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Other entries in Auckland

Rugger match

So after spending a great evening and morning with our New Zealander hosts, Noah and I hopped in the car and headed back to Auckland. We actually would have loved to spend more time out there, but our rental agreement precluded such a thing, we had to return it by 11 am friday morning. Once back in Auckland, we checked in to the cheapest hostel we could find and Noah went right to sleep.

Meanwhile, I made myself busy by buying a pair of running shoes and finding out information about friday evening's rugby super 14 (formerly super 12) opening match. The Auckland Blues were playing the Wellington Hurricanes at home to kick off the season. I was really stoked to see this game as I have never seen professional rugby before ever, and have never even really seen good rugby played live before. So after finding out how to get to the venue and how to get tickets (it was really easy, buy them at the door) I woke Noah up and we got ready to go ie, we put on blue t-shirts.

We caught the bus down to the stadium, and since it was so early we looked for foor and beer. We found a place selling "pies" and since we had seen signs for pies so many times we thought it appropriate to try one, luckily pies are about the cheapest things you can eat, and its not because they taste bad. Simply put they are just mini pot pies, without the pot of course, and mostly filled with beef and semi melted beef fat. Sounds gross but tastes yummy. After a meal of beef and cheese pies, we bought our tickets: the cheap seats for 15 dollars, and went in search of cheap beer to consume before the start of the game.

we found what is probably equivalent to the beast (for all you older folks, that's "milwakees best" beer in the states, funny enough Im pretty sure that this beer is not actually Milwakee's best beer). We drank our beer as we sat across from a house near the stadium that was painted in blues colors and watched as blues fans steadily passed by on their way to the game. All in all it was pretty similar to watching american sports fans walk to any sort of sports games, only they were using less curse words and different slang.

When we got into the stadium we were shocked to see that we could actually sit in the front row (at ground level) so here we were, literally 10 yards from one of the try zones and in some cases mere feet from some of the players warming up. For me it was incredible to see these huge athletes warming up and doing some of the same drills I had been doing (rather badly) for the past 3 years. Shortly after, the game commenced. The first half was rather slow, with most of the scoring coming from penalty kicks, but was highlighted by witnessing the New Zealand version of the wave. Basically the same as the american version of the wave except that instead of two fat guys starting it its two guys with horrible mullets, and instead of just putting your hands up everybody throws up all the trash and empty bottles around (luckily they are all plastic) as high as they can. Little kids were clamouring for empty beer bottles which would end up on top of my head.

At half time, noah and I enjoyed some chips (fries) and our own mix of mustard and New zealand's version of ketchup (absolutely not good) as sauce, MMMM... delicious, and then the second half began. It started slowly, but then it started to rain and things started to slip for the blues, the hurricanes who were down scored a quick try to come within two and then when the blues started to drop balls and make stupid errors the hurricanes just ran all over them, scoring maybee three more trys by the end of the game. needless to say the waves sort of abated, and the crowd was almost hushed by the end of the game, so before the time expired, Noah and I slipped out of the stadium to catch the train home before anybody else left, but of course everyone and their mom had the same idea so we ended up waiting in the rain for a train which came after about thirty minutes. I was shocked to notice that in the crowded train everyone sat quietly (except for a pair of babbling girls behind us) and waited patiently for the train to slowly make its way back to the center of town. ALl in all the experience was awesome, but I was shocked to see how well mannered the New Zealanders actually are, even after heavy drinking, the violence of rugby, a bad loss to cross island rival, and waiting in the rain for a late train, they were all curteous and generally quiet. I guess thats what I should expect from a group of people whose general adherence to traffic laws is almost perfect (I think Noah and I have jaywalked more times in the past ten days, than most new Zealanders have in their entire life).

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