After the superb weekend we had in Edinburgh watching the All Blacks play Scotland, we were pumped up for the AB’s RWC quarterfinal against the French in Cardiff. Recognising what an epic weekend this would be, we originally had hatched a plan where four of us (Bev, Tim, James and I) would do the trip in a camper van as part of a lads tiki tour. However the plan needed revising when James, who was a crew member on the Great Beer Delivery, was delayed getting into London because of storms in the Atlantic. A novel excuse to be sure, but [View Full Entry]

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“Rrrrrrrrrrrrrrugby!!! We’re going to the rrrrrrrrugby!” I could barely contain my excitement as the train pulled out of London’s Kings Cross station completely packed with Kiwis. We were all on our way north to Edinburgh for the All Blacks’ pool game against Scotland, an event which had been keenly anticipated by my friends and I since we secured our tickets 12 months (or 365 sleeps) ago. Every carriage was crammed with people, mostly New Zealanders off to the rugby, so much so that those without seats had to stand or sit in the passageways between the carriages for the 5 [View Full Entry]

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Valencia - the Lonely Planet will tell you that Spain’s third largest city is a “cosmopolitan city of designer boutiques, architectural splendour and very much a party town that sizzles on Spain’s Mediterranean coast”. However since April it has been the battlefield for international sport’s oldest trophy, sailing’s America’s Cup. For 8 years it was our cup, and right now we’re doing a great job of taking it back home. The locals with their thick Spanish accents refer to their home as “Falenthia”, although given that so many Kiwis are making the pilgrimage to support Team New Zealand, perhaps they should [View Full Entry]

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Our time in Bangkok was split between a couple of days at the beginning of our trip and one final day after we got back from Phuket and Phi Phi. Therefore this update will cover our whole stay in Bangkok. Well as the song goes, one night in Bangkok makes the hard man humble, so naturally I was a little nervous about staying there for not one but three nights. Being far from a hard man and faced with this potential humbling, I elected for the safe option of cashing in on my employee discount at the InterContinental Bangkok. Yes I [View Full Entry]

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I never finished off my Thailand blogs from our trip in late February so here is the first long overdue update with the Bangkok blog to follow shortly. After our 3 days on Phuket we took the early morning ferry to Phi Phi Island. Phi Phi is actually made up of a couple of islands, the larger island being inhabited (Phi Phi Don) and the smaller a national park (Phi Phi Leh). Like Phuket, Phi Phi is off the southern coast of Thailand, which incidentally put the islands right in the path of the Boxing Day Tsunami. For now lets just [View Full Entry]

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This will be the first travelblog from our holiday in Thailand and as she has flown out from NZ to join me for the trip, the first blog starring Cushla. We are spending 9 nights in Thailand, starting in Bangkok, then heading to Phuket, then to Phi Phi Island and finally back to Bangkok for another night. Because of this split itinerary, I’ve decided to leave the Bangkok travelblog until last and will start this one on Day 3 at Phuket. For those who don’t know, Phuket is an island just off the southwestern coast of Thailand, facing into the Indian [View Full Entry]

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For an ex-pat Kiwi living overseas in the UK there are certain rites of passage that just simply have to be done, with the Waitangi Day Pub Crawl being one of these legendary events. For those non-Kiwis who are somewhat mystified as they read this, Waitangi Day is the national day of New Zealand that is celebrated every year on 6 February. However for reasons too pathetic to mention, back home Waitangi Day is traditionally seen more as a day off work rather than a day for celebrating all things NZ, unlike for instance the dinki di, rough as guts, green [View Full Entry]

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After spending Christmas in France, on December 29th Bevan and I went on to Munich to spend New Years with some good friends of ours, Blair and Kati. I first met Blair 10 years ago in our first year at Canterbury University, but since then we hadn’t seen much of each other so it was great to catch up with him. After Uni Blair was a newly graduated zoologist and headed to Africa to chase Rhinocerous herds and do some exploring. He found the wildlife to his liking and in particular took a shining to a nice German girl called Kati, [View Full Entry]

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For myself and for most of my friends, Christmas 2006 was going to be our first Xmas away from family and friends back in New Zealand and of course the NZ summer. Nevertheless a plan to get a team together and head away for Christmas quickly materialised and we booked ourselves a large house in the French countryside about an hour inland from La Rochelle. During the week prior to Christmas London was blanketed by a thick cold fog that was fair strangling London’s airports just in time for the holidays. Luckily for us though, we were flying out of Stansted [View Full Entry]

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(Paris is turned Black and Beige) When you are doing the famed Kiwi OE a trip to support the All Blacks on a northern hemisphere tour is an unmissable event. And who better to unleash some patriotic passion with than on a Beige Brigade supporters tour to Paris. Perhaps best known for supporting the NZ cricket team and bringing beige back into the fashion spectrum, they have now set up a London outpost and lead package tours to all sorts of NZ sporting events. The Beige Expeditionary Force And so on Friday evening we left London’s Waterloo Station on the Eurostar [View Full Entry]

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