Each summer, Michigan Rugby sends one or two select players to New Zealand to train with our partner club, Poneke FC. Shea Loughnane and Luke Zana are there now, and Luke is writing about his experiences abroad each week. This post concerns May 4-10.
Travel to New Zealand is pretty tough, and takes at least 24 hours depending on your connections. To get to Wellington Shea and I flew throughout the US, and eventually into Auckland, before a quick 45 minute jet to the nation’s capital.
Week one we stayed at the YHA hostel while looking for more permanent housing. It’s located at the south end of Downtown, which let us really explore the two main thoroughfares for food and shopping: Courtenay Place and Cuba St. The food here has strong southeast asian influences, but there is a ton of variety, from Irish Pubs to Sushi.
The weekends are reserved for everything rugby, and there is both Super Rugby and Rugby League on in every restaurant. The local Super Rugby team is the Hurricanes, who played away this week, and all of New Zealand supports the Warriors in Rugby League, which is mostly played in Australia.
In addition to getting our bearings with international data, acclimating from jetlag, and going to our first practices, Shea and I had a chance to hike Mt Victoria, a small peak right next to downton. It took about an hour to get to the top, and provided views of all of downtown on a surprisingly clear sunny day. The trail goes through some beautiful mossy woods, and is quite easy to find.
We also got a chance to walk the waterfront, and we started to get a feel for the local culture. The locals we met were all very friendly, but I kept bumping into people because I was walking on the right side of the sidewalk, and they walk on the left side here due to the fact that they drive on the other side of the road as well. By far my favorite part of the local culture was the abundance of meat pies. About hand sized, these pies are like a chicken pot pie, often filled instead with mince or steak, and cost about 4 US dollars. Served hot and ready at any cafe, they are quite addictive and delicious.
We also had a chance to spend lots of time at the Poneke clubhouse. Outfitted with a weight room, Shea and I got in our first lifts of the summer here, as well as participating in Tuesday-Thursday practices for the U21 “Colts” team.
We traveled with the team to their second game of the season, against Norths, which we won 36-31. The team got together after the win at a pizza place, and watched even more rugby. People have warned us about the weather, but so far it has been mostly 50’s and 60’s (that’s fahrenheit as I refuse to acclimate to celsius) and partly cloudy, with rain a couple of times. Overall, it has been a whirlwind of acclimating, but it looks like it should be an incredible summer.
