Rubgy rugby and more rugby

People in New Zealand take their rugby really seriously. Maybe even more seriously than American football. Ping wanted us to have a "true kiwi experience" so he sent us on the fan bus to the semi-finals of the local rugby league. It was Mid-Canterbury vs South Canterbury. Original names, right?

We hopped on the bus to Ashburton, which is about an hour north of Timaru. The bus was full of older men, armed with a boxes of beers, beer bongs, and face paint. It was like a fraternity for old men. We were 4 of 6 girls on the entire bus. And we were sober, which made the whole situation that much funnier.

When we arrived at the game, we watched 80 minutes of bone crushing play. You can actually hear the bones crushing when they make impact. Rugby makes American football look like child's play. Americans use helmets and pads, and New Zealanders use their muscles and their heads. The final score was 17-16, with the local team (the one that Ping is a sponsor for, hence the free tickets and bus ride), losing the game and ending their season.

Post game, we had been told that we were going to go for a pub crawl. The older men on the bus were pretty drunk and getting more drunk by the minute. Turns out that the players were going with us on the pub crawl. 2 pubs in, one of the managers for the rugby team says that the boys want us to hang out with them on their bus. We were growing tired of the older men's songs about Yogi Bear, so we hopped on the other bus and found ourselves with the same scenario, but a younger crowd. I can't really explain all the funny things that happened on the bus, but there were a lot of funny songs, conversations with coaches, managers, and players, and chants of USA on the bus.

The night ended back in Timaru at a few more bars. So. much. dancing. The boys that stuck with us the whole night were dancing machines and definitely gave us a run for our money. There was also another rugby team in town so the whole place was taken over by boys in matching shirts, mullets, and ties. Overall, it was the best day/night we've had, and we have hopefully recruited more people to come to our Halloween party that we are throwing at 8 Wired next Saturday.

In reference to my previous post, we ate Mexican food the other day. On the same "Mexican" menu, was lasagna, fish and chips, and pasta. Enough said.