JUSTIN WALLEY
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages
Search

Rugby World Cup 2011 New Zealand

And adventures in the South Pacific

Even your worst day travelling is better than your best day at work

29/9/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
(Day 28) Thursday, September 29

Wellington – Auckland

I cannot believe my alarm is going off. I only feel like I have been in bed ten minutes. And how come none of my 19 roommates managed to wake me during the night with their banging, crashing and howling?

My Auckland bus leaves from outside the Wellington McDonalds, adjacent to my hostel. It is only 7.30, but suits are frantically pacing by me in their dozens, all around me, on their way to their office cages. I sit on my rucksack, balanced up against a wall, with a coffee in hand, taking it all in. It’s a gorgeous morning, but the sight of them all striding past me with their brief cases, Blackberry cell phones and takeaway breakfasts scares the hell out of me. It’s like that graffiti on the bunk bed in Kaikoura:

Even your worst day travelling is better than your best day at work

Well, that doesn’t always stand true, of course, but perched on my backpack with the morning sun occasionally blinding my eyes, watching them all scurry past, I have to say the coffee tastes especially good this morning.

This is my longest coach journey in New Zealand; almost twelve hours in total from the capital to the country’s most important city. Initially, there is plenty of attractive coast line, but after this it all looks a bit like Teletubby Land. After the South Island this is all rather boring and uninspiring, but it is still more beautiful than the most stunning parts of many countries around the world.

Once we hit the central plateau of the North Island, however, the countryside turns from pleasant but uninspiring to otherworldly. A snow-capped volcanic cone soars out of the flat countryside, not unlike Japan’s Mount Fuji, while the omnipresent forests and hills have been replaced by a rather surreal desert landscape. This incredible scene is further complimented by a second volcanic cone, this more dramatic and far more pronounced than the first. This is the Tongariro National Park, home to the mountain peaks Tongariro, Ruapehu and Ngauruhoe. NZ’s largest lake, Taupo, itself the caldera of a gigantic volcano, can be found just beyond these. This whole area is one giant super volcano. If it ever blows again, like it did 26,000 years ago, much of New Zealand will be no more.

We pick up a load of stranded passengers from a Kiwi Experience bus that has broken down on the desert road. Amongst their number is Jeff, an English lad I had a pint with in Dunedin before the first match. Jeff was due to travel to NZ with his long-term girlfriend who he planned to propose to on the trip. He had apparently been planning the trip for 18 months but shortly before he was due to leave she paid a visit home to the Czech Republic and when she came back, a week later, she dumped him! Good on Jeff though, he says he is coping with it all and doesn’t think about it much. I am pleased for the lad but I don’t know how some people deal so easily with stuff sometimes.

Beyond Lake Taupo the countryside ‘returns to normal’ with ever increasing signs of urbanisation as we approach Hamilton, and Auckland beyond that. Once we hit the motorway leading into Auckland it is rather depressing to see the sea of concrete, soulless shopping malls and retail parks that greet you as they generally do when you approach big towns and cities in the western world.

Dropped off in the centre of Auckland I leg it to the nearest hostel I can find. With South Africa, England and Scotland in town, accommodation is tight. Without realising it as I book in, I am staying at Nomads. That is Nomads as in ‘CRAZY’ Nomads in Queenstown. I have managed to grab one of the last dorm beds but this place along with all the nearby hostels and hotels are completely full over the weekend. I will start worrying about that tomorrow though.

I go for a wander of night time Auckland and choose to avoid the hostel bar crawl, which numbers 40 blokes and 5 girls, all of them far too enthusiastic about life for my liking. Due to the large immigrant population here, Auckland boasts by far the cheapest food I have seen so far in New Zealand. Not so the pubs though where it is 9 dollars for less than a pint. I feel out of sorts again wandering around by myself. Aside from a chat with two Scottish girls in a pub near the wharf I spend the rest of my evening either staring at the bottom of a beer glass or strolling aimlessly around the Auckland streets, people watching outside takeaway restaurants and massage parlours. I think I better get myself home to bed. 
 
Picture
1 Comment

Big up for Banksy!

27/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Monday, September 26 (Day 25)
Nelson

“We got in at four. It all went a bit random. The only place we could find to drink was a strip club where drinks were cheaper than most of the pubs. We met a load of other people in the street looking for somewhere to drink and the manager let us all go in for free. The same girl was dancing for four hours.”

And there was me saying Jim and Sarah were on a hiding to nothing.

I give myself the lie in I didn’t have in Punakaiki and set off to explore Nelson. This is a decent town with lots of character by NZ standards. Don’t get me wrong, most towns and villages I have so far encountered here would make lovely places to live, it is just that most of them feel very ‘new world’ and lack charm and attractive architecture. As well as having both of these in some measure, Nelson is also a community influenced by artists. You occasionally find quirky little things here like colourful blankets wrapped around park benches, and psychedelically painted lamp posts. I take the long stroll up ‘to the centre of New Zealand’, which has commanding, uninterrupted views of the coast, town and mountains. Following on from my poor attempt at a jog in Wanaka, I find myself struggling a bit up the steep inclines. Not looking good for the football season when I get back to Europe.

Jim and Sarah’s parting gift to me was to tell me about a one-off Banksy exhibition being held in Nelson. It is a bit of a stroll out of town but what a piece of luck finding out about this! Many reading this will be well aware of the work of Banksy but, for those of you who haven’t heard of him, he is one of the world’s premier street artists, giving important social issues a real message and consciousness through his art.

The exhibition, entitled ‘Oi You!’, is donation-only and also includes the work of beautiful losers, David Choe, Faile, Antony Micallef, Adam Neate and Paul Insect, amongst others. I spend a good enjoyable hour at the exhibition. I will let the images do the talking:


Back at Accents on the Park, the Argies, Italians and Americans are arriving in town ahead of tomorrow evening’s match between Italy and the USA. Meanwhile, downstairs in our communal kitchen, another English blonde, working in Queenstown, is boasting to all and sundry about her having had it away with an England player last weekend. Like I mentioned before, if I were a tabloid journalist, I would have made myself very rich during my time here. It is OK though, I detest the tabloids and I would never spill the beans and potentially destroy a player’s career and/or marriage for the sake of a few coloured pieces of paper. I will talk in generalities though and, I am told by the other two Queenstown bar workers present, that fellow England players were downing treble Jack Daniels after their third match, a couple of days ago. One of the internationals in question also tried to take a girl back to Nomads, as I mentioned previously.

Not so much risk versus reward as just not caring as much as they probably should.

“You probably shouldn’t be telling these things to a journalist,” I tell the three of them.

The girl lets out an effected squeal, “Oh my God, oh my God, are you reeeeally a jour-na-list?”

“Yep.”

Then, after a short pause, her eyes light up:

“Which newspaper do you write for?” asked in a strangely flirty, rather ugly way.

“None. Don’t worry.”

“Ohhww!”

The Yeovil floozy looks bloody disappointed.

I watch 30 minutes of Wales v Namibia over a 6 dollar handle of beer (little more than a half pint) but it is one of those nights when I feel uncomfortable and downright lonely, sat in a bar, being Billy-no-mates, and beat a hasty retreat back to Accents on the Park, where I am very content instead to spend my beer money on a phone call to my lovely nan in England. Predictably, she tries to get me off the phone inside a minute, because she is worried about the cost for me. No matter that she gave me a hundred quid towards my trip a couple of days before I set off. I am sad that I won’t see her for another eight weeks.

Wales 81 Namibia 7


0 Comments

Summer turns to spring song

27/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
(Day 24) Sunday, September 25

Punikaiki – Nelson

Is there a more wonderful sound to hear upon waking, in those first few moments of consciousness in the morning, than that of the wild, untamed ocean crashing against the nearby shoreline? I guess if you have kids, then maybe the sound of their happy voices and laughter might beat it but, of all the myriad of sounds nature provides, this is surely one of the most special.

There are signs up in the showers and toilets reminding anyone staying here that in the early hours of this morning the clocks went forward one hour for daylight saving time. I thought my new-fangled phone would work that one out for me but, apparently not. It is therefore 11am, not 10am as I lazily get myself out of bed and make a pot of coffee to compliment the sea view on the veranda.

Another Californian, Jennie, was apparently staying here overnight, and she had also expected modern technology to automatically take an hour from her life at 2am. We are both consequently an hour late checking out but this isn’t the kind of hostel where they are going to get anal with you about such inconsequential details.

And so, winter in New Zealand turns to spring and, for me, three weeks on from England, summer (with a quick splash of winter in NZ) becomes spring. My body clock and hormones can’t know what has hit them. It will be rather depressing, I’d imagine, to return to Europe at the end of all this when it will be approaching mid-winter, in the same way as I never really adjusted to the depressingly grey winter of Argentina and Chile after leaving the almost white nights of northern Europe behind in late June.

I stick on some New Orleans old time jazz and enjoy this most chilled out of Sunday morning vibes. If I can change my bus ticket and postpone my journey to Nelson until tomorrow, I will do it. Sadly though I soon discover I can only alter my journey more than 24 hours in advance, and a new ticket will set me back around 60 dollars. Budgets dictate.

With time short, I stroll down the absolutely deserted black and grey sand beach to the narrow mouth of a river tributary, where a large sea stack is only twenty metres or so away from the shoreline, being pounded by surf. I love this place. The setting is a little like that in ‘The Beach’, except this is gritty, wild and ‘real’.

The half dozen or so houses that dot the sea shore have been swallowed up by the sheer limestone cliffs, rainforest and boundless ocean as I look back the kilometre or so I have strolled. You can hardly make them out at all. Nobody on earth can hear me here and I am not sure there is anybody who can see me either. The reason I say this is because I am suddenly taken by the idea of singing; of trying to make up a song. Sounds like I’ve really lost the plot this time, doesn’t it? But, this moment; place, is so inspiring and solitary that I genuinely feel inspired to try and create a tune and some words from absolutely nothing. It is not something I have ever done before or felt particularly inclined to. Almost instantly I find a tune and the words just fly out like they were always there, waiting. In fact, I am so taken by my little ditty that I am a little upset to lose those first initial lines and chorus to the crashing ocean. And so, I take out my digital camera, point it in the direction of the white-crested waves, and begin to sing again. Of course, now that I am in my own roofless recording studio, the tune and words don’t come nearly as easily to me. But, I do remember the original chorus, discovered ten minutes earlier. And, I will, at some point, try and put it all together and actually finish this song one day in the future, maybe on an equally deserted beach in the Pacific in October. The inspiration for this tune comes from my recent tumultuous life experiences, a song I recently heard for the first time by Avalanche City, and part of a stoned conversation I had with Californian Matt last night. It is called ‘Unconditional love’, and it will be released some time never.

Dare I say it, but I feel strangely emotional leaving the Beach Hostel, Californian Matt and Punakaiki behind. This kind of genuine peace is so hard to find in my personal world of 2011.

There is just time to explore the Punakaiki pancake rocks and sea stacks before the bus leaves. The full force of nature hits here with blowholes violently blasting the sea water high above the black cliffs into the heavens. It is kind of like Northern Ireland’s Giants’ Causeway gone vertical, instead of horizontal, and with thousands of wild flax and palm trees encroaching on the scene.

The coach departs the pancake rocks and passes the beachside community where I spent a happy 24 hours. Give it five years and this will either be a full-on hippie community or a regular stop on the Gap-year tour around New Zealand. Punakaiki is just too bloody special to be left alone and not spoiled eventually by the money-making potential of mass tourism.

One hour of stunning wild coast line and three additional hours of mountain roads and valleys later and we reach Nelson. I am going to base myself here for three nights so that I can watch the Italy v USA match on Tuesday evening, and to explore the Abel Tasman coastline, before catching the ferry to the North Island on Wednesday. After the serenity of the past few days, Nelson feels more like a huge city than the small town it actually is. In saying that though, its centre, where we get dropped off, feels like a ghost town; I’m almost expecting tumble weeds to put in an appearance as I search for an overnight backpackers with 20 year-old Sarah from England and young Jim from Galway, who were both working in Queenstown for several months and are now headed home via south east Asia.   

‘Accents on the Park’ must be one of the world’s poshest backpackers. It is more like a decent hotel. My new friends, truthfully young enough to be my kids (!), very kindly sort me out with some spare beers and I go off in search of a local pub to watch Scotland v Argentina. ‘329’ is absurdly expensive, so I settle instead for the cosy ale house, just around the corner called ‘The Vic’. The quality of the rugby isn’t exactly top notch at times, but Scotland v Argentina is definitely the most exciting match of the tournament to date for the neutral. Scotland appear to have the five points in the bag until Gonzalez zig zags his way through their defence to score the try-of-the-tournament eight minutes from the end. It is hearts in the mouth stuff as Contepomi puts over the conversion and Argentina edge Scotland by one point. This sets it up very nicely for England v Scotland in Auckland next weekend.

I bump into my new Irish/English friends in the street on my way home, where it is blowing an icy gale. They are just on their way out at 11pm after drinking in the dorm to save cash before their trip to Indonesia next week, although I reckon they are on a hiding to nothing for their night out as Nelson seems absolutely dead.

Ireland 62 Russia 12

Argentina 13 Scotland 12

Fiji 7 Samoa 27
0 Comments

Lie low time

22/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
September 19
It's a lie low and time to catch up with my magazine work in the gorgeous lakeside town of Wanaka, a 90-minute drive north-west from Queenstown. I am booked into the YHA, which has to-die-for front lounge views of the lake and the countless mountain peaks that surround it on three sides.

RWC Daily September 19

0 Comments

Pulling birds in Queenstown

20/9/2011

1 Comment

 
September 19
Just like the England rugby team, I find myself hanging around with a load of dodgy birds in Queenstown.
1 Comment

England away (Rugby style)

20/9/2011

0 Comments

 
September 18

There's a 'rugby special' from Queenstown to Dunedin leaving in the morning and returning after the England v Georgia match. I have done this before with football, but I don't quite know what to expect with a rugby away day. Here are some of those who accompany me on the 10-hour round trip:
It takes 5 hours to reach Dunedin but two of those hours are spent stopping off in fields for toilet stops and in small rural villages for more beer, wine and whisky. Once in Dunedin, England appear to have taken the city over:
Down at the excellent Otago stadium we all await what we hope is going to be a better England performance than that against a decent Argentina side, a week earlier:
England run out 41-10 winners although, had the kicking of the Georgians been half as good as that of Toby Flood, the score would have been considerably closer. England run in the tries but it still isn't really convincing. Five points and a bonus point on the board it is time to track down the minibus back to Queenstown...
...the trip back is delayed as one lad on our bus is arrested at the game. I am not surprised because him and I nearly came to blows on the journey here. He is a #### by any standards and it turns out, according to the press the next day, that he was the only person out of 11 ejected from the ground to actually get arrested.

It is 2am before we are back in Queenstown, and ####-face is back off annoying punters in Queenstown high street.

RWC Daily September 18

0 Comments

Risk versus reward

20/9/2011

0 Comments

 
September 16

A long night of drinking in Queenstown begins In Buffalo Bar with James, Ollie and the young English crew, watching the Kiwis thrash the Japanese with 13 tries. The Kiwis look fantastic but the locals fear they are not being tested and, when they do finally come up against a team that restricts their running rugby, they will come a cropper. But on the basis of the brilliant open rugby the New Zealanders have so far played, I don’t think anybody could possibly conclude that the Kiwis aren’t up to it.

Queenstown is a decent night out but it is very much a young Anglo-Saxon snowboarders and skiers resort that primarily attracts British gap-year students looking for a place to drink, get laid and find themselves. The setting though, with mountains all around and a gorgeous lake that wouldn’t be out of place in Switzerland, is certainly world class and is good enough justification for anybody to hang around here. The reason I mention the quality of the nights out is because, as you might have heard in the press, several rugby players have misbehaved during the few days I have been here. In fact, as well as getting drunk and trying to score some tries and touch downs with the local ladies, several international players have generally treated their time in Queenstown like they are on holiday, and not playing at the world cup finals. The Irish and some English players, I am told, even did a few stretches on the local bungee jump. All very well, until somebody gets injured or misses training…or gets caught in an uncompromising situation with a bar maid that is then splashed all over the Sun and the Daily Mail. Mike Tindall being case in point. This place is not exactly Kiev or Moscow. I have absolutely no idea why any married man or established international would risk his reputation or his world cup for the sake of a bunch of mediocre 22-year old British, Aussie and Irish girls that you would find on any night out in Bath or Leicester or Cork. Sometimes the risks simply aren’t nearly worth the rewards. 


RWC Daily September 16

0 Comments

Mad, crazy, woo!

16/9/2011

0 Comments

 
Picture
September 15

If I read another sign with the word ‘CRAZY’ in it, or here the dulcet tones of a visiting Aussie telling a group of pretending-to-be-impressed bystanders how ‘MAD’ and ‘RADICAL’ some activity is in Queenstown, I will do something…‘wrong’. Queenstown is indeed the adventure capital of New Zealand. The choice of adrenaline junkie activities here includes a 130-metre(!) bungee jump, white water rafting, skiing, luge, and helicopter rides. It is a bit like the opening scene of The Beach, when Dicaprio is offered the opportunity to drink snake’s blood in Bangkok on the first day of his world trip. Yeah, you can pretty much do anything you want here, as long as you have got bags of cash and the constitution for speed and heights. I, unfortunately, haven’t. And that is a great shame because I am sure jumping 130 metres from a crane to what must feel like your certain death probably brings you many insights in those few terrifying seconds as you hurtle towards the river bed below. But I personally get my adrenaline release from travelling to places that I perhaps shouldn’t like Tajikistan and Guatemala, as well as through playing and watching sport, and I guess if we were all the same in this regard, the world would be a boring place. But why, oh why, must they market this stuff like they are talking to a bunch of Bill and Ted type characters? ‘This is the most MAD experience you will ever have in your life, bro’ one poster reads. ‘Are you CRAZEEE enough to try the world’s most AWESOME skycar ride?’

And what is it with the girls here calling other girls ‘guys’? ‘You guys should try out the awesome bungee. It is mad, hey’, said by an Irish girl with an accent that betrays the fact that she has been here many months, to a bunch of girls from Brazil. They are not guys luv, they are girls. And, by the way, Galway mixed with Auckland just sounds wrong.

Queenstown is a gorgeous place, but everything is just so bloody mad, crazy and wooooo! here.


 

RWC Daily September 15

0 Comments

The Romanians liven things up

16/9/2011

1 Comment

 
Picture
September 14

Logistically, I would call driving all the 180 kilometres of winding, hilly road back to Dunedin from the Catlins at 8 in the morning to return a car hire and then taking a bus 250 kilometres to get to a place that was only 150 kilometres away when you woke up, a bit of a cock up. When I hired the car I didn’t really have a game plan, which is a bit crap since if I had, I could have gone to watch Scotland v Georgia today for 20 quid in Invercargill as Alex is doing (Distance, 50 kilometres from the Catlins). But you live and learn and actually the drive, with the surf and cliffs bathed in stunningly beautiful early morning sunlight –the calm after the storm- is a fantastic solo experience in itself, particularly with only a handful of cars on the road.

Back in a very grey Dunedin, car hire returned, emails caught up with, Sunday night’s accommodation reserved and bus ticket booked, I join Essex James for the 4 hour coach journey up through more gorgeous countryside to Queenstown, the adventure capital and purportedly the most beautiful urban setting in the southern hemisphere. We roll in at around sunset and yes, it is a stunning location by any standards, reminiscent of Arctic Norway or a top ski resort in the Alps.

I book into Nomads Hostel, just 100 metres from the coach stop and am instantly taken back by the fact that, once inside, I feel like I am on board one of those huge cruise ships that travel between Sweden and Finland, full of alcoholic Scandinavians. The dorms are like ship’s cabins with key card doors and balconies, and there is a cinema, bar, sauna, 40-computer internet area and cruise liner type corridors to get completely lost in. Then somebody announces on the intercom: ‘Hey guys, drinks half price from 7’.

I shower up in the cruise ship communal bathrooms and then meet James and a group of young English rugby lads in ‘Base’, another hostel nearby that is complimented by a bar/club that is bigger than almost any you would find in a decent sized European city. If you are staying here and you have a key card, then drinks are 2-for-1. James has a key card and will serve as our entry into the world of New Zealand’s cheapest alcohol. Thus far on the trip I have been paying around 8 New Zealand dollars for a pint (around 4 pounds), but here it is 2 pints for 7 dollars.

We watch the gutsy Georgian pack give the Scots a bit of a scare and from then on in it is copious amounts of cheap but slightly dubious quality alcohol. I must confess though that being surrounded by hundreds of blokes, half a dozen rugby girls and listening to some awful R’n’B does lose its appeal after a couple of hours, regardless of how much cheap alcohol is on offer. At least the gargantuan Romanian rugby team livened things up with cameo in the club in the wee hours.Those blokes are absolutely enormous. 


Picture

RWC Daily September 14

1 Comment



    Photos, stories and videos from the New Zealand 2011 Rugby World Cup & the sunny paradises of Fiji and Samoa


    Picture

     

    Picture
    Picture


    Archives
    Access all the blogs from New Zealand, Fiji & Samoa by clicking on the archived months below:

    January 2012
    December 2011
    November 2011
    October 2011
    September 2011
    June 2011

      Contact 
      ​More Than a Game:

    Submit

    Key word search 

    All
    100 Pig Fine
    2000 Fiji Coup
    2003 Rugby World Cup
    2009 Tsunami
    200 Billion Galaxies
    2010 Fifa World Cup
    2011 Copa America
    2011 Rugby World Cup
    2014 Fifa World Cup Play Offssamoan Football Team
    2014 Fifa World Cup Qualifiers
    23 December Earthquake New Zealand
    30 December 2011
    4 July 1892
    8.1 Magnitude Earthquake
    Abel Tasman
    Aborigines
    Accents On The Park
    A Clockwork Orange
    Adam Neate
    Afu-A-Au Waterfalls
    Agadoo
    Aganoa
    Aganoa Beach Retreat
    Aggie Grey's
    'aiga
    Air Pacific
    Alduous Huxley
    Alofaaga Blowholes
    American Iguana
    Americanization
    American Samoa
    American Samoan Football Team
    Anarchist
    Anglo-saxon
    Antarctica
    Anthony Burgess
    Antony Micaleff
    Apia
    Apolima Strait
    Argentina
    Argentina Rugby
    Argentina V Scotland
    Armistice Day
    Arthur Conan Doyle
    Asau
    Auckland
    Auckland Airport Motel
    Auckland Horse Racing
    Auckland International Airport
    Australia
    Australia V Usa
    Avalanche City
    Ayia Napa
    Azuri
    Bahai Religion
    Bangkok
    Banksy
    Banyan Tree
    Barefoot Lodge
    Base Hostel
    Bath
    Bbc
    Beachcomber
    Beijing
    Bill And Ted
    Bjorn Heidenstrom
    Black Brown White
    Blowholes
    Bournemouth
    Brazil Carnival
    Bread Fruit
    Bring Back The Sun
    British Empire
    Bros
    Buenos Aires
    Buffalo Bar
    Bula
    Bure
    California
    Canal 4
    Captain Cook Cruises
    Captain James Cook
    Caqalai Island
    Castaways
    Cathay Pacific
    Catholic
    Catlins
    Cayman Islands
    Cemeteries Of London
    Central Bank Of Samoa
    Chemtrails
    Chicago
    Chickpea Curry
    Chris Ashton
    Christchurch
    Christchurch Earthquake
    Christian Congregational Church
    Christmas 2011
    Coldplay
    Conde Nast Magazine
    Contepomi
    Cook Islands
    Cook Straits
    Copa America Blog
    Coral Coast
    Coral Reef
    Coral View Resort
    Cork
    Cornwall
    Coventry
    Crab Racing
    Cricket
    Croydon
    Curio Bay
    Daily Mail
    David Choe
    Daweqa
    Da World Famous Craterman
    December 21 2012
    Denarau Port
    Desenchantee
    Dodgy Birds
    Dolphins
    Dormitories
    Drawaqa Island
    Dunedin
    Dusky Lodge
    Dusky Lodge Backpackers
    Earthquakes
    Easter Island
    Eat Pray Love
    Eden Park
    Ends In The Ocean
    England 67 Romania 3
    England Rugby Team
    England V Argentina
    England V France
    England V Georgia
    England V Romania
    England V Scotland
    Environmental Disaster
    Estonia
    Eugenics
    Euro Breakup
    European Championships
    European Football Championships
    Existence
    Fa'afafine
    Faafaine
    Fa'a-samoa
    Fa’a-Samoa – The Samoan Way Of Life
    Face Paint
    Faile
    Falealupo
    Faroe Islands
    Fast Show Sketch
    Female Sex Tourism
    Fiafia
    Fidel Castro
    Fifa World Cup Blog
    Fijee Experience
    Fiji
    Fijian Military Coups
    Fiji Gold
    Fiji Independence
    Fiji Time
    Fiji V Samoa
    Finland
    Fireball
    Fjordland National Park
    Fluoride
    Fox Glacier
    Fractional Reserve Banking Bomb
    France 17 New Zealand 37
    France V New Zealand
    Franz Josef Glacier
    Franz Josef Yha
    Franz Jozef Yha
    French Polynesia
    Fruit Bats
    Ft
    Galway
    Gary Speed
    Geckos
    George Orwell
    Georgia V Romania
    Ghost Town
    Global Pharmaceutical Industry
    Gobi Desert
    Greymouth
    Guam
    Guatemala
    Haka
    Hamilton
    Hammerhead Shark
    Harry Enfield
    Hawaii
    Heart Disease
    Hillary Clinton
    Hindu
    Hornets
    Hotel California
    Huntsman Spider
    Hyatt Regency
    Iceland
    Incheon
    Indiana Jones
    Indian Food
    Indonesia
    Inter City
    International Dateline
    International Date Line
    International Federation Of Netball
    Into The Wild
    Into The Wild Movie Trailer
    Iran
    Irb
    Ireland V Russia
    Italy V Usa
    Jack Daniels
    Jane's Fales
    J D Salinger
    Jersey
    Jet Star
    John O'callaghan
    Jonny Wilkinson
    Kaikoura
    Kaikoura Beach
    Kaikoura Peninsula
    Kaliningrad
    Kate Ryan
    Kava
    Kea
    Kiev
    Kirikiti
    Kiwi Experience
    Ko Pha Ngan
    Korean Air
    Ko Samui
    Lady Boy
    Lady Samoa Ii
    Lake Baikal
    Lake Taupo
    Lano
    Leauva
    Lebanon
    Leicester
    Leonardo Dicaprio
    Levuka
    Levuka Masonic Lodge
    Lighthouse Family
    Lomaiviti
    Lonely Planet
    Lord Of The Rings
    Los Pumas
    Lost World
    M25
    Machete
    Manase
    Mango Bay
    Mango Trees
    Maninoa
    Mantaray Island
    Manu Bay
    Maori
    Mark Cueto
    Marlon Brando
    Matai
    Mathew Vaea
    Maverick
    Max Keiser
    Mcdonalds
    Megabus
    Melbourne
    Merchandise
    Meteor
    Mexican Standoff
    Mike Tindall
    Milford Sound
    Mitre Peak
    Money Laundering
    Mongol Rally
    Monty Python
    More Than A Game
    Morethanagame.info
    Morris Hedstrom Trading Store
    Moscow
    Mount Fuji
    Mount Matavanu
    Mount Silisili
    Muslim
    Mylene Farmer
    Nadi
    Nadi Bay
    Nanuya Lailai
    National Express
    National Geographic
    Naviti Islands
    Navoti Landing
    Neil Diamond
    Nelson
    Neo-liberals
    New Caledonia
    New Zealand
    New Zealand Bands
    New Zealand General Election 2011
    New Zealand Sheep
    New Zealand Wine
    Ngarunui Beach
    Ngauruhoe
    Niue
    Nomads
    Nomads Hostel
    North Island
    North Korea
    Nuggets Point
    Obesity
    Occupy Detroit
    Occupy Movement
    Oi You! Collection
    Otago Stadium
    Pacific Ocean
    Pagan
    Papua New Guinea
    Paradise Islands
    Patterson's Shipping
    Paul Insect
    Perito Moreno
    Philippines
    Picton
    Poland
    Polynesia
    Population Reduction
    Postcards From Heaven
    Pride Of The Pacific
    Prince Charles
    Projects We Like
    Pukekura
    Pulemelei Mound
    Punakaiki
    Punakaiki Beach Hostel
    Queenstown
    Queen Street
    Raffles Hotel Singapore
    Rafting
    Raglan
    Rainforest
    Reality
    Rebuilding Christchurch
    Reef Sharks
    Rena
    Robert Louis Stevenson
    Romanian Rugby Team
    Rotorua
    Royal Hotel
    Ruapehu
    Rugby World Cup
    Rugby World Cup Blog
    Russ Abbott
    Russia V Italy
    Rwc Daily September 10
    Rwc Daily September 13
    Rwc Daily September 14
    Rwc Daily September 15
    Rwc Daily September 16
    Rwc Daily September 17
    Rwc Daily September 18
    Rwc Daily September 19
    Rwc Daily September 20
    Rwc Daily September 21
    Rwc Daily September 22
    Rwc Daily September 23
    Rwc Daily September 24
    Rwc Daily September 25
    Rwc Daily September 26
    Rwc Daily September 27
    Rwc Daily September 28
    Rwc Daily September 8
    Rwc Daily September 9
    Sacred Heart Church
    Salelologa
    Samoa
    Samoa Loses A Day
    Samoan Bank Notes
    Samoan Pyramid
    Samoan Reggae Christmas Rap
    Samoan Rugby Team
    Samoans
    Samoan Slap Dancing
    Sangatoka
    Satan
    Savaii
    Scotland V Georgia
    Sea Breeze Resort
    Sea Lions
    Seals
    Sea Stacks
    Self Sufficient
    Seoul
    Sex Tourism
    Shanghai
    Sheep Shearing
    Silvio Berlusconi
    Sipi Tau
    Siva
    Skiing
    Slap Dancing
    Smugglers
    Snowboard
    Solidarnosc
    South Africa
    South Africa 87 Namibia 0
    South African Shanty Town
    South Africa V Samoa
    South America
    South Island
    South Pacific
    South Pacific Chief
    South Pacific Clams
    Soviet 5-year Plans
    Speights
    Spirit Of The Pacific
    Ss Mauritania
    Stanley Kubrick
    Star Mounds
    State Propaganda
    St. Helen's Rugby
    Stopwaroniran.org
    Submarine
    Sulu
    Surf
    Surfing
    Surviving A Tsunami
    Suva
    Svalbard
    Switzerland
    Sydney
    Tajikistan
    Tanu
    Tasmania
    Tasman Sea
    Tatiana Motel
    Taufua
    Taupou
    Tavewa Island
    Te Anau
    Teletubby
    Te Papa National Museum
    Texas
    Thailand
    The All Blacks
    The Beach
    The Catcher In The Rye
    The Catlins
    The Cook Islands
    The Guardian
    The Kennedy Regime
    The Maori
    The Mayans
    The North Sea
    The Pentecostal Church
    The Philippines
    The Shirt 2010
    The Solomon Islands
    The Specials
    Tierra Del Fuego
    Tim Nice But Dim
    Toby Flood
    Tokelau
    Tonga
    Tongariro
    Tongariro Crossing
    Tonga V Japan
    To Sua Ocean Trench
    Touch Rugby
    Trafalgar Park
    Travellers International Airport Motel
    Turangi
    Tuvalu
    Uefa Euro 2012
    Uk Public Sector Strike
    Ukraine
    Ukraine 2012 Blog
    Ulan Bator
    Upolu
    Usa
    U S Turkey
    Uzbekistan
    Vailima
    Vancouver
    Vanuatu
    V-bar
    Vietnam
    Viti Levu
    Wales V Fiji
    Wales V France
    Wales V Namibia
    Wallis & Futuna
    Walt Disney Cartoon
    Wanaka
    Wanaka Yha
    Waterfalls
    Website Optimization
    Wellington
    Welsh World Cup Squad
    Wer Wenn Nicht Wir
    Whale
    When Will I Be Famous?
    Wi-fi
    Wish Lists
    World
    World Trade Organisation
    W T O
    Yellow-eyed Penguins
    Yellow Sea
    Y-not Bar

    RSS Feed

    Picture
    Picture
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • More than a game
  • One Football No Nets
  • Some thoughts from me
  • My travels in sport
    • Copa America 2015 Chile
    • Sierra Leone 2013
    • Euro 2012 Ukraine
    • Copa2011 Argentina
    • Rugby World Cup 2011
    • Africa 2010
  • About me
    • My life in football
    • My life travelling the world
    • My journalism work
    • My first published book
    • My life philosophy
  • Contact
    • My media pages