Taupo - World Rugby Cup Final

Our next day was a bit of a wash out. We had initially planned to hike the Tongariro Crossing together, but because of poor weather, the trip was cancelled. We spent a good chunk of time in the morning trying to figure out what to do now. New Zealand, and especially Taupo, was such an outdoor country that you were so limited in indoor activities. Cinema, museum, Honey Bee farm, bowling, reading....

It turns out Claire has some friends in Wellington who were going to come up and hang with us for the weekend. They arrived about 11 ish, and were against the museum idea, and there was nothing good playing in the cinema. We decided on going to a hot pool. The hot pool was pretty nice. We enjoyed ourselves in different pools of varying temperature. There was also a water slide, and although I knew that we weren't supposed to go on it without having paid extra, I pretended to be ignorant and kept my mouth shut when Claire suggested we go up it. Despite being in a proper hot pool 'facility', we had to be careful in some of the pools to not get our head wet because of amoebic meningitis.

The rest of the day was just time killing - driving out of town for a giant cookie, watching people bungy jump and mountain board, etc. It wasn't until end of the day when things got exciting again.

Today was the finals for the World Rugby Cup played in Sydney. Let me just skip all of the boring bits and tell you how sexy Jonny Wilkinson is. Actually, just have a look at these photos. (No, I didn't join the fan club.) It was England v. Australia.

I had never watched a game of rugby before I started travelling. The World Rugby Cup 2003 started in October, and I started catching games here and there while in South Africa. One of the first memorable games was the England vs. South Africa game that we watched in Rafters bar in Swakopmund, Namibia. England won 25-6. I had first noticed flyhalf Wilkinson in this game, but it wasn't until I watched some of the quarterfinal and semifinal games in New Zealand. that I noticed the French flyhalf, Frederik Michalak. The two flyhalfs made the games veeeery exciting. However, Michalak was no match for superstar Jonny in the England v. France semifinals.

We watched the game in Finn MacCuhal's (?? some Irish bar) amongst tons of other Rugby fans. Watching a popular game such as the finals of any 'Cup' is not something to be done when you're short like me. As I bobbed my head up and down, and side to side, I overlooked the effort I had to make to watch this game, for the many close up shots of Jonny made it all worthwhile. Just like most other games, it was Jonny who did most of the scoring. At full-time, the score was 14-14, and it went into overtime with 10 minutes extra time going each way. With 30 seconds left in the game, the score was 17-17 with a threat of going into another overtime (I was getting tired of standing by then), when my Jonny scores a drop goal to put the score 20-17!! Game ended, and cup goes to England for the first time in history (not that it was a long one in rugby).

With Claire and Chrissy at the bar watching the finals.