location: Hotel Grand Chancellor, Auckland, New Zealand
Time: 19:00
We beat Russia, Scotland get knocked out, Dan Carters world cup is over and New Zealand immigration are finally seeing some sense on my work holiday visa.... yes its week 3 of the Rugby World Cup!
Its an October Sunday evening in Auckland and the rain is battering the window outside. The Auckland Sky tower that normally emulates the city sky is cloud covered and nowhere to be seen. The streets I can see from the balcony of the Grand Chancellor hotel I am staying are also devoid of life and and the newly formed streams of water trickle into the gutters without the slightest interruption of any passing traffic....... in other parts of the world this scene would be pretty depressing but this is New Zealand, its 2011, and its week 3 of the Ruby World Cup.
Weather-wise thisevening is very similar to this day last week when I was in Rotorua for the Russia game. I had traveled down with two friends(Shane McEvoy & Aisling McDonald) who had hired a car for the day. Intent on seeing as much as we could from our one day in Roturua we left Auckland early and decided to visit the naturally accruing spring pools on the banks of lake Rotorua just outside the town. The city is known for its geothermal activity, and features geysers – notably the Pohutu Geyser at Whakarewarewa – and hot mud pools and while visually interesting to see the smell they create is anything but - Its not called the Devils armpit for no reason! Thankfully the stadium was far enough from the lake to not have the same smell and so I and the 20,000 other Irish supporters took our places on in the stands and watched the glorified training session unfold in from of our eyes. It was a walk in the park really expect for a couple of moments when we fell aspllep and let the Russians in for a couple of soft trys. It was a good opportunity for the squads fringe players to get a run and all in all it was a grand relaxing afternoon watching rugby!
In the week since we have seen the tournament begin to take some shape, Scotland have been knocked out France have been beaten by Tonga but still progress to the Quarter Finals. South Africa, New Zealand and Wales also all progress as do Argentina and hopefully in approx 3 hours time we can say the same about Ireland. What hasn't been such a dead cert for the past two weeks is weather or not I would get my New Zealand work visa, having heard nothing for 2 weeks I finally decided to make a call on Thursday to discover that my application had been sent to be medically assessed - apparently having metal plates where my forehead should be had raised a few eye brows, and while it was unlikely to lead to me being prevented a work visa it did mean that it could take up to two months to process following a couple of consultations with New Zealand's medical finest. However as I pointed out to my very friendly immigration advisor I could have flown to Australia found an internet cafe at the airport and applied for my visa which would have been issued in less that an hour and without the need for a medical to be done and at half the cost to which she explained that I could apply for a less than one year visa without the requirement of the medical!!!!! All I had to do was prove i was leaving in less than a year from the day I arrived in New Zealand which was Sept 4th and she could grand me a visa up until that day! So I booked a flight for Aug 15th next year and hopefully will have my visa tomorrow (Monday!).
Finally, hung the Irish Flag from the balcony of the hotel yeaterday and also met the David & Frank Murphy from Borris in the pub lat night here in Auckland, small world - see pics above. Now im off to the see Ireland beat Italy and top the group.... Until next time...
