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Published: February 27th 2005
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We haven’t been up to anything exciting (for ‘exciting’ read ‘out of Auckland’) recently, but we have some stories to share with you.
The great rugby boot hunt
New Zealand is a funny place. Rugby is the national game here. Boys, girls, men and women play it, families go and watch it, everyone is intensely proud of the All Blacks. It’s the start of the rugby season here. So when Graeme decided that he needed a new pair of rugby boots to play said game, we assumed that this would be accomplished in the space of a lunchtime. WRONG!! He came home dejected, having visited the three fine sports shops that Henderson shopping centre has to offer, and reported that not one of them had a pair of rugby boots. Football (soccer) boots galore, but none for rugby. ‘How odd’ we thought, ‘but it’s OK, we’ll get some on Saturday morning in town’. Wrong again! We scoured Queen Street and it’s environs, no rugby boots. I remembered a sports shop in Newmarket (a large shopping area, a bus ride away) - ‘we’ll get some there’ thought I. Wrong again! Luckily, a nice man in one of the (rugby bootless)
shops knew of a shop we could try. He even phoned them for us and gave us the address. Another bus ride followed and we found ourselves at Smith’s Sportshoes. By this time Graeme was seriously annoyed. Luckily, Smiths came through for us - they had rugby boots. Oddly enough though, they had about 6 pairs of rugby boots to choose from, and about 50 pairs of soccer boots (along with a giant poster of David Beckham). But Kiwis don’t play soccer…
International Cricket
Yesterday Graeme dragged me along to see New Zealand (the Blackcaps) play Australia at cricket. We were meant to be going with friends but they ended up not being able to go, so it was just the two of us. Our knowledge of cricket before the game: ‘isn’t it just like rounders, only it takes all day?’. Our knowledge of cricket after the game: ‘it
is just like rounders, only the game lasts for hours and thousands of people watch , and most of them get very drunk indeed’. The Kiwis lost, for the record, but far more entertaining than the cricket was watching the people in the terraces, where a fight broke out
And a silly hat!
Graeme looks a bit odd in this photo - honestly, he's not on drugs! every 10 minutes and the police rushed in to break it up; watching the people in the terraces abusing the Aussie players when they had to stand out there to field (poor guys!); and listening to the Kiwis complaining about the Aussies: ‘I mean, they are the number one team in the world, but I wouldn’t hate them so much if they weren’t such arrogant a***holes’!
Asian festival of lanterns
Auckland is very multi-cultural - it has the largest Polynesian population outside of the Polynesian islands themselves, and it is home to people from all over Asia. To mark the Chinese New Year, there has been a Festival of Lanterns in a wee park near our flat. We wandered along this evening to have a look, and we were glad we did. Thousands of lanterns were strung up between the trees, giving the whole place a rosy glow. The park was crowded with people from all over the world and food stalls sold lovely smelling delicacies from all over Asia. The best part was the little lanterns-on-sticks which you could buy for a whole $2 from a stall - there were people all over the park carrying little
coloured lanterns with candles in them. It was cool!
Pub Quiz
We’ve been going to our local pub quiz with Cat and Rob every Monday. It’s become a regular event, and the people at the Shakespeare Bar love us because we keep bringing other people with us. The first week we won - amazingly!! The prize was a $50 bar tab, not to be sneezed at! Since then we’ve been failing to match that first glorious week, although we have had a few seconds and thirds… Last week we won the third prize of $20 at the bar, so we’re going back tomorrow to drink that (seriously, it’s one round!) and try to reclaim our crown at the top. Wish us luck!!
We’re not sure what we’re doing for the next few weeks (besides working of course!) - hopefully we’ll be able to collect some more kiwi stories for you. We’re going to be firming up our plans for the next few months soon - can’t believe we’ve been away for almost six months! We’re missing everyone at home, although not your snowy weather - it was 32 degrees here today :-) Hope you’re all well, love
Jo and Graeme x
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