Ok.
Hello again. I realize that it’s been a while since my last update... but, eh, I’ve never been good at doings things regularly. You’re probably surprised that I’m even here... updating. But I have loads of pictures saved on my computer, and it’s about time that I... did.. something with them. Whatever that something is.
Right... er, let’s begin where I last left off.
A week (or two?) after the hike up to the summit of Rangitoto, IFSA-Butler (my program) took us to our first live rugby game. If you remember the post about orientation, then you’ll remember that I learned how to play touch rugby. Real rugby, though, is a hundred times rougher than touch rugby. Real rugby, believe it or not, is more dangerous than American football.
Real rugby is American football. Minus the padding.
And, that night... was more than real rugby.
That night was the All Blacks versus the Wallabies.
New Zealand versus Australia.
Kinda like Red Sox against the Yankees. Only... I know absolutely nothing about baseball... so, eh...
Amherst versus Williams?
Except... er... more intense. Much more intense. Take away the padding, take away that “touch rugby” stuff, throw in blood and dirt and bone...
Then you get a sense of what I saw that night.
Enough ranting now. Let’s go back to that night, and let’s begin with the costume. Since I’m in New Zealand, I set out the day before to buy myself some new All Blacks gear. I left the store with a black and white fleece jacket and a waterproof jersey underneath. Kind of stupid, when I think back on it... since, as usual, we were expecting it to rain that night. I’ll get to that later....
Once I was all set to go, I descended the UniLodge elevator to the first floor for some free pizza from Mel (the program’s “Student Liasons Officer” aka our mum for our time here). While everyone ate, a friend took out some face paints and started covering everyone’s faces in the traditional black and white.
I ventured forth... and allowed one small addition to my face: a small black kiwi bird.
Then, faces covered, we set off for the crowded train.
Since we were expecting some rain, I wore my yellow raincoat over my All Blacks stuff. I wore several layers to keep myself warm, but that yellow and blue raincoat basically hid the home team support that I was trying to give. Actually... it did more than that.
If you know anything about rugby, you’ll know that yellow and blue are the colors of the Australian Wallabies. So, in effect, I was walking around a city in the colors of the visiting ‘enemy’ team. When the rain didn’t come... and I heard some boo’s from behind me, I quickly pulled off the jacket. It wasn’t raining yet, and I was afraid that the colors of my jacket would provoke some of the pre-gamed All Blacks supporters.
We arrived at the stadium without too much trouble, found our seats, and waited for the game to begin.
The rugby game began with two national anthems – Australia’s and New Zealand’s. If you haven’t heard the New Zealand National Anthem, you should give it a listen. It’s half in Maori, half in English... and extremely interesting to listen to. It incorporates both the indigenous culture and the Kiwi culture. After that, the Wallabies stood side by side and grabbed each other’s shoulders... bracing themselves... for the All Blacks’ Haka.
A haka is a Maori war dance, traditionally done before a battle to intimidate their enemies. The All Blacks have adopted it... and, as the Wallabies stood in silence, the All Blacks stamped their feet, yelled something about death in Maori (“Kia Mate!”), stuck out their tongues, bulged their eyes, and made themselves look as scary as possible.
I kind of... felt bad for anyone who had to stand in front of them.
Then, of course, the game began.
It was intense, to say the least. There were several injuries... and there was this one move that I noticed. Everytime someone threw a ball in from the boundaries of the field, their teammates would, of course, try to catch it. But they didn’t all stay at ground level. One or two players from both teams tended to boost another player up – throw him into the air so that he could catch a ball that was... way above their heads. It worked some of the time and... I was actually waiting for someone to fall face first onto the ground from that position.
Didn’t happen. But... it was interesting.
Anyway, at the end of the day, the All Blacks killed the Wallabies by... a lot... (I can’t remember anymore, but the score reminded me of the Amherst-Williams Homecoming game two years back).
And – good news – it didn’t rain at all.
So that was that, and we all crowded into a train and made our ways back home after a brief, relaxing stop at a coffee shop.
Most of these pictures, by the way, are courtesy of Helen A. Because... you know how lazy I am with a camera.
This picture... with the bad camera lighting... is one that I actually took. But they're actually in the middle of a game here, so I thought I'd include it.
(And this... is our group picture.)
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