Rugby is kind of a big deal here. Every time there's a big game, gas goes on sale. People get up in the middle of the night to watch games on the other side of the world. The Rugby World Cup finals started at 5am this morning, and pubs all over New Zealand got special dispensation to open up their doors and sell beer before dawn. Getting up before sunrise to watch a game and drink beer sounded too crazy not to try, so we set our alarm clocks for 4am and headed to a pub in Takapuna.
What we didn't expect was to find almost every possible road closed for a marathon (of course there was a marathon). By the time we found a road that would take us there every pub in the area was already filled to capacity, and all of us stragglers were left to watch through the windows like a crowd of sad Peter Pans. Well, not too sad--I did feel a little teased by the promise of warmth and food inside, but it was fun to have a front row seat to many grown men jumping up and down in drunken group hugs, chat with the bouncer about highlights, and overhear friends tauntingly calling each other "Aussie" on the street. I'm not going to pretend to fully understand rugby, but there seemed to be just enough threat to make it an interesting game.
What we didn't expect was to find almost every possible road closed for a marathon (of course there was a marathon). By the time we found a road that would take us there every pub in the area was already filled to capacity, and all of us stragglers were left to watch through the windows like a crowd of sad Peter Pans. Well, not too sad--I did feel a little teased by the promise of warmth and food inside, but it was fun to have a front row seat to many grown men jumping up and down in drunken group hugs, chat with the bouncer about highlights, and overhear friends tauntingly calling each other "Aussie" on the street. I'm not going to pretend to fully understand rugby, but there seemed to be just enough threat to make it an interesting game.
So I didn't get a chance to drink a pint at a ridiculous hour of the morning, but hey, it's always 5 o'clock somewhere.