The Blues in Auckland

Well not really we had a great time. We arrived in Auckland late afternoon and walked from our Bavarian B&B the “2.5” kms into the city. Must be something in our understanding of German as it took well over an hour! Mind you it did give us an insight into the city. Much of the top part of the main street was frontage to a range of Houses of God. When we got closer to the waterfront the buildings were largely financial institutions – it seems this other God can get better real estate.
We had a great meal overlooking the harbour, watching the sun go down and then caught a cab home. We had had an early start having driven from Canberra to Sydney and were up at 5:00 so did not feel too guilty in not walking back. The next day we (well Helen) had a late start and we took a cab to the waterfront where Helen had her favourite breakfast. Some diet…

We spent the day exploring the waterfront and SkyTower, the main city attraction. It was the tallest building in the Southern Hemisphere when it was built (yawn).

but it did give some great views.

There was also the opportunity to jump off the building which many did. The plot was they would let you go for a short distance so that you could be seen from the main viewing floor and then when you were relaxed and waving at the crowd pulled the switch so you could scream your way to the bottom. Being inside watching was the best value.

Areas of the floor use glass which can carry “30+ Tonnes and is as strong as the concrete”. However, the nib of concrete it rests on at its edges… It’s a shame the toe colour has not come out as well as hoped for.

The waterfront area remains superb. Calling Auckland the City of Sails is fully justified. The international Louis Vuitton Trophy was being held. It is fiercely competed between a range of international teams at a number of venues throughout the world. The teams use one of two 12 metre yachts similar to the Americas Cup. They alternate between the two boats in the races so winning is mainly down to skill and a lot cheaper (though hardly cheap) than owning your own boat.

Of course the boats are sponsored, in this case Emirates and Oracle met the bill.

There were also some extraordinary yachts. Some built for speed and

Some built for show…Mind you there was nothing but the best for the Louis V people.

Some things are little different to Australia. There is virtually no difference to the earlier blogged Perth seagull

Here Helen and Kate are having sex on the beach. It certainly raised their spirits.

We had a great meal and then we were joined by the paid Brumbies groupie Peter from the Canberra Times. Later we headed to the Brumbies hotel bar and saw a couple of the players.

Day 3 saw a late start followed by a bus tour of the City and visit to the museum. No photographs of note until the evening when we went to Eden Park to watch the game against the Auckland Blues. The stadium is undergoing a substantial refurbishment for the 2011 World Cup (yes we plan to be back). The light only allowed pictures of the warm up.

What was pleasing is that there were a few more yellow caps in the stands so we felt a little less intimidated. The match was very exciting with the Brumbies having the lead at half time. However, the first 15 minute of the second half were less than pleasant as the Blues ran in 3 quick tries. The final score was a disappointing loss 39-34.

For completeness for those following our travels the intervening home game results were:

5 March Brumbies defeated the Lions 24 - 13
13 March Brumbies defeated the Sharks 24 - 22

The following day saw a very early (4:00 NZ time) start as we took off to Sydney and went to Michelle and Francoise’s son Julian’s wedding to Belinda. The wedding was at a school chapel on the North Shore. The view from the gardens was great with the bridge and opera house (better out of focus for this shot).

Joe and Graham Slip were good enough to put us up for the night. After such a long day Helen could have fallen asleep in the pool.

On the way home we detoured via Gerrigong to catch up with Mum and Dad. Mum loves a visit to the beach to see the sea so off we went. I suspect both slept well after this little adventure - we certainly did!

Capetown – Wind and Storm(ers)

After the Loftus experience we were looking forward to the calm of Capetown. It is a spectacular city in any weather and our arrival coincided with the “Capetown doctor” a fairly strong wind. This gives rise to some interesting views of Table mountain as low cloud cascades from its top while the waterfront below remains clear.

We had a quite a large “to do” list and set off from our wonderful 4 star Blackheath B&B for a trip to the Cape via the picturesque West Coast. Our first stop was at Hout Bay where you can take a boat for a quite exciting trip around the headland to see seals dozing on some small islands. Although I had done the trip on a previous visit and was happy to go again the land lubbers in our team decided it was too rough and not for them. What was the point when one seal decided to show off close to the quay?
After coffee, lunch, shopping and similar hardships we eventually reached the Cape and got a ride part way up to the lighthouse. We had to climb the final 100 or so steps. It was blowing a gale and quite a challenge just to stand up; invigorating! Sydney is to the right some 11 642 kms away. The Southern most point of Africa is also in a similar direction, a few hundred kilometres to the East of the light house.
Having arrived safely down we made our way to Boulder Bay on the East Coast. This is home to a huge penguin colony most of whom are quite indifferent to humans although some wanted to show off by jumping onto the rail or having some hanky panky. The latter was hilarious requiring a lot of effort just to balance however the 10 minute show finished unsuccessfully as the male toppled off the female. (As this blog site is G rated the pictures have been withheld).
Out in the bay the wind continued unabadated.

So we decided to retreat to the local restaurant where we saw a great sunset and experienced some wonderful African food (Kudu and Cumquat pot for me and Ostrich steaks for Helen and Alan).

The next day the weather cleared and we took the opportunity to take the cable car up Table mountain. Absolutely brilliant notwithstanding this was a repeat trip for most of us.

Spectacular 360 degree views. This one shows the new stadium for the 2010 soccer world cup (they have had to temporarily close the adjoining golf course – strange priorities) and Robben island (home for prisoner 46664 for 30 years - Nelson Mandela) and the city itself. The hill in the middle is the back of a lion (the head is off picture) and our B&B is in the midst of the buildings between the hill and the sea.

We spent a half day at Kirstenbosch the huge and magnificent Botanical gardens. There are some wonderful sculptures carved from Serpentine. This foot with polished head toes and fingers pulling out a thorn from the foot was particularly creative.

Nature also did not want to be outdone....

In the afternoon we went to Stellenbosch where we were going to undertake some wine tasting however, we stopped at a recommended restaurant (La Petite Ferme). Lunch was a long afternoon affair, delicious with wonderful views and… well we didn’t visit too many wine “farms”.

The Brumbies management had heard of our tragic state and invited us to the Captain’s training session at Newlands stadium. It was an experience that we will never forget. Newlands is the 4th oldest stadium in the world and even without any spectators the feeling is palpitating.

After training we laid out our white away jerseys and caps and each Brumbie dutifully queued up to sign them.

Helen and Kate decided this was not enough and had their picture taken with Stirling (not the largest Brumbie by any means) and

then we tragics and a few more Brumbies got in on the act. (L-R Kate, Helen, Pat Mcabe (Kate has befriended him!) Ben Hand, Stephen Hoile (C) Josh Valentine, Patrick Phibbs, Adam Ashley Cooper, yours truly and Alan).

After a morning like that we needed a drink and headed off for the postponed wine tasting. Tastings in SA are generally a sit down affair and this one at Waterford was brilliant with chocolate to marry with each of the wines.

Alan was in heaven – we only just managed to drag him away while Kate looks like she has been caught with her hand in the cookie jar.On the way back to Capetown we called into Zevenwacht farm so we could get our own shot of the famous property built in 1800 that overlooks the lake.

The week just flew past and in no time we were back at the ground for the match with the Stormers. What an atmosphere and a real rugby crowd (respectful of the minority tragics). It was very exciting with the scores within 3 points of each other for most of the match. At 12 – 12 and 3 minutes to score the Brumbies went over and converted for a 7 point lead. With 10 seconds to go the Stormers scored a try and with a conversion would draw the match …. – it wasn’t to be and an easy 19 – 17 win for the Brumbies was the result. No strong heartbeats with this match!

Although it was a very exciting match with a great result the highlight had to be the whole team coming over after the match to our stand and applauding us for being there. That was a really a "hairs standing up on the back" moment.

We gradually made our way back through chaotic traffic to the City and joined the Brumbies initially in their hotel and then at the nearby club. We haven’t been in that environment until 1:30 in the morning for quite a while.

The next day we flew home to Canberra via Jo’berg and Sydney. Exhausted, pleased with the results (2 out of 3 wins away) and with some wonderful memories. We are looking forward to a couple of home matches though!

Authentique French B&B and Sun City

We travelled to South Africa overnight and then drove for some 3 hours to Rustenburg near Sun City. We had decided to try out a small B&B to get a feel for how the locals lived and picked the “Authentique French B&B” run by Alain and Francoise. (The latter was unfortunately ill and we did not meet her.) Alain was very entertaining and breakfast was a humorous 1.5 hour affair. There is something attractive about hearing jokes in English with a strong French accent.

Breakfast was in the dining room or out on the patio depending on the weather. Alain helped to organise a safari of Pilanesberg National Park. We undertook a self drive followed by a guided tour and BBQ held in the bush.

We saw some great wildlife. The zebra here was probably called Baloo as he had a great old scratch on this tree.

Meanwhile the McDonalds meal in the park (an Impala) was on constant lookout. This male was in a herd of males that stay together (more ears and eyes) while they sort out the pecking order and then join female groups.

One of the “Big five” (elephant, buffalo, lion and leopard being the others) was not in the least perturbed by any wildlife although he did appear a little agitated by our presence. Time to move on!

The animals swam past two by two….

Some of the birds were just spectacular. This is a Southern Red Bishop bird.Wild pig were also in abundance. Interesting the way they go down on their front knees to eat. They walk like this grazing. Meanwhile in “middle of road” was a dung beetle. How he missed being run over escapes me but once the ball was made promptly moved to a safer place.

The evening brought a spectacular sunset with a number of giraffe grazing. They are very elegant even when they have bitten off more than a mouthful.

Our guide for the late afternoon tour was great and could spot wildlife even in the dark with a torch. He hopped out of the vehicle to collect a chameleon he saw amongst the leaves in a tree and then brought it round for us all to see.

We then moved onto Sun City for a couple of days staying at the Cabanas and rejoined Kate and Alan who had been to Kruger where they had had an awesome time. We had high tea at the Palace….

A subtle little establishment!

We also got in a couple of games of golf. This is a par 3 on the Palace course. The tee is in the background up the hill (which is pretty steep) and gives a spectacular view. It is called the Croc. hole…

Because you have to hit across a pit containing 6 crocs. There were quite a number of balls in the pit! Fortunately Alan and I both drove our balls safely across but were nonetheless relieved to see there was a drop zone for those less fortunate.

From Sun City we moved to Pretorius for one night. In the evening we went to Loftus park to watch the Brumbies take on the Bulls. What an experience. It started with finding a car park, as we drove down the road runners stepped in front of the car encouraging us to run over them or follow them to a car park. It was chaos but after a while we selected one likely looking athlete, drove to his space and handed over the essential fee of $8! I suspect they could not get insurance for this amount.
The crowd was extremely vocal. Although most were very friendly there were one or two who would have been better off watching soccer. Loftus is huge and the match was very exciting for some 60 minutes as the Brumbies maintained a narrow lead. However, the last 10 minutes saw quite a swing and resulted in a loss of 50 to 32. Here Stirling is converting a penalty that was awarded within the first minute of the game.
We managed to negotiate our way safely out of the stadium and went to the Brumbies hotel where we briefly met Stephen Hoiles and Pat Mcabe (who scored a good try at the end of the game).

Brumbies Venture 2010

Sometime prior to the World Cup, rugby tragic Alan Scandrett and I convinced each other that we should have one season when we saw all the Brumbies matches from the sideline. During the World Cup in 2007 we committed to the venture in 2010. The Canberra Times got wind of the trip and printed an article with a picture at the airport as we took off for the first match in Perth. The attraction of such an article escapes me, it could hardly be to lift sales.

We arrived in Perth to a hot afternoon and after a couple of drinks and a meal meandered to the Force’s new Members Equity ground. Nice to be at a rectangular ground, close to the action rather than an oval ground built for some other game. The preliminaries were a little shy of Melbourne Casino’s flame show but were nonetheless entertaining.
We had seats at the Southern end (space does not allow me to relate the fiasco that occurred with Force management and Ticketmaster in getting reserved seating tickets).

We were close to where Stephen Moore scored the Brumbies second try. Here Stirling is lining up his conversion (successful).

Brumbies won 24 to 15 which was a just result given the former had 3 tries and the Force could only muster penalties. Particularly pleasing as I had picked the margin in the tipping competition.

We tried to catch up with the Brumbies at their hotel after the match but somehow missed them but did get to see all the Essendon AFL team (who were a bit down having lost to some Perth outfit).After a great nights sleep we set of for adventure aboard the Rottnest Express. What a great spot the island is. Everywhere we looked there was magnificent views. We took a hop on hop off bus trip around the island and did force ourselves off for one hop and visited the lighthouse. More great views.

We then relaxed back at the local restaurant at Thompson Bay and had a bit of lunch.
The only disappointment was that in our trip we had not seen a Quokka so at the end of the meal one obligingly decided to hop past –we did not even have to get out of our seats.

The trip back to the mainland was uneventful albeit a little rougher than on the way out which gave Helen pause for thought – thoughtful Kate decided to talk to Helen the rest of the trip to take her mind off her stomach!!
We had planned a romantic meal watching the sun go down over the water which is not something we can experience in the East. Unfortunately being Valentines day weekend everyone had the same idea so we had a rather more noisy meal in a pub and then walked to the sea front to see the sunset.

Beautiful and remarkable how quickly the sun sets.

The following day I took Kate and Alan to the airport (Helen and I stayed an additional day in Perth so I could run a workshop – all those tax deductions you know!). Our timing was perfect as we found the Brumbies training on the waterfront. I suspect we are going to get accused of stalking when we get to SA if we keep leaping out of cars, unexpectedly taking pictures and then roaring away without a g'day!