Photos from New Zealand by Damien 'I'm not napping anymore' Engelhardt

Bay of Islands... just lovely.

Damien in front of the end of New Zealand.

Dan in front of not-a-green-screen-it's-real-we-swear.

Dan is a geyser.

That's a green lake. Green!

The most massive Kauri tree. Really, really massive.

Don't touch boiling thermometers underwater.

A little perspective with a relatively little Kauri tree.

Thermal pools.

It's like a skyscraper.

Where the Tasman sea and the Pacific meet.

Winnie, classy as usual.

Where the hell is Kaikohe? - by Dan 'Supertramp' Jenkins

Hello all, it has been a little while hasn't it? (Insert cheeky/smiley face)

At this very moment I am sitting in a place called the 'pickled parrot' writing this blog while Damien is sleeping on a couch in front of me. What a week we have had since we last posted, although I do need to think what has happened.

...

Cool beans, we shall start from the beginning...which makes chronological sense...

So we spent a lot of our time last week in a place called Taupo. It is absolutely gorgeous and while the weather was not at its kindest the local people were. The family that hosted us (thanks Mich'ael) were lovely and we were pretty close to everything that was going on.

Exciting things:

Being invited to dinner with the welsh team.
Asking the Welsh team bus driver for directions to their public training day while the team struggled past my huge frame to get on the bus.

At the end of this week however we had our next crunch game against Manu Samoa. So as we mentally prepared ourselves (and our pampers) for what we knew was going to be a 'squeaky bum-time' game we trotted off to watch the Irish against the Wallabies.

Honestly, I knew there were a lot of Irish people in the world, randomly popping up in places that even god had forgotten existed but I did not know HOW many was in NZ. They are everywhere, seriously...everywhere. I think it can warrant being called a pandemic, or a paddydemic if you will. But all this helped to make, what I think was, the best game so far in the tournament. The night out afterwards was horrible, I won't bore you with the details but it involved $9 beers, a man called Keith and tequila.

Makes me shudder just thinking back to it...

Then came the Wales v Samoa game. Good seats, decent second half performance and Leigh Halfpenny. That is all that I want to say about that...

Now we get to the present/recent present/just gone past past. We are in a place called Paihia (I think) which is a lovely coastal town on the tip of the north Island. Went to see where the two seas meet (Pacific and Tasman) and maybe did not warrant the 3-4 hour drive there...gorgeous but just not epic enough for my liking. I thought the waves would be well big and impressive like innit.

Especially as we spent the trip back praying for a petrol station that sold diesel.

One thing that has really hammered home though is the fact that no-one lives outside of the major cities. There are just no cars on the road...only stupid dogs that have a death wish and want desperately to run in front of our car while we are doing 80kmh (we missed it thanks to Damien's spectacular swerving.)

So now we are pretty le tired. So we are taking our (respective) naps and then we shall go get some lovely sea food...

Again we shall try and upload our videos, there are quite a few more, but it is quite difficult due to the fact that we have little megabites. It means we can't upload and stuff, its all so technical so won't bore you with that either, but I definitely know what it means so whatever.

Catch you soon campers

Dan and Damien 'Im a sleepy woofter' Engelhardt

Video Blog #1

Hey guys,

So here is the first set of our videos! A lot more entertaining to watch than just read.

This one was during my first 4 hours in New Zealand. We had to immediately drive down from Auckland as soon as I had stepped off the plane (9 hour drive) so was pretty tired. This, however, helped keep me awake and was about 3 hours into the drive.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=v2GFX5vFVX8

Wellington


Walking downtown for the first time soaking in the atmosphere of the rugby world cup. All people wanted to do was talk about rugby which was fine with me!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wCo_54dVNNM


Te Papa Museum


This was a fantastic museum, it had loads of exhibitions on the creation of New Zealand and the wildlife around it.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PwEFp6gDMas


Cultural Moari Dance


This was on the 4th floor of the Te Papa museum and was honestly pretty scary. This video was only a little bit of the whole show...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7RwO_e_9f5c


Learning the Haka


Damien was "kind" enough to let me be the one to go through the rigors of learning the All Black 'haka'. It's a calling to the ancestors to give the warrior strength for the battle. Now, I fully appreciate and respect this tradition, I think it is one of the most electrifying things I have ever seen. However, trying to teach it to me surely defeats the object of the 'haka' in trying to intimidate....you'll see what I mean.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=e5hWRe6Yf5c


Performing the Haka


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IPe6HUPZEGE


South African Team in the Hotel


We were just sitting in the foyer waiting for our room to be ready...then the Boka team walks through! Pretty exciting stuff, although we seriously considered setting off the fire alarm at 3am "by accident" of course.


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BtU8KpiBVZg


Pre-Match Buildup


I can't believe we lost this game...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rib-94MMMWE


Wales v South Africa


I still can't believe we lost this game...


http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IyBSDqt-ess


More videos to follow!


Dan and Damien 'High Priestess' Engelhardt

"What are you doing?" "What AM I doing?" - Dan 'Kevin Bacon' Jenkins

So here we are, the first match in Wales' all conquering bid to become world champions. We all know it will happen and that these 'games' are just formalities, pleasantries if you will, to allow New Zealanders to party like a Welshman at a sheep convention... or a New Zealander at a sheep convention... or sheep... at a sheep convention.

At the moment im sitting in the Intercontinental hotel in Wellington. This is the same hotel as the South African team, so (of course) I've spent most of the time chilling out with the "lads" in the foyer. Its such a cool environment to sit down in...watching players come and go and literally having them sit down next to us to watch Scotland v Romania. Percy Montgomery chanted 'Wales, Wales' at me. Now, while I appreciate that this was probably meant in a funny condescending way it still made me almost pass out with excitement.

For those that do not really know rugby, its like that justin(e) bieber being punched in the face. Its slightly wrong but yet so cool!

I have to say though, the atmosphere here is incredible. Nights out watching games has been phenomenal, you just cannot understand how much they love their rugby out here until you see it yourself.

I shall try and upload some pics and videos soon so you can get a small taste of how much culture there is here, not only NZ culture but also every other nation taking part in this tournament.

Now I'm going to go get ready for the game...

Dan and Damien 'Thunderthighs' Engelhardt

Second Days - written by Damien 'Damo' Engelhardt

Driving around Wellington in a plumbers van is hard. Too many hills and too few plumber parking permits.

We stayed at a hostel on our first night, but we couldn't stay there the rest of the weekend as prices sky rocketed. So we stayed at the Rydges hotel for free with the Welsh team. Gonna have breakfast with them now. Shane Willliams, James Hook and that. Wicked.

The tournament kicked off with the most incredible opening ceremony, maybe ever. It made the Olympic Opening Ceremony look like a messy Halloween party put on by a bunch of drunk eight-year-olds.

And then the first match... ahh. Finally, rugby. Rugby rugby rugby. This is gonna be sick.

GO ARGENTINA. BEAT THEM BLOODY ENGLISH BAS%£@ARDS!!

First Days - written by Dan "Dan" Jenkins

Hello everyone!

I am currently writing to you from a lovely little bar in Wellington. Extremely tired still from the ridiculous journey over here, 30 hours travelling then another 10 hours from Auckland to Wellington. I know that reading is a chore for most of my friends so i shall keep these written blog updates short and sweet. I appreciate that it is a lot more entertaining to see our little blog videos, so shall try and upload them as soon as possible. Funny points/cool things so far:

We are travelling around in a plumber van. Bedford Plumbers and Gas.

Note for the gentlemen reading:

Kiwi girls are pretty

Thanks guys and will write again soon

Daniel and Damien "Im a douche" Engelhardt

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The Next Step - THE NEW BLOG

I have left Africa after almost 5 months there. It has been more educational than any class I could have taken or book that I could have read (except, perhaps, Jared Diamond’s ‘Guns, Germs and Steel’… read it). Rather than dwell on what I’ll miss, and what I won’t, I’d rather just tell you my next step.

RUGBY WORLD CUP 2011.

Dan Jenkins (round of applause ladies and gents) and I (louder round of applause, maybe some cheering) have been planning this trip for almost 18 months, and talking about it as a possibility for over two years. Here’s the low down:

It takes place in New Zealand from September 9^th until October 23^rd. Dan and I will be touring the country for its entirety. We will be on the North Island for the first 25-ish days during the ‘group stages’. In that time, we’re seeing eleven rugby matches. We picked the matches based on our team (WA-LES! WA-LES! WA-LES!) and on which parts of the island we wanted to visit. We’re touring around in a van. After the group matches, we’re heading to the South Island for three weeks before rocking back up to Auckland for the final.

It’s going to be the most mind-boggling, fun-loving, liver-testing, nature-discovering, rugby-filled seven weeks, maybe of our lives.

And you get to read about it RIGHT HERE.

This blog will, for seven weeks, be known as:

DAN AND DAMO’S RIDICULOUS, RAUCOUS, RELATIVELY RISKY, RANT pRONE, RESISTANCE (is futile), WROUGHT iRON, RESPECTABLE, RAVING, ROTARY RUGBY BLOG!!

New Zealand’s 2011 Rugby World Cup through the eyes of two Welsh supporters on tour. Expect astute match analysis, unbiased predictions, fragmented recollections of nights out, rundowns on tourist attractions (and attractive tourists…hey hey!) and more for seven weeks of oh-my-god-it’s-really-finally-here Rugby World Cup fun.

Thanks for reading!