Can't think of a pun

By London Leprechaun
February 19 2015

London Leprechaun fills in the days to the crunch match in Wellington with a strictly tourists eye view of New Zealand's South Island, although there is a little cricket related rant in the middle. This reports covers local wildlife, mountains, ferry trips, radio stations and car hire in NZ, and even a bit of road rage. If you want a cricket report wait till after the match tomorrow.

Nelson Area Tuesday 17^th – Wednesday 18^th February

Nelson was very quiet in the morning after the night before, I can imagine the Irish pub had been pretty lively.  But after some shopping I took the chance to explore the area.  Now the trouble with NZ is that every corner; every bend; every view is a photo opportunity – whether it is mountains, coast lines, handsome boats or even friendly local sparrows.  Also NZ roads are not exactly motorways.  Most roads are single carriageway with occasional passing zones and speed limits are strictly enforced.

Tasmen Bay vew

So, by the time I has stopped in one village, driven up a very windy road to a look out with the most fabulous view of Tasmen Bay and taken the hundreds of pictures a digital camera encourages, I did not have time to continue on to Collingwood – the only cricketing connection I could find today but at least the name has a Scottish connection for this tournament. Mind you having left the hotel with Scotland at 12-4, I can imagine Mr C was not exactly overjoyed. 

Anyhow on the way back I stumbled across one of those hidden gems of a place – Ruby Bay – where you can just sit and while away an afternoon after a fish and chip lunch watching the mountains change colour and little ferry boats take people to and from Rabbitt Island.

And that is another reason to spend time exploring this amazing country – you stumble on all sorts of unusual things. Yesterday I went to Havelock – the self-styled mussel capital of the world.  Now I don’t like mussels myself but anywhere with that claim has to be worth going to see.  It was certainly another postcard picture place – and the only place I have found so far that charges for parking – but instead of mussels I found that the area was the first home of Ernest Rutherford – he of splitting the atom – and William Pickering – who was a major force in NASA and getting US space exploration going. Plus  I also got to learn about the mussel life cycle.

Thursday 19^th February

Another tough drive through the mountains to Picton for the Wellington ferry. Though just to let you know that NZ is not quite new Eden, I was stalked on the  drive by a lorry driver who seemed to think that I should be taking steepish and windy mountain bends at a 100KM an hour all the time.  It looks as if there is no speed limiter on large vehicles in NZ so although I out paced him on the straights, he caught me up every time the speed limit went down. Now tailgating on mountain passes is not a good idea. Anyway that is my one less then happy hour on this trip!

Last time I was in PIcton  it was cold and drizzly; today it is late summer perfection – ideal for 2,800 passengers from a huge cruise liner that has stolen into a nearby bay and is lurking behind some trees.  And as I am writing this we are creeping through the Marlborough sounds; high hills, glistening water and even possibly some whale sightings – they have been coming this way in search of the giant sting ray which are lurking in the harbour.  They are huge! – the sting ray I mean. I am sure the whales are too though no sign of them today.

That is a sting ray - a big one

Meanwhile I haven’t completely forgotten about the World Cup!  Sky Sports over here are doing the tournament proud. They are showing every match live but replaying it as if live in the evenings.  And showing highlights of every match repeatedly as well. So I have enjoyed the Ireland innings more then once!

And while driving I have tried to find cricket related radio but the only two radio stations I can find reliably are a general sports channel and talk news. Both spend most of their time with very opinionated presenters , (in between farming programmes of course) and the only commentary they are doing is NZ games. Which was nice on Tuesday because we basically had the TMS team doing the Scotland game. But yesterday they spent the day criticising all the Associate teams during a discussion about how to improve the standards of the smaller nations.  The presenters – most of whom I have no idea who they were just kept slating the idea of NZ playing a three match series against Ireland or the UAE outside of a World Cup. Who would come and watch they said? Well no one if you patronise and put down the sides beforehand; lots of people if you market it properly. And who would you rather see right now – Ireland or the disinterested West Indies?

Wellington 19^th February

Apparently hire cars in New Zealand are scared of leaving their respective Islands so when you have a car you have to leave it one ferry terminal and pick up another one when you arrive.  Having safely negotiated that hurdle the next one was to find the promised parking at the hotel. But no sign of it anywhere – only lots of suspended parking bays – only for official World Cup vehicles.  By this time it is 7pm and there is no sign of traffic wardens, so I dump the car in  one of the official bays (well I am here on official World Cup reporting duties!) and check with the hotel to find it is valet parking only. I like that idea; give someone else the key and they take your car away for you. Only hope the car rental company like it as well.

Next step make sure I know which of the three possible grounds in Wellington the match is actually at. I know it is not the Basin Reserve; the proper cricket ground, but there are two stadiums either side of the Harbour which it could be. I thought it was the one nearer the cricket ground, but driving from the ferry there is a huge bowl of a stadium with lots of world Cup dressing up so I think it is that one. And it is not far from the hotel. Well I have the morning to find out for sure.

And the hotel does have Sky TV so I can watch the Zimbabwe/UAE replay and get another fix of Nelson. The commentators love it as well.