I Heart NZ

So I finally made it to NZ, after all the postponing and delaying of the trip, so I feel like that first big push has been sorted...
I'm in Dunedin, New Zealand, which is quite far south on the south island, inhabited mainly by students, sheep and penguins! Getting here was really a noteworthy adventure though.


I started out in Athens, early Friday the 3rd April, and flew direct to Singapore with the rest of the Greek national hockey team. In between sleeping and eating, the flight was pretty easy. Once in Singapore though, we were shoved into 35 degree heat, 90% humidity and a completely different time zone, with 16 hours to kill, and nowhere to stay... Aimlessly wandering around Singapore city center, we eventually broke into smaller groups and did different things, amongst which, massages, sushi, and sleeping on the airport floors.


Finally we left Singapore late Saturday evening, to fly to Auckland. Once in Auckland we had a 3-hour lay over, before taking our final flight down to Dunedin. So we were all pretty relieved to board that final plane. Only, once in the air the captain announces we're actually stopping in Wellington first, and although we didn't have to leave the plane, I hope you can imagine what it sounded like to us: "HAH! and you fuckers thought you were done..."


So we finally fly out of Wellington and land in Dunedin, or rather at Dunedin airport, which is literally a landing strip in the middle of some sheep fields, and are greeted by a bus driver from the 70s, with a bus from the 40s! after loading all our stuff onto the back and jumping in, we were all a little on edge to see if this bus was actually going to get us there. Sure enough, on the first MILD up-hill road, the driver tweaked his tache, and down-shifted into first gear while keeping the bus at an incredible speed of about 5kph... I seriously thought we'd have to get out and push.

So we finally enter Dunedin city limits and go straight to the rink to drop off our equipment, and are all a little amazed, as the rink (which is going to be the venue for a world championship) is basically falling apart! Hah! Nonetheless, right behind the rink are these epic sand dunes, and then a huge stretch of beautiful beach, so it kind of made up for it. a few days later Jason and I decided to brave it and go body surfing in our wet-suits, but were unpleasantly surprised to find out the south pacific ocean is actually freezing cold.

Otherwise, the hotel is great, super posh with huge double beds and great food. And the city is cool, with loads of students, and a really relaxing laid-back vibe.

The world champs start tomorrow, and we're playing Ireland first, who are amongst the two favorites to get first place, so it should be an interesting game.



Hope my first real post was entertaining... I'll try and get another one up soon!


Lotsa love

T