Divide And Conquer

Friday

Ro was up bright and early. You’re never as acutely aware of how much noise those geared little toy cars make as you are at 7am, trying to sleep in. There was a dark cloud looming over the harbour, so Sherry scrapped her idea of an island tour, not wanting to get caught in the rain for 3 hours. She and Ro decided to get out of the rugby-crazed city in the rental car to explore north of Wellington, while Mark fixed himself a leisurely cuppa and got ready for the Sevens.

Sherry and Ro's first stop on their Upper Hutt adventure was to blow off some energy in Harcourt Park, a holiday park set in 82 acres of open forest, with some of the trees rumoured to be nearly 800 years old. The Hutt River, which was part of the River Anduin in The Lord of the Rings, flows through the park. Though they saw no hobbits, Ro did find a flying fox he thoroughly enjoyed.

Ro blissfully whizzes by

Akatarawa River Valley

Next stop was at an organic blueberry farm to stuff their baskets (and faces) with fresh blueberries. As luck would have it, the farm had a great swimming hole along the Akatarawa River (which eventually flows into the Hutt). The sun was getting pretty hot, so it didn't take much convincing for Ro to strip down to his undies and dive in. Won't forget the togs tomorrow!

Picking blueberries...mmmm

 

Making use of an impromptu diving platform

 
Continuing along the Akatarawa Valley, Sherry and Ro happened upon the Staglands Wildlife Reserve. The park was, in Sherry's words, "simply magical," and is one of her favourite things she's seen so far in New Zealand. The Secret Garden part of it was truly spectacular, with waterfalls, flowers, ferns, and bunnies hopping around everywhere! Ronan had a go at trying to catch more than one bunny, and his attempts left Sherry giggling at the memory. They had a quick bite to eat at the Staglands Café before leaving the Hutt, then headed back to Wellington for some much needed rest. 

http://www.staglands.co.nz/

Staglands Wildlife Reserve

Feed the birds...tuppence a bag

This kunekune pig has a face only its mother could love

 Ro's fave - the "Darth Maul" duck

This sheep found an easy mark

Crossing the swing bridge

Surrounded by animals

Ro took this one

Entering the Secret Garden

Ro trying to coax a goldfish into his hand

Meanwhile, back in the city, Mark started his day by taking in the festive atmosphere that permeated the city centre. The NZI Sevens is easily the biggest annual event in Wellington, and arguably all of New Zealand. Imagine Mardi Gras, with everyone dressed like it's Halloween, all going to the Super Bowl, and you'll have some idea of what it's like. Since it’s always on the three day Waitangi Day holiday weekend, the whole capital city screeches to a halt to blow off some steam and indulge in a little good old-fashioned debauchery. Sherry gets the Wife of the Year Award for letting Mark anywhere near it!

Rugby Sevens has just been made an Olympic sport for the 2016 games in Rio, so you’ll likely be hearing much more about Sevens in the future. New Zealand has already won the first two tournaments of the Sevens World Series this season in South Africa and Dubai, and although picked to win at home in Wellington, they've drawn a tough pool in South Africa, Wales, and Niue. Believe it or not, the USA actually has a Sevens team that competes on the tour, but they’re not exactly one of the favourites to win. For those of you interested, though, the next stop of the tour is in Las Vegas, baby!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/IRB_Sevens_World_Series

Mark took a brief foray over to Queens Wharf to scope out the scene. Chicago, an American-style sports bar (rare in NZ), had partnered with Speight's Beer to put on a huge outdoor breakfast for Sevens fans, with a massive jumbotron on which to watch the matches for those people unfortunate enough not to have any of the long-since sold-out tickets. Allan and Martha came over to our hotel so the guys could get their Roman toga costumes together. With help from Martha’s sewing skills and plenty of safety pins, they achieved at least a passing resemblance to Romans, then headed out for some of that breakfast. Reef was supposed to go with Mark today, but he was up all night with baby Leo, so Allan switched days with him. Ah, the joys of fatherhood.

Sadly, these heroes couldn't fly any better than the original

As if there's a NON-American Super Bowl somewhere!?!

One guess who lost a bet on this one

Wellington Harbour from Queens Wharf. Te Papa on right

Nothing like a rousing flip-cup tourney to start your morning right

Chicago must have gotten a bunch of sponsorship money for the food, because there were plenty of scantily-uniformed girls walking around the wharf handing out coupons for free breakfast. Martha passed on the greasy fare, but Mark and Allan fortified themselves with the big plate of bacon, scrambled eggs, rye toast, and a Speight's, all complimentary! Martha made her way home while Mark and Allan walked down the waterfront to the railway station, chatting with other Sevens fans along the way, occasionally getting accosted (e.g. “I love you, man!”) by various costumed freaks spilling out of the bars. Mark did see a boy about Ro’s age walking into the stadium, wearing an AC/DC shirt no less, but we had long ago decided that the chances of getting Ro to sit happily in a hot stadium seat for two full days of rugby were slim.

Breakfast is served! Don't forget your beer!

Allan & Mark ready for action

Yo, Adrian!

Fans ambling to the stadium

Full-frontal Body Suit Guys vs The Used Tampons. Ready...steady...dodgeball!

Of course, except when New Zealand is playing, the actual rugby is secondary to the, ahem, “atmosphere.” As soon as Allan and Mark walked through the turnstiles, they were draped with “kissing beads” by scantily-uniformed (do you see a trend?) Air New Zealand “hostesses,” and instructed to give out their beads for kisses. Everyone was in costume, many of them quite original. People have shirts and hats printed and embroidered just for the occasion. A lot of fans hire their costumes from shops, but the best ones are always homemade. The central idea is to have a theme for your group. There were more Tiger Woods impersonators than you could shake a 9-iron at, legions of blue-painted Avatars, as well as classics like cartoon characters, superheroes, and Braveheart. "Politically correct" has a different standard in NZ than the USA, as evidenced by the Baptist choir in Afro wigs and full blackface. There were plenty of men dressed as women, and even more women barely dressed at all. A few local companies (e.g. law firms, real estate agencies) tried to advertise their business by having their employees all dress in promotional garb. Mark thought the best costume actually belonged to a guy in a wheelchair, who turned it into a tank, complete with rotating turret! There were also a hundred-and-one enterprising fans dressed up in custom-made dalmatian outfits, with individually numbered dog tags.

These guys had to be absolutely roasting!

The All Blacks score a try against Wales

Cheering the All Blacks to victory

Glad to see America represented with such decorum

Yup, that's about right

The seating arrangements, at least on the first day of the tournament, are pretty casual. Although your ticket has an assigned seat, everyone just sits wherever they want, largely dictated by whether or not they want to be in the sun or the shade. Although the Sevens is the toughest ticket in the country and the event is always a sell-out, the seats were never all filled at any given time, mostly because of all the people cruising and people-watching on the concourse. Some fans, of course, never made it out of the bars they started the day in. Mark and Allan sat in their seats for a while, then shifted to the shady side, eventually meeting up with Mark’s mate from work, Ali, and her husband Dave, dressed as Antony & Cleopatra.

Allan, Mark, & Ali enjoying the spectacle

The crowd would cheer boisterously for all the Pacific Island nations (especially Fiji, a Sevens powerhouse) and anyone considered an underdog, like Scotland or Wales (except when they played NZ). England and the USA elicited an even mix of cheers and boos, while hated rivals South Africa, Australia, and France were roundly booed at every opportunity. Aside from when NZ would score a try, the biggest cheers went up for any underdog (e.g. Papua New Guinea) who scored a try against South Africa or Australia.

Subduing a streaker

The AB's kick off vs Niue

There was a sunset “halftime show” about two-thirds of the way through the matches featuring a Parade of Nations, plenty of dancers, a Michael Jackson impersonator singing "Thriller," and fireworks. The final match of the night was the most highly anticipated, with New Zealand taking on South Africa. It was a tense, edge-of-your-seat, defensive battle, but NZ scored twice late in the match to take the win 19-7, notching a 3-0 record in pool play and setting them up nicely for tomorrow’s elimination round.

Dancing girls aplenty

This Avatar looked like he shot fireworks from his hands

Trying to start the wave

Does Barack know you're here?

More common than you might realize

Crowds spilling into the city centre

All's Well In Wellington

Thursday

Mark was up into the wee hours of the morning, backing up all of our NZ pictures onto DVD to guard against losing them if something were to (God forbid) happen to the laptop as we lug it around the South Island. Even so, he was up shortly after Ro and Sherry, since he needed to sell our car before we left. Check in hand, he ran by the bank to deposit it, then rushed to pack (Sherry had long since finished packing all of her and Ro's stuff).

Getting some fresh air while we wait for our plane

Our second flight to Wellington in a week was quick and painless. Ro again sat with Mark while Sherry enjoyed a book in solitude. As we were landing, the stewardess borrowed a page from Southwest's book and joked, "The captain has turned on the good weather for the Sevens weekend, so be sure to keep up your fluid intake." Everyone on the plane cracked up (except Ro), since many of us were going to the Sevens and packing an extra liver for the occasion. Our rental car was apparently not to Ro's liking, as he quickly dissed the red Corolla hatchback, asking why we couldn't rent the flash BMW convertible parked nearby. "When you get a job and pay for it," was Mark's reply.

The adventure begins

We took the scenic route into the city, by Oriental Bay. Just on first impressions, we'd have to say we like the feel of Wellington over Auckland. It's arguably prettier, and even though it has all the amenities of a big city, you don't really feel like you're in one. Our checkered family history with Corolla hatchbacks continued, as Mark dinged the rental in the parking garage of our hotel. He was simply negotiating a tight turn in the uncannily cramped garage and caught the curb. Not usually an issue, right? Well it is when some idiot engineer designed the curb to be over a foot high, just right for denting rocker panels. D'oh!

After settling into our room at the Intercontinental (Mark used up the last of his Priority Club points for our stay), featuring a nice view towards the waterfront and Queens Wharf, we made arrangements to finally meet up with Allan & Martha for dinner. First, a little background: Mark used to work at The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head, NC, and he has a friend there, Karen, who has a partner, Rick, whose first cousin Allan lives in New Zealand. Clear as mud? (A quick aside: "partner" in NZ is any significant other, no homosexuality implied). They live up in the Bay of Islands, which we drove past on the way to Cape Reinga. We would have stopped in to see them in the beautiful harbour town of Russell, but they were already down here in Wellington visiting with their first grandchild.

Martha is the family foodie, and she recommended a great little Italian place called Nicolini's. They swung by our hotel to pick us up, and we got to meet Allan’s mother Lois, their son Reef, daughter-in-law Lucy, and one-month-old Leo. The restaurant was on a busy row of bars and restaurants called Courtenay Place, not far from where we ate last week. The Sevens crowds were already out in full force, some groups of them already in their matching fancy dress.

Rush hour traffic below our hotel room

Nicolini's was small and intimate, with excellent food, not unlike Maria's Trattoria in Melbourne. We started off with some "Squids Italian Style" (i.e. huge calamari) and a big bowl of olives, with beer for the guys and wine for the ladies. Ro was on his best behaviour until we were nearly finished, as he was captivated by Leo, as well as the attention he got from Martha – a primary school art teacher. Mark had a huge plate of seafood piscatore, Sherry the tortellini with ricotta, bleu cheese and walnut pesto, and Ro his standard "pisghetti" – no sauce.

Hmmm...interesting what you've done here

Dinner with the Meyer clan

Ro helps Reef feed baby Leo

Leo got plenty of attention all around

We elected to take our dessert elsewhere, since Martha knew a great gelato place across the street, "kaffee eis." Everything looked good, and Ro had great difficulty making up his mind, finally settling on chocolate, which was soon all over his face and Mark's polo shirt. He started getting a bit restless, so Sherry took him outside to run around and talked with Lucy about the trials of those first few months of motherhood.

What'choo talkin' 'bout, mum?

Getting in some snuggle time

Saying goodnight to Allan & Martha

We ambled past numerous bustling bars, including the trendy Establishment (the "official bar" of the NZI Sevens) and the tongue-in-cheek Monsoon Poon, with "Love you long time" carved into the front steps…twice. Reef dropped us off at the hotel, and Ro immediately jumped into his togs and headed for the pool. Unfortunately, he and Mark got to it 10 minutes before closing time, but that was still long enough for Ro to burn off some energy trying to touch the bottom of the 1.6m (5ft3in) pool.

Ro in his element

Sherry had a bottle of champagne already opened when Mark and Ro got back to the room, reading her book by the window and savoring the view. It was way past Ro's bedtime, and although he wasn't enamored of the separate controls for Hot & Cold, Ro rinsed himself off in the shower (he's getting to be a big boy) and fell asleep snuggled next to Sherry on the bed.

The pool is closed already? Really?