Wellington and "The Game"

After our trip down the geothermal highway we ended up in Wellington.  This was where Canada was going to unleash a can of "whoop-ass" against the New Zealand all blacks rugby team.  There was no doubt in my mind except that New Zealand was ranked number one and Canada number 15.....out of 20.  After getting settled into Wellington, wandering the waterfront, taking a tour of a NZ Navy frigate that was in port (ran into a Canadian Navy man who was here on a swap with the NZ navy) we walked to the game.

 Imagine my surprise as we are walking into the stadium which holds around 35,000 people to run into Norm Hopkins, a geologist from Calgary.  How small is the world? 

Anyway we took our fabulous seats which were about 10 feet away from the Canadian coaching booth (see Keiran Crowley, the coach,).  Then NZ came out and did the Haka; a traditional Maori challenge that involves a lot of yelling, hand gesturing and tongue sticking out (kind of like rush hour in Calgary). 

We got on the board almost right away with a penalty kick and we were in the lead (see the scoreboard, Canada is leading).  Sadly this did not last the entire game though Canada managed two tries which was amazing to get against the All Blacks.  The final score was 79-15.  Oh well, there is always another world cup four years from now (funny this kind of sounds like a Saskatchewan riders fan now doesn't it?). 

We stayed another 4 days in Wellington with the Daellenbachs(ok so Urs gave me this picture, I did not take it).  Have decided that you need to be part mountain goat to live in this city.  The only flat place is the harbor, the rest is hills.  We drive up to their house and I swear we are in the clouds 99% of the time!   We managed another wine tour, a lord of the rings tour and somehow I managed to get a discount at a store when I did this to a sheep (kiwis are certainly entertaining).  Off to the south island.