The weekend with rugby world cup excellence

 Hi,

After a fairly interesting Thursday where I worked from home, I was ready to head off and collect Elly for our drive north. I made a pic of Mike I got from his Nepal trip as my background in teams for the day. And when I had a cup of tea, it looked like I was sitting with him.

At this point I was regretting my life choices and wishing I was with him. But as you will read later in this post, as I stepped into Eden Park on Saturday, my reasoning all made sense.

We got a late visit from Victoria and David - they didn't arrive until 11am. I thought I might have got the day wrong. And when they left, they did let Moxley out. But I lured her back in easily. They also made some food for us when they heard about Vivienne. Awwww. They are lovely.

My Teams background is a pic of Mike having tea in Nepal

Victoria and David made some food for us when they heard about Vivienne's passing

A better view of my Teams background in action

Turns out I have no photos of the drive north. I left home at 4.30pm and got to Porirua train station just before 5pm. Elly was ready to go and we put her stuff in the Focus and off we went. We tackled the old coastal highway - lovely to see Kapiti again.

We headed up SH1 and grabbed some food at Z Sanson and filled up there. We turned left at Waiouru to avoid the icy desert road. We saw a bit of snow lying on the roadside and the outside temperature dropped to -2. Brr. The roads were totally dry though so we could keep a decent speed up. Roads were empty - bit of truck movements. Up through Te Kuiti and into Hamilton bang on midnight. 

Elly navigated us to our AirBnB. Lovely couple met us at the door and settled us into our room. Double bed - but I was asleep in seconds. Couldn't even tell Elly was there.

Up at 7am for a shower and then we were off. Joined the traffic into Auckland and it was remarkably fine. Dropped Elly at Ellerslie train station and then met Roz at Onehunga cafe - our old haunt. Roz has the most gorgeous guide dog puppy. Jasmin is adorable. Roz also looks amazing - but I really only had eyes for Jasmin. Sorry, Roz! We had a lovely brekkie and caught up on news. Then I went to the supermarket to get a toothbrush (doh! why wasn't that in my bathroom bag?) and found a huge bottle of Lewis Road coffee. Flat White flavour. 750ml. Bought two.

Roz and Jasmin

Jasmin

Onehunga Cafe iced latte

New 750ml coffee flavour

Chilled at Roz's place while she met a puppy advisor and then did some work. Around 1.45pm I headed off with my two bottles of iced coffee in hand. Roz will be very busy with wee Jasmin, that's for sure. What a wonderful thing to do - her cats are not super impressed. But Roz is already working well with Jasmin and she's off to a great start as a guide dog in Roz's safe (but firm) hands.  Me?  I would ruin Jasmin.

Chilling at Roz's house before an airport run

Adorable

Sat in the waiting car park for Iona and Col's flight and their baggage claim. They got that around 3pm so I drove into the Auckland airport chaos again (after my first go around when I arrived) and picked them up easily. Headed to Sunnyvale to Dot and Liz's place, through the nightmare traffic that is Auckland.

Auckland is hot - waiting for Iona and Col to collect their bags

Took a while to get there - turns out they live in west Auckland. And after a cup of tea and a chat, I checked the traffic for getting to Pōkeno.  1 hour 45 mins. Gulp! I would get there and have to turn around and come back. So I chatted to Kaustubh and apologised profusely and changed my plans to drop in on Sunday morning on my way south. Much better option.

Dinner!

Had a lovely tea at Dot and Liz's place. So good! Then off to bed. Up for rugby day! We had an extra ticket so Jase snaffled that.

Drinking the Lewis Road

We walked to the train station at Sunnyvale and we were out at Kingsland in 30 mins. Found Lesley and Wally and Jason - turns out they are 10 mins walk from Eden Park.

This whole weekend was an exercise in strengthening the fact I am ignorant of Auckland geography.

Eden Park is just there!

We had a lot of time before the doors opened, so we went back to Lesley and Wally's place with custard squares and enjoyed a cup of tea. Wally made me the most excellent iced latte. Chatted away and chilled - good to see Brennan too. He's got a hairy face. Hahahah. Lesley and Wally only know how to make good-looking children - so it's all good. And at least Brennan has gone for a beard - not those muttonchops Toby still has.

A Wally special iced latte - hi Lesley!

Headed to the park and waited in the shade for the doors to open. Turns out the spot we waited at was right next to a woman that Col used to play hockey and rugby with back in the day. She had just got the bad news that she'd lost her mayoralty race - local election results came out on Saturday across NZ. I listened to the PM this morning on the radio saying that she doesn't hold a lot of belief in the local body elections and any correlation with what might happen at the national level next year. But it totally looks like a swing to the right has happened and will continue into the next govt election. Any discussion that the two are unrelated is head-in-the-sand, if you ask me. The current govt better get cracking on its PR right now to try and halt the swing.

Anyway - enough politics. The doors opened and it turns out we were in General Admission and could sit anywhere in the huge block of seats in the eastern side. So we sat in the shade.

Waiting for the doors to open

I am inside!

Jase and I pose with the backdrop of the mighty Eden Park

I was quite overcome to be at Eden Park finally and for a Black Ferns and Rugby World Cup match. I can't imagine a better day to step foot into the stadium than this one.

Out of the sun - ready for the games

The people in front of us in the sun were in t shirts and hats and we were in coast and jackets in the shade.  Hahah.

Enjoyed South Africa versus France as the first up game. The stadium had a smattering of people to watch that - many South Africans were there. The French team are all built like running athletes. Strong, fit.

Half time for each game - and before matches - there was entertainment. Great cultural dancing. The fire sticks work was incredible. Maybe a Tuvalu group? Not sure.  The sound was terrible at the venue.

The second game was England versus Fiji. And once Fijiana get more exposure in the 15s at this level, they will make inroads. After a flurry of Fiji flair at the start, it was England all the way.

Then it was Rita Ora's turn. And I am sure she was great. I did recognise her first song before the game kicked off. And she looked great as did her dancers and the stage show. But - sound. Terrible. Couldn't really hear anything.

Black Ferns haka

The big event kicked off at 7.15pm. After arriving at 1pm, it was a long day. But so good. The national anthems were great - tingling. They had singers for it - whereas the previous games had recordings. The haka was incredible. Such passion. The Aussies did well - united in front of it but very respectful.

Airforce flyover

The airforce did a flyover right in the middle of the haka. Then the game started and the Aussies got 3 tries in the first 20 mins. They were looking at 17-0 after 20 mins. Scary. But the Black Ferns didn't panic. They just couldn't hold the ball when they got it. The nerves finally settled and the tries started flowing. 41 - 17 was the final score.

We watched a bit of the after match interviews (didn't hear much because - sound!) and then joined the people walking to public transport. They had buses from Kingsland to Morningside and then trains from there. So we just walked to Morningside. Train was easy and fast. Home by 10pm. 

Dot fed us as we had lived on hot chips all day. Although I heard on the news this morning there was a vegan food truck! What!?

Up on Sunday for a coffee and an egg and then off to visit Aparajita and Kaustubh and wee Aaria.

Sunday morning

Hi wee Aaria

Awwwww

Oh my goodness, Aaria is so gorgeous. Once I took my mask off, she settled down. And she soon went off for a wee sleep. Kaustubh and Aparajita are well. Coping with the additional of a wee one to their lives really well.

While Aparajita put Aaria to sleep for a nap, Kaustubh made me an iced latte and brekkie. Dosa, samba and a pickle. It was delicious.

Mmmm - dosa

I got an iced latte from Kaustubh!

Mmmmm - it tastes fantastic

Had a tour of their house - they have been there a year next week. Wow. 

I left at 1325 for my drive south. Google said it would take 7 hours - and it did!

Bye beautiful family!

I stopped at Turangi Z for a toilet stop and filled the car. Got home just before 8.30pm. And fed the cats - who are probably disappointed it was me and not Mike or Janine that turned up. Janine had fed them while I was away.

Up for work and an iced latte was necessary after my weekend of driving lots.  Hahahah.

Work iced latte 

Thank you to everyone for such a great weekend. Elly for sorting the things out to get us to Auckland. Roz for a cafe visit and puppy cuddles. Dot and Liz for their hospitality. Lesley and Wally for theirs too - so happy I saw them. Jase for his company. Iona and Col for their company (and Iona for lending me her cousin's house to stay at!). And meeting wee Aaria for the first time. Thank you, Kaustubh and Aparajita. I can imagine your house and routine a lot more now I have visited you.

Update from Mike: he visited Tolka and saw the chorten and added Vivienne's shawl.

The chorten with a plaque now for Ron and Vivienne's shawl

Thank you Chenda for being there with him. 

Take care.

Love,

Angela