(or: Not Quite Yet)
We're both sick, although Vic is worse than me today for a change. Post-tournament blues? Anyway, we're having a lazy day (and possibly rest of the week) at my aunt's place in Perth.
For another perspectives on the Blokes and Sheilas at WUCC2006 check out loopy-lu's blog: http://loopy-lu.blogspot.com/.
I didn't play on Thursday in our game against Drunken Dogs (Japan). In fact, I was volunteering (time-keeping) another game so I didn't see any of it. We won, which meant we moved into the 17-20 playoffs.
First up was a game against Camelot (Canada). After that we would be playing a Japanese team since Osaka Natto were playing Ebisu in the other match.
I was feeling pretty bad in the morning, so I didn't even warm up (symptoms included rather unpleasant dizziness), but after about 30 minutes of playing I felt better and warmed up and got on. Besides, I could hardly play worse than the rest of the team (see below).
This day contained easily our worst performances of the tournament: after really competitive games against eventual finalists Brass Monkey and Team Fisher Price, in these games we simply could not gel. It wasn't particularly that the defence of the opposition was good; it was that our passing, cutting and catching was pretty woeful. In both games, we played much better in the second half (which seemed to be the story of the tournament) matching the opposition, but too little too late. Final score against Camelot: 17-11.
We then played Ebisu (again!) for the 19-20 playoff, who had lost to Osaka. Their offence was clinical in the first half, tearing our zone defence to pieces. At 8-nil down we took a timeout and tried to remind ourselves why we were playing. After that we were much better, going 17-8 or 9.
I still wasn't feeling very well for either game, playing about half as much as I would have. We were also missing Hebs who was in the hotel throwing up all night and day. And of course Pete and Carrie had gone home earlier.
So we came 20th: beat our seeding (24th) but not as good as we'd hoped.
Saturday was finals day: in the mixed final (as mentioned above it was Brass Monkey vs TFP). Brass Monkey looked a bit out of sorts, and TFP won the game 13-8.
After the open final (won by Buzz Bullets (Japan) to Thong (Bris)) the spirit awards were announced, and we won!
So stoked! This is a great result for our team: we had started our campaign with a few aims, one of which was to play with really good spirit; clearly in the eyes of the teams we played against we achieved that.
In a great result for the ACT and Australia, the other spirit winners were Phoenix (ACT, womens), Fear Disconsonia (WA, masters) and Fakulti (NSW, open).
Now it's time to check out of the hotel and for the team to go their separate ways. Rather sad, but a job well done.
Two close games yesterday, disappointing results, going down to Bootius and then Leeds. Both games were reasonably similar, where we started very slow, giving the opposition a lead and half. We fired up in the second halves and came back. Not early enough against Bootius, going down 14-11 in an at least 2 hour 10 minute game. Thanks to the extended game and the food hall closing between 3 and 4pm, we missed out on a proper lunch, which probably didn't help matters for the next game. Against Leeds we came back pretty strongly, Leeds were in the lead 14-12 at time cap: game to 16. We got three in a row to just needing to score to win; they scored without turning over to make it 15-all. A bad turnover by us let them have an easy score to win. Again, a very long game, over 2 hours.
Today we move into the round of 8 for placings 17-24, with one game today and 2 tomorrow.
I have a nasty chesty cold, so I probably won't play today.
Hard work yesterday against two top teams, but we played well.
Vic's comments:
Today we play LeedsLeedsLeeds (from Leeds!) and Bootius Maximus (from Brisbane). A win in either of those should take us into the round of 16.
Today we had our final pool game, against UFO from Finland. They like their 3-women cup zone defence, and they did very well against us. It was pretty tight, with the lead see-sawing back and forth until we took half 9-8. They got the next two, and didn't relinquish the lead (I think). They got a few up, we clawed back to within one, and at time cap it was 14-13. Game to 16. If they got the next two, we were relegated! They got one, and then we got one, to make it 15-14. So we knew we were through to the top pool. They got the next to win, but despite that win, UFO didn't make it through to the top pool.
Very tightly fought game, a couple of contentious calls, but good spirit showed through in the end.
I was very happy with my game, with no errors (I think) and a few d's. The O-team did well, but the D-team had problems converting when they earned a turnover. Most uncharacteristic.
Next up we play some very good teams from Canada and the US: Team Fisher Price and Brass Monkey. Very tough.
First results for Blokes & Sheilas today from WUCC2006.
Tomorrow afternoon we take on the Finnish team UFO. They beat Shiok! and then lost a pretty tight game to Ebisu (17-14 I think). This means if we lose to them (and presuming Ebisu beat Shiok!) then there'll be a 3-way tie, with the top 2 to advance to the top pools. So we better not lose, otherwise it becomes a points differential calculation.
In the morning, we do the "Black Abyss" Waitomo Caves tour run by the "Legendary Black Water Rafting Company". This is lots of fun, and includes an abseil, flying fox by the light of glow-worms, floating and trudging through rather cold water, climbing waterfalls and lots of glow-worms (very cool).
On the way to Rotorua, we stop at Te Kuiti to take a look at the Big Shearer: Te Kuiti is the shearing capital of New Zealand.
We say goodbye to Pauline and Len, and spend a good 6 hours driving south, through Auckland towards Te Kuiti, including a stop off at the Kiwi House in Otorohanga: this has an excellent Kiwi exhibition, including two Kiwis in a "night house" which is "dark" during daytime.
In Te Kuiti we meet up with Bill's cousin Kate and her husband John and have dinner at their farm just out of Te Kuiti. Their house is undergoing serious renovations so we stay at a motel in Te Kuiti.
Kate arranges for us to do a tour of the Waitomo caves tomorrow, including a significant discount.
The forecast was very ordinary, so we decided to forgo booking a boat trip around the Bay of Islands, and instead headed out with Bill's Aunt Pauline and Len to their beach house in Wellington Bay (on the east coast, 30 minutes from Whangarei).
Len and Pauline take us on a "Tiki Tour" of the bays in the area, and Pauline joins us in a brisk walk down to Whale Bay, which is quite pretty.
We farewell Jo and Tony, and head north.
Firstly, we visit the Kauri Museum in Matakohe, which has amongst other things:
Then we went to the Waipoua Forest, and walked to the Four Sisters, Te Matua Ngahere (The Father of the Forests: over 5 metres in diameter and could be over 2000 years old) and Tane Mahuta (God of the Forests: the largest tree in NZ, and approx 1200-2000 years and 51 metres tall).
Then we went to Trounson Kauri Park on the way to Whangarei. It had a loop-walk which if anything was more spectacular than the Waipoua Forest walks in terms of sheer number of large Kauri trees.
Had a good steak dinner in Dargaville, and found Len and Pauline's house in Whangarei.
We catch the ferry from Devonport to Waiheke Island, taking our bikes and a packed lunch with us.
Like the rest of New Zezland, Waiheke Island is quite hilly, but not particularly large, so we cycled from west to east end in a few hours. Their are some pretty cool views along the way (including Palm Beach and Onetangi Bay).
Eventually we make it to Stony Batter on the east coast. In the Second World War several large guns were placed on the eastern edge of Waiheke Island, making Stony Batter. We did a short self-guided tour through some of the tunnels, before making our way back to the west coast, missing the desired return ferry by about 3 minutes. So we consoled ourselves with some hot chips before catching the later ferry.
Also a photo of Jess (Jo's daughter).
We decide to head over to Piha, on the west coast, in the Waitakere Regional Park, but just before reaching the Auckland Harbour Bridge notice that it is jam-packed with cars, so we decide to go north (and west) to Muriwai Gannet Colony.
The Gannet Colony is pretty cool, and I took lots of photos of birds taking avantage of the wind.
[putting links in is taking too long, hopefully we'll fix it up later]
On the way back to Auckland, we went along the Scenic Road through Waitakere Regional Park. Lots of good views.
On our return from Auckland, uncle Jack came over, as well as Tony's mother Ila (sp?). Photos of John (Jo's son), and a bumble-bee.
Catch the ferry with Jo to Auckland.
Walk to Auckland Museum, catching some sculptures on the way.
Auckland Museum is pretty good, having a reasonly organised collection of Maori artifacts. The highlight of the Auckland Museum was the Volcano exhibition, which included a (literally) room-shaking multimedia Volcano simulation (like an earthquake machine, but better).
Next we wandered over to Sky Tower. The view was pretty good, despite being a rather grey day. Many people had trouble walking on the transparent flooring (including in the lift).
Bill was tempted to do the Sky Jump, but piked.
This here is going to be some notes of our trip to NZ, hopefully linking to photos.
Drive from home to Sydney airport was smooth and uneventful.
Note to self: don't return car with half a tank of petrol. They (Hertz) charge an extra dollar per litre of petrol. Ouch.
Flight from Sydney to Auckland is similarly uneventful.
Tony (husband of Jo [Bill's cousin]) picks us up from the airport. Despite not knowing what we look like he finds us because (apparently) Bill looks very similar to Jo's brother Patrick. On the way to their house in Devonport, Tony helpfully points out a useful bikeshop and the original Clarke house in Albert Rd.
