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| Emily and I on the way to the Rugby match |
Emily and I decided to check out the NZ national sport this past Saturday, and went into Auckland for a Rugby game. We bought our tickets online and printed them out. $15 nz each and when you presented the tickets to the train operator you got a free ride to and from the game. This saved us from having to drive into Auckland, and in stead we just hoped on the train that dropped us off in front of Eden Park stadium, which will hold the Rugby World Cup 2011 finals next fall. With each stop of the train, more fans would pile onto the train either wearing blue and white (Auckland city supporters) and or Yellow/black/Red (Waikato supporters). The game we went to happened to be a semi final match between the two teams, winner to head to Christchurch to take on Canterbury. The playoffs were for the ITF Cup. This league breeds players for the more professional super 14 league and the national team, The All Blacks. Many of players were between 19 and 23 years of age. The rugby is still considered good quality rugby, similar to university hockey in Canada, not quite pro but still exciting to watch. Our seats were located at center field a few rows up, we really lucked out paying $15 a seat as come world cup 2011, the exact same seats will cost 10 times as much easily. The sun was shining as the game kicked off, and as the sky grew dark, the lights in the stadium shone to life. Emily and I happened to be surrounded by a sea of blue and white supporters, therefore we decided it best to cheer for Auckland. Auckland would eventually loose to a come from behind try from Waikato (who's mascot is a cow, and all the fans have cow bells, and they rang them all game). It was a great first match to take in. We hope to see more matches as our time passes here in NZ.
This upcoming Monday, we will be doing a five day road trip to Northland NZ. We plan on driving up the west coast all the way to Cape Reinga (where the tazman and pacific oceans meet) and then return down the east coast, where we will visit the bay of islands. Our host have graciously offered us one of their cars (Toyota Rav 4) for our road trip. We plan on camping the majority of the time, as there are several camp sites up north. We will post several pictures of our journey north when we return.
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| Outside Eden Park |
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| View of the playing surface |
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| One of NZ top 3 beers (sold in 4 packs at sporting events) |
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| some of the action on the field |
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| Mooloos supporters |
Were here in Kumeu, a small country town about a half hour north of Auckland. There are lots of local wineries, cheese factories and delicious bakeries in this area and its a nice change from the suburb Sunnyvale (our last wwoofing spot).
We thought that we would put up a few pictures from our last wwoofing experience when we were working for a small business called Fruit Vans. John and I essentially sold local NZ fruit and veggies from a makeshift stand in the back of a van, in busy areas surrounding Auckland. Even though the work wasn't that interesting, the fellow wwoofers that we met there, from all around the world made the experience worthwhile!!!
Hope all is well,
John and Emily
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| My profitable fruit stand |
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| Avos, oranges, asparagus, strawberries and tangelos!!! | |
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| Our favorite yanks ;) Georgian gurls: Jacklynn, Christy and Lucy |
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| Decided to give myself bangs mum :) |
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| Last night goodbye party |
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| Dish Duty: Carlos from Brazil, the other Emilie from France, and Morgan & Borris from Belgium |
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| Morgan is a little more enthusiastic about cleaning dishes! | | | |
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