By Waldo
July 14 2005

The latest installment from Waldo on the Lions Tour - this is the one about the week before the final test, what do you do when you're 12000 miles from home and are 2-0 down with 1 to play?! Party, drink and be happy by the sounds of it.... Well that was it. The All Blacks had won the series after the 2nd test. It kind of took the shine off the final game but prior to that we had the last "regional" game against Auckland to look forward to on the coming Tuesday and some serious holidaying to get on with!

It was the Sunday after the 2nd test and we were back in Auckland! We had arranged to meet up with some friends who lived locally and they took us out for the day. First thing on the agenda was brunch! We travelled out of the city to the Waikatere Mountains. As you get out of the city, the scenery changes no end with the roads carved straight through the rainforest and the houses nestled neatly within it. One feature of NZ is that there aren't many "housing estates", people buy the land and build their own house on it so the building styles are individual and much more pleasing on the eye than regimented rows of the same buildings we often get over in the UK. The place we stopped for brunch was high on the hill side with a terrace that was built out into the tree canopy and had a fantastic view out over the tree tops and out to the city in the far distance. That's the advantage of going out with locals, they take you to places off the beaten tourist track!

Brunch over and we went for a drive to the north west coast and a surfers beach. The weather at this point wasn't too good, it was pretty chilly and a bit over cast. However that didn't stop the surfers! One bizarre thing was that we saw one surfer complete with wetsuit and surfboard head off up the grassy hillside rather than down to the beach and the surf! Quite why we will never know! This particular part of the coastline was home to a very large Gannet colony and every spare ledge on the cliffside was covered by them! They are noisy b*ggers! Enough twitching for one day and we were off to the inevitable vinyard for a spot of wine tasting and shopping! Following the mountain range round we eventually found ourselves in Devonport, across the bay from Auckland itself. We went up to the top of the hill and had a panoramic view of the city and the bay that it sits in. The top of the hill was at one time a fortress that protected the harbour and the gun was still there. As was the Underground Magazine which had many ventilation shafts protruding from it. Someone following its decomissioning had decided to paint the tops of them like toadstools which made the grassy knoll look very much like something out of Teletubby land! Our hosts then kindly dropped us off in the centre of Devonport itself and we wandered about prior to catching the ferry back to Auckland.

One place we pottered off to was the Patriot pub! Whilst in there we noticed some posters on the wall promoting several Lions tour-related events at Devonport rugby club. The next event was the following Friday and was to be hosted by Buck Shelford! Oh how we wished we could go. I'm sure he would be pleased to see a group of Saracens supporters at his event. But alas we couldnt't as we had other plans.

Back in the city and we decided to go for a drink, as you do! The venue for this was to be a bar called "Minus 5". Now this was quite an unusual bar. The name might provide a clue! In order to enter we were provided with Parkas and Gloves! We then entered what can only be described as a giant deep freeze. Inside everything was made of ice, the bar, the seats, the ornaments, the tables! There was a liberal sprinking of large ice sulptures as well. Our drinks arrived in glasses made of ice and we were advised not to place them directly on the ice surfaces in case they fused and we couldn't move them! The next round we chose some Champagne cocktails and noticed that the barman got the Champagne out of a fridge. I mentioned to him that it seemed odd to have a fridge in a place made out of ice. He pointed out that it was the warmest place in the room and they needed it to stop some of the drinks freezing solid. Fair point! After that, and in order to warm up we went to a stone grill restaurant where we cooked our own steaks on hot stones at our table. No complaining that the stakes aren't cooked right then.

The next day saw us heading down to Waitomo Caves for a spot of "Black Water Rafting". Essentially this is where you take a large inner tube into a cave, scrabble around in the dark for a bit until you find the underground river and then float along it in the afore mentioned inner tube. It also meant spending the afternoon dressed in a black rubber wetsuit and white abbatoir boots - if you are of a nervous disposition please do not try to picture this! On the way back we stopped off in Hamilton for a bite to eat and it was evident that the "Campervan Convoy" was already heading up to Auckland!

Tuesday had come upon us and after heading to Maranda hot springs to ease our tired bodies in the thermal waters we headed off to Eden Park for the Auckland game. Now there was a bit of confusion amoungst the locals. Some thought that Auckland and the Auckland Blues were one and the same team and others didn't. The confusion could arise from the fact that they both play games at Eden Park! However,we knew that one team played in the NPC and the other was a Super 12 outfit, so they obviously weren't the same. Eden Park is pretty impressive but i would say not as good as the "Cake Tin", this was to be our first of 2 visits this week. We were in the main stand and had seats not too disimilar to where we sit in the Lower Rous, slightly to the right of the half way line. British Airways had been quite enterprising. At the last 2 games we had attended Telcom New Zealand had been giving out black rain ponchos which a lot of the Lions supporters had been reluctant to wear. At this game, BA were handing out red ones - well done the marketing department! We shared a few beers with some of the local Auckland supporters who were very pleased to see us there and were looking forward to a close match. Obviously we had other ideas as we had the view it would be a similar result to the previous midweek game against Manatau. As it turned out the locals were right! That aside we saw some good rugby that night and our 1st Lions win! It was quite odd that night. As mentioned previously Auckland was our base for the tour and we had travelled out to the tests, so we were practically locals. The previous weeks had seen us have no problem going out to eat and drink. Tonight was different. Now that the travelling Lions had begun to decend on Auckland all of our "haunts" were now rammed and we couldn't actually get in to some of them! Viaduct Harbour had well and truly been taken over by the red masses.

We had decided to have a break from NZ and headed over to Oz for a few days prior to the final test. Our 1st day in Sydney was bright and warm. Ideal weather for climbing the Harbour Bridge. This is an interesting experience,after a breath test - yes I passed it - going through a metal detector, putting on a fetching beige jump suit and various pieces of safety equipment, doing a test climb, you are then ready to tackle the summit of the bridge. You attach your harness to the saftey line - this spans the whole bridge and you never disconnect from it until you leave the bridge - and off you go. The climb to the top takes about an hour and is surprisingly easy. Once there the view is fantastic,with the obligitory picture from the top with the Opera House in the background we started our descent. The sun was just going down at this point and cast an orange glow over the ironwork throwing some interesting shadows.That night we met up with some friends and went down to Darling Harbour to watch the "State of Origin" Rugby League game. This is an annual competiton between New South Wales and Queensland and was the last in a series of 3 games with the previous 2 resulting in a win a piece so this was a big game....the decider. It's called the "State of Origin" as the professionals turn out for the state where they started to play rugby - not professionally - but where they first played for a team, whether it be Colts or Juniors, or even at school. Obviously as we were in New South Wales there was a buzz of excitement that they would take it, which they did, convincingly. At one point it looked like it might have been a whitewash for NSW but Queensland bravely pulled back some points. It was a good day.

Sydney has a very comprehensive system of ferrys as public transport to various points around the Harbour so you don't actually need to go on any of the "tourist cruises" to see the city. Armed with our $15 "day tripper" ticket we spent the day traversing the bay to various points, Manly, Rose Bay, Balmain, Birkenhead, Bondi. Bondi Beach is not as big as I expected it to be but the sand is fantastic. I don't think I have come across sand as soft anywhere else. Our last day in Oz saw us trekking through the bush in the Blue Mountains about 2 hrs out from Sydney. They are said to be "Australia's Grand Canyon". Not exactly as grand as the Grand Canyon to be honest but still impressive. There are sheer rock faces dropping into large gorges. The differance here is that the gorges are absolutely full with trees, mostly Eucalyptus which cause a kind of blue haze in the air. Hence the Blue Mountains.

The only shadow over the trip was the news of the London bombings which reached us on our 2nd day in Oz. The news had just broken when we were in the Hard Rock Cafe. Normally lively and buzzing, once the news broke the "pop videos" stopped and all TV's were switched to the news channel. In some was it was quite surreal. Apparently there are at least 300,000 Australians in the UK at any one time so there was a lot of concern. Many of the HRC staff had friends and relatives over in London and we were all having trouble getting through to check on people. Thankfully I recieved a few texts later on that night confirming all was well.

Final episode to follow....