Well, following my tirade at the end of my last blog regarding the performance of the English cricket team they seem to have taken heed of my criticism and overturned the 1-0 deficit, to win the series with New Zealand 2-1. Perhaps they are readers of 'I'm glad it's me and not you!' and were all distraught at the thought of letting me down....you never know.
Having arrived in New Zealand only planning to attend the first test match I soon changed my plans upon discovering that a 5 day pass to a test match came to NZ$70 (
Before heading off to New Zealand my final weekend in Sydney saw me v
enturing out to the cities annual Mardi Gra celebrations. People kept telling me that Sydney is now the gay capital of the world, after apparently surpassing San Francisco last year, so as you can imagine it was quite an evening. Thousands of people piled onto the streets of Sydney to watch the parade, which I think lasted for around 4 hours. That's one hell of a lot of campness.
Upon arriving in Auckland, where it was raining (at this point I was worried my luck with rain had followed me to New Zealand), Giles and I rented a car (thankfully a lot more economical than the Ford Falcon in Sydney) and headed to Hamilton. At this point can I just recommend that if anyone ever travels to New Zealand then do not waste any money on a curry, they are all rubbish. Former England captain Nasser Hussain was in the first curry house we ventured into, so the night wasn't a total waste. We didn't manage to find out what Nasser thought of the curry, but I'm fairly certain he would have eaten elsewhere for the remainder of the test match.
After spending our first night in a car park we managed to find a camp si
te to spend the rest of the week in, and then headed to the first days play. Luckily the weather on the north island was fantastic, which helped to soften the blow of witnessing a pathetic English performance over the next 5 days. Giles was quick to offer his thoughts on how the match had played out.
Fortunately on the final morning of the test we ran into the outspoken Geoffrey Boycott. The ‘lesser spotted Boycott’, as we had come to know him due to his crafty ability to avoid attention, was actually quite happy to sign and pose. I invited him around to Che
z Vincent on my return to England for Sunday lunch, though I couldn’t give him an exact date on when that would be.
In a bid to erase the memories of the cricket from our minds we then spent a night in Raglan, a delightful town on the west coast known for being something of a haven for surfers. This gave me another chance to battle waves, and sure enough after being spun around by the washing machine that is the Tasm
an Sea for an hour and a half I was suitably exhausted, having failed to stand up on the board once.
Luckily the Wellington test match went a little more to plan and on the final day, following Ryan Sidebottom’s catch to secure the win, we were lucky enough to wander onto the oval and even bowled a co
uple of balls on the test wicket just hours after the match had finished. A brief meeting with Kevin Pietersen - in which I made a joke which went down like a lead balloon – and Ryan Sidebottom followed to make a fantastic day even better. 
Away from the cricket I would say that Wellington was the nicest of the cities I’ve 
visited in New Zealand. Sadly that can’t be said for its rugby ground, the Westpac stadium (aka the cake tin), which is probably the blandest sporting 
arena I have ever seen. On the plus side security at the stadium is dreadful, meaning I managed to walk straight onto the pitch, 
before then giving myself a little tour of the changing rooms and various other internal workings.
A slight mix up with dates (not the first time since leaving home I must admit) m
eant that I arrived in Napier for the final test 2 days early. This proved to be perfect for my cricketing meet and greet tour though, allowing me to complete my collection of photos and signatures with the team at a net session. Sadly this did mean that I missed the final day of the series as England wrapped things up. I couldn’t complain too much though, after seeing 14 of the 15 days of test cricket on offer. Overall I think watching test cricket is possibly the best life anyone can live. If I could do it full time then I think my life would be fairly close to being complete. I think my highlight came when Jonathan Agnew read out a text I had sent into the New Zealand version of Test Match Special, inviting him to share a load of washing with me after he ran out of clean briefs. The invite was turned down.
Christchuch was my next stop on my tour of New Zealand, where I was able to enjoy some free accommodation with Giles. In order to see a little of the surrounding area we rented a car to take a trip to the Banks Peninsular and Akaroa. Having had a rather heavy evening the night before, the first major problem that arose was opening the boot of the car. After several minutes o
f scratching our heads, reading the manual and calling the rental company, Giles’s housemate Kelly cracked the code, meaning we were able to take belongings with us on the road trip. In the end it was all worth it when I witnessed possibly the most impressive sunset I have seen so far on my travels.
Next up came Queens
town, the adventure capital of New Zealand, if not the world. Having heard a lot about riverboarding I was intent on making sure that was one activity to tick off on my ‘to do’ list. It didn’t quite go as planned though, and after a slight problem at the first set of rapids I pulled an absolute ‘Swifty’ and was quickly given the tag of safety hazard, resulting in me having to spend the rest of the course attached to a guide who wouldn’t let me go for fear of not seeing me again. It was slightly embarrasing I've got to admit.
The other worrying factor to hit me in Queenstown was the temperature. For this first time since I left Ushuaia at the end of October I felt cold, and suddenly I realised that the last few months have turned me into a wimp. The first sign of a chill and I retreated straight to my thermals. The next few months could be uncomfortable unless I toughen up quickly.
Anyway, I'm off to Australia again on Tuesday, so my next entry might involve a visit to a certain street in Erinsborough.
Ciao.
Vinny/Ian
A few observations:
Crime in New Zealand seems pretty non-existent, so the majority of the time the news is just a round up of car crashes that have happened that day.
One way they keep the crime level down is by making sure all knives are blunt. I know this as I haven’t been able to cook with a sharp set of blades since I arrived in the country.
Germans are the loudest nationality on Earth.
No comments:
Post a Comment