Sachin dinner off
A few weeks ago, there was an advert in the Auckland newspapers about a $500 per person charity dinner with Sachin Tendulkar. Whoever would buy the tickets was to be one of those privileged ones who would not just have shared an evening with the master blaster and broken bread with him over the bubbly, but also would have had the chance to have keen cricketing conversations with him. All was set and the interest was avid. But suddenly the organisers cancelled the dinner and sent out another advert saying that the great occasion was not to be. The person at the langham Hotel reception said the dinner had been cancelled because of “certain issues” which went unexplained. Incidentally, Sachin Tendulkar will not be in Auckland for India’s match against Zimbabwe.
What’s with blackIJ
What’s all this with the colour black in New ZealandIJ All its official teams are black something or the other. Black Caps for cricket, All Blacks for men’s rugby union, their national sport, Black Ferns for women rugby team, Black Sticks for hockey, Black Sox for softball, Wheel Blacks for wheelchair rugby, Iron Blacks for gridiron, Ice Blacks for ice hockey, Black Fins for Surf life Saving and Tall Blacks for basketball, to name a few. So much so, that the Purely New Zealand Tourism people also wear black with a silver emblem and Air New Zealnd is all black with a Maori emblem! The only exception to this very black and silver rule is All Whites, the name given to the Kiwi football team. The Kiwi badminton team briefly named its national team Black Cocks to garner sponsorship but when condom companies evinced interest, the national badminton federation said it had enough of it! Kiwis tell you that most of these names have developed as a marketing device and some are genuine nicknames though the origin goes back to a Maori rugby player Thomas Elliot.
Green with envy
Talking of colours, the colour green in New Zealand is stunning, something that defies description, so different and vibrant it is from as we normally know it. Try defining it and you would say ‘it’s fluorescent, parrot greenish with a vibrant dash of greenish yellow, if that makes sense to you. No wonder then, the Maori people, the original inhabitants of New Zealand before the Europeans came in, have 10 different words to define green in their language, each signifying a special shade. One used to say, green defines God’s Own Country Kerala but New Zealand’s greens are an ode to variety, all hues unique to the pristine land of natural beauty.
Volcano country
Auckland sprawls fearlessly amid 48 volcano cones, one of which is as young as “just 400 years old”. The One Tree Hill is the most culturally significant volcano. It’s highest point is topped with a single pine tree, a monument and the grave of Sir John logan Campbell, who is regarded as the founding father of the Auckland. Most volcano cones have turned extinct and are now tourist destinations, even picnic spots, Mount Eden being one of them. It comes across as a benign green top in the distance from the imposing Sky Tower in the centre of the city, but was once known as Blood Mount, so much red molten lava it used to spew into the skies.
Height of everything
Jumping off from the top deck of a 192 meter tall building would mean you are either suicidal or someone has pushed you down. But in New Zealand, one person jumps every 10 minutes from this crazy height — and all for sport. Actually these Kiwis are height maniacs as far as adventure goes. If they are not jumping off planes from 20k feet for “free fall pleasure”, they are doing so from mountains, cliffs, trees and even suspended bridges high over the rivers! Sky jump, skydive, paraglide, parasailing, water sailing, bungee jumping, cave river jumping — anywhere you’ve a height, you’ve a Kiwi doing it — and tempting others to do their “darr ke aagey jeet hai” moment. Sachin Tendulkar and Sunil Gavaskar did it by walking on a narrow, boundaryless platform encircling the top deck of the Sky Tower in Auckland and most Bollywood celebs go for the AJ Hackett type of bungy jumping. No wonder, this is the adventure capital of the world! So if you are in Kiwi terrain and you don’t jump off a height, you are the “chicken who didn’t”.
Sports hub
It’s a sporting hub, this biggest city of New Zealand. It goes up and down the hills as it sprawls into suburbs, on the edge of one of which nestles the Eden Park. Much before cricket, there’s the Rugby that Kiwis are sold out on and Auckland adds sailing races to it as a meaningful sport. Cricket comes right after these two, though hockey too is quite happening here. Brendon McCullum’s new found aggression and the Black Caps’ dream run in the cricket tournament so far has briefly captured the imagination of the Kiwis and now they are willing to take McCullum’s name in the same breath as they take much more lionised rugby Test captain Richie McCaw’s. But all that will change come September when the Rugby World Cup happens in England and all tide will return to the worship of All Blacks over Black Caps. Not that the Black Sticks are any lesser here, though hockey as a sport never comes between the cricket and rugby rivalry, especially when at Eden Park which started off as cricket ground in 1900 but was ensnared by rugby in 1913.