One Stop Too Far

I was really unhappy to leave New Zealand this morning. But now I kind of want to go home.

After a get-me-there-way-too-early airport shuttle (early check-out time), a 2.5 hour wait at the airport, a 4 hour flight, a 3 hour time change, long customs and immigration queues, and another hour on a bus to my current hotel, I'm in Melbourne. And I'm exhausted.The weather here is terribly grey and Seattle-ish, and the moment I went out to get some food, it started pouring. It's wet, and it's cold. I popped into the first superette I came across, bought a few snacks, and came back only slightly drenched.

I'm just travel weary.

And I need to buck up. I have less than 40 hours here.

Ok. Less whining, more wine. And rugby. Big match tonight.

Christchurch

I'm in Christchurch, my final stop in New Zealand. When I arrived yesterday afternoon, I immediately went out for a stroll and really liked it here. It felt like the city had such a great energy, but I'm realizing today that I don't particularly love this suburban sprawl of a town. Mostly what I liked was actually getting a feeling for Christchurch, rather than a vaguely glowing approximation overwhelmed by the World Cup, which is what I've gotten everywhere else.

Today I walked through Hagley Park, a huge green space separating the western suburbs from the actual city centre. The hotel owner told me it only takes about 15 minutes to get downtown that way, so after 30 minutes of walking, I was rather annoyed at his exaggeration, and looked up to find myself at the far northeastern corner of the park, when I should have followed the short path West-East. No wonder I'd been going so long seeing nothing but trees.

When I finally made it to the right place, I could only walk a couple of blocks before running into the fence surrounding the closed-off area. Almost all of downtown is still shut to the public after the earthquake, and few businesses are operating nearby. In general, though, Christchurch is less a city destroyed than a city rebuilding. Cranes tower over most of the blocked off section, and there's construction going on everywhere.

I did see one building which was obviously apartments, and almost the entire half of the structure facing me had crumbled. It was as if someone had dissected the building from the top down, and all the rubble was still there, including things like a refrigerator in a kitchen. I thought of taking a picture, but then decided not to. How many people died in that building? Or escaped with their lives, but lost everything else that they had? I couldn't do it; it was a bit too morbid, even for me.

From there I walked through the botanical garden, the art walk, and finally the correct path through the park, back to Riccarton, the suburb where I'm staying. I can see why Christchurch is called New Zealand's garden city, because there's so much park land, and it's all rather lovely. But beyond that... well, I've been able to do plenty of shopping and have eaten well.

Maybe 2 blocks from my hotel there's an Irish bar with a big "we're back open!" sign out front, which I thought looked just my speed, and figured I'd do dinner and a pint down there tonight. On my second walk past, though, I noticed a sign in the window forbidding hats, steel-toed boots, and jandels (apparently Kiwi for flip-flops), "for everyone's safety." You know, there's no indication of why the place was temporarily closed... I think I might not want to get in a brawl tonight, and may need to make alternative supper plans.

Tomorrow afternoon I leave New Zealand and make a short stop in Melbourne before heading back home. I had been really excited for Melbourne before getting here, but after all this time with the Kiwis, I'm dreading Australia a bit. The New Zealanders have been wonderful, and they really paint the Aussies in a poor light. I'm sure it's not true, but you know me, I always tend to feel more of a kindred spirit with the shadow country than the always-getting-noticed big brother next door.

I guess we'll see. The thing that most bums me out is the idea of going back to Seattle. Sure, I miss my cats and my Dirty Half Dozen, but... I can't even fathom that life from here. Not a bit. I could stay here weeks and weeks longer...

McLean Park - Canada vs Japan; Leaving Napier

Well, I've been to my last Rugby World Cup game for 2011. It ended in a draw for Canada and Japan, 23 all. It was a great game, which theoretically Canada should have won. Japan had great ball handling and pretty much every time they had a good chance to score, they took it. Canada, well... Canada made a lot of errors and failed to capitalize on several opportunities. The Canadians were actually behind a lot of the match, but managed to come back and tie it up in the last few minutes.

So no wins for any team I supported in person. I guess I'm a bad luck charm. Interestingly, each game had a different personality for me. The US-Australia match was just fun, relaxed, spent chatting and doing the wave*, since I knew the Americans had no chance. The Scotland-Argentina game was super tense, and a much more serious affair. I was so close to the action, the game was a real battle, and I was getting colder and more drenched the whole time. Tonight's game was a bit of both. I was in the general admission section, standing in a crowd, both taking the match very seriously and having a bit of fun. I cheered my heart out, and damnit, I felt like a Canadian.

Dressed for the match

I'm going to have to plagiarize Morrissey a bit to describe myself here: American blood, Canadian heart.

It was an early kickoff, so now I'm back in time to watch the Americans' final game against Italy on TV. But I'm just not as enthusiastic about it.

Anyway, before I headed to the game, I gave Napier another chance, and spent a few hours walking along its gorgeous waterfront. It has miles of pebble beach with a path above it, and is more like a park than a seaside, since it's not so much a good place for swimming. I took a ton of photos, but none of them could properly convey the vast expanse of turquoise water blending up into the clear blue sky.

Oh, I also checked out that Opossum museum. It was a store selling all manner of expensive opposum fur/merino wool blend knits, with a small area of bad marsupial taxidermy, fake trees, and a few vaguely informational signs. As a fan of the opossum, I was rather disappointed. And I didn't buy anything.

Tomorrow I have to check out of my hotel by 10am (dude, seriously?!), so I suppose I'll get to spend some quality time at the tiny airport before my afternoon flight to Christchurch. Remember the little airport on that show Wings? I think the Napier airport wishes it was that big.

That means it's down to the last 2 cities I'll visit on this trip. It has all gone so fast!


*We've done the wave in all the games I've attended, but the Kiwis call it "the Mexican wave." I asked why, and there's a pervasive belief in New Zealand that the wave was invented in Mexico, 25 years ago. Um, sorry, it was around before 1986, and while there's debate about whether it was started at UW or PLU, it's still Seattle, not Mexico. And much earlier.

Napier

After a 40 minute flight, and a giant Tongan team rally at Wellington airport, I've arrived at the small seaside town of Napier.

There is well and truly nothing to do here.

Despite the old cabby giving me a history lesson on the drive, and my motel being "nice and close to the city centre," I'm already kind of bored. I went for a stroll and stopped in at the local supermarket, but most things are already closed for the day, it being past 5pm on a Monday. They have a lovely waterfront that I'm sure I'll spend some time walking along, and a museum devoted to the opossum (totally checking that out tomorrow), but that's about it. At least within walking distance.

Because the town is so small, there isn't a single traffic light or controlled crosswalk that I've seen. Since they drive on the left here, that adds a certain danger that I could look the wrong way while crossing the road and get run over by a car. So I guess there's that for excitement.

Despite everything I read ahead indicating that this motel had free wifi, it doesn't. I can't pay for it, I can't get a secret code from the office, I'm just offline for 48 hours. Well, bugger it all.

Oh, yeah, the voice in my head has become Kiwi by now, hadn't you noticed?

So tomorrow I'll wander a bit more and see the last game of my trip, but tonight I'm at a loss for what to do. I guess I'm entertaining myself in this weird little apartment with my meat pie, my bacon flavored potato chips, a rugby match, and some Australian shiraz.

Tonight promises to be veery spishal. A veery spishal night in New Zealand.

Sigh.

Wellington Regional Stadium - Scotland vs Argentina

I did not get my wish that it stay dry for the game tonight. Nope, that game was very wet. Very wet indeed.

I had fantastic seats, 6th row at mid-field. It's the closest I've seen a rugby match since my brother played in wide open fields, and I'd just sit on a patch of grass a few feet beyond the touch line. I could've taken many great photos from that location, and I did for the first little while, when the teams were loosening up. The last one I took was during anthems, though, because as soon as the game started, the rain started, and it only got stronger and wetter as the match progressed. I kept my camera safely dry in my pocket for the duration.

I happened to be seated in a row full of Scotland supporters, but the rest of our section was dominated by excitable, bouncing, singing Argentinians. Up until then, my every run-in with the Puma fans had been entertaining and harmless. But with the game on the line, they were obnoxious, and got so crazy at every tiny Argentine gain that I was actually knocked in the head several times by their celebrations. That, combined with the cold and the rain, did not make me feel like being a very good sport, particularly when Scotland lost, 13-12.

Both teams were pretty evenly matched, and their defense was on the mark. Unfortunately the soaked field and slippery ball from the rain hampered the offense. There were a lot of ball handling errors, and almost all the points were scored on kicking. It was a pretty tense game, but Scotland controlled the scoreboard for most of the match. It was only in the last 10 minutes that Argentina scored and converted a try to go up by 1 point, and Scotland missed their last drop goal attempt only a moment later.

So 13-12 it ended. We drenched and heartbroken Scottish fans filed out silently while one of our own was named Man of the Match, and the Argentinians stayed in the stands, continuing their shouting, pogo-ing and singing in the driving rain.

I'm somewhat speechless, gutted at the loss, and possibly hypothermic, as I'm still not warmed up over an hour after getting back to the hotel and changing clothes. But I'm so glad I was there; I wouldn't have missed that match for anything.

Rainy Day in Wellington

Wellington is way too small for me to have another full day here. But I do.

I'll attend my second rugby game of the trip tonight, then head up to Napier tomorrow. In the meantime, I've seen pretty much all this place has to offer, but have a wide open schedule until 7 or 8 tonight, when I head to the stadium.

Right now it's raining that drizzly, wet, nonstop, Seattle-style rain. It doesn't look like much, but it soaks you clear through, and I'm not looking forward to going out in it, especially with a forecasted temperature between 35 and 48 degrees for the day. I do have a small umbrella in my pocketbook, I just always forget it's there because I've never used it in Seattle. I've opened it in New York, Copenhagen, and now potentially Wellington. Even so, I'd just rather not.

I hope it dries out before the game tonight, since my high-priced seats are too near the field to be under cover. Ah well, I guess it would make sense to see Scotland play Argentina in good Scottish weather. It just sounds miserable to me.

So now I'm debating whether I need to go out and find some entertainment, but get cold and wet, or be warm and dry, but bored all day. Complicating my debate is the fact that I opted to stay in last night to save money. Instead of going out to pay $20 for dinner and at least $7/beer, I spent around $15 total, having a pot noodle and a cheap bottle of New Zealand wine (Cheeky Little Red), while watching the night's two World Cup matches on TV and playing with my ball.

I should explain. On around day two of my trip, I bought a mini rugby ball, which is nice and squishy, and the right size for my girl hands. When I'm watching matches live, or replays in which I don't know the result and I care who wins, I get a fair amount of nervous energy. Since I'm in a hotel room trying not to yell at the TV or jump up and down (which is what I'd do at home), I grab my mini ball and toss it around while I watch. It uses up that extra energy, and because it's soft, it doesn't hurt when I get distracted and hit myself in the head with it. Which happens more than a few times during a game.

Point is, today I have a bit of cabin fever. And I have nothing to eat besides my instant coffee and a banana.

Crap. Guess I'm going out. Time to watch for a sunbreak, or a fine spell, as they call it here.

A Walk in the Woods

This morning I spent a couple of hours away from Wellington, on a small protected reserve called Matiu/Somes Island. Apparently the Maori named the place Matiu, but the Brits called it Somes, so now they've put a slash in between the two (in line with New Zealand's policy of biculturalism) and called it good.

I had to take a small ferry over choppy waters and have my baggage inspected for hidden pests before entering the island, then spent a couple of hours wandering the whole place. Turns out Matiu was originally used as a quarantine for sick humans and animals, but eventually turned into a wildlife reserve for birds, bugs, lizards and plants. I had particularly wanted to make the trip to see the Little Blue Penguin, which has a thriving colony on the island.

Most of my day's view

Turns out most of the day was spent just walking paths through the woods, listening to music. I think it says something fundamental about me that I can't have a day in nature without an electronic device to provide a soundtrack. But props to my ipod for putting Neil Young and the Dears in heavy rotation, which just seemed to fit.

Finally! Sheep!

I never saw any of the lizards or giant bugs, aside from a honeybee or two, but I did come across a few kakariki (a type of parakeet which posed for photos, but always in shadow), some Variable Oystercatchers, and a few unfamiliar small brown birds who looked at me quizzically for a moment before flying directly at my head. I also finally got my chance to see some sheep, kept on the island in service of the live-in park rangers -- the only other mammals in residence.

But no penguins.

Apparently this is breeding season for the penguins, and they spend all of their time literally holed up with their chicks. I saw a few of these little penguin hollows, but we were explicitly told not to disturb the nests. Turns out that if a mama penguin is bothered while nesting, she'll take off and leave everything behind, including any eggs or chicks. So no penguins for me.

View of Wellington from the Island

But it was still quite a nice day, windy though it was. I got a good walk in, and finally feel like I've seen some of the real New Zealand. I even followed the trail right up to the top of the mountainous island, specifically because I figured it was the only summit this urban girl might ever reach.

I'm now back in my room, watching the television replay of last night's game. Since it's Saturday night, I planned to actually go out for dinner and drinks in town, but I'm not sure that will happen. My brother told me how expensive this country is, but even with the warning, I underestimated how much cash to have on hand. I'm spending like crazy, and still have 9 more days to fund. I may be staying in. Harumph.