New Plymouth- Ireland vs USA
Excitement does not even begin to express how it felt arriving in new plymouth knowing how close we were to finally be able to watch some rugby! Yes the built up had been epic and yes we were in new zealand but now was the time we had been planning for for four years!!! Rugby time!! We went out to watch the opening ceremony and what started out as a quiet night ended up in a very late night! Best memory is walking through the burger king drive thru at three in the morning and persuading them to feed me! Apparently they dont serve walk throughs lol! The next day we watched four matches consecutively just thrilled the rugby had finally began! We took it easy that night because the next day was MATCH DAY!!!!!!!!
The first match day is a blur of excitement and a hell of a lot of green!! Temporary tattoos, green and orange hair extentions, shamorck and lephrecan stickers, green nail polish, green eyeshadow, multiple irish flags and of course the all important jersey! The banter in the hostel was amazing and the rain was obviously pouring. I mean it was an irish match after all. It was like being at home! We gave lee her birthday present- hip flask, counting book due to her inability to count (It revolves around arriving at hong kong airport five hours early because she misread the check in time!), a tiny broach of a bike in rememberance of her iron man days (she came second! She was robbed!), a heart necklace and a flower necklace! Since i'd been telling her her birthday present was a drink she was thrilled! Taxis were ordered and we finally headed into town!
The were two good pubs in town so we headed to crowded house the pub we had been in on the friday! Packed doesnt even begin to describe it! A sea of green with spots of the white USA jersey! Although they were far and few between. It was absolutely an irish affair! Food and drinks were ordered and we stood at the bar chatting to people we had already met and the people we were just meeting! Being that it was also lee's birthday just added to the good feelings! She ran from table to table excitedly painting flags and shamrocks on whoever would let her!
On friday night we had made friends with a family who came over to talk to us! the two lads with them frasiar and bradley were absolutely lovely so we arranged to meet them and there dad at the pub for irishing up! after lee had completely covered there faces in the tricolour we watched the Australia vs Italy match impatiantly counting down to our turn! Shuttle buses ran constantly and we hopped on that after making sure we had our nip (anyone unsure of this its the nip of alcohol you take whenever you score/miss or they score/miss...we may have overused the nip!) The athmosphere was immense! The crowd was singing and cheering, the banter was flowing and in general everyone was just having a good time!
We were behind the irish try line right at the front standing in the GA! Brilliant views! Brilliant match although we probably should have scored more! There was a minute of silence for 9/11 at the beginning of the match. The dead silence of 20000 people is slightly overwhemlig! It was broken after a cry of C'mon America rang from the stands! i have goosebumps now even thinking about it! After the match in which we didnt feel the rain or care about it we headed back to the pub! And yes the irish did drink the town dry. Litreally.
We also got pictures with sean o'brian and Stephen ferris! All in all an amazing way to start the world cup! Followed by an equally amazing hangover day watching three more games of rugby :) Life is very very good!!
(Just to prove it happened)
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