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 seeing he was bringing us a Speight’s Ale House we were happy to let this one go! Check out the video tribute to James to see how we made sure he wasn’t feeling too left ... read more

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 change the spelling to ValeNZia. A group of us had planned a trip of some sort to support our boys and with the first weekend of May being a long weekend and coinciding with the ... read more

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 say that the Phi Phi Islands are simply stunning and about as close to that idyllic picture of an tropical island setting as you can probably get. So idyllic in fact that it has featured ... read more

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 and gold patriotic orgy that the Aussies muster for Australia Day. However when you are half a planet from home you can't afford to get complacent about things as inherently important as the national day, ... read more

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 where the fog was still allowing planes to take off. We arrived at La Rochelle and proceeded to immigration where a single French border policeman took ages to inspect our passports, eyeing each of us ... read more