The journey to and through Aotearoa - A test in time awaits
Flight to #Wellington was over in a blink of an eye, coming in to land i got a glimpse of the #CakeTin #Wespac stadium to my right. I am not particularly a fan of live concerts or watching games at the stadium, but it was always on the list to watch the #AllBlacks play a test in #NewZealand. If not the #WorldCup, the #LionsSeries is the next best thing i'd say. The only test i wanted to catch was the second one. I thought this would be the one. Someone would more than likely win the first and thus there would be a scrap for the second.
When I landed dear Jo was there to fetch me. Bless her! I was staying in a place called #Kandallah with my good friend John Carolin's sister and her family, Nick, Hannah and little Farah. Proper styling pad on the hill overlooking the town and the stadium. We had a good catch up, drank some wine and i turned in for the night, after doing some work of course. Before going to bed i hopped onto the Book of Faces and saw that my mate Brooks was heading this way from Joburg, ripper! So i dropped him a message, he hadn't landed yet, but he responded as soon as he got my message and told me where he was staying. I thought sweet as, i will pop on over during the day.
Thursday 29th June. I catch the bus into town, stroll around taking in the splendor of this lovely, compact city. On Tuesday, when i realized that i would be spending at least 2 working days in Wellington, I thought I would get in touch with a company similar to ours that could help me set up a few meetings. I had run this past Tim (#Wesgro CEO) before I left, but due to the unscripted nature of this trip i couldn't figure out where and when, but i knew roughly on tuesday that I would have at least thursday and friday available for meetings. Maria from NZTE was way too kind and managed to get me a couple of meetings on friday afternoon.
I have a tattoo on my right arm which is a tribal sign from my birth people the Ashanti's. It is an Adinkra symbol called 'Gye Nyame' translated means 'Except for God' and my interpretation is 'God before all else'. It has been with me for maybe 20 years, but i have always wanted to do something around it, but the pain of it and also to get something that meant something was always a factor that held me back. When I got to New Zealand, i had a gnawing thought that kept saying, dude this is where you should upgrade your tat. I kept ignoring it but today it screamed so loud i couldn't ignore it. Stopped at a tat shop and asked them for a Maori design they said nah man, i must go a little further up the road there is a guy called Tom, he is my guy. I met Mr Tom, lovely fellow, we spoke, he asked me where i was from, what my original tattoo means etc. and then i told him, he took a photo of it and told me to come back later he would have something for me to look at. I went and found something to eat, milled around some more and returned. He had a design, i liked what it meant, but wasn't too sold on the design or the pain...particularly the pain.
Whilst strolling through town, i kept on thinking 'I wonder where the All Blacks are staying in Wellington' but i was like bleh. I arrive at Brooks' hotel and who do i see in the lobby? Izzy Dagg and some of the backs talking strat. I was like what are the chances. Anyway whilst waiting for Brooks to come down, some of the other players that i had had the pleasure of interacting with a good few times when they have been in SA, sauntered into the lobby. TJ was one of them and he told me he had a ticket for the test for me. I was like SWEET AS, does this get any better?! Coming here with zero plan other than when I get in and leave, it's been an interesting little journey. Brooks told me he was still finished from the flight and needed some more R&R. My good man Anton Magnus had introduced me to a good friend of his, Glenn Dawson, a Wellingtonian who was living in Sydney. What a top man i tell you, we walked through the streets, spoke some life and then headed to a bar and had a beer. He had somewhere to be and i had to go back and meet Brooks. Brooks came down we strolled around, spoke some shit. I know Brooks but I did not know him so well, so it was great interacting with the man. He had flown down specifically for the last 2 tests, but get this, he supports neither of the teams, just the game of rugby :) good man.
The afternoon stroll rolled into drink or 10 bar hopping and taking in the sights and sounds of Wellington at nightfall. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, we decided to call time on that escapade. In the wee hours of the morning we decided to call it a night. I realized that the busses had stopped working...Thank goodness for #Uber.
On Friday i suited up for my meetings. Overnight the vision had come to me. Tattoo must be done. Design was a tad clearer too wanted something round. My first meeting was with the SA High Commission, the political officer was a lady from Umtata, what were the chances? So we got on quite famously and so too with the High Commissioner. Lovely ladies they were. Good meeting. Not too sure if anything will come of it but it is always good to meet with them and let them know who we are and that we are interested in doing what we can to serve our nation. I had an hour, so I went back to Tom, this time he drew a rough sketch on my arm with what he envisaged, took an imprint of it and said i should come back later. Problem, because i only had 30minutes between my next 2 meetings and Tom was leaving for Australia before my last meeting ended. So i decided to take a chance. I went to my other meeting like an hour earlier. Fortunately he was free to see me. Our engagement was concise and pleasant. We ended and i now had like an hour and a half, i went back to Tom and he had a pretty sweet design already stenciled out and all he needed was my approval. He explained what it meant and it was pretty deep and I was like sold. He said we had more than enough time so i sat down and he scratched the shit out of me with black ink. It turned out pretty well i'd say. (My nice white shirt didn't think so. It was carnage when i finally got to take care of it early saturday morning). Next meeting with the NZ Chamber was also pretty cool and that was that for the day. Found Brooks we went for a graze....well that was the plan but we didn't get there, Dawsy had asked me to meet him at a bar around the corner from the house. He was there with his old man and some other mates. So food was forgotten. what a ripper night. But it wasn't over, we went back to the hotel sat at the bar and met these Saffas from Cape Town, what an interesting engagement. I got to meet Sean Fitzpatrick, Mills Muliaina and Sir John Kirwan as well as Robbie Henshaw and his family. This hotel was like a gold mine of old players. But my night was made when I saw Steve Hansen and he remembered me from Joburg....if you dont know by now I am unashamedly an All Black groupie. I loooove this game called rugby and I absolutely adore the way these boys play it.
Come Saturday I hadn't heard anything from TJ, no replies to my texts, oh well man must be busy and getting focused, why would he have time to think about me right nowright time to invoke plan B which was plan A, find a ticket to buy. I put out some feelers, but all the while in the pits of my heart i knew TJ would come through. later in the morning he sent me a text saying he will have the ticket sorted by noon so i shouldn't stress, so i didnt, headed down to the action. on my way down i got a text to say sorted. i smiled. i had a wee thank you to my maker. all set we were. Had a bag with a change of clothes because the forecast was horrible weather. Dropped the bag at Brooks and we wandered towards the stadium. It did rain intermittently but it wasn't as bad as my mind was programmed to believe it would be. But what did i care, i was finally going to watch the All Blacks play in New Zealand in a pivotal match. this game was either going to be the series clincher or leveler, because more than likely, someone was going to win the first test.
On the way to the stadium it felt like i was going to a Lions home game. The effort of their supporters was something else, singing and drinking. the bars were full of red coats! This was such a great event for the city of Wellington. People were armed with the #PoundSterling or #Euro and they were consuming ale by the tanker-load, spending that currency with gay abandon. Guys running through the streets passing rugby balls amidst the traffic, being rather jolly they were. Theirs is a different kind of support. It's like they bring football love to the ruggga and it truly is festive. So i walked towards my seat not knowing where or what. As i kept walking the further up i went, even more sheltered from the elements, picture the thought in my head...a little snivel, a wipe of my right eye, turning to TJ and putting out a fist bump and saying "My n***a", but he wasn't there and I just smiled quietly to myself. Beanie, into the pocket you go, raincoat around...the waist, gloves...for why?!
I was in heaven...and dry. Before the game i sent a text to my mates because a fair amount of times i go to the stadium my team loses and so i was prepared. I wanted the All Blacks to win not he one hand but i really like this Lions team and I wanted there to be a contest, for all those people who have travelled afar and for rugby for goodnesss sake. The atmosphere was as if someone had pumped 5000 gigawatts into it, electric. The Lions supporters absolutely smothered the Kiwi supporters in terms of vocality. What a match. It had everything. All praise to the Lions who really played some great rugby resulting in 2 tries, but hats off to a team that played with 14 men for like 60 minutes and lead for most of the game, BUT it's not who leads that counts right, but respect nonetheless. First red card for an All Black player in 50 years and only the 3rd to be sent off ever. The last time these boys lost at home was at the hands of one #RickyJanuarie and his #Springboks in 2009. Missed penalties. Great tries, everything and a worthy winner.
How's this for a story...in 1996, The #QueenslandReds were practicing on UCT fields and #TimHoran and #JasonLittle amongst some other greats. The Reds were hissing at the time i think they even finished top of the log that year. Anyway I had just had a schaphoid-lunate reconstruction done on my right wrist, i was wearing some traditional gear. Tim Horan saw me in the crowd of onlookers. He said we should take a photo which was great, he asked for my address so he would send me a copy. I was like whatever, this guy is waaaay too busy to send this to me. I hoped, but i had no faith. A few weeks later what do i get in my res post box? Yeah that's right the man sent the picture, like he said, i was blown away and ever since that day I had been looking for an opportunity to thank him. Roll on 2017, #WespacStadium #wellington, who do i see a few rows behind me? I waited for the game to be over and i approached him to tell him the story. He called me YOUR (how you would pronounce Yaw if you spelt it) i didn't spell it for him...sheet he remembered, I was touched. We took another photo.
I am not sure if it was the loss from the game or what but i was genuinely pap and thankfully so too was Brooks so we hung around a little bit and decided to turn in. Oh shit the busses have stopped, Taxis are a nightmare to find and to make matters even worse, Uber's were surging something silly. It was a tad wet, chilly, i was tired and i waited as long as i could i was just about to bite the bullet when to my right i noticed a car that seemed to have dropped off someone so I asked him if he could give me a ride roughly 2kms away (I could have walked, but i would have died it was like climbing that hill to the views in my last email about 4 times or more, all uphill baby. He gave me his price that was like a third of what Uber was going to cost me, gleefully jumping and kicking my heels i entered his chariot headed home to my laptop.
So even though the travels were largely unscripted, my New Zealand leg of the amazing race was meant to leave a gap for my an #Australian leg, but my visa that i had applied for over a month ago now, was nowhere to be found. I was hoping it would be here by last week so I could spend this week in Australia seeing as I am all the way out here. Failing which option 2 would be #Fiji. I got home and went online to see some options for Fiji, it was around 2am or so and I was pretty spent so I decided to sleep on it and sort it out in the morning when my head was clear. Not sure what happened overnight, but he flights were ridiculously expensive, accommodation not so flash neither oh well what to do?!
When I landed dear Jo was there to fetch me. Bless her! I was staying in a place called #Kandallah with my good friend John Carolin's sister and her family, Nick, Hannah and little Farah. Proper styling pad on the hill overlooking the town and the stadium. We had a good catch up, drank some wine and i turned in for the night, after doing some work of course. Before going to bed i hopped onto the Book of Faces and saw that my mate Brooks was heading this way from Joburg, ripper! So i dropped him a message, he hadn't landed yet, but he responded as soon as he got my message and told me where he was staying. I thought sweet as, i will pop on over during the day.
Thursday 29th June. I catch the bus into town, stroll around taking in the splendor of this lovely, compact city. On Tuesday, when i realized that i would be spending at least 2 working days in Wellington, I thought I would get in touch with a company similar to ours that could help me set up a few meetings. I had run this past Tim (#Wesgro CEO) before I left, but due to the unscripted nature of this trip i couldn't figure out where and when, but i knew roughly on tuesday that I would have at least thursday and friday available for meetings. Maria from NZTE was way too kind and managed to get me a couple of meetings on friday afternoon.
I have a tattoo on my right arm which is a tribal sign from my birth people the Ashanti's. It is an Adinkra symbol called 'Gye Nyame' translated means 'Except for God' and my interpretation is 'God before all else'. It has been with me for maybe 20 years, but i have always wanted to do something around it, but the pain of it and also to get something that meant something was always a factor that held me back. When I got to New Zealand, i had a gnawing thought that kept saying, dude this is where you should upgrade your tat. I kept ignoring it but today it screamed so loud i couldn't ignore it. Stopped at a tat shop and asked them for a Maori design they said nah man, i must go a little further up the road there is a guy called Tom, he is my guy. I met Mr Tom, lovely fellow, we spoke, he asked me where i was from, what my original tattoo means etc. and then i told him, he took a photo of it and told me to come back later he would have something for me to look at. I went and found something to eat, milled around some more and returned. He had a design, i liked what it meant, but wasn't too sold on the design or the pain...particularly the pain.
Whilst strolling through town, i kept on thinking 'I wonder where the All Blacks are staying in Wellington' but i was like bleh. I arrive at Brooks' hotel and who do i see in the lobby? Izzy Dagg and some of the backs talking strat. I was like what are the chances. Anyway whilst waiting for Brooks to come down, some of the other players that i had had the pleasure of interacting with a good few times when they have been in SA, sauntered into the lobby. TJ was one of them and he told me he had a ticket for the test for me. I was like SWEET AS, does this get any better?! Coming here with zero plan other than when I get in and leave, it's been an interesting little journey. Brooks told me he was still finished from the flight and needed some more R&R. My good man Anton Magnus had introduced me to a good friend of his, Glenn Dawson, a Wellingtonian who was living in Sydney. What a top man i tell you, we walked through the streets, spoke some life and then headed to a bar and had a beer. He had somewhere to be and i had to go back and meet Brooks. Brooks came down we strolled around, spoke some shit. I know Brooks but I did not know him so well, so it was great interacting with the man. He had flown down specifically for the last 2 tests, but get this, he supports neither of the teams, just the game of rugby :) good man.
The afternoon stroll rolled into drink or 10 bar hopping and taking in the sights and sounds of Wellington at nightfall. Sometime in the wee hours of the morning, we decided to call time on that escapade. In the wee hours of the morning we decided to call it a night. I realized that the busses had stopped working...Thank goodness for #Uber.
On Friday i suited up for my meetings. Overnight the vision had come to me. Tattoo must be done. Design was a tad clearer too wanted something round. My first meeting was with the SA High Commission, the political officer was a lady from Umtata, what were the chances? So we got on quite famously and so too with the High Commissioner. Lovely ladies they were. Good meeting. Not too sure if anything will come of it but it is always good to meet with them and let them know who we are and that we are interested in doing what we can to serve our nation. I had an hour, so I went back to Tom, this time he drew a rough sketch on my arm with what he envisaged, took an imprint of it and said i should come back later. Problem, because i only had 30minutes between my next 2 meetings and Tom was leaving for Australia before my last meeting ended. So i decided to take a chance. I went to my other meeting like an hour earlier. Fortunately he was free to see me. Our engagement was concise and pleasant. We ended and i now had like an hour and a half, i went back to Tom and he had a pretty sweet design already stenciled out and all he needed was my approval. He explained what it meant and it was pretty deep and I was like sold. He said we had more than enough time so i sat down and he scratched the shit out of me with black ink. It turned out pretty well i'd say. (My nice white shirt didn't think so. It was carnage when i finally got to take care of it early saturday morning). Next meeting with the NZ Chamber was also pretty cool and that was that for the day. Found Brooks we went for a graze....well that was the plan but we didn't get there, Dawsy had asked me to meet him at a bar around the corner from the house. He was there with his old man and some other mates. So food was forgotten. what a ripper night. But it wasn't over, we went back to the hotel sat at the bar and met these Saffas from Cape Town, what an interesting engagement. I got to meet Sean Fitzpatrick, Mills Muliaina and Sir John Kirwan as well as Robbie Henshaw and his family. This hotel was like a gold mine of old players. But my night was made when I saw Steve Hansen and he remembered me from Joburg....if you dont know by now I am unashamedly an All Black groupie. I loooove this game called rugby and I absolutely adore the way these boys play it.
Come Saturday I hadn't heard anything from TJ, no replies to my texts, oh well man must be busy and getting focused, why would he have time to think about me right nowright time to invoke plan B which was plan A, find a ticket to buy. I put out some feelers, but all the while in the pits of my heart i knew TJ would come through. later in the morning he sent me a text saying he will have the ticket sorted by noon so i shouldn't stress, so i didnt, headed down to the action. on my way down i got a text to say sorted. i smiled. i had a wee thank you to my maker. all set we were. Had a bag with a change of clothes because the forecast was horrible weather. Dropped the bag at Brooks and we wandered towards the stadium. It did rain intermittently but it wasn't as bad as my mind was programmed to believe it would be. But what did i care, i was finally going to watch the All Blacks play in New Zealand in a pivotal match. this game was either going to be the series clincher or leveler, because more than likely, someone was going to win the first test.
On the way to the stadium it felt like i was going to a Lions home game. The effort of their supporters was something else, singing and drinking. the bars were full of red coats! This was such a great event for the city of Wellington. People were armed with the #PoundSterling or #Euro and they were consuming ale by the tanker-load, spending that currency with gay abandon. Guys running through the streets passing rugby balls amidst the traffic, being rather jolly they were. Theirs is a different kind of support. It's like they bring football love to the ruggga and it truly is festive. So i walked towards my seat not knowing where or what. As i kept walking the further up i went, even more sheltered from the elements, picture the thought in my head...a little snivel, a wipe of my right eye, turning to TJ and putting out a fist bump and saying "My n***a", but he wasn't there and I just smiled quietly to myself. Beanie, into the pocket you go, raincoat around...the waist, gloves...for why?!
I was in heaven...and dry. Before the game i sent a text to my mates because a fair amount of times i go to the stadium my team loses and so i was prepared. I wanted the All Blacks to win not he one hand but i really like this Lions team and I wanted there to be a contest, for all those people who have travelled afar and for rugby for goodnesss sake. The atmosphere was as if someone had pumped 5000 gigawatts into it, electric. The Lions supporters absolutely smothered the Kiwi supporters in terms of vocality. What a match. It had everything. All praise to the Lions who really played some great rugby resulting in 2 tries, but hats off to a team that played with 14 men for like 60 minutes and lead for most of the game, BUT it's not who leads that counts right, but respect nonetheless. First red card for an All Black player in 50 years and only the 3rd to be sent off ever. The last time these boys lost at home was at the hands of one #RickyJanuarie and his #Springboks in 2009. Missed penalties. Great tries, everything and a worthy winner.
How's this for a story...in 1996, The #QueenslandReds were practicing on UCT fields and #TimHoran and #JasonLittle amongst some other greats. The Reds were hissing at the time i think they even finished top of the log that year. Anyway I had just had a schaphoid-lunate reconstruction done on my right wrist, i was wearing some traditional gear. Tim Horan saw me in the crowd of onlookers. He said we should take a photo which was great, he asked for my address so he would send me a copy. I was like whatever, this guy is waaaay too busy to send this to me. I hoped, but i had no faith. A few weeks later what do i get in my res post box? Yeah that's right the man sent the picture, like he said, i was blown away and ever since that day I had been looking for an opportunity to thank him. Roll on 2017, #WespacStadium #wellington, who do i see a few rows behind me? I waited for the game to be over and i approached him to tell him the story. He called me YOUR (how you would pronounce Yaw if you spelt it) i didn't spell it for him...sheet he remembered, I was touched. We took another photo.
I am not sure if it was the loss from the game or what but i was genuinely pap and thankfully so too was Brooks so we hung around a little bit and decided to turn in. Oh shit the busses have stopped, Taxis are a nightmare to find and to make matters even worse, Uber's were surging something silly. It was a tad wet, chilly, i was tired and i waited as long as i could i was just about to bite the bullet when to my right i noticed a car that seemed to have dropped off someone so I asked him if he could give me a ride roughly 2kms away (I could have walked, but i would have died it was like climbing that hill to the views in my last email about 4 times or more, all uphill baby. He gave me his price that was like a third of what Uber was going to cost me, gleefully jumping and kicking my heels i entered his chariot headed home to my laptop.
So even though the travels were largely unscripted, my New Zealand leg of the amazing race was meant to leave a gap for my an #Australian leg, but my visa that i had applied for over a month ago now, was nowhere to be found. I was hoping it would be here by last week so I could spend this week in Australia seeing as I am all the way out here. Failing which option 2 would be #Fiji. I got home and went online to see some options for Fiji, it was around 2am or so and I was pretty spent so I decided to sleep on it and sort it out in the morning when my head was clear. Not sure what happened overnight, but he flights were ridiculously expensive, accommodation not so flash neither oh well what to do?!
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