On Friday there was a New Zealand vs Japan game at 8 pm that we went to watch at the fan zone at Hagley Park which is right across from the school where we swim. The plan was to drop me and Zander off at swimming and go to the train station to pick up Kayley (she was at camp with her school). Then, we would all meet back at the fan zone to watch the game. That plan kinda failed though because swimming was cancelled due to some dance that the school was having and the scuba school had the pool anyways.
Since I had left momma’s cell phone at home, Zander and I wandered around the botanical gardens looking for them because that was where they normally go to walk around while we swim. When we finally decided to go back to the car and see if we could catch them before they left to pick up Kayley, I saw the car drive away. So then Zander and I wandered around some more to kill time, and we went to look around at Hagley Park.
The event set up at Hagley is really cool. There was a field at one end with a bar, a few stages and some people walking around in costume dressed up as witches, carrying puppets, or being creepy old ladies. There was this poor guy at the entrance dressed up as an old lady and he would say ‘welcome to the garden of variety. Enjoy!’ in a falsetto voice. I just said ok, sure and smiled cause that guy looked like he was having a bad day. I mean, I would be too if I had to dress up as an old lady and hang out in the freezing cold for hours with people looking at me weird. Zander and I walked around talking about house horrible the guy preforming of the stage was at rapping (he sounded like he was trying to copy Eminem but failing miserably. Some people just can’t rap). On the way back out the guy at the entrance/ old lady said ‘I hope you enjoyed the garden of variety… and thanks for making eye contact with us unlike everyone else!’ I just said you’re welcome and laughed. I made his/ her day! That was pretty cool.
Zander and I were buying some fried fat with sugar (aka churros) when momma and daddy found us. We still had a ton of time to kill before the game started so we went to try and find Zander some shoes. We ended up driving around for a while looking for a shoe store but we couldn’t find one. Then we went back and of course daddy had to park like a mile away from the park so we walked for a while in the rain till we got there. The fan zone is the pubic rugby world cup watching place for ChCh. There are two big screens and bleachers facing them and a mini rugby field in the middle. We mopped up all the water on our seats with my towel and then watched the game. It was really cool cause there was a mini game going on on the mini field at the same time. The All Blacks won of course by like 50 pts but at the two times Japan did score they got the biggest cheers of the night.
~mia
mia--very glad to see you back in posting business. It sounds like you and Z. are having some adventures making your own way around with no problems as your parents come and go. Interesting how being on the road gives you the freedom to do things as they come to you--I remember when I first lived abroad feeling that I wasn't bound by convention--not the convention of home and not the convention of where I was. It was a very special freedom. love to you, bippy
ReplyDeleteYou guys must die hard fans to watch rugby in the freezing rain. Aren't there sports bars you can go to out of the rain or wtb at home? It was also nice of the kiwis to cheer for the other team for scoring when they are getting a bad beat. It's hard to compete in a physical sport when the average man is 5 foot nothing : )
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