The Final post...

Sunday 23rd October All Blacks v France, Eden Park, Auckland

Saoirse keeping a close eye on Sexton

The normal run of events for watching a live rugby match at home is that Linds arranges for Alicia, Conor & Saoirse to be occupied (a bit like a small country) while I get the chores out of the way and sit down to shout at the telly for just over an hour. Sometimes Mateo wanders in, asks who’s playing, watches five minutes and then wanders out again. Generally, however, it’s just me, the telly and a lot of shouting. 

The RWC being in NZ changed that routine. The games were on so early that chores and children were left to their own devices. I found myself watching most of the games with Saoirse snuggled up to me on the sofa. She started to demand that we do ‘pause, engage’ “like they do on the rugby Daddy”. She then announced after the Ireland v Russia game that she wanted to play rugby. Conor informed her that it was a very rough game. “I know that - but I don’t care” came her considered response. 

And so to the final. We’d arrived back in London from Auckland on Wednesday morning and gone straight to work. Jet lag was still messing with our heads so I was already up at 7am for the 9am start. Bodies started to appear about 8am and by the time ITV had started their pre-match preamble the sofa was packed. Mateo had work at 11 but he was already up and dressed!!! Tea and sausage sandwiches were sorted. Bring it on!

We had the Haka! The French tried to emulate Willie Anderson in ’89 but seemed to chicken out at the last minute. Was this a sign of things to come? 

Off we went. France were definitely up for this, thank BOD. I’d been dreading an All Black whitewash. The French are the most schizophrenic rugby side ever. One week 15 blokes from my local pub could beat them and the next they are making the ABs look human. Not great news for our Kiwi friends who we knew would be chewing their arms off the longer the game went on. Piri was kicking like Heather Mills, the poor fecker. NZ’s finest, Ritchie McCaw left his knee in (was it an accident?) on Para and France lost their 10. Trinh-Duc came on to replace him and France continued to improve. The ABs lose yet another 10 and their 4^th choice, Bath’s Stephen Donald came on to replace Cruden who had landed badly on his knee. From a lineout the ABs scored a try in the unlikely shape of No 1, Tony Woodcock. 5 – 0.

Everyone is still sat on the sofa. 

Second half and Rougerie & Dusautoir were having the game of their life. Penalty for the ABs. Donald slots it over under what can only be tremendous pressure. 8 – 0. A few minutes later France go over under the posts. It’s  Dusautoir! It’s converted. 8 – 7. Game on!

The remainder of the game is so tense. Like a game of chess. I wouldn’t want to be a supporter of either side watching this. The French are playing like they can win this and the ABs look scared.

The last two minutes have the ABs pushing the French back up the pitch scrum by scrum. The kitchen sink is thrown in by both teams. 

80 minutes. Penalty given away by France. The ABs jump around. McCaw remembers they still have to kick it out to win. Out it goes!

I felt bad for the French. It was as close as any game I’d seen throughout the whole tournament. Overall I’m glad the All Blacks won it but I’m equally glad that France turned up and gave it a go. 

So our RWC odyssey is over for another 4 years. 2015 is in England. I suspect there might be the odd Kiwi using the spare room given the conversations we had while roaming the north Island.

A great RWC. A great holiday.  

World Cup me hoop!

The long goodbye

Monday 17^th October

Time to say (a long) goodbye

We got up extremely late, and were put to shame by Rachael going to work and Dave going out exercising. Still, our last day waking up without our small person alarm. We headed out to buy some last minute presents and to try to shake off the last –day malaise. Lunch followed at Prego with Dave, Rachael, and Sarah. We had New Zealand whitebait for the first time – smaller and tastier than their UK counterparts.

Sarah with a famous New Zealand pie

We headed back to Rachael and Dave’s for a small drink before leaving, and the next thing we knew, we had invited ourselves to their friends (next-door but one) Simon and Wing’s to discuss Coronation Street (RIP Betty) and look at their amazing art collection.

All too soon the taxi came, and after dropping Sarah at home, we headed, tearfully, for the airport. Flight went as well as could be expected in economy, and we landed in Hong Kong on time at 6am.

Tuesday 18th October

After a bit of argy-bargy (‘but I’m travelling first class!'), we discovered that in order to check in our bags we had to get the train from Hong Kong airport (which is on a different island from HK itself) to HK Central. Things went smoothly from there, and we emerged, dirty and blinking, into the sun of Hong Kong. After a breakfast overlooking the harbour, we went to find the famous Star Ferry, an amazing old boat which pitched and rolled its way over to Kowloon, giving us amazing views back over the city. We wandered around the waterfront of Kowloon, and down the Avenue of Stars, in amazingly hot weather (for which we were not dressed). 

Kowloon was a weird mixture of Chinese herbalists and tobacconists and high-class designer shops. It was hard to get a sense of the place in our befuddled and tired states, but we walked the streets taking in the sights and taking pictures.

The Star Ferry took us back to Hong Kong, and we decided to walk one of the tourist trails. The highlights were the streets of Chinese shops festooned with gory artefacts such as severed limbs and (fake) blood-stained clothing. We’re not sure if this was something to do with the Day of the Dead, Hallowe’en, or something completely different, but it certainly was striking. After a very European snack of muffins and croissants we went on to visit a Taoist Temple, which held the most incense I have ever seen in any one place.

Shattered and very hot by this point, we decided to take a taxi to Stanley, as we had heard that the waterfront was nice there. The trip was interesting – incredible how many people they pack into high-rise blocks here. It’s the absolute opposite of New Zealand, which has lots of land and not many people, and that’s possibly one of the reasons why we did not particularly enjoy our time here. Stanley was Blackpool with better views and better weather, but we found a German (!) bar overlooking the bay, and agreed that a couple of beers looking at the view was not a bad way to pass your layover in HK.

Taxi back to the station, a train to the airport, and to the lounge. Where we stayed, for six (count ‘em) hours until our flight left for the UK.  

More NZ Midgets & the best game of rugby, like ever.

Sunday 16^th October.

 "Hook only missed by this much". Linds & Rachael discuss the game from the night before.

An ex-colleague, Paul West and his family were in town for the weekend so we met up at a local bar, Chapel, for lunch. It was great to meet Ann, Paul’s wife and Zack their 6 year old son. While we were there a gaggle of Welsh players, including James Hook, came in and Rachel doubled her squad pictures for the tournament (she’d also run past Sonny Bill that morning). I had a word with Lee Byrne on the way out.

Tom & Lee Byrne tackle the days big issues

 Before we headed off to the game we were suitably decorated by Alex, Emma & Sam in All Black colours, tattoos, silver ferns etc but I snuck my tricolour in my pocket just in case I might need it.

 Thorn / Rose interface #2

We all headed off down the ‘Fan Trail’ singing, waving flags and generally making eejits of ourselves. There’s a ton of stuff going on as you head to the ground, my favourite being Midget NZ a group of 10 year olds covering AC/DC. All Black fans don’t seem to have any ‘songs’ so with the help of some French fans we kept a sing-a-long going until we reached the ground.

 Not a Tindle in sight

Into the ground and we made our way to our respective seats. Linds and I were sat next to the only two Aussies we could see for miles but the locals left them alone for the most part.

 All Blacks do their stuff

The game itself was always only going one way although the crowd didn’t relax into ‘four more years’ until about 10 minutes from the end. I think it was the best performance by a rugby team I've ever seen and Australia have to take the credit for keeping the score as respectable as they did. The scary thing is that without the best player in the world they could still produce the skills of Cory Jane and the superb Israel 'Deputy' Dagg. These were two players who had to be dragged out of a pub at 2am a week ago, Jane with a dirty tab in his gob.

AB Fans pulling Linds' hair

The trip home was a buzz with everyone blasting horns, cheering and letting the odd Aussie know what they thought of them (all in good spirits, mind).

The Big Rubbee ball & a Welsh spear.

Saturday 15^th October

The day started with a run down to the waterfront to blow away the cobwebs from the evening before. We decided to take a look inside the big rugby ball at the Cloud. After an hour long queue (with Bernard Cribbins' brother) we, along with 200 other souls, went in to see a fantastic surround video (if there is such a thing) celebrating all that’s great about NZ and rugby. The more I see the effort that NZ have put into this RWC the more I worry about what is in store for us in 2015. It’s going to be like the day after the Christmas decorations come down here after the final. Stand still long enough and someone will put RWC bunting on your head. 

A sneaky champagne lunch after running back to Rachel & Dave’s and we were off to see 'Finding Murdoch' a play about the only All Black to have been kicked off a tour (Wales in ’72 after punching a security guard since you asked). Interesting enough story but a bit am/dram in parts acting-wise.

 We found him! Lee Majors plays All Black Keith Murdoch

We left the theatre to be met by a protest, possibly by students but it seemed like a coalition-type event. It was raucous but peaceful enough. Further investigation revealed that it was one of 1000s co-ordinated around the world. The general consensus was that it was nice to see students up that early on a Saturday.

 Down with this sort of thing!

We popped in to see a few of R&D’s friends that lived nearby and were preparing to set off for the Wales v France game. They had put some extra special effort into painting a banner to remind the French of past misdemeanours. You'd have to get up early to get anything past these boys.

Back to R&D’s for a bar-b-q and then the evening’s main event, Wales v France. Warburton’s tackle will unfortunately be the reason why everyone remembers what was a great Wales performance. The 14 guys that stayed on the pitch were awesome. It’s a pity they left 11 points out there at the end of the game. Any one of 4 chances would have got them through. Instead we have a French team who got beaten by Tonga (Tonga!!!???) in the final.

A mission to the Fan Zone

Friday 14th October

The day dawned sunny and bright, so we made our way to Mission Bay, which is along the coast, a little from the centre of Auckland, and is one of the most popular (and lovely) city beaches. We had a delicious brunch in The Mission Bay Cafe before heading into town to look at the Fanzone.

 Sage advice indeed!

Something we have found here is that people in officialdom tend to be much more human and pragmatic than their counterparts in the UK. For example, despite telling us that we could not take the car close to the Fanzone as the roads were closed in preparation for the matches over the weekend, a very gentle appeal to the guard’s better nature resulted in a U turn and off we went. It has to be said that the Kiwis have done an amazing job of preparing for the World Cup (although I understand there were some teething problems initially) and the Fanzone is really a great place to be. In addition to the giant rugby ball (of which more tomorrow), there is a large stage area with constant live bands, lots and lots of different food opportunities, a large indoor bar and viewing area, and The Cloud, an area showcasing a wide range of New Zealand delights, from food and drink to wacky and surprising inventions.

 The most precious thing in the world - with a fake!

From there we returned to the Northern Steamship, and then drove to The Flying Moa, where we were due to return the SatNav which Sarah’s colleague had so kindly lent us.

You don't need a weatherman to know which way the wind blows...

Thursday 13^th October

Today, the inevitable bout of homesickness struck. There have been many times over the past week when one of us has momentarily been overwhelmed by the vastness of the distance between us and most of the people we love in the world, but usually they have been mercifully fleeting. A combination of a late night and bad weather meant that we were both pretty miserable this morning, and wishing we could go home.

 A gannet in NZ

Sarah bravely tried to rally our spirits, and eventually the weather started to clear and we drove out to Muriwai Beach, which is on the west coast of the island. The west coast beaches are much wilder than those on the east, and have black volcanic sand. There is also a gannet colony there. We went for a walk along the beach and agreed that it reminded us of the west coast beaches of Ireland but with less rubbish. Our spirits lifted, we stopped at Soljans, a Kumeu winery and had a really lovely lunch accompanied by wines from the winery. 

For the evening, Sarah had organised a tasting menu at Number 5 and despite the vegetarian option being beetroot risotto (the two things in the world that I really cannot eat) we enjoyed our meal and matching wines and the homesickness was banished.

 Thorn / Rose interface #1

Catching up with a Tower of Beer

Wednesday 12th October

It’s been a hectic week and a half, so the plan for today was to take it easy and not do too much running around. We were due to meet a colleague of Tom’s (Sheree) for lunch, so off we trotted to Big Picture Wine, which boasted an ‘Aroma Room’ but very vocally did not offer chips or dessert. Clearly we look like the sort of people who cannot go a couple of hours without chips or dessert. Post lunch we then moved back to Sarah’s, where we spent the afternoon catching up with some unavoidable life admin. 

In the evening we met another colleague of Tom’s (Dan) for a drink in town, in a pub called The Bluestone Room, which sold odd-looking towers of beer. We failed to join the pub quiz which had thankfully started half an hour before we got there and opted for an early night to recharge the batteries instead. For some reason we decided to sit up into the wee small hours searching You Tube instead...