The Return of the Space Lord.....

I don't think I can go any further without telling a story about Dr. Henrik Viberg. Hanky as he is so passionately called has always loved his heavy metal. By heavy metal I don't mean Iron Maiden or anything else that tame.  The music he enjoys is so unrecognizable to most as music that its hard to imagine the actual lyrics.  One of his favorite bands is Monster Magnet and apparently they had an ablum called Space Lord Mother F'er.... yea again not out of the realm of reality for this type of music. Normally this would be enough, but Hanky in all his fashion sense of course had to buy a concert T shirt. For those of you who don't know Hanky his wardrobe consists of Rugby jerseys, concert shirts and mostly shorts..for us this is how we know him and all together how we expect him to be...making us laugh. What's not believable, is that he awakes one morning and puts on his new concert tee before going to school.....to teach!

Yes his first section/class the new year was begun with him writing a long explanation of sorts on the blackboard... name, section, course material etc. Either way....nothing much crossed his mind through out the lecture. However, at the end of the class one of his students came up and asked him what the back of his shirt meant. He recalls thinking the kid was playing a joke on him, because he thought there was nothing on the back...maybe someone had put a handwritten sign as a prank? He replied that there is nothing what do YOU mean....The kid says... uhhh no it says "Space Lord Mother Fucker" as he tried to do the translation of the words in Swedish to explain...not all together easy as not all words mean the same thing...thus the kid was confused. Well of course that's the name of the monster magnets new ablum. Then he just walked away...like any good teacher would... I mean come on, you are a stupid student...you should know this!!! Seriously...how could you make this up!!! It is so much the reason this guy charms every one he meets....to the point they will never forget him....he undoubtedly never forgets how to laugh at himself...and is obviously why I am writing about him now and always first to travel to see him. Hilariaty if a word wouldn't come close to explaining his nature or actions of thought. The same as not knowing that Space Lord Mother Fucker was written on the back of the shirt you were buying and later wearing to school...can only be compared to the comedic genius of a brilliant stand up... just roll with it and do what you do. Anyway...picutres are worth a thousand words especially as poorly written as I can make them after 5 or so weeks on the road...

Yes Suddenly this trip has gotten even more interesting.....

Saturday was huge...I was glad to be back in NZ and Really looking forward to seeing more of the country and seeing some great rugby.  The eagerness was felt by all...as Chris was happy to see us and just as ready to head downtown for the Scotland vs England match and once again show off his city and country.

We once again had some pints and lunch down at the harbor by Chris' house at the jolly roger...then hopped a ferry across the bay to downtown.  We would watch the Tonga vs France game first....and oh what a start to the weekend it would be with one of if not the biggest upset of all time.

New Zealand is home to the biggest population of "islanders" than anywhere.  This includes Samoans, Fijians and most of all... Tongans.  There are more Tongans in NZ than even their own Island Nation.  Plus the Entire National Rugby Team of Tonga is made up entirely of NZ born Tongans.   So it was a festive atmosphere and everyone is always primed to cheer against the French (as well as the English when playing) and this setting was no different.

The Cloud is a massive harbourside structure built to house massive big screen TV's and serve beer....since the weather was super windy and mostly cold we decided to hull up there and take things on.

 Of course Hanky has no problem breaking lines and making friends with strangers...these two look like some nightmare version of the Adams Family...wish I had a lightbulb to stick in this guys ear, just to make sure!!

We had a massive drink up and Hanky got a few people introduced to his Red Wine and Coke mixture, which only added to the hangover the next day.

The next day was hard but a good breakfast and some rugby highlights before a full slate of games makes for a good Sunday. We decided to get out of the house and give Jo and Chris a break from ....well us. Since Hamilton was only an hour or so away from Auckland we made the plan to scalp some tickets and start our next weeks journey from there.....Wales and Fiji would undoubtedly provide some good rugby as both like to run and its the last game of the day for all the pool play. We were able to contact the broker that one of our friends used and he put us into contact with a welsh dude that had tickets for well under face valuse. So we hoped on them and got out of town south to Hamilton. The weather was already starting to degrade but we were one big happy family in a small camper van! We needed to stop and take care of some internet capabilities, so we found a mall of sorts we could purchase a broadband mobile card that would allow us some freedom of use and not worry about phone usage or connectivity. But just getting through the parking lot and getting parked was already becoming a challenge with Two Sweedes in the front seats and me trying to follow directions fromthe plus valour couch directly behind them. Roffe is a sixty something year old man who has been around Hanky's rugby club for many years as a fix it all do it all kind of type...but loves rugby all the same as we do and the reason he came along....well initially Hanky thought he would make a good driver since he doesn't drink...and thus aloowing us to consume for more hours of the day without the worry of driving. Well apparently that plan went out the window an hour into their first landing in Auckland. Hanky having a short fuse for stupidity or in this case bad driving / directional skills had gotten tired of Roffe's inabiltiy to follow his direction. So now Hanky the Space Lord was driving. He apparenty has no directional apptitude with his Ph.d So that leaves me and my Iphone Google Maps to bark out turns and hopeful directions. Yay!

So after the comedy of errors in a parking lot deserving a go cart race...we found our telecom store, ATM and some food...then were off to meet our ticket guy...then of to the game...raining steady now...the carny adventure continues.