"Come On James..."COME ON THE BOKKE!!"

Howzit Team

I really have been useless in getting new blog posts up during this Rugby World Cup trip, but through the countless 4.30am finishes, an unending raging hangover, and endless banter abuse from Danger and Sassy, we are back in SA where I finally have some peace and quiet. Lets not take anything away from how epic this trip has been, and over the next two (three if you're lucky) blog posts, I will complete the story of this whole trip.

Well let's go back to where we left off, and that was our arbitrarily late 10.30am start to our 9 hour road journey to Wellington from Auckland, which can be solely left on the blame of Streaks chunder antics from the night before. Once again, we managed to just squeeze all our kit into the Cheap and Cheerful, we had the iTrips and iPods ready, and Sassy was the man behind the wheel. Once we hit the road Sassy described our South African decorated car as a bit of a fish bowl, as we received many a stare, and many a hooting from our surrounding cars. It seemed everyone was heading in the same South direction, and you could see that RWC fever was in the air.

The SA flags might have been the cause for the
fish bowl effect for Sassy and Streaks...you think!?

The first half of the road trip was pretty uneventful apart from the abuse Streaks received for his poor show the night before. Obviously watching Glee, doing yoga, vomiting after beers and peanuts, and somehow listening to Celine Dion on the plane (definitely framed), Danger and Sassy believe that Streaks really hasn't got much going for him in the ladies department, and this tour was all in Danger's hands.

We managed to get to half way at Subway by lunchtime. After celebrating the discovery of the new word 'Capsicum' (which is known as green pepper in South Africa), Sassy decided it was time to hand the steering wheel over to Mrs. Sassy for the next half of the journey. After saying some final words on the video camera in case they were our last (we were not being sexist at all), we were back on the road. Mrs. Sassy wasn't scared to get us to our destination quickly, and almost had a run-in with the local traffic police after doing 140km/h in a 100km/h zone (to her defense the whole of NZ's top speed is 100). Luckily just a flash of the blue light was enough to give her the shits, and we were back to the speed limit very quickly. We would later be told at the petrol station that a flash of the blue lights is just a warning, and we were lucky to avoid the cop they call the 'Nazi.' Supposedly he's the harshest cop in the whole of the Kiwi free-ways, so Sassy was stoked his credit card wouldn't be maxed with traffic fines before we even started the trip.

Just some of the beautiful views of New Zealand
that Sassy, Danger and Streaks would get to see!

That tire is squiff!!!

It was a beautiful drive, and definitely the recommended way to travel New Zealand. Sassy was constantly looking for the shire, and the mountains of Mordor, but unfortunately all those scenes were shot on the South Island - so his hopes were shattered for a while.  The Cheap and Cheerful started playing up after two hours into Mrs. Sassy's drive, and the toll of carrying all our luggage as well as the Wolf Pack's weight, something was not right with our ride. The car would profusely vibrate between 90 and 100km/h, and the back right shock seemed to be taking strain. We would only find out later after a trip to the mechanic on Tuesday, that our back right wheel was completely squiff! (South African for not straight!). Somehow the C&C managed to hold together and get us to our destination.

We would eventually arrive at the little town of Karori in Wellington just after 7.30pm, and we would be greeted by the newest additions to our Wolf Pack - Liam and Kirsty! Both are true out and out Kiwi's, and support nobody else other than the All Blacks. Liam comes from a family of 7, where all the siblings are brothers, all of them are sport mad, and all of them love to have a beer. Kirsty is fantastic at cooking, and loves her vino! The Wolf Pack would find that we would fit into their household very nicely :)

Kirsty with wine in hand, and Liam with an empty beer.
We had met our match!

Well like any good tourist would do, why go to sleep after nine hours of travelling? So off to the pub we went to watch the the England Argentina game. The Four Kings pub was the location, and the place was packed with rugby supporters from all over the world. We would get our first taste of New Zealand brew, but also our first smack of our wallet! NZ is not cheap, and at R55 a beer, the converting of dollars to rands was halted. You can't enjoy yourself in another country while trying to convert all the time, especially when Mr. Sassy changes his taste from beer to rum and coke (he would later find it would cost the same as a pint...High  Five!).

Feeling the case for adventure, and to stamp his authority early on in the tour, Danger noticed a 100m high "Bungie Ball" which was located directly outside the pub. At only $40 a go, and some usual taunting, Streaks and Kirsty were roped in with the young man, and shot into the air! Check it out here:

Pretty awesome experience, and it also gave us the opportunity to see the colors of the town sky. Once the blood had finally returned to Danger's face, we headed for a massive pub crawl down Courtney Place, the venue for the tour's nights of marvels, mayhem, and mystery!

Sassy's animated descripton...
Mmmm.... Maori....

After visiting a few pubs on the Courtney Place strip, Liam used his exclusivity powers to get us through the front door of one of the busiest clubs on the strip - as well as the venue for Danger's first take down of the tour! Described to have the Eyes of East, and the girth of Big Wes, the Maori bird we all anticipated was finally nabbed! Danger had struck the lead in the ladies department, and wasn't going to let Streaks forget it. Mrs. Sassy had also left before we got into the club, and the rest of the Wolf Pack got home at 3.30am. Danger's bet of outlasting Mrs. Sassy throughout the trip had got off to a flyer, and an unsettled nerve started to tweak in Streak's head.

Just to back track a bit, before we headed out that night, we decided on sleeping arrangements. Seeing there was only one double bed, and two blow up mattresses (one being a double), Mrs. Sassy had some how daftly agreed that Danger would get the bed (because he knew the hosts), and the rest of us would share a room with the blow up mattresses. On arriving back at the house in the early hours of the morning after this crazy night, Danger was greeted with a letter at the door. After reading two lines, and a loud grunt, he headed into the room with the blow up mattresses and passed out. I managed to pick up the letter and read the following:

With not much else to say, I headed to my blow-up mattress (which was enduring a slow puncture) while Danger gracefully snoozed away into the night. I can only imagine Danger's dreams included images of the Pacific Islands, and haka-chanting Samoan ladies.

Well the next morning not only saw a 11am wake up, but also the countdown to the attendance of our first Rugby World Cup 2011 match - South Africa vs Wales. A wet and windy Wellington morning greeted us, and was set in stone for the rest of the day. It was not the weather we wanted, but the when the home rugby team is called the Hurricanes, it's kind of the weather you have to expect. With everyone still struggling from the night before, and the smuggest of faces on Danger's, we started prepping ourselves for the game ahead. The SA jersey's, bomber jackets, scarves, wigs, top hats, tattoo's, PDV mustaches and attitudes were all put on, and we were off to the "Cake Tin" or "Stadium" for our first game of the tour! (Due to IRB advertising laws, the WestPac Stadium in Wellington is in breach of this code, so only the word STADIUM is illuminated to the whole of Wellington - much to Sassy's delight).

Streaks, Sassy, Mrs. Sassy and Danger.
Wolf Pack ready for Action!

On our way to the Cake Tin! Ke Nako!!!

We got to the pub for our pre-match drinking, and the hangover's were starting to wipe away. The atmosphere of being with hundred's of other South African's in a pub on the other side of the planet was electric, and we were still a Springbok nation no matter how far from home we were. We were off to the game with flags in hand, through the gates, and into the 50,000 seating stadium. Streaks received a number of pats on the back, as the perfect seating of 10 rows from the front on the halfway line, and the Springbok team facing us for the anthems, it was "Ke Nako" for the Wolf Pack!

"COME ON JAMES!!!!"

After starting like a house on fire, the Springboks struggled to innovate against the Welsh, leaving the Wolf Pack very nervous come half time. This nervousness turned to anxiety, which almost turned to the beat down of the Welsh supporters sitting behind Sassy. The Wolf Pack hadn't said a word to each other for 40 minutes, but with the echoing sound of "Come on James....Come on James..." in his ear, and the whacking of a Welsh flag on his head, Sassy was close to boiling point, and Danger was ready to tackle an unaware's PDV after the game. Luckily, Francois Hougaard came to the rescue as he soared over the try line, and the Wolf Pack erupted. A few up-yours, a few fist pumps, and a few "Go back to bloody Wales you *&%$#$%%" and we were back in the game! The final whistle went, and we had watched our first victory of the tour. The thought of all the money we had saved could have been washed away had we lost that game, but the tour was still in tact, and the RWC 2007 champions had started the defense of their title with a win.

Let's go all the way...

We were too stoked with life. Sassy and Mrs. Sassy were chanting only one line of Katy Perry's 'Teenage Dream' with "Let's go all the way tonight!!!" causing Streaks a bit of unease, while Danger continued his spading ways, by chatting up who he thought was the wife of PDivvy (which only turned out to be a family friend). We headed back to the pub on the docks, and ended up staying there until they closed. After a number of beers, and celebratory Jager bombs (don't ask how much), we headed to Courtney Place to take on the town again. It was amazing how during the game, everyone was feeling a bit ill seeing that we might lose the match, but once we had secured the win - it was party time! (Mrs. Sassy had enough after the game, and headed home - Danger was on fire with his bet!).

Even after wanting to Hooke James, rugby is one of those
games that you can still drink with the opposition after a match.

After a long walk across town, which included Danger somehow stealing an Aussie girl's scarf, and Sassy stealing a cab from two strangers, we ended up in a bar back on Courtney strip. Streaks didn't move to far from the bar after getting into conversation with a Welsh-supporting Mexican who played rugby for the USA (seriously, I cannot make that stuff up). Sassy was outside watching Springbok supporters chunder over the payment, and was not impressed when Streaks convinced him to shake the chunderer's hand (I knew the guy and was seriously unaware of what had happened).



And our man Danger...to Streaks and Sassy's disbelief...was taking down a rugby playing belter!  Danger had not only continued his wooing ways from the night before, but he had upped his game considerably by taking down the captain of the team! After saying our goodbyes, and chowing down an incredible hummus filled kebab, Danger looked like Luke Skywalker after defeating Darth Vader with one hand. The man was in fine form and was living up to the expectation he had so foretold.


The next day was even a later wake-up, with Streaks rising from the couch at 1.30pm, and Danger climbing off his blow-up mattress at 3 in the afternoon. Sassy was running around the house singing "Don't Stop Believin" while Mrs. Sassy ran off to the Salon to get her hair done. We decided that Monday would be our rest day, and time to recapture what had happened over the last 3 days of tour. What better way to do this, than a traditional South African braai. Liam had just purchased a new Weber, and who better than 3 South Africans to break in his new 'barbeque'. After Sassy and Streaks' great attempt of trying to light a fire in wet gusty Wellington weather armed only with wet twigs and newspaper, Danger was sent to the shop to fetch firelighters. Epic SA heritage fail number one - and an incident that was never supposed to make the blog.

Introducing the beer bird braai to the Kiwi's. Delicious! 

We did however recover with Sassy cooking an incredible beer bird (roasting a chicken over a can of beer), and Danger searing some Lamb fillet steaks to perfection. Liam and Kirsty got to experience their first South African braai, and had finally welcomed South Africans into their home. We gifted them with their first braai set, which had 'Rugby World Cup 2011" engraved on the tongs, but unfortunately there was not enough space for "Springboks Winners 2011". Not sure how well the last part would have fitted in the Kiwi household, but the gift was gratefully accepted.


I'm going to end this blog post here, as the next few nights would see the resurrection of Streaks, the live viewing of a real life Kiwi in the dark, and a tour of the beautiful city of Wellington. And of course not to mention the next match on the list, South Africa vs Fiji. I hope to keep the memories fresh in my head, so my aim is to start on the next post right away. Thanks for all the support guys, and thanks to all those who looked out for us on TV during the match!

Chat Soon
Streaks