Galavanting Globally

"God Defend New Zealand" World Cup Poster - Jesus tackling an Australian player


Auckland

Kelly and I are in Auckland.  Auckland has been electrifying/thrilling/crazy with the semi-finals here this weekend.  We couldn't even get accommodation the first night we were in town.  Since we are learning to embrace the hobo lifestyle, we figured we would simply forego accommodation the first night town (Mom, what I mean by "forego" is that we totally stayed with a really nice old couple in a super safe neighborhood).  Bars are open until the wee hours of the morning, so we simply checked our bags into our hostel and hit the town until the breaka breaka dawn.  We apparently think we're 22 again.  Our livers were not as easily convinced.  Worth it?  HELL YES!

The next night was the semi-final game between New Zealand and Australia, and epic rivalry, especially for the semi-finals.  I had the absolute pleasure of sitting in the nose bleed section, so obviously I needed to yell louder so my dear All Blacks could hear me.  Two days later and it still sounds like I've been gargling with glass.  Again, totally worth; the All Blacks beat the bloody Aussies 20-6.  Auckland went ca-razy (as well as me and Kelly).  22 year old Kelly and Krista kicked our ass once again that night.

In addition to rugby, New Zealanders also partake in the sport of Speed Sheering.  Speed Sheering is two men, two pairs of clippers, two adult sheep in the need of a haircut and a timer.  Ready, set, go.  So when we stumbled upon a national Speed Sheering contest the day after the semi-finals, it was an easy decision.  Since we woke up the morning after the rugby game feeling bright and shiny (that is if bright and shiny = dog shit), we figured an leisure day of spectating was right up our alley.  Unfortunately New Zealanders have an uncanny way of sniffing foreigners out of a crowd.  When they asked for volunteers for the "half time show" we were the easy targets.  The half time show was an old fashion Speed Sheering competition, where one person has to manually crank the power for the clippers and the assigned professional shaves the sheep accordingly.  Thank god they didn't actually trust those poor sheep in our city folk hands.  We were the crankers.  Did I mention we were feeling bright and shiny?  Kelly and I went head to head cranking those damn machines.  It was two minutes of feverish cranking during which I sweat out a good litter of booze from the previous night.  Feeling nauseous and like my arm might fall off, I'm glad to report I came out the winner in my speed sheering debut.  

Afterwards I found out that my partner (the professional sheep sheerer who skillfully didn't cut the sheep to bits while I cranked away) was the father of Daniel Kirkpatrick who plays for the Hurricane's; one of NZ's Super 15 teams.  Note for the non-ruggers:  Super 15 is essentially the NFL of rugby for New Zealand, South Africa and Australia.  Am I becoming too much of a celebrity whore here?  The answer is yes and I like it.

The semi-final weekend was so epic that we decided to come back to Auckland for the finals this weekend.  I'm not sure we can live up to our sheep sheering escapades, but we'll do our best.  Expect a full report.