Last night was the opening game, Tonga vs New Zealand, in Auckland. Paddy, Erin and I try to catch the ferry into town, but we walk the wrong way and get lost. So then we get picked up by a guy who doesn't know where he is going either, and we once again miss the turn to the ferry and he drops us off at the highway. So it looks like were hitchhiking into town. Oh well, it's free! AND...the guy who picked us up plays for the Tonga team, but he was injured and so he wouldn't be playing that night. We wanted to ask him questions, but also didn't want to keep reminding him that he's not going to playing at the opening game for the world cup. Once we finally make it into town, we wandered around for a little bit and Erin and I finally got our flat whites! We were on the lookout for Hell but surprisingly didn't find one. The three of us walked the fan trail about 5km to Eden Park. There were a lot more stairs and hills than we anticipated....and Im pathetically out of shape. We were going to try and buy tickets to the opening game, but they were sold out. Sad day. Instead we picked up our tickets for USA vs Ireland and took the train back into downtown. By the time we get back downtown, there are masses of people flooding the street. I have never seen any part of New Zealand this busy. Never. It was pretty cool! We tried finding a bar to chill out at, but all of them were full. Then the Tongan team was doing this show on the water in their boats, so we tried to watch that, but that didnt work either. Can I just go on a tangent here? I despise the moronic parents who put their 3 year old children up over their heads and on their shoulders so they can watch something that they really dont care that much about and won't remember, and as a result the rest of us who are climbing on benches still can't see. Sometimes crowds make me furious. There was a bar called Cowboys and Outlaws, and the two sides were seperate. We tried to get into the Cowboys side, but the bouncer said they were over capacity. Some people from the Outlaws side let us crawl under the table so we could get in. Fitting. We decided to settle there and watch the game. They had $12 steins (which for NZ is pretty amazing...a bottled beer is usually $8!) and a great atmosphere to watch the game. It was of course a blow out, the All Blacks dominated. One of the old guys in the bar said that Erin has "shifty yank eyes". What? But then he said they were pretty, shifty yank eyes so after that we were friends. The eclectic group of Kiwis, Tongans, and Australians that snuck us in were pretty good company and we had a good night. Then we tried to get home...what a mess. First we get lost trying to find the train station, then we finally find it and the lady said it doesn't run out to the road we want. She gives us a bus number, which was wrong, so once we finally found it we got re-directed again. Then we almost missed our bus but Erin cleared the path (and maybe cut some people off) and we were the last 3 on. Once we make it to the road, the bus driver asks us where on the road we want to get dropped off. We have no idea so he let us out where we were. Leona (who is kind enough to let us stay with her and Nathan on the base and who was going to pick us up from there) is meanwhile waiting at a different stop so she has to drive out and meet us. But we finally made it back! I think were all pretty jet lagged still. The other night we went to bed at 8pm. Today we possibly grab breakfast with Calum and then hitch out to New Plymouth! Auckland, it's been a blast.
-K
Side note: Kayla may have a slightly uncontrollable and overinflated hatred of small children in crowds. Parents of New Zealand, watch out. Otherwise she pretty much covered our Auckland experience!
-E
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