The day disappeared

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When you travel to New Zealand from the UK there’s not much further you can go - you may as well just turn back again from there. I seem to recall that Forrest Gump’s attitude to the southern US states was pretty similar although my own mode of transport was not an old pair of running shoes, but a Boeing 747 from Heathrow to Auckland featuring a brief stay in the transit lounge at LAX (enough time, as it turned out, for the Yanks to grab a retinal scan and some fingerprints from me). And instead of turning back again at the end of a journey on foot across Alabama et al, a seven-month working trip in and around Auckland on the North Island of beautiful New Zealand was my own calling.

Although I will be rewarded with an extra day when I return to the United Kingdom in April 2008, my outbound journey began on 29th August 2007 at Heathrow and having touched down on 31st August at Auckland, as if by magic my own ‘30th August 2007’ didn’t happen.....the day disappeared. I’m led to believe I missed nothing.

A simple eye operation in the UK was something that I had to look forward to just before the lengthy flight, and once my disorientation started to kick in on my first day in NZ, the open wound on my eye-lid offered up no sympathy. It made life somewhat uncomfortable for a time, but this was tempered a fair bit by my excitement at being in this great place and I was soon back to normal a couple of days in, when I began to meet up with the folks with whom I’d be working at Takapuna District Cricket Club on Auckland’s North Shore.

The president of the cricket club, Carl, would double up as my landlord and his pad in leafy Mairangi Bay proved to be highly agreeable, as was his welcome once I’d set foot in the complex that housed his comfortable abode. The cool spring air has put paid to any thoughts of using the outdoor pool that sits alongside the rear of the house, so far at least, and the same can be said for the impressive tennis court that is also on-site at Sunset Road; however Carl’s external jacuzzi has been put to very good use of an evening from time to time.

The first week here in the Auckland suburbs has largely been spent working in the indoor cricket centre where training sessions have been conducted prior to the beginning of the cricket season, and between times I have started taking in local life and getting into familiar routines. As a sideline I have also become an Auckland Warriors fan to boot, and although I’m from southern England with a leaning towards union rather than league, I have quickly discovered the simplicity and the nuances in rugby league and found it enthralling, having been swept along with the local swell of support for the 13-man game. That said, the forthcoming rugby union World Cup has already began to grab the nation by the collar as the All Blacks again challenge to become the brides rather than the bridesmaids.........what odds England, guys????

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