In the Southern Hemisphere, when your clocks change in September, they move ahead as it is Spring not Fall. So if you want to get the jump on the day
like I did, don’t keep telling yourself Spring ahead, Fall back and think
September is Fall! At least when I did
wake, I was still up before 8am and we managed to get to the Taradale clubhouse
around 8:30am. Lucky for us we didn’t
miss anything, likely the clocks changing had a similar impact on others.
We were the only Canadians to be there for the vegetable
prep work. Tegan and I jumped into to
help with the peeling of Kumara, a local sweet potato and chopping up of
pumpkin for the hangi meal. There were
huge bags of meat that would be added to later; lamb, wild pork, pork and
chicken.
We only stuck around for about 1 hour, after all the
vegetables were done. Tegan still wanted
to make the poi balls and we hadn’t had any breakfast yet, so off to
Napier. Breakfast was at McDonalds this
morning, some hot cakes for T and egg and bacon mcmuffin for me. We strolled down to wear the farmers market
was and nothing was happening. Tegan and
I were both disappointed. So we went
back to our holiday park, we showered and then I prepared a yummy lunch for
us. After lunch it was time to get back
down to the clubhouse for the start of the game.
I had never played an old boys game before and the rules are
changed up a bit to protect the older players.
We were to play 3 – 20 minute games against with one of the games
against Taradale and the other against the Japan team. The rugby was intense enough and at first I
and others were unsure as to how hard to tackle most of the players. We quickly learned that the local team was
going to through their weight at us, so we needed to make tackles. We won the first game and the second game
and the third game against the Japanese ended in a draw, but we were told to
let them have a few points before putting some effort into the game. It was fantastic fun and all of us Canadians
had a great time with the games.
After the games and shower, we enjoyed some beer and talk
with friends. One of our players, Zach, lost his wallet and it wasn’t recovered, so I nominated him for MVP. After the MVP awards were handed out to each
team the Japanese assembled in front and performed their national anthem.
The Canadians just didn’t have a reply to
that until Tegan, Danielle and Sophie got up in front to sing our national
anthem and they did a fantastic job in front of 200+ people. A local club performed a haka for us and then
it was time for the hangi to be lifted.
Tegan didn’t like her hangi meal, but I thought it was quite alright; just needed a little salt and pepper. Being a Sunday night most were working the next day, so most of us Canadians went into Napier and had a drink at the Rose and watch the Argentina –Scotland match. Tegan enjoyed a plate of Lasagne while I had a coke. Tegan lasted to the ended of the first half, barely, so we headed back to get our sleep. Looks like I missed a great game with a 13-12 score, I knew Argentina would win it.
