Location: Hotel Grand Chancellor, Auckland, New Zealand
Time 11:00pm
Its been a week already! I have been enjoying the RWC way to much to have had time to keep a daily blog but not to worry here is a synopsis of the weeks events!
Friday was the opening night of the championship and it certainly didn't disappoint. I joined the many thousands of others on Auckland's waterfront hoping to catch a glimpse of the arriving "Wakas" (Maori tribal boats) into Auckland harbor only to get caught up in what can only described as an organized chaos! Initial expectations of 10,000 to 15,000 spectators were totally underestimated when close to 100,000 Kiwi and International fans turned up for the event completely overwhelming local organizers, Police and the transport system. Big screen tv's failed at the vital moments and the mass "Haka" that was to be performed on the wharf had to be reconsidered as there was simply no room for it to happen! Although the crowd was predominately well behaved it was no place for the thousands of kids who had turned up and by the time the fireworks display began many had been wisely taken to other viewing points by concerned parents. For those lucky enough to have tickets for the opening game and ceremony at Eden park getting there proved more difficult than Tonga scoring a try against the All Blacks would, with many stranded on non moving trains and busses and approx 2000 missing the game altogether! It was a shambles but one which was really no ones fault! No body could have predicted the sheer volume of interest there would have been in the event however steps have been taken to sort out the issues for this weekends games and I doubt we will see a repeat of the chaos this weekend.
After being crushed in the melee and not wishing to que for at least an hour to get a pint my mate Shane and myself decided to cut our losses and head back up town to view the opening ceremony from the sanctuary of the pub! We found refuge in the Fiddler bar just underneath Auckland's iconic Sky-tower and when the fireworks display began we realized we had made an insipid choich as the tower itself was the center staging point for the spectacular display. The fireworks which lasted a good 15 minutes were bettered only by the opening ceremony itself from Eden Park where the $9m extravaganza was wowing audiences world wide with its simply but effective chaptered story of New Zealand. The opening game itself was a drab affair between a poor Tonga side and the much superior All Blacks who ran out easy victors. However nobody cared, the Rugby World Cup 2011 was finally here and the battle for the coveted Webb Ellis trophy had now begun and thats all that mattered.
Saturday saw Scotland scrape over the line against a poor Romanian side and we witnessed the "Mighty" England pressed all the way by an Argentina side that really should have won the game but for having no-one on the fired that could actually kick the ball between the posts! I watched the game in Fr Teds Irish pub where the best round of applause was saved for the bouncer who frog marched and English Fan complete with shirt and flag out of the bar just as soon as he walked in...... Fr Teds is an Irish bar but on Sat night it was a Puma bar and rightly so!
Sunday morning the real fun began when I woke early to catch the 7am bus to New Plymouth for Ireland V USA. I was making the trip with a fellow Irishman Des Flannigan from Roscommon who like myself has been backpacking for awhile and whom I had originally met in La Paz, Bolivia. County differences aside today we were untied in our common quest of seeing our fellow country men do the business against Eddie O'Sullivans American Eagles. Two stops for breakfast and a cup of tea and 6 hours later we arrived in a very rain soaked New Plymouth on New Zealand's west coast, however if felt more like arriving into Wesport or Killybegs considering the sea of green and familiar accents that greeted us! A brief visit to Fredrick's bar to see Australia beat Italy and it was off to the Tarranaki stadium for the main event. Its true that the Kiwis are among the friendliest people that you can meet and two locals on the bus to the stadium donated two ponchos to myself and Des upon realizing we were in the non covered part of the stadium and as it turned out we were very grateful for them! The Atmosphere at the Stadium was fantastic and to my pleasant surprise the Americans were well represented with support, I couldn't resist having my photo taken with the Ms Captain America wannabe I met at the bar!.....
Ms Captain America & Myself!
Our match against the USA was of course being played on Sept 11th, a fact that was lost on nobody. A minutes silence (or 30 seconds as it turned out to be thanks to some American bell-end yelling from the crowd!) was observed as a mark respect to those who had lost their lives on that fateful day 10 years ago. Everyone remembers where they were on that day, for me it was first day of college and I watched the event unfold on the tv in Scraggs Alley bar in Carlow. 10 years later I was at the Tarraniki Stadium in New Plymouth New Zealand at the rugby world cup about to see Ireland begin there campaign. The players also wore black arm bands and with ceremony and anthems completed it was time for the real event to take place.
This was it, this is what we had come to the opposite side of the planet to witness, all the preparation, all the training, all the hard work, the injuries suffered, the points scored, the column inches wrote in anticipation, the pride, the passion the intensity and above all the expectation of a nation were about to come to fruition.... and you could tell that the players were well up for it.... all except for Johny Sexton of course who it seems failed to get the memo asking him to bring his kicking boots to the game!!! Johny aside the rest of team played well enough to win the game and thats all that mattered to me and the rest of the 15,000 Irish that had made the trip to see them. Granted we didn't win with the freeing flowing poetic type rugby that George Hook, Brent Pope and Conor O'Shea back in there preverbal Ivory tower that is there warm and dry studio in Dublin 4 would have liked, but who cares about them. Those of us in the rain in New Plymouth witnessed our 15 beat the 15 that lined out against them and thats all that can be asked or expected of them. Its sport not an art exhibition and if you cant see the art in trying to achieve the victory rather than how its achieved then you shouldn't be commentating upon it in the first place. A win is a win is a win and a win the Irish team had enough heart and conviction to achieve..... enough said.
Post game the celebrating was done in Peggy O'Gormans bar where they had decided to close off a street, erect a marquee and let the party begin. I hadn't been surrounded by so many Irish people in a long long time and its was great. They were there from all corners and apart from a brief 2 hours when we all became honorary Welsh supporters in their nail biting game against the Springboks, it was an Irish night and all that is good about our little nation was triumphing in a little town, in a little country on the far side of the world! New Plymouth was briefly "New Grange" and the party of Celtic proportions was in full swing until well after 3am when the bar ... RAN OUT OF BEER! Interesting to note also that there was only one arrest in the entire town that night and he was a local chap who took a swing at a bouncer! I had the pleasure of meeting a few locals from back home also, Aoife Murphy who is from "de Parish", a few from St Mullins down the road and even the niece of my old school principle back in Borris. Its a small world and even smaller as I have discovered when your wearing a Carlow jersey!!!
Being the wannabe "going on 30" party animals that myself and Des think we are we didn't bother organizing any accommodation. We were instead getting the 7am bus back to Auckland and once boarded it was time for some much needed sleep! Wishful thinking on a crowded bus however and so I found myself day dreaming out the window at the beautiful glorified golf course that the country side of New Zealand is. Now maybe it was the lack of sleep or the impending hangover but I decided there and then that I liked this country and 2 months here is probably not long enough to see it or appreciate it and so on Tuesday when back in Auckland I went online and applied for my New Zealand work/holiday visa! and thats when the fun started!!!
A New Zealand work/holiday visa is not a difficult thing to apply for, its simply a half an hours online application and $140 off the credit card, however if you apply while already in the country then you are subject to undergoing a full medical examination and chest/lung xray. Of course I didn't realize this until I received an email after submitting my online application. Being that I was already invested to the tune of $140 I figured I had nothing to loose (bar an additional $270 for the medical!) and made an appointment at the clinic. Having been traveling now for 20 months and having been in some" interesting" countries I felt that having a full medical was probobly not a bad idea irrespective of the visa application and so on Tuesday afternoon I found myself shirtless on a doctors table being prodded and poked by a not very attractive middle aged Kiwi lady. The medical was very inclusive to say the least and samples of everything were taken.... I also had to have a chest xray followed by an eye test and this is where things got interesting! I normally wear contacts but my latest batch got delayed in delivery and only arrived in the States the day AFTER I had left and presently I am still waiting for them to arrive in Auckland. Without the contacts I promptly failed the eye test and thus risked being declined a work visa however the doctor explained to me that I could retake the test when I returned on Thursday for my other test and xray results but I had to make sure I brought my contacts or glasses!!! Knowing that I wouldn't have the contacts in time and as I dont have a pair of glasses I realized I needed a plan "C" and so by delaying getting dressed I ended up being left alone in the room and promptly took a photo on my camera phone of the eye chart, spent all day Wednesday memorizing it and returned on Thursday with borrowed glasses as a prop and passed the test with flying colors!!!! Travel as with life is all about finding ways to over come obstacles.... even ones you cant see!!!
So the good news is im perfectly healthy and the visa application has been submitted for processing however none of that is relevant for the next 2 days at least as were now in the build up to Ireland V Australia tomorrow night in Eden park, the tickets have been sorted, the flag and Carlow jersey are washed and ready to go and the anticipation is building. Sexton is starting again but thats no problem as every fan including myself are bringing our own boots just in case he f*@ks things up again!!!
C'mom the Irish.... and Carlow man Sean O'Brien - time to show the world cup what a cattle farmer from Tullow is capable of!!!
Until next time.......