Monday and Tuesday - The Last Post - Parades and Airports

Mike slept in until ten but Fi frocked up and headed out to Vulcan Lane for a breakfast of Moorish Eggs at Tasca in Vulcan Lane about eight thirty. The coffee was atrocious but the eggs were great. There was a wonderful write up of the previous night's match in the newspaper. Outside, like the words from the Simple Minds song, the description "the streets are empty" was very true. Nothing stirred but by some miracle the Auckland council workers had cleared all the debris off the streets during the very early morning and all was pristine and sparkling.

Pescado

So Fi got Mike up and they wandered off towards the Viaduct fanzone to find a place for brunch and buy some T-shirts for the nephews. We walked the whole Viaduct area in the heat and then took refuge at a North Wharf tapas bar called Pescado where we had some nice albondigas and chorizo with mushrooms for lunch. As we padded back into the city centre, Fi spotted people lining up on the pavements. When she asked a blue-coated volunteer why the people were gathering, he said that there would a victory parade by the All Blacks through the streets in about an hours time.


So we were fortunate to get a box seat position at the bottom of the hill on the corner of Wyndham and Albert Streets, an hour ahead of the 2:30 pm parade start. There was a TV3 crew in front of us to film and interview players as they passed and the crew did their best to rev up the crowd. The roars alerted us to the approach of the first bands and the first cars. Dan Carter appeared in the first vehicle (Fi was just about swooning on the spot) and then Piri Weepu appeared about ten minutes later to rapturous applause. Then the truck bearing Graham Henry, Richie McCaw and the cup swung into view to a rousing cheer. All the players were grinning from ear to ear although many were wearing sunnies, a sign of a good nights partying. We tried to follow the tail of the parade but the police blocked the way so we were stunned to get around into Queen Street and see something like 100,000 people milling around. The street was awash with a confetti of coloured tape and the vibe was amazing, people were just wandering around in a kind of euphoric daze.

Andrew Hore and Aaron Cruden

Dan Carter and Steve Hansen

Piri Weepu

Skipper and coach with Bill plus Brad Thorn, Mils Muliaina and Wayne Smith

Crowds in Queen Street after the parade

 
After a wrap up like that to our tournament and the buzz of being able to see all the players so close up, there was only one thing to do and that was to party. So we headed off to Mezze for some Spanish beers at about four, thinking we would go for a fancy pants dinner later at the Hotel de Brett.
 


But we wandered around after leaving Mezze and stumbled across a great Irish freehouse in Vulcan Lane called O'Carrolls which had a huge variety of interesting beers on tap including the Renaissance Stonecutter Scotch ale. Fi quickly spotted all the stouts on the extensive beer-by-the-pint-bottle menu and decided to try as many as her liver would allow, starting with the Renaissance Elemental Porter (9/10), followed by the Three Boys Oyster Stout (8/10) followed by the 8-wired iStout (yes that's eye-stout, i for imperial) which has 10% alcohol and is real rocket fuel (8/10). So we were very merry and much enjoyed our pie and mash dinner. In fact it was just about the perfect way to end the tour although the missing ingredient for the evening was our mates from Pirates. We meandered the 100 m back to the backpackers, closed our suitcases and collapsed into bed about nine, not looking forward to the 5 am alarm call so we could catch the 6 o'clock airbus to the airport the next morning, marking the start of our farewell to NZ and the long trip home.

We got up in the dark and checked out of Nomads and caught the airbus on Queen Street at 6 am but our heads were mildly foggy and we didn't really wake up until we saw Dave Callon from Pirates board our Jetstar flight to Christchurch about five minutes after we had taken our seats. That was a nice surprise, but the not-so-nice surprise was the forty five minute wait on the tarmac at Auckland while an engineer sorted a problem with an oxygen mask in the pilots cabin. We got to Christchurch about nine but missed talking to Dave as he had to bolt for his connecting Dunedin flight. We met a young Scottish couple in a cafe while waiting to board our Sydney flight and we dissected the tournament with relish and shared our delight at the welcome that New Zealand has provided us all. Then it was time for some duty free shopping and we loaded up with two bottles of Bombay Sapphire and a bottle of Ardbeg and then it was time for our 2:30 flight after our five hour wait. That flight was in a brand new 737-800 with a great back-of-seat entertainment system so it seemed not long until we landed at Kingsford Smith and were dashing through customs and onto the bus for the domestic terminal. By the time we finally landed in Perth at 7 pm local time, we had been in the air for nine hours on three different aircraft and we had been sitting around for nine and a half hours, an unreasonably long time for such a relatively short distance. Next time we go to South Island it will not be with Qantas but with Virgin, Pacific Blue or Air New Zealand.

At the end of a long holiday .....

It's hard to summarise in a few sentences what going to this tournament and what our seven week holiday meant to us. That the Cup was staged in New Zealand was a masterstroke because the welcome and hospitality offered to us by the folks of Dunedin (and other ports of call) could not (and never will) be surpassed. The really telling factor is that rugby (and the talk about it) is very much a critical part of the fabric of community in NZ so the local club activities contribute greatly to a general awareness of all things rugby. The people embraced this tournament as if it was a wedding - they put all the flagging and decoration up that they could find, they wore every piece of fancy dress they could muster and at every opportunity they put on the makeup (the face paint). It didn't matter who was playing who, the New Zealanders favoured all without prejudice and revelled in the chance to celebrate their love of rugby with others. We were so fortunate to see the whole tournament from start to finish, to make so many friends, to see so much amazing scenery, to drink so much amazing beer in the most amazing pubs and to see that fantastic new Forsyth Barr stadium in Dunedin. We'll never forget the intensity of the experiences that we had or the warmth of the welcome that we encountered, so thank you South Island, Dunedin, Pirates and RWC for the time of our lives.

We learnt a few new words to add to our vocabulary while we were there too, so Fi now knows what the trundler park at Countdown is and also the meaning of the following distinctly NZ terms and features: puffer jacket, Kapiti icecream, blue cod, cheese rolls, kaka, kakapo, Buccaneer, Agria, karakaberry, possum wool, section, Bluebird green onion chips, Tip Top boysenberry icecream, WOF, buckethead party, Sin Bin, Emerson's, McDuff's, wild thyme, sweet as, etc

Oh and by the way, we have a few "best of" shortlists to sign off with:

Best pubs: Albar in Dunedin, Careys Bay Hotel in Port Chalmers and O'Carrolls Freehouse in Auckland
Best beer (Mike): Anything produced by Renaissance Brewery;  Emerson's Brewer's Reserve Brown Ale
Best beer (Fi): Emerson's Southern Clam Stout followed by Renaissance Elemental Porter, 8-wired iStout, Emerson's Grace Jones and McDuffs Black Diamond
Most Unusual beer: Captain Cooker Manuka Ale
Best coffee: Mazagran in Dunedin
Best cafes: No7 Balmac in Dunedin, the Best Cafe in Dunedin and The Tin Goose in Alexandra
Best restaurant: Fleur's Place in Moeraki
Best food overall: anything you can buy at Otago Farmers Market, unbelievably good quality, especially the raspberries, the potatoes and the Havoc Pork;  South Island smoked salmon
Best beaches: Tomahawk, Long
Best people: Pirates Rugby Club and all who sail in her including Tommo, Hammo, Binnsy, Dave C, Mark H and Leah

Best people: our landlord Mr Somerville
Best people: Sally and Phil from Oamaru
Best scenery (macro scale): Poolburn Dam area and any view of Dunedin from a high point
Best scenery (micro scale): freshly poured Emerson's Southern Clam Stout in an Emerson's pint glass
Best stadium: Forsyth Barr Stadium in Dunedin
Best matches: Ireland v Italy, All Blacks v France
Best fans: Argentina and Ireland
Places we would visit again (and again): the Old Dunstan Road, Orokonui, Taiaroa Head, Oamaru, Pirates, Emerson's Brewery (he he)