Rugby.
Last night, Tim and I finally got to see the major focus of the NZ national Religion: we went to a pub to watch the All Blacks play. The All Blacks are the NZ national rugby team. The entire nation worships them. There are “All Blacks” shops in every town in the country. I’ve seen ads for an All Blacks themed Monopoly game that sells for $80 NZD (that’s about $50 USD). I’m sure it gets snapped right up. The international rugby union games are a national event. On Saturday they played France. I had to go see this.
You could tell it was game day, because suddenly the people of Auckland were wearing a lot more black. A LOT of black. Black obviously being the team color. Tim and I link up with a large crew of French people staying in the same hostel, and roll on don to the local pub. The place is PACKED wall to wall. And everyone is wearing black. The game starts, and you can see the crowd in the stadium… all in black. It’s as if the king has died and the whole country’s in mourning, there’s so much black.
But this is a festive event. The pub cheers, the beer flows. The Frenchmen with us sing proudly to La Marseillaise. I begin to feel a little nervous standing next to them…
And then the haka starts. The All Blacks doing the haka is clearly the most badass event in international sport. It’s the traditional Maori greeting dance that is intended to scare the piss out of any opponent. There’s loads of shouting, stomping, glaring, and slapping. And then the game starts.
I’ve always thought rugby was one of the best spectator sports. It’s 80 minutes of play where thy only stop for halftime and to remove bodies from the field. There is blood. There are rough tackles, surprise turnovers, and near-misses galore. And, unlike football, the last 10 minute don’t take 3 hours to play: the clock doesn’t stop for out-of-bounds. It really should be televised in the States at a reasonable hour (most games are European, so in the afternoon).
In a rough showing, the French won. The nation was saddened, but not bitter. There were probably a few overturned cars down in Dunedin, but they’re apparently nuts down there and do that every Saturday. The Frenchmen in our presence were safe in Auckland. People are very friendly in NZ, after all.
I think the most amusing place that you can see this is at rock shows. I’ve seen a few, including one on Friday. Every band’s stage presence is a bit amusing. They’re all very very polite, and a bit shy. It’s almost cute, really. It’s certainly pleasant.
Anyhow, the time has come to leave. I fly tomorrow for Melbourne, a town which, by all accounts, I will apparently really love. We’ll then be driving up to Sydney, and hopefully not getting bitten by anything that will kill us. In Australia, approximately all the animals have the ability to kill you, so this is no small feat. Wish us luck!
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