All Blacks versus Ireland

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Since I've been back in New Zealand I have been mostly focusing on getting a job. Spending my days sending out as many resumes as I can. While the weather is cold (not really if you ask me!) it's been a nice change from Thailand's heat. It's been not very exciting.

However, I had bought tickets to an All Blacks rugby game back in March. Pete and I planned a weekend away from Auckland to go see the game down in New Plymouth which is 5 hours south of Auckland. I met Pete at his work place on Friday and we set off after he finished. We drove down to Raglan and stayed there for the night. It was raining for most of the way and got dark so we didn't see much but I had already been down this way back in September.

We arrived late but a key was waiting for us. We stayed at a hostel called Solscape which is up on the mountains overlooking the ocean. Really nice place. We stayed in an old train carriage which they have converted into small rooms. Basically just enough room for a bed haha. There was a common area with a kitchen and stuff a short walk away. Unfortunately it rained all night. We were up early the next morning and checked out to see more clouds and rain on our way. But at least Pete could now see the surroundings.

We headed into town and grabbed some breakfast and we were on our way down to New Plymouth. One thing I have learnt in New Zealand: Major highways on maps can be gravel roads. They look like major roads on a map but then you are driving along and the road turns to gravel and there are no more signs and you just have to hope you are going the right way. Haha we had a bit of a moment of confusion and stress not sure where we were but we made it.

We hadn't booked any where to stay in New Plymouth so we arrived around 2pm and drove past a few hotels all saying No Vacancy. Yikes. We went into one of the bigger hotels and the lady behind the desk was very helpful and friendly. She did some calling around for us and found us one room left in a town called Stratford about 20 mins from New Plymouth. So we took it and headed out there.

We ended up having a really gorgeous room and it wasn't that far from New Plymouth. We relaxed a bit after the long drive and then Pete let me drive his car into New Plymouth. Yes, he knows my nickname is crash. I did fine driving and it was all good. We looked around the main part of town and then found somewhere to park close to the stadium. I drove around the cul de sac the wrong way and didn't notice until Pete said something to me haha. Weird how little things like that are so automatic in your head.

We grabbed some dinner and then headed into the stadium. The weather was threatening to rain for the whole game but it managed to stay away. It was quite chilly though. We had standing area tickets so we found a good spot and waited for the game. The All blacks were playing Ireland. There were a TON of Irish fans in the stands. It blew me away. After the teams warmed up and did the national anthems the All blacks did the haka which was awesome to see again and then the game was under way. It was all All Blacks. The irish weren't put up much of a fight. The All blacks score was keeping up with the time clock.

The score ended 66 to 28 for the All blacks. Pretty good game, really good atmosphere and a bit of a rowdy crowd but nothing too crazy. We headed back up north the next day as Pete had to get back for work on Monday. We stopped in a town called Meremere (pronounced Marymary) to watch one of his friends do some drifting in his car. Pete is really into cars, and so are all of his friends. One of them has fixed up a car into more of a race car kind of. Drifting for those that don't know is where they go really fast around a corner and then like slide their cars sideways around a corner. They do this at race tracks so don't worry about them being on the roads! Back to Auckland. Pretty good weekend and just nice to get out of Auckland again!

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