I was up at 6am yesterday to get a lift into Auckland city. It wasn't actually too bad getting up, I'm becoming a bit of an early riser, who would have thought? I got a lift in with a friend of the family I'm staying with right now, Clayton. A nice guy and we chatted quite happily along the way. It was good to only be travelling for three hours instead of the five that it takes on the bus.
I asked to be dropped at DressSmart, which is an outlet mall in Auckland for brands which are usually far too expensive for my meagre budget. It was awesome. I spent around $100 (£50) but got;
Roxy boardies
Roxy bikini
Sprint shoes
Amazon skirt
Truth Love Baby coat
Amazon tee
I was so gutted though, there was an Abercrombie outlet but the sizes were all too big. There was a top for $5!! But it was too big. Disappointment. Anyhow, I had some lunch there and at around 1pm headed to Onehunga train station to get from the suburbs into the CBD. Found my way to my hostel and checked in then left again straight away to find a bar. Found the QF Tavern on Queen Street which was full of English so got a drink there. Luckily they took my driving license as ID, most places here won't take anything but a passport if you're foreign but I wasn't going to risk bringing my passport, no way.
Couple of drinks, some drunken facebook-ing and some taunting of the French later, I went to get a pie and headed to another bar. By this time it was getting towards 5pm and the free buses to Eden Park were setting off. I got on one and it was full of French, so I ducked my head and sat down. Then some English got on and headed to the back of the bus, I joined them... bloody French. They started up a chorus of the French national anthem to which we replied with the first of many renditions of Swing Low, Sweet Chariot, complete with Mum's explicit version of the actions. I met Rosie, the night's mascot, a little toy bulldog in a St George's flag coat. And of course Rosie's owners, Ed and Edd who invited me to tag along with them for the night. When we got to Eden Park we headed to the pub to watch the Wales - Ireland game but the place was packed and the beer was $9 a bottle! We moved from there are went over to another pub down the road, which was full too but the guy on the door was controlling the crowd so everyone could see. The guys bought me a couple of Peroni's, so I was suitably drunk along with Rosie. Wales won to much jubilation and then we headed over to the stadium! We split up at this point because we were sitting in different areas and I climbed the million stars to category D and found my seat, or so I thought. Turns out I was in the wrong seat but the guy I sat next to, Tim, gave me the number of his sister who was driving back to Taupo the next day and who wanted company for the drive. Never got a text back from her but then I can't guarantee that I was in any state to put the number in correctly.
Found my actual seat next to a 10 year old boy and two women. Sang the national anthem terribly but patriotically and boo-ed the French as they came on. Then I got a text from the guys saying there was a spare seat next to them, so I ran all the way back down the stairs then up into the other block up more stairs to find someone had taken that seat! Charming! But the guys budged up and I squeezed in. We were all pretty snug, which was fine until one of us jumped up because something was happening and the other two had to jump up with them since there was no choice but to do so. The game went pretty badly, with the French singing their bloody song with every try. Sure we got a couple in the second half but it was too late. There's no denying that the atmosphere was awesome though.
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| Rosie and Ed |
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| Watching Wales - Ireland |
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| Rosie |
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| Me and Rosie, just chilli'n with a Peroni |
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| Eden Park |
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| Singing the National Anthem |
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| Kick-off! |
Went to the pub afterwards to drown my sorrows, met a few more people then Ed, Edd and I got a taxi into CBD with some random, very drunk Kiwi guy. They all tried to convince me to carry on drinking, but I knew I was done and asked the taxi guy to take me to the hostel. Stumbled into my bed and slept like a log, bonus. This morning I spent a good 5 hours on the bus to get back to Taupo, but God I'm glad to be back. Gen told me this place is a trap, that people stop in for a drink and never leave, and I can see why. I really, really can. We're sitting watching the All Blacks beat Argentina now on the TV, after spending the afternoon with Gen watching a hilarious comedian called Danny Bhoy. I introduced her to Russell Howard too and we got a Chinese and pretty much just vegged out, it's been good! Going to wait for Mum to appear and chat to her for a bit before settling in for the night.
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