Opening Ceremonies

What a wonderful day, nice weather and fantastic hosting by the Kiwi's.  On the day it was another crystal blue sky day in the low sixties, nice and sunny and visible skies for as far as the eye could see.  It certainly provided great conditions to walk down to the harbor and hop the ferry over to downtown and the celebration.  One of Chris' friends joined us, as he had tickets to the opening match between New Zealand and Tonga. Foo, short for Mathew...something prob derived from a night out and mispronouncing of name..he's a good guy with lots of funny stories.  Apparently he like many Kiwi's has lived and worked over in England but has now moved back to his homeland and is happier than ever. I believe Chris and he played over 35's when Chris moved back to NZ from the states.  Regardless he was inquiring about my trip and we all enjoyed the ride with a good bit of information about the surrounding area from Chris and Foo.

As you can see Auckland is pretty spectacular in its own right.  The space needle obviously adds a cool spectual to a stellar skyline. As we neared the port slip you can see the newly constructed "cloud" which is a 12,000 person capacity bar of sorts.  You can see the rolling roof structure in front and center of the second pic.  Filled with tv's and plenty of fluid to keep the patrons happy it is lit with cool blue flood nights at night that really accentuate the roof and archietecture design.  Obviously there are lots of people who can't afford or able to make the matches in Eden Park (myself included) there are lots of facilities to allow all comers to make it downtown and enjoy the atmosphere.  I for one like being able to walk around and talk to folks then find a good spot to watch the game and listen to the commentation as well as the replays.  I will be taking in three live matches in person as of now....may try to scalp some tickets as I see fit or feel a deal is to good to pass up.

We landed at slip 3 and had a nice view of the Old Ferry Building...I wasn't able to make it in to check it out but can only imagine that its an old port of call type building.  Look like it had a nice bar inside, so Im sure there will be a good "jar" to be had sometime in the future.

On that note, I am picking up some good "lingo" from my buddy Chris....apparently when we went to the jolly roger they other day...it was a quick social couple of pints otherwise known as "cheeky"  When you get on the jars or pints hard... your getting on the "piss".  Most of us have heard that one before due to all the Stinking Brits that occupy Raleigh and especially our Rugby team!!!  Anyway, still quite hilarious when you hear women throwing the term around as they tend to do in questioning their husbands and their where abouts.  So, Chris when he blew off out of work....he told his boss that he had some stumps to rip up.  Which a reference to cricket and the poles at which the player throw and hit from....and apparently, they are called stumps and when you say your going home to rip up some stumps, its code for blowing off work...

Okay.. right on!   I can't wait to get my Swedish friend over here so he can add to this by translating what all these mean in Swedish...which is something loosely translated because their aren't the same kind of words as in the extensive Queens English...so he usually takes some liberty in saying something close.  For instance... someone that is "all talk and no walk" is referred to as "all talk and no flashlight"  in Swedish....hahaha Yeah now you see my enjoyment and the silly nature of what is to come in the next month!

Anyway, back to the party.  Chris and I landed ready to "make" party and enjoy the Kiwi hospitality.  We got to the jars right off the bat and enjoyed a quick Kebob from a side shoppe.  Right after which we ran into another buddy of his who he played some rugby with over in England!  This guy was Kiwi...again working over in London....like Chris...and had moved back recently.  They hadn't seen each other in nearly 10 years...so yeah... again small world for everyone.

We moved onto a proper spot where we could watch the arrival of the tribal boats and the warriors...the local indiginous people here are called Maory...and much like most other South Pacific nation people...are quite large and demand respect.  There is a lot of history and culture with the Maory so I will try and remember all the interesting tidbits as I hear them.  Basically, these armada's of paddle canoes is called a "waka" their arrival is beckoned with a blowing from a large Conche Shell by a tribal elder or higher up. They pull into port and gather...then they do their war dance in unison called the "haka"  which Im sure most have seen at some point in time.  Again, most island nations down in this part of the world have this traditional dance as an Identity or moniker / badge of who they are and what they represent.  If the size of these peopel isn't intimidating enough by themselves...their Haka makes up for it!   I was unable to get any video of the one performed to day due to the crowds, but will most certainly catch one somewhere along the way. 

While waiting for the arrival, I met a Kiwi from Auckland that heard my accent and got to talking to me...gave me a little better spot to take photos from etc.  I found out he had a brother living in the states and playing Rugby for the Detroit Tradesmen, he has been there some 15 years.  So, I quietly mentioned that then he would surely remember the boys from Raleigh, as the vipers beat the tradesmen quite handely in the second round of the playoffs on their run to the National Title back in 2007.  Those two early round match wins (Memphis and Detroit) set a USA Rugby Men's Club record that still stands  for most points scored in a two round tourney.  Phil didn't seem too impressed !!   He was cool and told me how proud he was to see the incomming waka...it hadn't been since 1990 since he had seen one, so...they are pretty rare and a Very Big Deal as far as ceremonial signifigance to the Kiwi's.

So after the arrival we moved on to another bar as we met our friends from Raleigh who are on their honeymoon and arrived into town late.  We also got tired of paying 9 dollars for a rather small pint of beer. Mexicali was the next stop where 4 beers of corona were 24 dollars....so we were getting twice for for our money. Two Burritos and 8 beers = 79 dollars.... uhh yeah Welcome to the World Cup!

We stayed until nightfall then wandered to the ViaDuct which is a long stip of bars and restaraunts along the east side of the harbor....lots of million dollar sailboats and yachts.  A good cellebration altogether, I added some video to my channel on youtube.

Tomorrow off to New Plymouth (west coast south of Auckland) to root on the Eagles versus the Irish.

Finally in Auckland

After a ridiculously long flight from LAX...13hrs and some thousands of miles later Auckland has finally become a reality.  No sooner than I land and forgotten my smart phone (oh the irony) in the seat ...there was an old friend from Raleigh rugby (Aaron Heist...yea yea) on the same flight! Should have known the "small world" theme was already in effect as I had briefly talked earlier with an older gentleman from Louisville, KY who coached at Trinity near St. Matthews Parrish where my nephew grew up...further on he met and knew of Marty Bradley (one of the reasons I was introduced and played rugby in college) at the SEC tourney some years ago....and raved about his work with UT as well as the development of the Rugby in the SEC.  Back to Aaron, yea yea we caught up briefly and will try and meet up at the opening ceremony downtown and if not certainly at the USA / Ireland match on Sunday September 11.  There was another dude from Nashville  Rugby (Derrick) along with Aaron who will be playing in the USA club side versus a Kiwi side before the morning of the World Cup....so that will be phenomenal to see and most likely a small world thing continued as I will most likely see others from USA rugby through the years.  As I collected my phone which had already been picked up from one of the many nice flight attendants...that theme is continuing as well...The kiwis are pumped to be hosting the world!!  Everywhere you look Rugby promotion is in full effect... and people asking where you are from do you or have you played etc.  It should be an amazing drink up tomorrow night, the opening ceremony...seeing the whole country shut down for the opening match on Saturday night.  My old friend, former teammate and host Chris tells me of how even the school systems have altered their schedules to shut down and support for the next two months during match days.  As we drive from the airport, electronic signs make aware of traffic jams and volume that will be the result of all the people in town.  We'll take the ferry from Beachlands where Chris lives, just south east and across the bay from downtown.... The area is formerly a holiday get away for Aucklanders where they had "Batch" homes and their boats.  This place is truly beautiful the gently rolling hills give way to amazing vistas of the many bays and water views.  It reminds me of San Francisco...just without the crowded nature of homes, traffic or dirty hippies!!!  Just kidding hippies myself and all the trees love and appreciate your place in this world!

After arriving to Chris' lovely house we'll take a short walk down the hill to the to Jolly Roger pub for a few pints and some lunch while catching up on the goings on of Raleigh Rugby and North Carolina.

Introduction

This is an attempt to capture some thoughts, stories and life in general as the current year passes.  The idea came through a conversation with a friend who recommended that I put some of my travels and stories to print for the purpose of sharing.  This came up after learning of a pheasant hunting trip I was about to embark on for the first time, then led to a recent trip to Alaska he had taken, and then spun further into some old memories.  Even though our friendship spanned some 20 years back to when I first began college, I was amazed to hear an epic (huc fin"esk" in nature) tale of hopping on a moving train and the ride that took place while he was on co-op from college.  A really cool story and great example of just taking a chance and seeing where the rest leads you, the impact it had on me at the time was evident....its spontaneity, and the intrigue of how I hadn't heard this story made clear what I needed to do and follow through with his idea.

Too often we are complicated with things that fill our daily lives, some very important, some not....regardless it is space occupied and time spent.  Family and friends all struggle with how to manage life’s toils and for better or for worse it is usually time spent together that brings about how well our time management skills are being utilized.  If you are as lucky as I am....and have a close nit family spread across the states, or an immense and diverse network of friends reaching even further spans of the globe, then you quickly can ascertain that its difficult at best to maintain cohesion. 

I have tried throughout the years to put a label and sometimes even prioritize friendships; I only stayed in touch with those who stayed in touch with me. After all there's only a certain amount of time to keep up with sometimes too many people.  However, a lot can be lost by this strategy... not only some good memories, but also some lessons and friendships as well.  Ultimately it comes down to staying in touch no matter what form may be justified.  Relationships like any number of analogies can be characterized to suit your understanding, like access with the freedom of choice.  I like to think of it in this way.... they are like a telephone, it's a two way device that has an open line and a message recording option should you not connect, it just takes one or the other to initiate the process and make it happen...the choice is yours.  Regardless of where you are in life, our families, jobs, and maturity usually dictate how successful we are at maintaining these relationships and what priority we assign to making them work.

It's my hope that this collection of stories past and present will affect you in a way the train adventure of my friend did with me that night last year....whatever it may be or whatever form it takes, just take notice and more importantly take time.  Again, time and its spans are very different requirements for most of us.  I've lost some some documents to computer crashes, laziness, fear of the unknown.... when or where to start, or what will be thought of it.  Regardless, I have not given up and made the attempt to call... so to speak.



Just Another Morning, Wrightsville Beach NC



A term used back in the early days of surfing, it describes the action of riding a wave and keeping ones board in front of the crumbling whitewater of the wave breaking behind you. This is done mostly to increase your time on the wave but more importantly in larger conditions to advert the dangers that come with a wipeout. Regardless of your need or view of what that entails....it is a great analogy for life and how we operate during its challenges or respond after its wipeouts. I hope you enjoy my stories for which this term has affected my thinking throughout a lifetime of memories understand my gratitude to my family and friends who have made all of this possible.


The title....