Our trip to Napier took us through the thermal heartland of
New Zealand; Taupo. We basically were
bolting here from The Coromandel as Tegan had to have another swim in the
thermal pools at the campground. She
also met and played with a boy and girl originally from Spain, now living here
and she now has them as penpals too.
Taupo is very touristy with shops selling cheap tshirts with
knock-off world cup merchandise among other things. It was rainy and hungry and sushi always
makes the Teegy happy. We have to get a
photo of the sushi because it is huge. I
am talking hockey puck size. I bought
some cookies from the bakery in front of our parked van and we made off for the
last haul to Napier.
We arrived in Napier around 2pm and got settled a little
prior to getting ready for the game. The
weather was fine and we were looking forward to a grand game against “Le Bleu”.
We opted for the shuttle to the game so we didn’t have to
worry about anything more than locating the bus at the end of the game. The crowd was building as we closed in on the
grounds walking. There were more French
supporters than Canadians. Costumes were
plentiful with roosters on the heads of the French and Canadians dressed up as
Mounties and Moose.
We got to our seats,
settled a little then went searching for some food. Tegan opted for corndog and I had a meat pie
with a couple of beers to wash it down.
As we entered the stands, the skies opened up and the rain was coming
down in buckets. The poor Maori performers
must have been freezing to death during their performances. It was about 10*C and pouring rain and those
performers were wearing only their loin cloths.
The game began and we nearly winning at the half and
definitely had a chance well into the 60th minute. Then things fell apart with many
substitutions and the gaps were exploited by the French. It was devastating; I truly thought we could
win this one. Oh well, another day.
Off to get warm under the covers in our campervan.
