By Nemoquin
July 12 2005

From Wellington we went to the Tongariro National Park for a couple of days, instead of straight to Auckland. I wasn’t sure whether I should be frightened or amused when reading the safety instructions in the hotel.
In addition to the standard briefing on what to do in case of fire, there were also instructions on what to do in case the volcano siren sounds – go to the top of the hotel in case people are interested.

The pre-match entertainment before tests is getting odder and odder. At Wellington there was a display of ballroom dancing, a first for me at a rugby ground. This may have been inspired by the New Zealand version of the updated celebrity Come Dancing, which in New Zealand was won by the ex-All Black Norm Hewett. At Auckland, there were what appeared to be witches riding around on Segways, and periodically setting off trails of fireworks. It did not make it easy for those players out on the pitch practising kicks.

Perhaps even worse was the post-match “entertainment”. The players were forced to hang around, while a structure was constructed for the trophy presentation. Then we had speeches by the captains. I don’t know, whether it looked any good on TV, or whether SKY even showed it. But the fans in the ground, both Lions and All Blacks, merely wanted an opportunity to applaud the players for a final time.

Auckland is perhaps the only place in New Zealand that is an impersonal city with canyons of concrete and traffic jams, although nothing on the scale of the M25. To make things worse, most of the time there it rained.

As most cities these days, it has a tower. For thrill seekers it is possible to jump off the top. It is not technically a bungee drop. Rather the individual is tied into a harness and allowed to make a controlled fall. We had our end of tour dinner up at the top, and it is rather disconcerting sitting there watching someone outside plummeting down.

At the end of the dinner, as we pondering where to go for a drink, information about the London explosions started to filter through. I am not to sure that I can add much to what has been said already on this, except to say that people in New Zealand were horrified about this as well. The general attitude was that we should carry on as normal and not give the terrorists a victory, but normal for Lions supporters is to go out and celebrate, win or lose, and somehow this didn’t feel quite right.

We had the All Blacks staying in our hotel. With the series won, they were relatively friendly and approachable, even Umaga the spearman, if you caught them at the right time. 

I’m finishing this off back in the UK and trying to add some overall conclusions, although perhaps in a slightly jaundiced frame of mind after undergoing the typical stresses and strains of modern flight. There was a shambles at Auckland Airport, which we couldn’t escape, even though we had Prince William on our flight.

• New Zealand is a fantastic place to visit with beautiful countryside, friendly and courteous people and a real buzz in the air when some rugby is on.
   
• New Zealand has not got the infrastructure at the moment to run the 2011 Rugby World Cup. It could just about cope with the Lions. However, assuming roughly the same number of British fans travel down there, there would be no space for the Australians and the rest of the world.
   
• The New Zealand press generally covers games wearing black tinted spectacles. It is fair enough to kick SCW when he is down, but they go completely over the top, not seeming to realise that the more that they slag off the Lions, the less credit there is for the All Blacks in beating them. Still almost all of them did end up writing how great the Lions fans were.
   
• There is going to have to be a rethink on how Lions tours operate, if they are going to survive. With the benefit of 100% hindsight, SCW was the wrong man for the job. His managerial long term planning approach was never going to work in putting together a team that had to be based on short term form, not long term reputations.
   
• I’m putting my name down now to go to South Africa with the Lions in four years time.