Me and Jonah Lomu
Instead of driving straight down the coast to Auckland we took the scenic route (bottom 2 pics) over on the West Coast and then cut across.
After our picturesque campsite at the Bay of Islands (Paihia) we were back down to earth with our urban setting in Auckland and the rows of "proper" campervans that tower our little "cosy" vanette (out of picture).
We had a routine Sat, shopping in a major city followed by an early dinner at Waggamamas. Just to continue the theme of normality we decided that on Sunday afternoon I would go to a sporting event while Bec did the laundry.
The local rugby union team, North Harbour, was playing in a cup match against Otago of the South Island. I'd seen bits of a North Harbour game in a pub in Waitomo and Jonah Lomu plays for them, he's still on the comeback trail after his illness but he's putting thousands on gates wherever he plays. He must be famous if Bec had heard of him so I thought it was a chance to good to miss as we were only 10 mins drive from the stadium.
At the end of the match people were scrabbling for his autograph and pictures, so I used all my London commuter know-how to elbow kids and pregnant mums out of the way for the pic at the top of the page. I'm about 4 steps higher than him; he was a true gent and as you can see was chuffed to have his pic taken with me!
We leave New Zealand for Chile later today (Mon 18th) and arrive earlier than we leave because we're crossing the international dateline. New Zealand is pushing Laos as the best country so far, we've done so much and the scenery is astounding. If the Aussies had New Zealand then they would have something to boast about.
posted by Gav @ 4:59 PM
3 Comments:
Glad you said you were a few steps higher than Lomu. Thought he'd let himself go a bit when I first saw the pic. Ah, the gentleman's game; not like that namby-pamby 'soccer' whatsit!
My phone charger has packed up, hotmail refuses to log me on, the 14hr difference between NZ and here has given me a severe case of jetlag and now you're having a pop at my Heywood rugby career! I used to run rings around Gaskell. Once Thommo was refereeing and got so annoyed with me doing everything; I'd scored about 3 tries, took the conversions, was playing scrum half and doing all the kicking that he disallowed one of my tries saying that I dropped it once over the try line. We were about 35 nil up at the time so it didn't matter, but then he kept pulling me up for feeding the ball in AND doing a 22 drop out over the 22 yard line. Idiot. Typical science teacher.
The reason I remember the match so well is because I'd just got some new Adidas football boots, played in them on the Sunday and then kicked everything with deadly accuracy the following Thursday. You're right it was about 3.5 seconds, about the same amount of sleep I've just had. Bec, people will be surprised to read, had an afternoom kip and is still sleeping soundly now.
Just to put Nigel and Teresa´s mind at rest. I wasn´t wondering around Santiago in the early hours while Bec was tucked up in bed; there is internet access in the hotel.
Jetlag is affecting us both, I woke up today at 11:45am which is unheard of and Bec eventually got up at 3pm so same as usual for her then!
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