Wednesday witterings

Two days in one blogpost here, Tuesday and today. First the rugby - we went to Pirates last night (Tuesday) to watch the absorbing tussle between Italy and Russia - fast-paced open style, ball in hand, running rugby with some good refereeing and with a pint of Buccaneer costing $4 as opposed to paying $7.50 for a 250 ml can of Heineken at the official fanzone in town, why would you not set your compass for the excellent hospitality and facilities at the local club. Plus they gave us a free pie at nine oclock bless em.  Tonight's match is Tonga v Japan which should be an excellent scrap.

There has been a lot of talk of how "well" the minnows have done in this tournament, compared with earlier RWCs.  While there haven't been any 80-nil scores in the early rounds, I would have to say that they are significantly less competitive on their second and subsequent outings than on their first.  It will, hopefully, raise the issue of scheduling (mentioned before), which currently has the teams with the greatest depth of talent and the best capability for recovery (i.e. expensive training facilities) on the longest turnarounds between matches.  In addition, the lack of opportunity for Tier 2 nations to play top grade Tier 1 sides limits the amount of experience the players can get.  The good thing is that there seems to be a healthy discussion going on about it and the International Rugby Board has improved things to date by putting development dollars into the Tier 2 nations.  However, how that will fare against the perceived threat to the current Tier 1 nations in relation to their status at the top of the pecking order and against the drive for revenue is another matter.

Mike was bronchial most of Tuesday so Fi went for a drive in Enzo to Signal Hill and took a wrong turn ending up in Orokonui and at this place she can't pronounce (left).

There's a fab beach here called "Long Beach" cos it is and the countryside is very reminiscent of the Dingle Peninsula in Ireland. Blueskin Bay Road which connects the Port Chalmers area with Waitati is one of the best scenic drives on the planet on a clear day.


Here's a view of the approach to Long Beach and the Purakaunui (and no, the apparent excessive curvature of the earth in the photo is not due to one too many pints of Emersons Oyster Stout):

So not much of import happened on Tuesday except that Enzo the Apache was attacked in a car park by a rooster.

Taking the long way home from Long Beach via Port Chalmers, Fi came upon the Robert Falcon Scott memorial (left).  We saw the foot trail to this on Monday, but didn't climb it because it was pouring rain.

Pulling into the attached car park,
the car was attacked by Attila  (left photo, moving fast), who was, with the benefit of hindsight, protecting his harem hidden in the grass (right). Fi thinks she may have scored a speeding ticket on the way home as a direct result of this encounter.




So Wednesday dawned fine and clear. Even after ten days in the house, it's still a shock to open the living room curtains and feel that you're up there in a airbus on its final landing approach:

That's St Kilda and St Clair beaches to the right, Dunedin city centre at 9 am and the Otago Peninsula dead ahead. Dunedin is a town of 100,000 people and 30,000 uni students (who let's face it are only similar to people), it has architecture very similar in age and style to that of Bendigo or Fremantle or Charters Towers (being a gold town in its infancy like those listed) and it still has an operating gold mine in its hinterland (Macraes Flat owned by Oceana Gold). So this town runs on mining, agriculture, education, rugby and beer. Petrol is NZD 2.15 a litre (yep), beer is NZD 4.55 a litre.

The Unshy Baldwin Street

Better hope the brakes don't fail

Must be fun stepping out when it's icy!

In order to keep out bona fides as tourists, we visited Baldwin Street. Its claim to fame is that it is the world's steepest street and is not shy about saying so.  This street is so steep that cars have to go up it in reverse!  Only kidding, but driving down must be a little like taking a jetski down a ski jump with a T-junction at the end.  Not only that, they have an annual festival in which people consider having walking, running (?), cycling (!), or  skateboarding (!!) races up and down the street as fun (rather than cruel or unusual punnishment).  Our personal view is that these races must be sponsored by the Cardiac Surgery Unit of Dunedin Hospital and the Otago Orthopaedic Surgeons Association. 

We completed the day with a visits to a few secondhand bookstores (Mike's neverending quest to insulate his house with paperbacks) and to two of Dunedin's four breweries - Emersons and McDuffs.  Yes, that's right folks, a city of 130,000 people or equivalents has FOUR BREWERIES.  If we were that serious about beer in WA, Greater Perth would have 52 breweries.  We must get off our collective posteriors and do something about this.  Not only that, McDuffs Brewery will not only sell you beer in bottles or kegs, it will also sell you beer in riggers and flagons (we know what a flagon is but we're not sure about riggers in this context.).  And the answer to the last question on the sign will be revealed later!

Signing off now, as it is time to go down to Pirates for a pint or two of Bucaneer's ale while Tonga and Japan slug it out on the big screen.