The world cup finale in Auckland was quite a sight to be seen. The All Blacks were heavily favorited at the beginning of the tournament but from what I could tell, they were the choke artists of the event. I don't follow rugby at all but apparently in the past they were in the same position several times before and could not win when it mattered most.
It was eerie. People wouldn't even talk about them. The World Cup is being played in their backyard basically and every Kiwi is terrified to mention it with fear that they will bestow some cursed jinx on their beloved All Blacks. They were crushing teams by more than 40 points or more and everyone just kept acting like it wasn't a big deal and would talk about the next match like it was a long shot for them to win. It was endearing at first...it became ridiculous. They were clearly the best team, by far.
I had no intentions of going into the city for this game. Matt had bought himself a ticket for an exorbitant amount of money that I would never pay unless the Panthers were in the Super Bowl. He was quite persistent, he promised me riots if they lost...riots if they won.
I feel like I have a better grasp of the Kiwi-nation than Matt did and he was there 3 times longer than I had been. Kiwi's aren't going to riot...they barely leave the house when it's raining...let's be serious here. I'm always down for a good riot though even it is fictional, so I chose to go with him.
Here's a funny link to a short reaction from the crowd the moment they won.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pGWZKaynls4
Riot my ass.
 |
| My best Axel Rose impression |
Matt had a special ticket that allowed him access to a lunch of some sort at the stadium. We tried to sneak me in but to no avail. The consolation prize, I told him I'd hang out in the park and drink (not too shabby)...while he went inside and collected us delicious sandwiches (which I assumed would be inside).
Pretty sweet deal and yes, there were sandwiches inside! I continuously hunted around the stadium for a means of entry, I went everywhere but could not find another way inside. I expected Matt to be gone a lot longer but he came back out about 10 minutes after I sat down in the park and said the inside was "like a funeral". Lots of old people, sombre music, not the party he was originally expecting. I was thinking the whole time "what did you expect?", who do you think pays money for private lunches on game days? It damn sure isn't 20 year old co-eds.
We sat down in the park and began eating our newly acquired sandwiches. Some people that lived nearby were having a party/day of drinking too. They came down to chat with us for a bit and invited us back to their place for more drinking. This is why I love to travel, these random occurrences with random people.
I knew when I got on that bus to Auckland that I wasn't going to the game. I knew I'd have to find a pub or some new people to hang out with when Matt went inside. It's that type of attitude you need to have when you randomly venture into an unknown city with a friend who will be leaving you in a matter of hours. I knew it had to be done, so by God...I got it done!
We hung out with our new crew for awhile that afternoon. No real concept of time can be kept with such debauchery. There was probably 10-12 of us. They were all friends with each other and dressed in some ridiculous cow costumes (sound familiar?). Matt and I basically tagged along with them until it was time for him to go to the game.
One of the guys invited me to the pub where his girlfriend worked at, but they left way too soon. I wasn't ready to leave at that point so I decided to stay and wait for the next opportunity to present itself. Later on when Matt was leaving, the night did present a nice turn.
The guys and girls decided that we would all head down to the docks where they had the fan zone. We probably left the apartment with 15 people, when we arrived at the pavilion we were down to about 6. For various reasons, bathroom breaks, people stopping for phone calls, all of these causalities were swallowed up by the hoard of people making their way to the jumbotron at this fan zone.
It was mobbed with people all the way down and apparently we needed tickets to get in. Which of course, were all sold out by this point. It's funny travelling around with a group of like-minded people you don't know because they can still surprise you. One of the guys said, "Well, looks like we're going to have to hop that fence?"...some of the girls were not a fan of this idea. Silly girls, wearing skirts...you should have known what you were up against here, not to mention the crew you were running around with. I think girls should make some sort of a list based on there whereabouts, actions, and company for that day and then plan accordingly...don't just try to look cute all the time for the sake of looking cute.
Me? Oh yeah, let's hop that fence!
After a strategic game of "wait until the guard turns his head", we all make it inside. Well, everyone except for Kareena (didn't want to hop the fence, skirt) and some other guy (who was happy Kareena didn't hop that fence, other intentions than watching a rugby match...i.e. Kareena). They trotted off somewhere that I was not in the capacity to care for at that time. To be fair, can't really blame the guy for trying, she was/is quite hot.
(Consider the next couple of paragraphs a sidebar story, but I don't know how to properly create said side bar story, so you'll have to pretend)
(Funny story about that is I did actually hear what happened to them from Kareena herself because out of all the places in the world, she showed up at one of the Halloween parties I went to! Craziness. I was sure we were destined to be together forever at that point (joke), but Matt was convinced that she was a vampire, like, an actual vampire. Due to her semi-pale appearance, ability to appear out of nowhere, dark red/black hair, lusty stare and just her genuine "I will eat your soul and enjoy it" smiling demeanour.
That led to this exchange at the party:
Matt: "Dude, don't go over there she's a vampire".
Me: "No she's not, she's dressed like a cute little bee".
Matt: "I don't care bro, she's a vampire, she followed us here, she has your scent and she's going to bite your neck and turn you into a creature of the night".
Me: "I'd let her bite me, she can totally turn me into a creature tonight! No worries man, she bites me, then I turn you into a vampire....we're all happy".
Matt: "Adam, I like the sun, I don't want to be a vampire. Stay away from her".
Me: (ignoring his plea....walking over to Kareena)
Completely unnatural event. Out of all the places, there she was at my party. Love it. Come to think about it though, she did hang out in the darkest corners of the room a lot...and I am up writing this really late, hmmmm.....my neck hurts....)
I stayed there and watched the entire match. It was a lot of fun, they had beer vendors and food so I was happy. It doesn't take a whole lot. The All Blacks finally pulled it off in the end. The crowd went nuts, sort of. Where I was, they were pretty rowdy, but where I was located was the younger "we just hopped the fence and double fisted beers for 2 hours" crowd...obviously from the video above the entire crowd didn't go wild like that but it was still a sight to be seen with that amount of people.
We decided it was about time to make our way back to the city, we had lost everyone else and my phone was about to die. I say we, and yet have no recollection of the names of the guys I was with. I sent out one text to Matt to tell him a general area of where I would be so we could grab a bus back home. I half expected to never see him again.
There was what seemed like an endless stream of light in the sky from all the fireworks being set off. Some of the guys we were with were quite drunk and decided it would be a good idea to ignore the baracade set in front of us and make a run for it back to the city. Made sense to them because it was closer than walking all the way around. I chose not to go with them because I don't particularly want to find out what jail is like in a country I'm not a resident of. No, I don't care which country either. The other guy had a previous criminal history that he did not want to bring back up. I have no idea if those guys made it or not.
We walked back to the main city, the long way around the harbour. People were everywhere, dancing, hugging, singing, it was pandemonium. Not quite the riot I had hoped for, but it was a good time none the less. The guy I was with kept telling me he knew the bouncers at this one bar and that he could get us in. De-nied.
Then he knew of another place that we could....De-nied. I was beginning to think this guy was full of it, he may have been. We ran into his friends out in front of a corridor of bars. They were telling us that pretty much every place was at capacity. We were better off staying outside and drinking there.
We managed to do that for quite awhile without interruption from police and I ended up running back into Matt in the middle of the street where hundreds of thousands of people were swarming. I literally walked down one of the main streets and we bumped right into each other. It was wild.
It's funny how things work out sometimes. While they are working out in this life however, I hope to continue to take full advantage but some things like that you just can't plan. So I'll just continue to write about them fondly instead.
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