Still wordless on a Wednesday - Enzo and Enzo

Wordless Wednesday

My Sunday in New Zealand

A car ride, water, open spaces and a chance to run free and play with Enzo and my friends - what more could a dog want?

(I'm already in the water whereas Enzo is just drinking it)

(That's me on the right, and the young pup behind.)

(Me second from right, with  my friends)

(I'm on the right in the two photos below, with Enzo beside me)

A very enjoyable morning followed by a refreshing (a.k.a.cold and smelly) bath at home.

Tonight "sudden death" as New Zealand play Australia in the Rugby World Cup semi-final game at Eden Park (in my home town of Auckland) to see who will play France next weekend in the final. There will be much nail biting, noise making and jumping up and down tonight and not just by me!

I hope you are all having a fun and memorable Sunday,

Woofs,
Riley

Riley's rugby post



There is so much rugby at the moment in my country of New Zealand that my human thought I had better say something about it. The 2011 Rugby World Cup started on the 9th of September with twenty teams (Argentina, Australia, Canada, England, Fiji, France, Georgia, Ireland, Italy, Japan, Namibia, New Zealand, Romania, Russia, Samoa, Scotland, South Africa, Tonga, USA and Wales) and only eight teams made it through to the quarter finals, despite some interesting upsets like Australia versus Ireland where Ireland won!

There have been flags everywhere (mum now recognises each flag, especially the Tongan flag as the Tongan supporters really got into the spirit of things).

This is the weekend of the quarter finals - two games (Ireland vs Wales and South Africa vs Australia) being played at the Cake Tin in Wellington, and two games (England vs France and NZ vs Argentina) at Eden Park in Auckland, so yesterday afternoon (before the Ireland - Wales game my humans decided to venture into town to see what "Party Central" was like. "Party Central" is one of the areas around Auckland set up for fans to watch the games. Unfortunately they told me I had to stay at home, but I get to show you the pictures.

First they walked through the Viaduct area which is at the bottom of Auckland's Central Business District.



The bars around the Viaduct had started filing up,

 as you will see if you bigify this photo.

Then they got to the ques on Quay Street to get into "Party Central" which is on a wharf behind the red gates. This is an area set up for before and after games for fans to get together. The road in front of the wharf is closed to traffic, and to get in they had to que for ages and then do a U-turn and go back beside the red gates on the left!

On Queen's Wharf there was space to move around, and this giant rugby ball which mum went inside. This inflatable ball has been by the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London, Tokyo and Sydney. There are videos projected inside (on the ceiling/walls) showing New Zealand, which mum really enjoyed.

They saw one of the old sheds that was left on Queen's Wharf, called Shed 10. There used to be two of these, and they left one as a bar area. It is set up with lots and lots of screens so people can drink (in a dark area, it only looks light as mum's camera had a flash thing!) and watch the rugby.

 Then they checked out "the cloud" which is a long white structure, that replaces one of the original sheds.

New Zealand is known as "The Land of the Long White Cloud" so some designers decided to make this long white thing covered in white film.

It is much brighter inside than the Shed, and there are lots of places to watch the rugby and buy food and drink. These photos were before the Wales vs Ireland game began.

There is also an area inside called "Taste at the Cloud" for people to sample NZ food and wine. Mum liked the look of some of the food, especially the Rural food (see the link above) and wanted to try some and sample a variety of our NZ beverages, but dad prefered  to go outside to watch the game and enjoy the RWC brand of beer which starts with an "H", so mum ended up outside drinking the RWC approved brand of wine in plastic cups (instead of a a nice selection of NZ wines poured into glass glasses inside The Cloud). 

In the wind and you can see some of the flags...

 and beside the wharf the surf life saving guys are on standby for anyone foolish enough to fall over the side!

There is also another huge rugby ball on one of the other Auckland wharfs behind them,

and at the end of Queen's wharf (where a band had been playing before) the start of the Ireland vs Wales game.

It was fun to see this side of the RWC, and Queen's Wharf is open every day while the Rugby World Cup is on until the wee small hours (so all the people who went to the Auckland game have somewhere to return to to party, and anyone not at the games can also enjoy the RWC atmosphere). There are other Fan Zones around Auckland, and also around NZ.

Yesterday Wales bet Ireland 22-10, and France bet England 19-12, so Wales and France will play a semi-final game in Auckland next weekend.

Tonight South Africa play Australia in Wellington, and NZ play Argentina in Auckland. The winners will play each other in Auckland next weekend, followed by the bronze final and final on the 21st and 23rd of October in Auckland.

Woofs,

Riley (the dog who has never heard so many people talking so much about rugby)

PS This is a photo off the The Cloud's website (see link to Queen's Wharf above) to show you what it is meant to look like at night.  

Five

Today is my birthday. It doesn't seem that long since I was a young pup able to move FASTER THAN THE SPEED OF LIGHT  PARKED CARS. Being able to move so fast is now being questioned, but I know I was so fast around and under cars that oil never had time to stick to my fur and mum couldn't catch me on her camera without laughing and blurring the photos.

However, now that I'm five my birthday started differently from last year, when I was four and had the full attention of my humans and packages to shred open. First I found out that dad had disappeared in the middle of the night to drive to a mountain where he can ski. Then mum started howling. She went on and on. It was quite disturbing and all I could do was look at her. She says she was singing a birthday song but I wasn't convinced. Then she told me that because she's had such a crazy week, she hasn't got me any presents yet and she feels really bad about it, but it's OK as I already have too many toys and young Enzo thinks "what is his is his" and "what is mine is his", so I probably wouldn't get to play with any new toys anyway.

Instead she promised me a day of attention with us going out together, a nice massage (you may recall she did a dog massage course), a special pass to allow me to lie on the couch tonight with her to watch sport (I've only been "allowed up" maybe eight times in all my years here - though I do sneak up when my humans are out as I don't think they have noticed the dent in the leather that I make) and best of all she told me she was going to give me some of my favourite foods.

Food glorious food...there is nothing better! I would do absolutely anything for food and my favourites are smoked fish, steak, potato chips (crisps), tasty cheese,  egg, mashed potatoes and Cheezels (bright orange "O" shaped corn snacks). I have had some of these already today, and small portions of the rest are going to be in my dinner bowl with my usual ration of kibble tonight. There are many other foods I enjoy including liver, sausages, some vegetables and ice cubes (strange but true - I will spin circles and do tricks for frozen water) but having some special foods today has made me happy.

Now it is almost time to climb up onto "my couch" and see how our NZ rugby team do against the French.

Woofs,

Riley

PS What are your favourite food treats? Is there anything I should request for my next birthday? If I put my order in early, perhaps mum will be more organised.

 

Wordless Wednesday

The World in Union

Tonight, at 7.30pm New Zealand time, in my hometown of Auckland, Rugby World Cup 2011 begins. NZ is only a small country of just over 4 million people, but we hope to put on a wonderful World Cup. There will be 48 games of rugby union held around NZ to find the best team.

Is your country competing? Do you recognise all twenty flags below? If you click on this image to make it bigger you will see the Maori name for each country. Maori is one of our three official languages. The other two are English and NZ Sign Language.

If you watch the opening ceremony you will learn about where I live – there will be wakas (Maori canoes), volcanoes, the sea, and some of our history. You will hear our Maori language in greetings (and also at the start of our national anthem) as well as English to welcome all the countries that are competing in and watching this event. Then you will see fireworks over our Waitemata Harbour. Some of the fireworks will even form the shape of our native flowers, like the kowhai (yellow) and pohutukawa (red).

Tonight’s game is NZ versus Tonga. After the national anthem of each country, our team, the All Blacks, will perform a haka (which is a war dance). Tonga also will do their war dance and then the game between Tonga and NZ will begin. Then the competition begins, as all teams try to get to and win the final game which is on the 28th of October.

As well as the opening ceremony and first game at Eden Park tonight, there is a huge party at the Auckland waterfront that starts at 4pm, with 600 Maori arriving in wakas, lots of bars and restaurants, big screens to show the game, live music and something called “The Cloud” (as my country, Aotearoa, is known as the land of the long white cloud).

It is getting very exciting. There are flags on cars and buildings, people are dressed in their team colours and everywhere you go people are talking about rugby. The Tongans have really gotten into the spirit of things starting with a massive welcome to their team at Auckland airport earlier this week. Mum has lost count of how many red and white flags (for Tonga) she has seen on cars and houses! There are also lots of black flags (with a fern) for NZ, our NZ flag (blue with the Union Jack and four red stars) and flags for other countries flying too.

What do you think of me wearing an All Blacks jersey? I'm still waiting for the coach to call me. My humans will be dressed in black tonight  too, but have told me that I have to stay at home with Enzo.

Which team are you supporting?

Woofs,
Riley

Spring is here!