November

Boys exams over and some results are in.
They are enjoying being able to kick back.
We have been pretty the last few weeks, with Chantelle's and the Stuart's birthdays to celebrate.
For Chantelle, all of us apart from Eric went down to Auckland to watch the rugby at Eden Park. We sat in the new South Stand which has been finished ready for the world cup next year. It was a league match - actually 2 matches in the 4 nations series. England made short work of Papua New Guinea beating them by a lot to a little. We were sat pretty close to the pitch and it was fun to see all the action without an editor. I cannot say I am a big rugby/ sports fan, but it was quite a spectacle. The crowd were having a great time, knocking back the beers and cheering every time PNG got the ball. We were in a bit of a minority cheering for the motherland, but the people around us were pretty good natured.
The second match was NZ vs OZ and was the real crowd puller. There was a lot of support for the Kiwis as they ran on the field and for their national anthem and haka. The ozzies are not much liked in NZ, in fact that is a pretty mild way of putting the hatred that most kiwis feel towards their bigger, richer neighbours. The papers are full of soul searching comparing life in Oz to life in NZ. On the sports field the ozzies are seen as cheats, brash and they must be beaten. The girls beat the ozzy netball team in the Commonwealth games and there was widespread celebration. If Oz beats us at any sport, it tends to be glossed over or if it cannot be ignored eg when the Wallabies beat the All Blacks there follows a period of nationl mourning.

Anyway back to the game ... the Ozzies were booed during and after their national anthem. The game started and the ozzies took the kiwis apart. Lots of mistakes by the kiwis were seized by the opposition and the score got higher. After half time, it carried on and the crowd suddenly seemed to give up on their team. A Mexican wave started in the stand next to ours and it gradually spread round the whole stadium. A few bright sparks took the opportunity of standing up to get rid of their bottles and chips. This slowly took off as well and by the time of the third circuit, we were covering our heads because so much stuff was flying! A fair amount was landing on the pitch and apparently, the ozzy team were getting a bit of a barrage. Add to that there were a few scuffles in the crowd. Quite a few people were drinking pretty heavily including a few people around us. It certainly gave Stuart a new perspective on what was a lot to drink as he thinks my few bottles on a Friday night is over the top!

We left before the end to get the free bus back to town before the crowds all left. Later on it was interesting to see the media reporting the "drunken chaos" that bodes ill for the World cup.