Yesterday was simply; man day (you’ll see why I’m calling it man day soon enough). Typically in Auckland fashion, it was raining, as it always does when there are events on! We (8 of us; 4 female, 4 male) started the day off by meeting at Shane’s place at 12.30pm so we could re-group and mission it to the first public transport stop. By 1.30pm we had sorted ourselves out and were finally en route to the bus stop to start man-adventure day. After a short but nauseating trip into the city in a bus with a driver who though he was in a race with every other vehicle on the road we were off and heading for the train. Let’s just say that the train trip was just as scary as the bus. Are trains really supposed to make those noises? Luckily a couple of my friends used their brains and had purchased some chocolate covered nuts at the train station for us to munch on while enjoying the scenic train ride through the slums (that’s what it looked like!!) of Auckland.
We finally arrived at the Beer Festival just after 2pm, after a short, brisk walk to find a huge queue of people. Damnit. Luckily we are the unorganised type and hadn’t pre-purchased our tickets, this meant we could join the short queue of about ten people. Awesome! The guys were a bit more adventurous in trying new beers than the girls. But we gave most a go. One of the nicest was the Pure Blonde beer and a Japanese beer we tried that started with K… The most revolting was one that tasted like straight soya sauce. Oh god. So hard to get rid of the after taste.
By 5.30pm our team leader, Shane, was telling us we had to skull our last beer and run for the bus to get to our next destination. No one had any idea where we were catching out next bus from it was all guessing. Of course all us girls needed a toilet stop, which the guys were less than impressed with. This meant running for the bus. We picked a bus heading in the right direction and rode it for about 5 minutes when the bus driver told it was our stop. Yeah, obviously the wrong bus because we then had another hike to get to the actual stadium. Two sausage sizzle stops – we were starving! Only food we’d eaten all day – along the way and we finally made it into the stadium to see the Warriors play (rugby league).
Another two rounds of beer at the game, which tasted like shite after the real stuff at beer fest. But the beer-coat was in full action by then. So it was either freeze or drink the revolting stuff. The atmosphere at the game was awesome; I think most of the crowd had been at beer fest with us. NZ won – always a bonus.
The trip home was slightly painful. The beer wearing off. Running for the train in the last two minutes because we had dawdled out of the gates of the park. We seriously did a lot of exercise! I’m sure it counteracted all the beer. Of course the guys wanted to stop at a fast food spot for a burger. Ugh.
The bod is feeling seriously gross right now. This week is going to be a week of salad, fruit and water. God I need it.
