Auckland (and a little bit of Taupo)

Sky City

Auckland is a city that seems to want to be a bit of everything. Huge 1980s skyscrapers rise out of the skyline containing all of the major New Zealand banks, whilst smaller buildings house a range of local-style bars and the waterfront tries to capture the night-time clubbing vibe of other waterfront cities. Standing amidst it all is the SkyCity, a 200+ meter needle that stands above everything and provides stunning views of the city from its 202m observation deck.

Arriving in Auckland last Friday we quickly went out and had a scout around the town and found it to be comparable to most major cities in so much as the price of dinner and beer was immediately higher than most other places we’ve been. Not by a great amount, but enough to notice. That being said there are some great places worth visiting, including The Bluestone Room which is located in the oldest commercial building in town and has a well in the floor that the earliest settlers used to draw water. They also do beer towers, which are very cool.

Bagrock in action

On Friday night, the night before England vs Scotland, we headed to the Vector Arena to the Spirit of Bannockburn festival – a night of Scottish revelry featuring the Red Hot Chilli Pipers, purveying BagRock (a blend of Bagpipes and Rock Music) and Des McLean (reputedly Billy Connolly’s favourite comedian). Never have I seen so many kilts in one place and the mood was jovial, if decidedly anti-English. If you get the chance to check out the Chilli Pipers I can only recommend it, if only because there’s nothing stranger than hearing We Will Rock You played on bagpipes.

Speaking of kilts everywhere, the England vs Scotland game at the 65,000 capacity Eden Park was a near sell-out with loads of passion from both sets of fans and paying out for our half-way line seats was a great move as we had a great view of all of the action. Just a shame that the game wasn’t up to the hype until Chris Ashton’s stunning late try. But a win’s a win and the atmosphere inside the ground more than made up for the poor rugby on display.

Yet another missed Wilko kick...

For a break from the city we headed to Taupo, a small town on a lake about 5 hours away from Auckland. The bad weather we’ve been experiencing managed to follow us on the first day, where we holed up inside of our hostel to participate in the Beer Pong tournament. Myself and Simon (a fellow travelling rugby fan we first met in Dunedin) managed to make it to the Semi-Finals before finally being eliminated by a pair of 60+ year olds…words cannot describe the humiliation.

Orakei Korako

The next day was spent visiting the Orakei Korako geothermal geysers, a short 30 minute drive out of the town. Utterly incredible scenery awaited us, along with the overpowering stench of sulphur belched out from the Earth every so often. Still, it looked like nothing else on earth and made for a pleasant afternoon trip.

Now I’m back in Auckland. The sun is shining. There’s a nice breeze. And I’ve foolishly agreed to o and jump off the Harbour Bridge on a Bungy…..oh crap…. 

A couple of nights in Dunedin proved to me that you can find English weather wherever you go. In spite of being 11000 miles from home, it still managed to feel like we were going to watch England in any town in the UK thanks to the continual rain that showered the city on Saturday, which did little to lift the mood following a fairly huge night out on Friday night that left me feeling like if anyone even showed me a beer I might fall over. Put simply, starting a night out with an informative 90 minute brewery tour, complete with 30mins of a completely free bar is a great way to ensure you hit the pubs already half cut.

 The whole Friday night was not aided by the continuous flow of free Canadian Club whiskey from a load of blokes dressed as Mounties who seemed to put up only minor resistance to our attempts to get multiple cans of their beverage out of them. I wouldn’t mind; but the damn stuff just tasted like slightly weak ginger ale and merely acted as a gateway to a night of slightly more solid spirits. Remember kids, if a man in a Mountie uniform offers to introduce you to the cool, refreshing taste of Canadian Club and Ginger Ale, you say no and run away. Far far away.

As for the rugby, finally getting to a World Cup game was a feat in and of itself as it started to feel like we’d just flown to the other side of the world to watch it at a slightly more convenient time on TV. But sure enough we made it to the Otago Stadium and actually saw a fairly impressive performance out of the boys and I took enough blurry photos to secure my place as a front runner for Sports Photographer of the year.

Leaving my Dunedin friends behind we moved onward to Nelson on the Monday, where the sun actually shines and there’s plentiful scenery. Our first night here saw us drink in a converted church full of local ales, warm fires and the Sky Sports commentary team of Stuart Barnes and Miles Harrison. Marv, unfortunately, couldn’t be persuaded to give Stuart a flying hug and we moved on to badly play some pool and indulge in ACTUAL Skittles Vodka. I can neither confirm nor deny that it’s better than a skittle bomb as we insisted the bar lady mix all 5 flavours together to produce something that looks like you can clean an engine with it.

After fighting through the haze of that this morning I decided that a trip to climb the hill that leads to the centre of New Zealand might be best to get yet more stunning scenery shots. The one thing I seem to have in abundance right now is scenery shots. Damn this beautiful country.

And now for some Italy vs USA action. USA! USA! USA!