched the first half, laughing at the two bickering Scottish and Argentinian fans a few rows below us, and actually at one point, it looked like it might get a bit sour, so when the crowd quieted down a bit, I bellowed "Oi! Boys, settle down!" in classic keeping the peace Canadian fashion :). So after the first half, Ann and I, both anxious to get on the jumbo tron, moved to the near empty Category D seats behind the Argentinian try zone. It was raining like a SOB and windy, but those seats were just great; it was like you could reach out and touch the players. The camera man situated behind the try zone turned the camera on us, though I don't think we got on the jumbo tron. Ah well, points for a valiant effort though, as we stayed behind for half an hour, hoping we'd get on screen with all the cheering Argentinian fans. After the game, it was back to the hostel for a supposed change, then out on the town, still dressed in our game attire. It was a fun night, though we had to get up early the next day because Kieth was going to take us fishing by the sea, near the Kapiti Coast (or so we thought, turns out we were on the opposite coast!).
Camping in the City
The walk back into the city and to our new hostel, Rosemere Backpackers, was a lot easier for me because we had eaten a lot of the weight that was bogging me down, plus the way I had packed it to get out to Matui-Sommes was a bit silly: I had my backpack, my tent strapped to the bottom of my backpack, and my daybag with cans strapped to it. It was a much longer walk to this new hostel from Queen's Wharf, and there was a hill at the end of it, making it a bit exhausting. We got here to find that there is no secure locker for our things, which was a bit of a concern for me as we're not sleeping in the building. Also, we are paying $30/night on the weekends and we were told there was only room for two tents , so I definitely wasn't impressed. However, now that I've been here for a few days, it's actually pretty decent. It's only four blocks to Courtney Place, which I can't remember if I've mentioned is the happening part downtown part of Wellington, and also their lawn isn't somewhere people generally notice. The first couple days I carted my computer and other things everywhere with me, but like I said the gate is pretty inconspicuous, so I don't think anyone hardly notices the lawn. There's also free breakfast, and free 1/2 hour internet, so all in all, I'm not to surplussed that we're paying to sleep on somebody's lawn.
So Friday night was the USA vs Australia game! I cheered for the Wallabies, who kicked ass, when I was watching the game. I say that because I ended up sitting beside a petrolium engineer from Calgary. He has one heck of a skookum camera, a Canon S-LR with a nice lense, I had some definite and clear camera envy for sure. He gave me a quick lesson in photography, and even let me take some pictures, and furthermore, it came up in conversation that he had 3 tickets to the Canada-Japan game on September 27th in Napier for sale, and for only $40+free ride up to Napier (4-5 hour drive). This of course, intercepts our Catchpool Valley plans, but I'm here for World Cup, and you have to take these opportunities when they come! Ann and I went out Friday night while Hilary stayed in as she had developed some blisters on her toes from walking with our heavy backpacks I guess. Ann and I took it easy, though at this time I can't exactly remember the details of the night- this weekend has just kind of melded into one big, long stretch of time. Saturday saw us hit the hot tub at the local pool to soak, and then *drum roll pleeeease!* I PLAYED RUGBY! Well just buggers, on the beach, but it's the first time I've touched a ball and ran around with it since I buggered myself. And man, let me tell you, that was my favourite day of the whole trip up until then. We met up with Serena, the Canadian girl from the Fanzone at the Canada-Tonga game, and some of her new friends, all of them having no rugby playing experience. There was a good ten of us, so we were able to divide up into even teams and start playing. Our game attracted a small audience and more players. It was super fun, and at the end of it, we were all definitely ready for some beer! I was super proud of myself for getting out there and still managing to play with the same passion and tenacity, though perhaps a bit more caution, as I used to. I did twinge my knee slightly, but after a couple minutes making sure I was okay, I was right back into the game. I am thinking I might be able to play tackle at a leisure level again someday, as long as I'm taped right up, maybe get one of them fancy braces. It was just the greatest.
So Saturday night. I'm not sure how it worked out, but we were invited to Kieth's house for dinner and to watch the All Blacks-France game. He picked us up and was teasing us that he had a tiny caravan filled with rats and possums, hopefully they would have vacated by the time we got there. Not really knowing the man, I believed him, and of course to my surprise, we arrived to 71 Dundin Street, Seatoun (a suburb of Welly). He built his house himself, out of recylcled materials which came from old buildings they had to demolish or renevate to make earthquake safe. He has loads of stories, so we traded some, enjoyed a beer or wine, then his other guests arrived. Rob, one of Kieth's coworkers/boss, and his wife and their two boys, Fraser and Levon, showed up first, then Simon, whom I think is Kieth's cousin?, then Kenneth and another fellow, can't remember his name, then his sister and her grand daughter arrived. Rob's wife and I prepped fruit salad for dessert, while Hilary was on top of salad making. We had some good conversations, the meal was great, and then the rugby afterwards totally topped off the evening, making it a true Kiwi experience; good food, good people, good rugby. As I said, the match was between New Zealand and France, who typically knock the All Blacks out of the quarter finals. It was a good match, and thankfully, the home team took it for the win! The girls and I caught a ride back to the hostel with Kieth's sister, and headed to bed so that we could get up early to go out to Catchpool with Kieth, whom had kindly offered to take us out there and show us around for a few hours since he had to go out there anyway to grab something.
It's a bit bizarre to be on the left hand side of the road, especially if you're sitting in the passenger seat; I'm not so sure driving here would be a good idea until I get more driving-places-in-a-car experience under my belt! Anywho, we got out to Catchpool just in time for the rain. We walked around for about an hour and a half, of course getting soaked, but I think it was much more beautiful in the rain than it would have been if it was sunny out; everything is always greener when it pours. Kieth pointed out animal tracks, plants, and a few different bird species us to snap pictures of along the way, in between listening to his stories about the place and tell him about ourselves. He's a really funny man, full of P&V and a shithead (I mean that in the best possible way); he's always pulling your leg and cracking jokes. Besides that, he's just one of those truly beautiful people in the world, so genuine and kind hearted, and always up for a laugh. I would liken him to a godfather or great uncle, or a really young [hearted] grandpa.
So after we had our nice walk in the rain, Kieth took us for coffee at his friends Pat and Ruth's house. Again, Kiwi hospitality just keeps blowing me away, and you can be sure it is one of the few things I hope to take away from this trip and pass along to others. Pat gave us warm, dry clothes, made us coffee and a hot lamb sandwhich (first time having lamb!), and let Ann and I borrow a couple tartan blankets to take for the car ride, and then let us take them not only to the game, but out on the town as well! Furhtermore, they offered us a room if we would ever need or like one. Back at Kieth's, we ate some ___ fish and again shared stories around the table- the man not only has a ridiculous amount of them, he sure can tell 'em too! Then it was back to the hostel to prep for the game!
So Friday night was the USA vs Australia game! I cheered for the Wallabies, who kicked ass, when I was watching the game. I say that because I ended up sitting beside a petrolium engineer from Calgary. He has one heck of a skookum camera, a Canon S-LR with a nice lense, I had some definite and clear camera envy for sure. He gave me a quick lesson in photography, and even let me take some pictures, and furthermore, it came up in conversation that he had 3 tickets to the Canada-Japan game on September 27th in Napier for sale, and for only $40+free ride up to Napier (4-5 hour drive). This of course, intercepts our Catchpool Valley plans, but I'm here for World Cup, and you have to take these opportunities when they come! Ann and I went out Friday night while Hilary stayed in as she had developed some blisters on her toes from walking with our heavy backpacks I guess. Ann and I took it easy, though at this time I can't exactly remember the details of the night- this weekend has just kind of melded into one big, long stretch of time. Saturday saw us hit the hot tub at the local pool to soak, and then *drum roll pleeeease!* I PLAYED RUGBY! Well just buggers, on the beach, but it's the first time I've touched a ball and ran around with it since I buggered myself. And man, let me tell you, that was my favourite day of the whole trip up until then. We met up with Serena, the Canadian girl from the Fanzone at the Canada-Tonga game, and some of her new friends, all of them having no rugby playing experience. There was a good ten of us, so we were able to divide up into even teams and start playing. Our game attracted a small audience and more players. It was super fun, and at the end of it, we were all definitely ready for some beer! I was super proud of myself for getting out there and still managing to play with the same passion and tenacity, though perhaps a bit more caution, as I used to. I did twinge my knee slightly, but after a couple minutes making sure I was okay, I was right back into the game. I am thinking I might be able to play tackle at a leisure level again someday, as long as I'm taped right up, maybe get one of them fancy braces. It was just the greatest.
So Saturday night. I'm not sure how it worked out, but we were invited to Kieth's house for dinner and to watch the All Blacks-France game. He picked us up and was teasing us that he had a tiny caravan filled with rats and possums, hopefully they would have vacated by the time we got there. Not really knowing the man, I believed him, and of course to my surprise, we arrived to 71 Dundin Street, Seatoun (a suburb of Welly). He built his house himself, out of recylcled materials which came from old buildings they had to demolish or renevate to make earthquake safe. He has loads of stories, so we traded some, enjoyed a beer or wine, then his other guests arrived. Rob, one of Kieth's coworkers/boss, and his wife and their two boys, Fraser and Levon, showed up first, then Simon, whom I think is Kieth's cousin?, then Kenneth and another fellow, can't remember his name, then his sister and her grand daughter arrived. Rob's wife and I prepped fruit salad for dessert, while Hilary was on top of salad making. We had some good conversations, the meal was great, and then the rugby afterwards totally topped off the evening, making it a true Kiwi experience; good food, good people, good rugby. As I said, the match was between New Zealand and France, who typically knock the All Blacks out of the quarter finals. It was a good match, and thankfully, the home team took it for the win! The girls and I caught a ride back to the hostel with Kieth's sister, and headed to bed so that we could get up early to go out to Catchpool with Kieth, whom had kindly offered to take us out there and show us around for a few hours since he had to go out there anyway to grab something.
It's a bit bizarre to be on the left hand side of the road, especially if you're sitting in the passenger seat; I'm not so sure driving here would be a good idea until I get more driving-places-in-a-car experience under my belt! Anywho, we got out to Catchpool just in time for the rain. We walked around for about an hour and a half, of course getting soaked, but I think it was much more beautiful in the rain than it would have been if it was sunny out; everything is always greener when it pours. Kieth pointed out animal tracks, plants, and a few different bird species us to snap pictures of along the way, in between listening to his stories about the place and tell him about ourselves. He's a really funny man, full of P&V and a shithead (I mean that in the best possible way); he's always pulling your leg and cracking jokes. Besides that, he's just one of those truly beautiful people in the world, so genuine and kind hearted, and always up for a laugh. I would liken him to a godfather or great uncle, or a really young [hearted] grandpa.
So after we had our nice walk in the rain, Kieth took us for coffee at his friends Pat and Ruth's house. Again, Kiwi hospitality just keeps blowing me away, and you can be sure it is one of the few things I hope to take away from this trip and pass along to others. Pat gave us warm, dry clothes, made us coffee and a hot lamb sandwhich (first time having lamb!), and let Ann and I borrow a couple tartan blankets to take for the car ride, and then let us take them not only to the game, but out on the town as well! Furhtermore, they offered us a room if we would ever need or like one. Back at Kieth's, we ate some ___ fish and again shared stories around the table- the man not only has a ridiculous amount of them, he sure can tell 'em too! Then it was back to the hostel to prep for the game!
Matui/Sommes Island
So wow. This little island, in the middle of the harbour, is pretty neat. It was historically a quarantine island for animals, including Canadian elk, then an TB quarantine, then an internment camp during WWII, and now it's a scientific and nature reserve.
We got there on Monday, around 10:30 am, and had to go to the "Rat Shack" to look through our bags to make sure we weren't bringing in any pests like rats or possums or seeds. There were another ten or so people getting of the ferry who didn't have massive backpacks or tents, so they got out first, while the ranger, Matt, kept us behind to have a good look through our tents. The weather left something to be desired for, windy, grey, a bit rainy, just your standard spring Welly weather it seems, but we hiked thorugh it up the hill from the wharf to the camp site to set up our tents beside one of the old shower buildings. There are about 30 sheep on the island, used to keep the grass down and as a meat source, that get to eat anywhere there's grass on the island, including where we were to put our tents. I can't say I was thrilled at this, but, you know, such is life, you just deal with it. I was glad to have my tarp to lay down on the ground before setting up my tent, which didn't take too long to get everything sorted, before we had time to explore the island.
We each went on our own as Hilary is pretty speedy at doing things, then Ann is next fastest, and then me, as I am just a slow person, especially when it comes to doing things like packing or getting ready. The other two walked around the island, while I stuck around camp and poked my head in the old animal quarantine building. It was a little bit creepy, just a vacant building; the clang of the steel grates on the floor or the echo of your footfalls was immense; the silence was deafening. There were still some papers in the vets office from the times it was used, I took some pictures as I really like tangible history- it's so much more comprehendable when you can see and touch it for yourself. I am thankful that it was clean in there, however, can't say smelling between 30-130 year old poop is the kind of tangible history I'm talking about! I spent about 45 minutes/an hour wandering about the smallish building, I came across the skeleton of a small, maybe baby, bird in the boiler room at one point, poor guy. It looked like he had just kind of given up on life in that one spot. After I was done with teh building, I went outside and sat at a picnic table and just took it in, wind, rain, and all.
I returned to my tent to chill, ended up having a nap for a couple hours, then we made rice in chicken soup for dinner. As this was cooking, the ranger popped by the window and said that the ten other people, all part of a work group from the Interislander Ferry***, had invited us over to their house (there's a few houses you can rent out for a night or two on the island) for a barbie (aka BBQ) around 6. So we show up, and the first people we saw outside the house were kind of looking at us like we weren't supposed to be there, which was a bit like "Uhhh, the ranger said we were invited over?" We were sent inside to Ray, who as it turns out was the boss of everyone there and he was the one who had invited us over. We sat down with him, made introductions, then we got to to talking about our plans, and he basically wrote us an itinerary for the South Island that hits all the places, and more, that we want to go to! They gave us wine, they gave us food (steak, grilled chicken, bratwurst, and salad), they gave us good talk, hopefully we gave them some as well. The ranger stopped by for some grub too. After dinner, Ray got us talking to one of the Tonys (there were two, also would that be 'ies' or 'ys', it's a name so I'm a bit confused) who is an adventure guide, mostly around the North Island. He gave us a bunch of places to stop and check out here, though he did tell us to avoid the East Cape because it's apparently not the most safe (then the ranger Matt told us that's not really the case, it's just remote, but okay to go to). It's taken a bit of a load off, to be quite honest, what with us scratching our heads and trying to decide where to and how we're going to get there. Now we just have to decide how, which is a toss up between bus and car, though we're thinking bus for cheapness. The thing about the car is the freedom if offers though. Harumph. Anywho, so we were chatting with these people, started trading stories, eventually it was myself, the other Tony, some other people, Ann, and Hilary, sipping wine, having laughs. Around ten, ten thirty, Ann and Hilary went to bed, leaving me to chat with Tony and Johnson. Tony is a 64 year old Englishman from London who's been in NZ for 25 odd years, and Johnson is a 50-something half-Maori fellow. We stayed up until about 4ish, talking about a wide range of topics: government in Canada and NZ, Maori-First Nations, life, sports, food, beer, so many things. It was great! I felt a bit that I had over stayed my welcome, but they kept offering me more wine (I think I polished off 3 bottles by myself, the amount of booze they had, all for one night!) and asking me to stay. It was a great night, I was pissed drunk, but the happy wine drunk, the fuzzy and warm all over drunk, which considering the storm that was HOWLING and BLOWING (seriously, I have never experienced wind that bad; my tent was moved, and the tarp blew away!), it was very much so needed! So I spent the night inside, on a loveseat that was too small (how does this happen with me?), and consequently said "To hell with it!" and crapped out on the tenting and just slept inside for the three nights.
The second day turned out to be amazing weather wise. I walked to the top and around the island, snapped some great photos of the sheep and lambs. It was a super relaxed day, all in all, which I finished off with "A Bug's Life". Oh Disney :).
The morning of the third day, we volunteered patching up some pot holes and uneaven pavement with gravel, which the ranger, Matt, was really stoked about. There was also a group of about 15-20 people from the Australian-New Zealand Bank who were there to volunteer as well. We had thought we might mix up with them, but then it just didn't work out that way. In the afternoon, after the patching was finished, Ann and I decided to chill out at the summit and just appreciate the view and the sunshine, while Hilary, still keen to help out, went and pruned some vegetation along a path. Later, we passed a rugby ball around with Matt, who invited us over to make dinner, drink some beer (homebrew!), and just hang out. Which we did, of course. We looked in his fridge, and seeing he had many eggs and lots of veggies to be eaten, decided on an omlette with mushroom rice (this was our addition). Ann was in charge of chopping veggies, Hilary, the rice, and myself, the omlette mixture. Of course, in classic Alivia fashion, when I set the eggs on the counter to turn on the element, it fell to the floor, leaving a sad, slimy pool of former to-be-dinner. It was a laugh, though I felt silly obviously. Ah well, cleaned it up, and just chucked the veggies in with the rice and mushroom sauce. It was pretty delicious, and we sat by the fire place and traded some stories, and he gave us some more ideas of places to check out, looking at the map. He is a super chill guy, 34 years old, has dreads, and quitting his job as a Department of Conservation ranger to travel around NZ, and then I believe he's headed to North America for an undetermined amount of time. It's cool to see people travelling at all stages of life, keeps me positive that I can be on the road any time I wish :). Anyways, it was about 11:30ish by the time we said good night and headed to bed.
The next morning, I was up around tenish, and had to pack up all my things, which my backpack had vommited up. During this time, Matt brought around Kieth, an older Kiwi fellow who also works for DoC. Matt had told us the previosu night that if we were lucky we would get to meet him, which I've realized is so true over this past weekend. He's a short man, lots of stoires, easy going and extremely kind hearted; because he works at Catchpool Valley, the gent offered to give us a ride out there instead of us having to take transit (which, as it turns out would have ended up in probably 5km of walking with all of our crap!). Just to illustrate how kind this guy is Kieth had said he would try to set us up in a hut for free at Catchpool, and this was within ten minutes of meeting the man! He exchanged numbers with Hilary so we could get that organized when the time came. And then, it was back to the island after a rushed brunch of probably the most oatmeal a la PB&J anybody could ever eat in one sitting before we got down to the ferry and onto the ferry and back to the city.
We got there on Monday, around 10:30 am, and had to go to the "Rat Shack" to look through our bags to make sure we weren't bringing in any pests like rats or possums or seeds. There were another ten or so people getting of the ferry who didn't have massive backpacks or tents, so they got out first, while the ranger, Matt, kept us behind to have a good look through our tents. The weather left something to be desired for, windy, grey, a bit rainy, just your standard spring Welly weather it seems, but we hiked thorugh it up the hill from the wharf to the camp site to set up our tents beside one of the old shower buildings. There are about 30 sheep on the island, used to keep the grass down and as a meat source, that get to eat anywhere there's grass on the island, including where we were to put our tents. I can't say I was thrilled at this, but, you know, such is life, you just deal with it. I was glad to have my tarp to lay down on the ground before setting up my tent, which didn't take too long to get everything sorted, before we had time to explore the island.
We each went on our own as Hilary is pretty speedy at doing things, then Ann is next fastest, and then me, as I am just a slow person, especially when it comes to doing things like packing or getting ready. The other two walked around the island, while I stuck around camp and poked my head in the old animal quarantine building. It was a little bit creepy, just a vacant building; the clang of the steel grates on the floor or the echo of your footfalls was immense; the silence was deafening. There were still some papers in the vets office from the times it was used, I took some pictures as I really like tangible history- it's so much more comprehendable when you can see and touch it for yourself. I am thankful that it was clean in there, however, can't say smelling between 30-130 year old poop is the kind of tangible history I'm talking about! I spent about 45 minutes/an hour wandering about the smallish building, I came across the skeleton of a small, maybe baby, bird in the boiler room at one point, poor guy. It looked like he had just kind of given up on life in that one spot. After I was done with teh building, I went outside and sat at a picnic table and just took it in, wind, rain, and all.
I returned to my tent to chill, ended up having a nap for a couple hours, then we made rice in chicken soup for dinner. As this was cooking, the ranger popped by the window and said that the ten other people, all part of a work group from the Interislander Ferry***, had invited us over to their house (there's a few houses you can rent out for a night or two on the island) for a barbie (aka BBQ) around 6. So we show up, and the first people we saw outside the house were kind of looking at us like we weren't supposed to be there, which was a bit like "Uhhh, the ranger said we were invited over?" We were sent inside to Ray, who as it turns out was the boss of everyone there and he was the one who had invited us over. We sat down with him, made introductions, then we got to to talking about our plans, and he basically wrote us an itinerary for the South Island that hits all the places, and more, that we want to go to! They gave us wine, they gave us food (steak, grilled chicken, bratwurst, and salad), they gave us good talk, hopefully we gave them some as well. The ranger stopped by for some grub too. After dinner, Ray got us talking to one of the Tonys (there were two, also would that be 'ies' or 'ys', it's a name so I'm a bit confused) who is an adventure guide, mostly around the North Island. He gave us a bunch of places to stop and check out here, though he did tell us to avoid the East Cape because it's apparently not the most safe (then the ranger Matt told us that's not really the case, it's just remote, but okay to go to). It's taken a bit of a load off, to be quite honest, what with us scratching our heads and trying to decide where to and how we're going to get there. Now we just have to decide how, which is a toss up between bus and car, though we're thinking bus for cheapness. The thing about the car is the freedom if offers though. Harumph. Anywho, so we were chatting with these people, started trading stories, eventually it was myself, the other Tony, some other people, Ann, and Hilary, sipping wine, having laughs. Around ten, ten thirty, Ann and Hilary went to bed, leaving me to chat with Tony and Johnson. Tony is a 64 year old Englishman from London who's been in NZ for 25 odd years, and Johnson is a 50-something half-Maori fellow. We stayed up until about 4ish, talking about a wide range of topics: government in Canada and NZ, Maori-First Nations, life, sports, food, beer, so many things. It was great! I felt a bit that I had over stayed my welcome, but they kept offering me more wine (I think I polished off 3 bottles by myself, the amount of booze they had, all for one night!) and asking me to stay. It was a great night, I was pissed drunk, but the happy wine drunk, the fuzzy and warm all over drunk, which considering the storm that was HOWLING and BLOWING (seriously, I have never experienced wind that bad; my tent was moved, and the tarp blew away!), it was very much so needed! So I spent the night inside, on a loveseat that was too small (how does this happen with me?), and consequently said "To hell with it!" and crapped out on the tenting and just slept inside for the three nights.
The second day turned out to be amazing weather wise. I walked to the top and around the island, snapped some great photos of the sheep and lambs. It was a super relaxed day, all in all, which I finished off with "A Bug's Life". Oh Disney :).
The morning of the third day, we volunteered patching up some pot holes and uneaven pavement with gravel, which the ranger, Matt, was really stoked about. There was also a group of about 15-20 people from the Australian-New Zealand Bank who were there to volunteer as well. We had thought we might mix up with them, but then it just didn't work out that way. In the afternoon, after the patching was finished, Ann and I decided to chill out at the summit and just appreciate the view and the sunshine, while Hilary, still keen to help out, went and pruned some vegetation along a path. Later, we passed a rugby ball around with Matt, who invited us over to make dinner, drink some beer (homebrew!), and just hang out. Which we did, of course. We looked in his fridge, and seeing he had many eggs and lots of veggies to be eaten, decided on an omlette with mushroom rice (this was our addition). Ann was in charge of chopping veggies, Hilary, the rice, and myself, the omlette mixture. Of course, in classic Alivia fashion, when I set the eggs on the counter to turn on the element, it fell to the floor, leaving a sad, slimy pool of former to-be-dinner. It was a laugh, though I felt silly obviously. Ah well, cleaned it up, and just chucked the veggies in with the rice and mushroom sauce. It was pretty delicious, and we sat by the fire place and traded some stories, and he gave us some more ideas of places to check out, looking at the map. He is a super chill guy, 34 years old, has dreads, and quitting his job as a Department of Conservation ranger to travel around NZ, and then I believe he's headed to North America for an undetermined amount of time. It's cool to see people travelling at all stages of life, keeps me positive that I can be on the road any time I wish :). Anyways, it was about 11:30ish by the time we said good night and headed to bed.
The next morning, I was up around tenish, and had to pack up all my things, which my backpack had vommited up. During this time, Matt brought around Kieth, an older Kiwi fellow who also works for DoC. Matt had told us the previosu night that if we were lucky we would get to meet him, which I've realized is so true over this past weekend. He's a short man, lots of stoires, easy going and extremely kind hearted; because he works at Catchpool Valley, the gent offered to give us a ride out there instead of us having to take transit (which, as it turns out would have ended up in probably 5km of walking with all of our crap!). Just to illustrate how kind this guy is Kieth had said he would try to set us up in a hut for free at Catchpool, and this was within ten minutes of meeting the man! He exchanged numbers with Hilary so we could get that organized when the time came. And then, it was back to the island after a rushed brunch of probably the most oatmeal a la PB&J anybody could ever eat in one sitting before we got down to the ferry and onto the ferry and back to the city.
Saturday, 17 September 2011
This Week in New Zealand
It seems I have a few ammendments to make...
1. It is actually Springboks, not Springbox (though it pretty much sounds the same).
2. It's actually Bokke, not Boka. Bokke, meaning buck in Afrikans, is not surprisingly the mascot/emblem of the Springboks.
3. Staying in one place for 3 weeks may be cheaper, but the excitement factor of the new place goes down as time goes on...especially when the weather won't make up it's mind!
So the last time I left off, we had decided to chill and hang out in the hostel because the weather wasn't too good, but then (of course) the sun came out for a simply brilliant afternoon. We almost went sea kayaking with a few of our SA chums, but then we weren't allowed to wear pants of any sort (eventhough earlier the SA's had been told only no jeans), so we just ended up hanging about the waterfront. Ann had lent me her camera to play photographer for the kayaking (she's got a nice Nikon SLR) which I happly retained and took some photos, regardless of the group not getting in the water. We headed back to our hostel to make dinner, Macaroni a la Watties, which between Hilary and I, cost us $4ish for the food, and $9 for a bottle of vino (more my doing than hers). We ended up making too much for the both of us, so we invited one of our roomies, a nice German fellow by the name of Alex who was looking at the hostel menu, to eat with us. Afterwards, we we went out to Public, a restaurant/bar, to say good bye to our South African friends. This ended up being a longer than expected night because we went back to their hotel and ended up hanging out in the lobby with a bunch more South Africans, who, in their gentlemanly nature, just kept putting fresh glasses of beer in front of Ann and I. They were a funny bunch of old dudes, it was a bit sad to say good bye, but with another Springboks game coming up, we're sure to meet some more!
So that was Monday. Onto Tuesday. What happened Tuesday? I think this was a bad day weather wise and I may or may not have spent the majority of it in bed... Yeah it was. I woke up and went on the internet, then came back to the hostel at some point and fell asleep reading, and when I next awoke, I was greeted by HAIL and THUNDER and LIGHTNING. Eugh. Talk about roll over and go back to sleep! Nothing of significance happened.
Wednesday: GLORIOUS DAY! We went up the historic Wellington cable car. There was not a cloud, or if there were there very few, in the sky. It's this old tram that goes straight up hill ~800m, right from the city center (ah yes, the hills of Wellington!), with a final destination at the Wellington Botanical Gardens, which we of course walked around and appreciated- pictures are coming! I'm still trying to get my camera figured out, I'll admit I miss my Canon a bit for that fact. Also, my power adaptor is pretty frustrating; it's so big, and plugs don't fit securely into it, so they just fall out a lot of the time or it will just fall out of the wall. -_-. Good thing Ann and Hilary have ones that don't act like mine! After touring the Gardens, we went up to the Carter Observatory, but not wanting to pay anything more than free to go in, we said no thanks to the tour, and ate lunch on a hill that looked over the Gardens and city. Afterwards, we wandered back to the cable car and just took in some [more] good ol' vitamin D. We headed back down around 3pm to chill and get ready for the Canada vs Tonga game, which no I was not in the stands for; we painted our faces and wore red and waved our flags. We are, however, saving our total Canadianizing for the NZ vs Canada game on the 2nd, well 1st for most of you, so don't worry, you WILL see me on the jumbo tron :D. After we were all ready, we headed down to the Fanzone, pretty excited like, making people smile at our fanaticism. And, as I'm sure you all know back in Canada, WE WON! There was much boisterous cheering and hoo-haa ing both during and after the match, some might say patriotic anthem bellowing (out of tune?) on the walk to a Base Backpackers- oh yeah, we hooked up with another Canadian girl, from Kamloops, and her hostel bar had cheap drinks, so we went there to celebrate! It was pretty tame, Ann and I played some pool, Hilary played fooseball with our new Canadian friend and some other CADs that were there, then Ann and I had to do a Micky D's run- I had a Kiwi burger! It's like a regular hamburger, but with egg and a slice of pickled beet...a bit strange, but I do love beets! I think I lasted until 8:30 or 9, which was because I was laying on a couch watching the England vs Georgia game (I think that's who played?), and it was just too darn comfortable for my eyes not to start closing of their own accord. So that was Wednesday!
Onto Thursday then! The weather, not surprisingly, was windy- it's SO windy in Wellington, it's nickname is the Windy City I'm pretty sure- and cloudy, it started raining at one point, BLAHHHH. This was unfortunate, but ah well. We had wanted to go to Zealandia, a nature reserve in the city, but we decided it should wait for sunnier skies so we could get full enjoyment out of it. It was lucky, then, that we missed the hourly shuttle at 10:50! Ann was MIA, it's funny how we hit and miss that way because we're in different rooms. So yeah. We had half a mind to wait for the next one, but then the rain, previously mentioned, started, so Hilary decided to head back to the hostel, while Ann and I went to a portrait exhibit of rugby players that had just gotten off the pitch, I guess the artist was trying to capture the look of the game? It was a $5 mediocrely spent. After that we went back to the Te Papa museum, and me, not being a sick and tired zombie, took pictures! Among others things, there's a whole giant squid preserved in flemeldahyde (sp?), weird and creepy looking, but I guess it's the largest in tact specimen in the world. There's a lot to see, so I still might go back and catch what I missed! Afterwards, we came back to the hostel and made dinner; the previous day, we had bought ingredients to make a taco-sans-taco-mix-or-tacos salad, but got so caught up in the jubilance of winning that we didn't make it. So we made it! Fried ground beef, TORE, not ripped, lettuce, Dud :), chopped tomatoes, onions, carrots, then sprinkled some pumpkin and associated seeds on top. Could have used a dressing to bind it all together, but all in all, not bad. After that, we headed to the hostel bar to watch the USA vs Russia game. Oh boy! Something tells me they don't think the Cold War is over, the way they were crashing into eachother, even a small bit of violence erupting at one point! The US won, I think, which meh, I was just cheering for the team with the ball. We met this nice American fellow, Luke, and a Brazilian woman (forget her name!) who didn't understand the game, so HIlary and I explained it to her. It was kind of funny, she was remarking how "fat" some of the forwards were, which hell I wouldn't want to be skinny in that game! Or any mens rugby for that matter! She ended up going to bed after the game, but we stayed and chatted with Luke for another hour or so. We ended up inviting him to Zealandia with us, which leads me to....
FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOING TO ZEALANDIA ON FRIDAY!
Oh man, what a day! The weather was perfect, I mean perfect! The wind wasn't too bad, the sun was showing it's beautiful, beautiful face! So we took the 9:50 shuttle- it's free!- up to the nature reserve. On the way, we saw the Scottish team bus at the top of the cable car (it's one of the stops on the shuttle route)! So Zealndia, what is it? Basically, they're trying to restore this small tract of land to the way things were prePakua, or before white man. Which isn't to say that the Maori didn't come here and screw with the ecology, but you know how it is- rats, possums, invasive plant species (some the Maori brought), goats, the list really does go on and on! Anywho, so they've fenced the area off, it might be 3km?, and have fencing running through it to keep certain animals on one side, hopefully keep mice out. We saw green geckos, tuatara, it's a lizard, and the oldest animal on earth!, kaka, or the native parrot of NZ, some other kinds of birds, and these flightless birds that were thought to be extinct less than 100 years ago! Super cool! If I've called something the wrong name, you'll have to forgive me, I can't remember if I've got it right or not. Also, there was an old gold mine shaft we were able to go in a bit, which was cool, though it would have been more awesome to have taken the tour of it. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't operating that day or something :(. Ah well, we went on a suspension bridge and a damn- I guess the small valley had been a water resevoir in the late 1800's, though now they've created a wetland for waterfowl habitat. It's pretty cool. They had some nice things in the gift shop too, but alas, I exercised restraint like the good lil' backpacking hobo that I am :). We finished our time off there lounging in the sun on the grass and enjoying a late lunch- SUCH A GREAT DAY! We- Ann, Luke, Hilary and I- returned back to the city, where we decided to all chip in and make another salad. Dietary fibre is a bit hard to come by as a backpacking hobo :(, so I didn't mind! We used chicken, fried with onions and garlic, such a heavenly combo, this time and added avacado and dried cranberries to the tomato/carrot/lettuce/seeds concoction. We also had gone on a mission to a liqour store- although you got to love the NZers for having vino and beer in their grocery stores, there's no hard bar, probably for good and obvious reason- which was a success in the likes of vodka. So we enjoyed dinner, imbibed a bit, watched NZ vs Japan (a slaughter), then went out dancing! We went back to The Establishment first, sadly we lost our American compatriot as he had to take the bus back to where he's staying, in suburb somewhere, then we hopped to another bar around the corner, don't know the name. It was alright, really quite less packed than The Establishment, but still fun. We met this Australian, Michael, and his friends, one from OZ as well, the other from Ireland, and their new Kiwi friend. He bought us a shot, then tried to kiss me, which was a surprise, but because I am a ninja, I avoided! We left there shortly afterwards and went to a club called Rain, which was SO much fun. The music was stellar, the vibe was great, there were a few gay dudes, nice change up. And they had a coat check! Another thing about NZ, or at least Wellington, the bar-pub-restaurants all turn into clubs at some point in the night, they all have DJ's and bouncers, few have a coat check, but get this, there's NO COVER! It's awesome! It's made up for in the price of drinks though; $10-12 for a vodka-red bull or Jagerbomb! Good thing I've got long eye lashes, heh. So after Rain, we were all pretty pooped and headed back to the hostel and bed at the respectable hour of 3ish.
Saturday. Well didn't get up until 11, which is the longest I've slept in thus far on the trip. It's a bit hard with 7 other people in the room to sleep past 9 or 10, but somehow I did it, possibly because I am a ninja? We had the South Africa vs Fiji game at 6, but wanted to get there early, so we just had a chill day- went on the internet, I reorganized my bag (it has the most uncanny ability to just regurgitate its contents all over my area of the room!). The sun was out in the afternoon, so we headed down to the waterfront for a nice stroll, and ended up getting gelato (ginger nut and caramel, yum!), people watching for a time, generaly just taking 'er easy. Our attention was drawn to the Fanzone because, as I mentioned before with the various performances they put on on the stage as well as showing the rugby on a big screen, an East Indian dance group was performing. It was pretty good, very Bollywood, enjoyable to watch. We watched the first bit of the Argentina-Romania game, but left before half time to get back to the hostel and get ready for the game! Plus Romania was getting their asses handed to them. On the way back, we saw the SA bus, and a few of the players board. It was hard to tell who was who, player or staff, but that was kind of neat to experience before we watched them play.
It was a decent game, Fiji played with heart, South Africa, well, they're South Africa. Fiji lost 47-3, which was too bad. I noticed a different feel to the crowd this time around; there was loads more cheering and that, but it seemed more tense in a way. I was a bit bored during the match, and cold, which I know I shouldn't be because I'm here, at RWC, but it wasn't that exciting of a game, and I wasn't worried over who was going to garner the win. At halftime, because we were in different seats, I walked around the stadium to where I thought Ann and Hilary were, managed to find Hilary, and snagged an empty seat below hers. I know I will be more into the next game though, because it's USA vs Australia, and you can bet I will be vocal in that match. The one plus of not following the game so closely was the fact that I took pictures!
Afterwards, we returned to our hostel. Ann and I enjoyed a glass of wine while Hilary made herself some grub, then I had to sew the handle of my party purse together since it ripped when I was out with Ty in Vancouver before we went out on the town. Ha you think My Drunk Kitchen is funny (youtube it if you're curious to know what it is), how about My Drunk Tailor Shop! It could have been the wine, but I'm willing to bet it was the dollar store sewing kit; my scissors bent as soon as I tried to use them, I poked myself with the needle, also bent, more than once, and I had a muck up with the thread. Of course, as you all know how domestically inclined I am not, it may have just been me. :P It probably would have helped my case if I had been paying attention to what I was doing at the time, but I was talking to a new roomie, Canadian.
We went back to The Establishment, ha the bouncer actually said "Again?!" and laughed, didn't even check our IDs, and let us in. It's just a good place, always have a good time there. We got on the dance floor, and had a small lost-passport-mistaken-pocket crisis with Ann, which was thankfully resolved in a few minutes- she'd just put it in a different pocket. We went upstairs, somewhere we'd failed to check out our previous two times there, which was just like the downstairs, but less crowded, more room for dancing. We started dancing with a group of people, met a group of Kiwis, who were having a good time. We bar hopped to a few different places, Lotus, a good dance club, tried to get into Rain but I was too tipsy apparently so the bouncer didn't let me in and told me to go eat something. Now I know I didn't look wasted, maybe I had the drunk eyes on a bit, but I thought I was fine and he was being silly. We went to a different bar and danced it up, had another drink, went to the convenience store so a Burmese-Kiwi guy we were with could get smokes, then back to Rain, and we got in! He made me touch my nose and stand on my left leg, but I was like "Sir, I had knee surgery on my left knee, my balance sucks on that side, can I stand on my right leg?" Ha, take that, bouncer man! Heh Em, you and I make a crack team :P. We danced some more, then I was done with the crazy music and flashing lights. The Burmese fellow, Lian, took me to Burger King, and oh man, it was delish! I had something like a McChicken, and fries, and Coke. Then it was back to find the rest of the group, and onto yet another club, briefly, before they got in their BMW and graciously gave me a ride to back to the hostel. Made it to bed by 3am again.
Today, Sunday, is gray and rainy, we are taking the time to just chill, repack, do laundry, watch Canada vs France at 8pm, get prepped for our 3 nights of camping on Matui Sommes Island, which is in the middle of the harbour. It will be really nice to be somewhere different, it's a bit boring here, but I'm not too pumped for the unpredictable weather...I wish I had brought long johns! Anywho, it's time for said preparations to be underway, I shall write again sooner than this post was in relation to the last one!
1. It is actually Springboks, not Springbox (though it pretty much sounds the same).
2. It's actually Bokke, not Boka. Bokke, meaning buck in Afrikans, is not surprisingly the mascot/emblem of the Springboks.
3. Staying in one place for 3 weeks may be cheaper, but the excitement factor of the new place goes down as time goes on...especially when the weather won't make up it's mind!
So the last time I left off, we had decided to chill and hang out in the hostel because the weather wasn't too good, but then (of course) the sun came out for a simply brilliant afternoon. We almost went sea kayaking with a few of our SA chums, but then we weren't allowed to wear pants of any sort (eventhough earlier the SA's had been told only no jeans), so we just ended up hanging about the waterfront. Ann had lent me her camera to play photographer for the kayaking (she's got a nice Nikon SLR) which I happly retained and took some photos, regardless of the group not getting in the water. We headed back to our hostel to make dinner, Macaroni a la Watties, which between Hilary and I, cost us $4ish for the food, and $9 for a bottle of vino (more my doing than hers). We ended up making too much for the both of us, so we invited one of our roomies, a nice German fellow by the name of Alex who was looking at the hostel menu, to eat with us. Afterwards, we we went out to Public, a restaurant/bar, to say good bye to our South African friends. This ended up being a longer than expected night because we went back to their hotel and ended up hanging out in the lobby with a bunch more South Africans, who, in their gentlemanly nature, just kept putting fresh glasses of beer in front of Ann and I. They were a funny bunch of old dudes, it was a bit sad to say good bye, but with another Springboks game coming up, we're sure to meet some more!
So that was Monday. Onto Tuesday. What happened Tuesday? I think this was a bad day weather wise and I may or may not have spent the majority of it in bed... Yeah it was. I woke up and went on the internet, then came back to the hostel at some point and fell asleep reading, and when I next awoke, I was greeted by HAIL and THUNDER and LIGHTNING. Eugh. Talk about roll over and go back to sleep! Nothing of significance happened.
Wednesday: GLORIOUS DAY! We went up the historic Wellington cable car. There was not a cloud, or if there were there very few, in the sky. It's this old tram that goes straight up hill ~800m, right from the city center (ah yes, the hills of Wellington!), with a final destination at the Wellington Botanical Gardens, which we of course walked around and appreciated- pictures are coming! I'm still trying to get my camera figured out, I'll admit I miss my Canon a bit for that fact. Also, my power adaptor is pretty frustrating; it's so big, and plugs don't fit securely into it, so they just fall out a lot of the time or it will just fall out of the wall. -_-. Good thing Ann and Hilary have ones that don't act like mine! After touring the Gardens, we went up to the Carter Observatory, but not wanting to pay anything more than free to go in, we said no thanks to the tour, and ate lunch on a hill that looked over the Gardens and city. Afterwards, we wandered back to the cable car and just took in some [more] good ol' vitamin D. We headed back down around 3pm to chill and get ready for the Canada vs Tonga game, which no I was not in the stands for; we painted our faces and wore red and waved our flags. We are, however, saving our total Canadianizing for the NZ vs Canada game on the 2nd, well 1st for most of you, so don't worry, you WILL see me on the jumbo tron :D. After we were all ready, we headed down to the Fanzone, pretty excited like, making people smile at our fanaticism. And, as I'm sure you all know back in Canada, WE WON! There was much boisterous cheering and hoo-haa ing both during and after the match, some might say patriotic anthem bellowing (out of tune?) on the walk to a Base Backpackers- oh yeah, we hooked up with another Canadian girl, from Kamloops, and her hostel bar had cheap drinks, so we went there to celebrate! It was pretty tame, Ann and I played some pool, Hilary played fooseball with our new Canadian friend and some other CADs that were there, then Ann and I had to do a Micky D's run- I had a Kiwi burger! It's like a regular hamburger, but with egg and a slice of pickled beet...a bit strange, but I do love beets! I think I lasted until 8:30 or 9, which was because I was laying on a couch watching the England vs Georgia game (I think that's who played?), and it was just too darn comfortable for my eyes not to start closing of their own accord. So that was Wednesday!
Onto Thursday then! The weather, not surprisingly, was windy- it's SO windy in Wellington, it's nickname is the Windy City I'm pretty sure- and cloudy, it started raining at one point, BLAHHHH. This was unfortunate, but ah well. We had wanted to go to Zealandia, a nature reserve in the city, but we decided it should wait for sunnier skies so we could get full enjoyment out of it. It was lucky, then, that we missed the hourly shuttle at 10:50! Ann was MIA, it's funny how we hit and miss that way because we're in different rooms. So yeah. We had half a mind to wait for the next one, but then the rain, previously mentioned, started, so Hilary decided to head back to the hostel, while Ann and I went to a portrait exhibit of rugby players that had just gotten off the pitch, I guess the artist was trying to capture the look of the game? It was a $5 mediocrely spent. After that we went back to the Te Papa museum, and me, not being a sick and tired zombie, took pictures! Among others things, there's a whole giant squid preserved in flemeldahyde (sp?), weird and creepy looking, but I guess it's the largest in tact specimen in the world. There's a lot to see, so I still might go back and catch what I missed! Afterwards, we came back to the hostel and made dinner; the previous day, we had bought ingredients to make a taco-sans-taco-mix-or-tacos salad, but got so caught up in the jubilance of winning that we didn't make it. So we made it! Fried ground beef, TORE, not ripped, lettuce, Dud :), chopped tomatoes, onions, carrots, then sprinkled some pumpkin and associated seeds on top. Could have used a dressing to bind it all together, but all in all, not bad. After that, we headed to the hostel bar to watch the USA vs Russia game. Oh boy! Something tells me they don't think the Cold War is over, the way they were crashing into eachother, even a small bit of violence erupting at one point! The US won, I think, which meh, I was just cheering for the team with the ball. We met this nice American fellow, Luke, and a Brazilian woman (forget her name!) who didn't understand the game, so HIlary and I explained it to her. It was kind of funny, she was remarking how "fat" some of the forwards were, which hell I wouldn't want to be skinny in that game! Or any mens rugby for that matter! She ended up going to bed after the game, but we stayed and chatted with Luke for another hour or so. We ended up inviting him to Zealandia with us, which leads me to....
FRIDAY, FRIDAY, GOING TO ZEALANDIA ON FRIDAY!
Oh man, what a day! The weather was perfect, I mean perfect! The wind wasn't too bad, the sun was showing it's beautiful, beautiful face! So we took the 9:50 shuttle- it's free!- up to the nature reserve. On the way, we saw the Scottish team bus at the top of the cable car (it's one of the stops on the shuttle route)! So Zealndia, what is it? Basically, they're trying to restore this small tract of land to the way things were prePakua, or before white man. Which isn't to say that the Maori didn't come here and screw with the ecology, but you know how it is- rats, possums, invasive plant species (some the Maori brought), goats, the list really does go on and on! Anywho, so they've fenced the area off, it might be 3km?, and have fencing running through it to keep certain animals on one side, hopefully keep mice out. We saw green geckos, tuatara, it's a lizard, and the oldest animal on earth!, kaka, or the native parrot of NZ, some other kinds of birds, and these flightless birds that were thought to be extinct less than 100 years ago! Super cool! If I've called something the wrong name, you'll have to forgive me, I can't remember if I've got it right or not. Also, there was an old gold mine shaft we were able to go in a bit, which was cool, though it would have been more awesome to have taken the tour of it. Unfortunately for us, it wasn't operating that day or something :(. Ah well, we went on a suspension bridge and a damn- I guess the small valley had been a water resevoir in the late 1800's, though now they've created a wetland for waterfowl habitat. It's pretty cool. They had some nice things in the gift shop too, but alas, I exercised restraint like the good lil' backpacking hobo that I am :). We finished our time off there lounging in the sun on the grass and enjoying a late lunch- SUCH A GREAT DAY! We- Ann, Luke, Hilary and I- returned back to the city, where we decided to all chip in and make another salad. Dietary fibre is a bit hard to come by as a backpacking hobo :(, so I didn't mind! We used chicken, fried with onions and garlic, such a heavenly combo, this time and added avacado and dried cranberries to the tomato/carrot/lettuce/seeds concoction. We also had gone on a mission to a liqour store- although you got to love the NZers for having vino and beer in their grocery stores, there's no hard bar, probably for good and obvious reason- which was a success in the likes of vodka. So we enjoyed dinner, imbibed a bit, watched NZ vs Japan (a slaughter), then went out dancing! We went back to The Establishment first, sadly we lost our American compatriot as he had to take the bus back to where he's staying, in suburb somewhere, then we hopped to another bar around the corner, don't know the name. It was alright, really quite less packed than The Establishment, but still fun. We met this Australian, Michael, and his friends, one from OZ as well, the other from Ireland, and their new Kiwi friend. He bought us a shot, then tried to kiss me, which was a surprise, but because I am a ninja, I avoided! We left there shortly afterwards and went to a club called Rain, which was SO much fun. The music was stellar, the vibe was great, there were a few gay dudes, nice change up. And they had a coat check! Another thing about NZ, or at least Wellington, the bar-pub-restaurants all turn into clubs at some point in the night, they all have DJ's and bouncers, few have a coat check, but get this, there's NO COVER! It's awesome! It's made up for in the price of drinks though; $10-12 for a vodka-red bull or Jagerbomb! Good thing I've got long eye lashes, heh. So after Rain, we were all pretty pooped and headed back to the hostel and bed at the respectable hour of 3ish.
Saturday. Well didn't get up until 11, which is the longest I've slept in thus far on the trip. It's a bit hard with 7 other people in the room to sleep past 9 or 10, but somehow I did it, possibly because I am a ninja? We had the South Africa vs Fiji game at 6, but wanted to get there early, so we just had a chill day- went on the internet, I reorganized my bag (it has the most uncanny ability to just regurgitate its contents all over my area of the room!). The sun was out in the afternoon, so we headed down to the waterfront for a nice stroll, and ended up getting gelato (ginger nut and caramel, yum!), people watching for a time, generaly just taking 'er easy. Our attention was drawn to the Fanzone because, as I mentioned before with the various performances they put on on the stage as well as showing the rugby on a big screen, an East Indian dance group was performing. It was pretty good, very Bollywood, enjoyable to watch. We watched the first bit of the Argentina-Romania game, but left before half time to get back to the hostel and get ready for the game! Plus Romania was getting their asses handed to them. On the way back, we saw the SA bus, and a few of the players board. It was hard to tell who was who, player or staff, but that was kind of neat to experience before we watched them play.
It was a decent game, Fiji played with heart, South Africa, well, they're South Africa. Fiji lost 47-3, which was too bad. I noticed a different feel to the crowd this time around; there was loads more cheering and that, but it seemed more tense in a way. I was a bit bored during the match, and cold, which I know I shouldn't be because I'm here, at RWC, but it wasn't that exciting of a game, and I wasn't worried over who was going to garner the win. At halftime, because we were in different seats, I walked around the stadium to where I thought Ann and Hilary were, managed to find Hilary, and snagged an empty seat below hers. I know I will be more into the next game though, because it's USA vs Australia, and you can bet I will be vocal in that match. The one plus of not following the game so closely was the fact that I took pictures!
Afterwards, we returned to our hostel. Ann and I enjoyed a glass of wine while Hilary made herself some grub, then I had to sew the handle of my party purse together since it ripped when I was out with Ty in Vancouver before we went out on the town. Ha you think My Drunk Kitchen is funny (youtube it if you're curious to know what it is), how about My Drunk Tailor Shop! It could have been the wine, but I'm willing to bet it was the dollar store sewing kit; my scissors bent as soon as I tried to use them, I poked myself with the needle, also bent, more than once, and I had a muck up with the thread. Of course, as you all know how domestically inclined I am not, it may have just been me. :P It probably would have helped my case if I had been paying attention to what I was doing at the time, but I was talking to a new roomie, Canadian.
We went back to The Establishment, ha the bouncer actually said "Again?!" and laughed, didn't even check our IDs, and let us in. It's just a good place, always have a good time there. We got on the dance floor, and had a small lost-passport-mistaken-pocket crisis with Ann, which was thankfully resolved in a few minutes- she'd just put it in a different pocket. We went upstairs, somewhere we'd failed to check out our previous two times there, which was just like the downstairs, but less crowded, more room for dancing. We started dancing with a group of people, met a group of Kiwis, who were having a good time. We bar hopped to a few different places, Lotus, a good dance club, tried to get into Rain but I was too tipsy apparently so the bouncer didn't let me in and told me to go eat something. Now I know I didn't look wasted, maybe I had the drunk eyes on a bit, but I thought I was fine and he was being silly. We went to a different bar and danced it up, had another drink, went to the convenience store so a Burmese-Kiwi guy we were with could get smokes, then back to Rain, and we got in! He made me touch my nose and stand on my left leg, but I was like "Sir, I had knee surgery on my left knee, my balance sucks on that side, can I stand on my right leg?" Ha, take that, bouncer man! Heh Em, you and I make a crack team :P. We danced some more, then I was done with the crazy music and flashing lights. The Burmese fellow, Lian, took me to Burger King, and oh man, it was delish! I had something like a McChicken, and fries, and Coke. Then it was back to find the rest of the group, and onto yet another club, briefly, before they got in their BMW and graciously gave me a ride to back to the hostel. Made it to bed by 3am again.
Today, Sunday, is gray and rainy, we are taking the time to just chill, repack, do laundry, watch Canada vs France at 8pm, get prepped for our 3 nights of camping on Matui Sommes Island, which is in the middle of the harbour. It will be really nice to be somewhere different, it's a bit boring here, but I'm not too pumped for the unpredictable weather...I wish I had brought long johns! Anywho, it's time for said preparations to be underway, I shall write again sooner than this post was in relation to the last one!
Sunday, 11 September 2011
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...
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...
Friday, 9 September 2011
A Journey Begins...
So here we are, up in the air (not like the movie), flying to Wellington. I can't believe I have actually stepped foot on New Zealand soil; it's been such a long time coming that now that it's arrived it's all very surreal. I have observec some things along the way thus far, surprisingly soon, I must say. Firstly, there are mandy different kinds of clouds- and no I don't mean the actual 'scientific' names for them, but rather there are clouds that look like somebody had a mashed potatoe fight, huge dollops stuck to the floor, or clouds that look like too many sheep crammed together in a too small pen (a new meaning to counting sheep?), or clouds that look like frost when it sticks up on freezer burnt meant, , or clouds that look like cake batter in the pan waiting to go into the oven, and of course, clouds that just look like clouds (these have a yet to be determined likeness to something). This leads me to my second point: the Pacific Ocean, or rather how huge it is. It just boggles my mind how BIG the thing is, and how reletively short it took to fly over and across it. Third, and most importantly, AIR CANADA NEEDS TO TAKE LESSONS FROM AIR NEW ZEALAND, for reals. They had the most hilarious safety exit-seatbelt-listen to the crew video for us to watch at the beginning of both our 14 and 1 hour flights, and their stewardesses are SO friendly! Plus their accents beat Canadian ones any day of the week, eh. It's just great service, with good in flight movie selection on the transoceanic flight, reletively good-bordering-on-great food (...it's airplane food). I had butter chicken which came with green beans, a side cole-slaw type salad, glass of wine, dessert (didn't eat it though), and crackers and cheese for my dinner, and then for breakfast I had a three cheese omelette with a turkey sausage, a tomato, a little yogurt, a fruit cup and a mamosa- it was Ann's birthday, how could we not?
The 14 hour flight would have been great if I would have slept, but I alas, I was unable to enter the Promised Land of Slumber for longer than ~2 1/2 hours. Sad face. As well, my eyes started weeping this mysterious green goo, which I am loathe to believe is a symptom of pink eye (yuck!), that has since subsided (for the time being?), but during said flight, felt like it was glueing my eyes together. Blah. But, we are getting into Wellington so I need to get ready for that!
So we landed in Wellington! We got to the baggage claim and both Hilary and I retrieved our backpacks, but Ann, poor Ann. Her bag somehow didn't make it on the Welly flight, so the man in the baggage services department said to wait until the next flight, only another half an hour, and gave us $12 in vouchers for refreshments. Ann stayed with our rather massive pile of bags for such small ladies while Hilary and I went upstairs to hunt down said refreshments and also to figure out when and what shuttle bus to take. It only cost $8.50 to get into the city from the airport, but the bus driver was grumpy because we each used a twenty and cleaned him out (how were we supposed to know?). So we got the refreshments, which are a bit pricier than Canada, but that's in an airport mind you, and again waited as various coloured and shaped suitcases slowly paraded down the carousel in front of us- sidebar: how can there be so many red bags?! (Ann's back pack is red)- and again, none of them were hers. I guess the solution then is for the nice people at the airport to deliver her suitcase to the hostel we are staying at sometime today.
That's the thing, the people here are SOO nice! Like really, SO NICE! Besides the bus driver, everyone we've talked to has been really helpful and happy. Example: this man on the bus noticed Hilary and I looking at the bus map and the Lonely Planet map trying to figure out where we should get off the bus, and he interjected and told us which one to. Then a lady sitting further back said "Just wait until the next stop, I will show you where you want to go." And she did! It was just really nice, not knowing anything about the place to have somebody just help you out on their way to work.
As we drove into the city, I couldn't help but notice how oddly similar it looks to Prince Rupert, only it has a distinctly more British feel; the houses are colourful and on hillsides, but their archetecture just speaks of a more colonial time. It's not a very skyscraper-y kind of city, though it does have fancy stores and such on the main drag (akin to Robson Street, only a lot less busy, and more town feeling), but their are houses with lawns almost in the city center, so...
So then we arrived! At our hostel, I mean. We are staying at the Downtown Backpackers Hostel for the next 10 nights. It's a historical building, I haven't yet checked much of it out beyond the front steps to use the free internet, the lobby and my room, but it seems to have an age-ed feel. I had a shower and packed my pack to pare down some of the excess bags I have, and am looking at getting a SIM card for my iPhone later today (it's only 1pm!), but before I do that I am in need of a serious nap, a very, very serious nap. And so, I go!
The 14 hour flight would have been great if I would have slept, but I alas, I was unable to enter the Promised Land of Slumber for longer than ~2 1/2 hours. Sad face. As well, my eyes started weeping this mysterious green goo, which I am loathe to believe is a symptom of pink eye (yuck!), that has since subsided (for the time being?), but during said flight, felt like it was glueing my eyes together. Blah. But, we are getting into Wellington so I need to get ready for that!
So we landed in Wellington! We got to the baggage claim and both Hilary and I retrieved our backpacks, but Ann, poor Ann. Her bag somehow didn't make it on the Welly flight, so the man in the baggage services department said to wait until the next flight, only another half an hour, and gave us $12 in vouchers for refreshments. Ann stayed with our rather massive pile of bags for such small ladies while Hilary and I went upstairs to hunt down said refreshments and also to figure out when and what shuttle bus to take. It only cost $8.50 to get into the city from the airport, but the bus driver was grumpy because we each used a twenty and cleaned him out (how were we supposed to know?). So we got the refreshments, which are a bit pricier than Canada, but that's in an airport mind you, and again waited as various coloured and shaped suitcases slowly paraded down the carousel in front of us- sidebar: how can there be so many red bags?! (Ann's back pack is red)- and again, none of them were hers. I guess the solution then is for the nice people at the airport to deliver her suitcase to the hostel we are staying at sometime today.
That's the thing, the people here are SOO nice! Like really, SO NICE! Besides the bus driver, everyone we've talked to has been really helpful and happy. Example: this man on the bus noticed Hilary and I looking at the bus map and the Lonely Planet map trying to figure out where we should get off the bus, and he interjected and told us which one to. Then a lady sitting further back said "Just wait until the next stop, I will show you where you want to go." And she did! It was just really nice, not knowing anything about the place to have somebody just help you out on their way to work.
As we drove into the city, I couldn't help but notice how oddly similar it looks to Prince Rupert, only it has a distinctly more British feel; the houses are colourful and on hillsides, but their archetecture just speaks of a more colonial time. It's not a very skyscraper-y kind of city, though it does have fancy stores and such on the main drag (akin to Robson Street, only a lot less busy, and more town feeling), but their are houses with lawns almost in the city center, so...
So then we arrived! At our hostel, I mean. We are staying at the Downtown Backpackers Hostel for the next 10 nights. It's a historical building, I haven't yet checked much of it out beyond the front steps to use the free internet, the lobby and my room, but it seems to have an age-ed feel. I had a shower and packed my pack to pare down some of the excess bags I have, and am looking at getting a SIM card for my iPhone later today (it's only 1pm!), but before I do that I am in need of a serious nap, a very, very serious nap. And so, I go!
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