The immense pressure is applicable with every passing week and match being played. The long draught only gives the antagonists from the rugby elitist...i.e. England and their unsavory outcasts from long ago Australia more ammunition to poke and dig deeper with each game that is subpar or lacking perfection. The newspapers and some well documented rugby writers do what they do best...play to their audience and sell papers with controversial topics. The players from any team (but especially the All Blacks) are under a constant microscope on the field and off. Getting caught out at night in a bar or smoking a cigarette is almost an international incident. So when something like Mike Tindland...and English player who is married to some royalty...gets caught kissing a girl at a bar....you can imagine the fallout! The bouncer that made it evident and allowed the media to check out the bar's video tape was subsequently dragged through the mud. It really is a three ring circus down here 24/7... Super bowl week for 7 weeks!
Now that the pool play has been completed and the quarterfinals set the knock out play of one game and you're done only adds to the pressure...especially since the last world cup produced a quarter final exit from the kiwi's at the hands of the dreaded host country...the ever fleeting French!
I guess it is like everyone loving hockey and not having your country that it mattered to so much ever win a cup...sorry Canada! ok well maybe they've won a gold medal finally in the Olympics... anyway I try to remember and bring up as many storylines as I can to inform the non rugby following readers and family reading this...but I think even some of us that do follow, including myself really hadn't thought about it too much until I was amongst it all for this amount of time. The focus of these players is even more immense that I had imagined...and garners even more respect than their skills on the field.
Needless to say, with all the circus atmosphere and the competition presented on the field itself... we are pumped to have tickets to the quarter final match and go see it live for ourselves it really is a huge honor. I compare going to Eden Park and seeing the All Blacks perform their Haka live and watch them play game speed in person to something like going to one of the old cathedrals of baseball and watching the giants of baseball warm up and play on hallowed ground…Yankees not Red Sucks...sorry Red Sox. But on that note I have missed much of the playoffs in MLB to this point, but as it stands it’s probably just as well.
For now however, we had made the decision to venture out to east coast town of Tutu kaka and go diving. since it was Wednesday and the points of interest in the far north of the island were not obtainable in time for us to turn around and make it back to Auckland by Saturday...we figured this was the best option available....besides it was a Jaq Cousteau top 10 dive and as hanky says "it must be done" yes it has to be done.
A good read with some video of the site:
http://www.doc.govt.nz/publications/conservation/marine-and-coastal/marine-protected-areas/protecting-our-seas-dvd/poor-knights-islands/
So we took out of Whangarei. Pronounced fang-ga-ri....since the wh at the beginning of words here produces a ph sound...yeah I know ...what the fark or phat the phuck down here... we sound Asian! phatch out for signar and turn reft at the right! We've been having non stop fun with that one....and since there are a boat load of Chinese people in New Zealand it seems to pass! The locals here and around make it very well known about their dislike of their country being invaded and what they call over run by foreigners....hmmm well since there's only 4.5 million people total in the whole country so I don’t know about over run but hey I’ll let them vent.
Excited to get into tutu kaka we got our camping spot walked to town and lined up our dive trip for the next morning and were ready to eat and drink. Hanky had a full belly so he was happy and posing for the camera in front of the shop with an anchor found from a shipwreck.
Hanky led the charge as he seemed in the mood to get his beers on. This was only made easier by two fellows I struck a conversation up with who had phoenix rugby shirts on. The quick note that they were familiar with the classless side from red mountain made things that much easier. Red mountain was a rugby club that ran rough shot over most of the western division II rugby throughout the decade they were certainly good enough and urged to move up to div I but they wanted to stay and keep pumbling their opponents...besides for as good as they were they had been to the semi / finals in 3 straight years before they ran into Raleigh rfc in 2007... Well the rest is obvious and they had to wait another year before they made it back to finally win a title.
see 2007 Div II champ bracket....for teams and scores
....side note, the 189 points that Raleigh scored during its 4 matches in route to winning a national championship may still be a record in any division of USA men's club rugby.
So Raleigh RFC did the natural thing and the proper move by bumping up to Division I the following year. Its the only way to improve and expand your club by promoting better play and competetion. Sure its A LOT tougher....the club is going to take its lumps, travel longer distances....pay more and struggle. But ultimately that's what you do to get better while honoring the sport. Well unless you are just in it to win it and self promote.... call Red Mountain the the USC or NFL of rugby.
Red Mountain and their classless fans (who had a middle finger drawn on the back of shirts with Raleigh Vipers underneath it) had very few supporting or cheering their conquest in 2008. I think as a whole the Rugby Community, especially out west, was glad to see these guys win, then slowly disband by veterans retiring. After the loss in 2007, there were plenty of comments out on the message boards and closet Raleigh fans all over the US to prove this point.Anyway these guys from Phoenix RFC seemed cool and it made for easy drinking and conversation. By the end of the night the owner of the bar was the only one left. He was super cool and gave us a lot to be excited about as he was a very experienced diver.
I had paced myself not wanting to get hammered before getting on a boat in rough seas going to dive seemed like a good idea to me but hanky seemed to forget this discussion earlier when we decided on only having three or four beers. Regardless on the walk back to the camper we were happy to have some left over Chinese to devour before bed.
We had so much left over food from our venture into unknown chartered waters that is communicating with Chinese people WHO LIVE IN AN ENGLISH speaking only country yet speak little if anything recognizable to English...phat the phuk?
Quite comical actually but altogether a part of an American’s daily life really when you think of all the different languages you here from time to time or lack there of when you think about it. Thanks to Hanky's enormous appetite and teenaged metabolism we have to stop every four hours to eat or someone gets a little grumpy...and I thought I was bad!
During one of these episodes we were heading through Auckland on our way to finding beach camp north of the city when he stated his need for food....and something quick. Knowing his love for KFC and the eminent danger ahead I found one close by with the help of the trusty iphone google maps. When pulled off thinking we might want something a bit healthier we opted for a Chinese place across the street. We were all in.
Hanky needing food quickly and loving egg rolls immediately gets to business. This was a sit down restaurant however, so we had to be seated...at least there was another couple there...so somehow this made things more acceptable and comfortable. There were many round tables dressed with linen and gold chairs...something out of a bad 80's prom dance or reunion. But again we were hungry and the WAS someone else sitting and eating.
By the time we sat hanky had his order of spring roles in... The lady not understanding English or even Swedish English called over the other waiter… who had jogging pants and a t-shirt on to come over and translate. How many do you want the kid asked hanky...hanky answers back with a question...which we all know now is not the thing to do...well how many eggrolls come with an order? The boy replies three...hanky says ok that good. The boy says you want three? Hanky...yes.
Easy enough right? Right. We then look at our menu...just one that we had to share! Hanky decides he wants the beef chow mein then gets up to go wash his hands. Not a problem now Roffe and I can decide. He orders some beef and vegetable item...only problem is they are out of the vegetable item. Now there is three people standing around our table two of which can’t speak English one boy in a jogging suit trying to translate and Roffe very serious and down for none of these shenanigans just decides to order what hanky ordered. Easy enough.
now it’s my turn...after seeing that last snafu I just point to my item beef and dry noodle....I figured since they didn’t have whatever vegetables Roffe ordered prepared...I would just stay away and order something without vegetables. Easy enough right?
Not so much ...seems during all that discussion, one of the ladies who couldn’t speak English was pointing over at the other couple saying botchoy which I knew or understand as to be like broccoli...I shook my head yes I saw what they were having and no I wanted what I was pointing at on the menu. Well again hind sight here is twenty so they say.
When hanky came back the egg rolls were there to greet him...very nice very quick makes for happy hanky. Problem was there was only two...not a big deal pretty standard we thought it made sense. Then they brought two more orders out....we started to laugh because now we understood the questioning by the kid and the number 3. Oh but wait...suddenly we realized maybe this kid didn’t speak such good English either? Oh well...
The entrees followed shortly after...all but mine...when it did come it was a massive plate of botchoy with some strips of beef. We all started laughing as I had told hanky what I had ordered and it certainly wasn’t this...oh well.
Shortly after we started eating another massive plate comes out and....wa-la my beef and dry noodle. Sweet we now have enough food to feed a group twice our size. Looking over at the other couple I was just glad they didn’t bring out the life sized fish they were eating...head and all! Yes enough botchoy to make one pea green for a week was plenty on this occasion. At least we were able to take away the leftovers with too much discussion...I was wondering if I would be better off using a tactic used to explain the ill communication efforts I had experienced in Prague trying to speak Czech words...whereby I said it would be easier if I just dumped out a box of matches and hoped the sticks formed a word! Sometimes that’s the hoplessness you feel with different languages.
Regardless our mishaps were providing some humor and filling our stomachs late we pondered what the next morning’s dive would bring.
Big Seas! As it turned out the weather hadn’t gotten much better since our start of this week. The on and off again rain was somewhat take able since we were in a van most of the time but now we were on a boat....a bit more miserable and not to mention cold. The seas were so rough (about 4-6ft swells) that you had to stand and hold onto something or risk spinal fracture and compression. The boat was much smaller than either of us had been on before...
Needles to say it was a long ride out to the poor knights and we were both exhausted. However the coldwater would no doubt wake us up...sorry they call it "subtropical" yeah ok...I have a 5mm thick suit on head and booties cover...somehow tropical doesn’t factor correctly in any word or phrase. Regardless once you're in and you adapt, it was fing... I was really mad I hadn’t brought my go pro HD video cam along to capture it all...but in the spirit of lightening my load, I left it behind in Auckland as I didn’t think I would need it... and had no idea we would make plans to go diving. I had to make due with my Iphone above water.
I was able to stay down under for 42 minutes which I am told is good for a beginner...it was also good that there was just myself and another girl diving with our instructor. However, she did come up and vomit at the end of the dive. Hard to explain after all we had been through with the ride out and the rocking boat while waiting to jump in that she got sick at the end...? But come to think about it...there is some real difficulty staying oriented while under the water with the drifting tides, waves etc all sloshing against the massive lava rock island that is the Poor Knights...so maybe all of that added to her condition. Either way I was glad to be up as well and took the time to float on my back and breathe real air and fresh humid oxygen...staying upstream of the floating vomit of course!
So the next dive after lunch (also much smaller than the aussie dive, the supposed "big sandwich" promoted at the shop upon setting up the dive was hardly that...one slice of ham with a bunch of lettuce and veggies on a med sized slices of bread hardly got me rejoiced for a second dive) It was now just me and the instructor which was more the treatment the PADI certified divers got...and usually more of an expense if set up by a beginner such as myself.....so I guess everything evened out from the disappointing feed at lunch! We had a good time exploring all the rocks and kelp beds... Really Bummed I didn't have my video cam to capture the golden eels we saw....they are just so evil looking but still beautiful. Since they are blind they tend to hull up and hide in the rock crevices...sensing your presence they just hiss with their mouth open... scary enough not to get close for me...especially since I am having real difficulty controlling my floating. With these huge / thick wetsuits and the colder water= salinity etc... I am all over the place.... constantly running into rocks and getting caught up in kelp beds, which is a little freaky at times! Anyway, I was thankful that you didn't have to worry about touching the rocks as any of the small organisms growing weren't like the corals of the GB reef...and you were okay to touch without damaging.
Much like the 2nd dive in Aussie, I got a massive headache and feeling it only get worse, I decided to tell the instructor to go up. We relaxed a bit while floating on the surface...and he said it may be that I am not breathing enough...or simply the dry contained air I was breathing. I think all of these things along with a bit of dehydration were probably the cause. Either way he was glad to have dove with me and really encouraged me to do more and get certified as we were able to stay under longer and see more than usual so...for him it was equally fun. Plus there was always much to see and cool wildlife...
It’s weird, as I told hanky on the boat ride back in...I’m not so sure that I am gung ho about doing all that with certification and what not. For some reason, I like idea of diving with a group or instructors...and think it would be way too much to handle diving with friends or by myself....just way too much respect for everything that goes on down there and not really my cup of tea as far as enjoyment when the stress of all that can go wrong is involved. I think I'll go as I am today or in the future. If I happen to travel somewhere where something cool can be done then I will consider it....but I don't know if I am hooked on all the effort and expense it takes to take "dive" exclusive trips and to see what's out there. Who knows maybe that attitude may change in the future, but for now I have REALLY enjoyed the opportunity and what I have seen to this point... will always have the memory of the sights and feeling...and now can enjoy even more when I WATCH incredible dives on TV...with the key being on watching!
For now a huge dinner and massive amounts of sleep are in order before heading back to Auckland Tomorrow. I think getting back to Chris and Jo's place will be welcomed after our first week of cramped quarters in a small van and operating around the wet conditions.
All in all not bad though and worth the effort for all that I've seen this week and been able to do...this country is definitely immensely beautiful...and the weekend break only allows us to recharge and enjoy another excursion all over again.
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