My last few days in Auckland were INTENSE.
Saturday 17th kicked off with a trip to the supermarket, before baking a cake (a disaster cake that stuck to the bottom of the tin because I had no greaseproof paper, and so the middle fell out when I tipped it upside down – although it was delicious nevertheless…) I was then picked up by my cousin to visit his sister/my other cousin and her little boy (bringing some massacred chunks of cake with me) and after that I was dropped at Eden Park, just in the nick of time, to watch the Blues play the Western Force. And annihilate them!
I nearly didn’t attend the match, because the 3 cheapest types of ticket had sold out by the time I got there. As I was stood, staring up at the bad tidings on the screens above the ticket office, a chap came up and nudged me. “Here, we’ve got a spare ticket if you want one?” I definitely did. “Someone’s looking after you,” he said. Noticing a Scotch accent, I asked him where he hailed from. Turned out he was a ‘wegie (Glaswegian) like my dad. So, you see, we are all linked in the great Karma circles of life. I’m sure I’ve paid him back, or will do, somewhere down the chain.
The ticket was a $0.00 ‘comp’ and I could basically sit wherever I liked, which was a real blessing as it soon started to drizzle. Ha! Not only did I get a free ticket, but I was spared the NZ autumn weather. Lovely.
After the match I hopped on a bus and went for dinner at my aunty’s brother – also my host’s son – ‘s house (tenuous, tenuous…) It was actually time for dessert by the time I made it, so I scoffed an egg on toast and tucked into some homemade bread and butter pudding. Nice load of carbs to line the stomach before I met friends for a few beers in town, and then crashed at their hostel.
Sunday! Yummy hostel breakfast (I was cooked for, which was nice) provided me with the energy to walk back to Sandringham. Had a shower and threw a bag of overnight stuff together, because I was stopping with different relatives in Albany that night, before I was picked up by Emma.
Emma is the daughter of my Dad’s mate, with whom I’d stayed in Napier, and her friend works at the Mt Smart Stadium, and had procured us tickets for the rugby league match that day. Yes – MORE rugby, because I bloody loves it.
I did not emerge converted to rugby league, I’m a union girl, but I could definitely appreciate it. A whole new world of rugby has been opened up to me… Nice. Was a good laugh too – the Blues game on Saturday had been a solitary affair, my full concentration on the action, but this time we were a group of about 8, all in our mid-20s. All a bit hungover.
Emma dropped me in Albany, where I spent the rest of the day eating nice food and drinking a few gallons of tea, before hopping into bed at a respectable hour.
Monday. I was picked up in Albany by my Canadian friend from Dunedin who’d just bought a motorbike. I was a bit wary of making myself really ill whizzing down to Auckland on the back of a bike, already having swollen glands and a croaky voice, and also wary of a painful death on the road, but all went well and the whole thing was a hoot.
What wasn’t a hoot was the packing I had to do once I got home. Went to bed early, feeling increasingly ill, after setting my alarm for 5.25am in order to get to the airport in time.
The following morning I boarded my flight for Tokyo. It was the first time during the whole of my travels (Hawaii included!) that I haven’t had rain when leaving a country.
Don’t cry for me, Aotearoa! The truth is, I never left you!
April 25, 2010 at 1:47 pm |
you’re a little lashmonkey.