In Wellington, we were close enough to the All Blacks to see the type of hair product they use in their perfect sculpted hair. Check out that part on Sonny Bill’s head. They must spend just as much time doing their hair as they do training. The kids there asked the cutest questions. “What is your favourite sandwich?” “Nonu, does your mum still do your laundry?” Dan Carter is gorgeous and Sonny Bill and Kahui are cute, but Nonu is my favourite. Although he doesn’t get much glory, he is the reason for most of their tries. Plus he had a kid on his lap on stage, how could you possibly not fall in love with him?!
Kiwi Travels
Forget careers. Grad school applications. Money. Our futures. We're going to New Zealand to watch the Rugby World Cup.
I tried to capture my Zorbing experience, but accidentally pressed the zoom in button, and this is the nightmare that resulted.
I chased some lambs around in Tauranga.
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I just sold my stuff back home, quit my job, and I’m travelling the world for a decade or so. I’ll stop and work somewhere if funds run low, but I’m not that worried.
Every backpacker we’ve met in every hostel we’ve stayed in
Auckland on the opening night of the RWC 2011. The Tongans have descended upon New Zealand.
A little late, but I finally managed to get enough Internet to upload some videos to Youtube. Warning #2 about New Zealand: wi-fi is pricey and rare.
GO AMURRICAAHH good job you won one game at the Rugby World Cup. It’s okay though, because every knows that if our best hitting athletes (who are all in the NFL) went up against some of these best hitting athletes (the All Blacks, or South Africa), we would destroy. Too bad all the money is being pumped in the wrong direction. Otherwise, our country might see some real men actually sprint for 80 minutes, learn both offense AND defense, and play with no protection.
Map not drawn to scale
A warning for all those entering New Zealand. We have found no maps drawn to scale in this country. In addition, estimated walking times are wildly inaccurate. Bam and I are not unproportional. We are 5’6 (170cm) and we weigh 130 (60kg) apiece. Maps and diagrams estimating 2 hour walking times have taken us 45 minutes to complete. We are either the fastest walkers in this country, or the Kiwis need to sharpen up on their cartography. Everything is a third of what it looks like. The peninsula of Kaikoura (which is where we are now) is drawn to look like Florida, but unlike Florida, we can circle it in three hours. How the hell did it take Frodo three books to make it to Mordor? Bam and I could’ve done it in a short story.
The cable car leading to Wellington Botanic Gardens was a tiny alley with a tiny alley sign that said ‘Cable Car Lane.’ It was like Flooing into Diagon Alley. They planted flowers in the shape and colours of the flags of the countries competing in the Rugby World Cup, good on them.
Wellington is for hipsters.
We have located the hipsters in New Zealand. They are all in Wellington. Thank god Bam bought some $10 floral ray bans before we got there. They had spaceship public bathrooms that spoke to you when you entered and sang to you while you peed. Here be Asians too. I had bubble tea. They have a Cuba St and a Panama St but we weren’t sure about their relevance to central America. In honour of Birthday Bam we had hot stone massages and Irish stew for dinner. And during dinner, USA decided to lose to Italy even after saving all of their good players (read: one good player, Captain America) from the Aussie slaughter the week before. And then we stood in the cold for an hour and tried to understand bus schedules. We were about to hitchhike to our deaths when the last bus came and took us to Mars and back before returning to Wellington.
Me: What time do you open and how old do you have to be to go on the bouncy castles?
The man: We open at noon and you can be as old as you’d like.
Me: Alright, I will be 5 years old and back at noon.
Birthday fun
We had one day to do Wellington, and we did it. We did it so well. We spent the morning colouring to Bam’s heart content. She said, “On my 22nd birthday, I want to colour and play dress up and kick all the other children out of the play area so I can have it all to myself.” And that’s what we did. We invaded the children’s section of the Te Papa museum and dressed up like dragons and zebras and drew pictures of Harry Potter and pirates. It was a well-spent three hours. I’m not sure what they were exhibiting in the museum. Something about sea life and history, or earthquakes and pottery.
8th rainbow of our trip. This is a quality, look at the clarity of the doubleness. This puts all other rainbows to shame. SHAME. You know what else is shameful? Check out the Russian who lost a shoe during the game. He was the fullback and the Irish kept kicking to him, and he kept having to chase and couldn’t put his shoe on. He hobbled around for a couple minutes before he could put his shoe back on. That’s Russian shame. Ireland dominated that game and they didn’t even put O’Driscoll on. Ireland’s gonna go ALL THE WAY TO THE FINALS!
On the morning of my 22nd birthday we went to the Te Papa museum and played
Check out the picture where Bam is laughing so hard at her HP she’s actually crying. Weeping with joy.
Russia v Ireland @ Rotorua Stadium
