The Nation's Weight

Think for a moment, one point!  One point in an 80 minute game separated a nation and its team from collapse and the onslaught of almost certain social turmoil.  One team with a storied past of winning and subsequent early exits from World Cup glory finally triumphed and overcame the"bug" itching at every Kiwi's soul.

Last night, The All Blacks were crowned World Champions for the first time in 24 years from which the inaugural event (which they also won on the same pitch) was held at Eden Park in Auckland.  I wonder, could any team in history rival the weight of a nation and its expectations more so than the AB's?  Perhaps, Sidney Crosby might have a jab at this argument but I wasn't in Vancouver or across the breadth of Canada for the duration of the Winter Olympics in 2010.  I was however immersed the last six weeks in a country of less than 5 million people during an event that most of  North America doesn't even know occurred.  (yes, we had teams)  I will admit I was ignorant to the importance of rugby before I came here but can empathize well with New Zealanders considering how much I love, live and die with the team I follow, almost religiously. (no they don't play gridiron) 

This event awakened a nation shadowed in its bigger brother's shadow.  On national news I heard  the broadcasters call New Zealanders the Mexicans of Australia which, firstly, is a bunch of... (cue local lingo) bollocks, (they're more like Canadians) and secondly, da's racism bro. 

 Sorry, back to what I was getting at. 

The Rugby World Cup 2011 not only stimulated a suffering economy but rekindled a national pride and brotherhood it seems was lost between native Maori and their European descendant countrymen.  Given, my knowledge of historical facts of tensions between the two groups is limited I can justify my claim through what I have witnessed in the last two weeks.  Random hugs, kisses  and high-fives were commonplace among the unified group after the match minus a few French supporters which, surprisingly, still seemed to be singing some sort of thanks to the nation for a great event.  I've been to a few major sporting event finals where things had not gone so well after  win or lose and I can say, thankfully the All Blacks won.  Yes, New Zealand is a wonderful place with relatively no species land or sea that will place you in a body bag but had the final score been reversed by the final whistle I think (with my luck here so far) I would have experienced a much different side of NZ hospitality.  My flatmate told me if NZ lost that I might as well book a ticket home and  I believe him as I witnessed not just nail-biting tension throughout the sea of thousands as France drew within one point of the All Blacks, but had most people not been in public they would have lost themselves.  I'll leave it up to you whether you think the loss would have been mental or phyiscal.  Hearing a pin drop in the central business district of a fairly large city where tens of thousands of people had gathered to watch is unnerving to say the least.  It was unpleasant and gut-wrentching to be honest and I've only been here 3 months and I'm American.  Oh well, all in hindsight I guess as by the skin of their teeth the AB's pulled it off.  Richie McCaw the captain of the AB's said it best, and of course I will paraphrase, "We didn't play our best but we did enough."  And did enough they certainly did. 

On a side note of personal victory, I scored the only 2 goals of our game tonight where I'm almost always easily outskated by anyone most on the ice.  Our big guns didn't show up due to an almost guarenteed hang over of epic proportions.  Fortunately, our goalie who was wearing a silver fern across his chest had an on night as well and we lost 6-2!  At least my beer was well deserved this time around.

Leave you with the 90 seconds before the final whistle in Auckland CBD when I couldn't hear my own thoughts. 

      

         

Down in the trenches

The saying goes that when it rains, it pours and all I could manage was a chuckle when coming out of the hockey rink after my team's first win in a torrential downpour.  I found not the Subaru I was expecting and had driven to the rink in but rather an empty and wet parking spot .  At first I thought I was a bit buzzed from the game and the frosty beer enjoyed in celebration was clouding my memory but soon found my initial reaction was correct; the car had been taken as evident by the broken plastic once covering the tops of the windows.  I chuckled because if I didn't laugh and take this mishap in stride I would have probably cried instead.  It's not easy starting over in a new country for so many reasons and this did not help for not only did I lose my mode of transportation but also that my only means of accessing the internet with any sort of convenience was also gone.  My iPad which serves not only as entertainment but navigation as well was locked in the glove box.  I don't flash the iPad around so I'm almost certain the car wasn't targeted because of the loot stored in it.  It's not as if brick upon brick of gold bullion were stacked in the boot (yes, I'm using the native lingo now) and a thief could ascertain from the sagging suspension perhaps something worth stealing was in the car.  No, nothing was visible for this exact reason and even though the car was parked in a well lit spot outside the rinks main windows some brazen* idiots decided it best to take a 13 year old Subaru for either parts or a joy-ride.  The second of my many chuckles came when I realized I had paid the rise in my insurance premium because of the high volume of stolen cars in Auckland five days previous;  a silver lining indeed.

Either way I was not amused and spent the next half hour on the phone giving details to the police.  Luckily one of the players whom I've gotten to know is also a cop and is currently looking at video footage from the ice rink to determine if the scallywags were smart enough to conceal their identity. 

I did find out today that the car has been recovered but I won't know until probably next week whether or not it will be considered a total loss or up for repair.  Apparently when these cars are recovered around Auckland they have been driven into the ground mechanically on joy-rides so I'll update whether or not I'm just losing an iPad on this shady deal.

for obvious reasons I will not have any photos attached to this installment.

Will check back in with better news soon as I'm guiding a wine tour with some South African executives tomorrow for a small but very successful company individually run for a Kiwi that needs some help. Hopefully it turns into something for me otherwise I might have just experienced in the last few days one of the last straws this camel can take piling up on my back.

 

Taking a deep breath

The job hunt has been quite stressful if not debilitating up until yesterday evening. I had been so caught up in trying to find a job and avoid coming back early that I lost touch with the amazing place I'm currently in! A simple hour walk with one of the Flatmates cleared my head and shed light on my situation. I have quite a few people looking for me at the moment and am optimistic that something will come around even though it was a week chock full of less than great phone calls from potential employers.

To breath, standing at the top of a cliff band overlooking the bay and surrounding islands I realized that even if things don't work according to plan, I, at the very least came down here and gave it my best shot. I should be proud of that and I am. Now although you may say this is what a failure might say to help them sleep at night, well, so be it. You have to lose a few times to win and "get it" in the end. I'm content with where I'm at currently and don't neccessarily have to dwell on where I'm going or I very well might miss the good parts!

In local news The All Blacks blue-collar, blue-nosed and Messiah of Rugby Dan Carter is out for the remainder of the World Cup, supposedly, with a groin injury. I think it's a ploy and perhaps a little genius so if the team do make it out of the quarters and into the semis the team and in turn the country will have their man to save the day. However the sky is falling all over NZ with this news. The fans have given up even before the game has been played as the papers and in turn locals declare, "four more years". Perhaps an excuse for New Zealanders to embrace if the Argentinian Pumas knock The All Blacks out of the quarterfinals come Sunday. Time and a whole lot of bloodied bodies and lubricated fans will tell. Trickery at play?

In oral news, the laceration I received last week courtesy of a hockey stick is healing up nicely although the inside of my mouth is still suspect. Seeing the roots of my teeth is upsetting to say the least but it doesn't hurt too bad and supposedly from my four foot nothing of a dentist should be alright on its own with the use of a little antiseptic mouth wash. Played two games since and the level is a bit quicker down here. Definitely will make me a better player and luckily I have a few guys who are just starting out as well on my team, The CRUNCH. We got blasted our first game 6-3 but it was fun nonetheless to be in a soon to be tropical city playing ice hockey! My feet and quads are getting back into shape but it still takes me over 45min to warm up and feel that my skating is at it's peak regarding my skill level. Not sure if humidity, barometric pressure or any other variables might be lagging my progression but it didn't take me that long to warm up back home. Could be the ice itself being softer here in AKL.

Think I'll be checking in sooner rather than later having my spirits lifted the last couple days and not worrying about things that are out of my control.

I'll leave you with what I thought was a funny quote from Benji, one of the French-Canadian skaters tonight discussing why he can't make the game this coming Monday. The accent was gold hence my attempt at some partially broken English. Imagine the accents in FARGO mixed with a Frenchman and you have Benji!

"The wife ya know, she gets what she wants, and hell, I say she can have it after pumping out
four kids. She asks me why I play hockey and haven't lost the 25kg. Well, I do it to take the beer out just so I can put them back in!". Stated as he is throwing everyone in the locker room a beer.

G'night!