Taupombledon 2009

The competitive spirit was warmed up for the second time this (in)famous tournament was to be played on NZ shores with the great linguistic Taupombledon vs Taupimbledon debate. The o's won it, for no more reason than it rolls off the tongue better...and it's printed on the scoreboard.

Friday was accompanied by the usual bemoaning of the Wellingtonians about the drive up - you all choose to live in that hemmed in backwater ;-)

But normal order was quickly restored once the keg was tapped and the beer was flowing. A nice little surprise for the Friday night - a half keg of Kid Chocolate left over from the Auckland beer festival. The traditional bacon sarnie fry-up was held sometime after midnight, and the last of us trickled off to bed at - a probably unwise - sometime after 3am.

Despite the forecast for some showers from the summerless south, Taupo managed to put on another perfect day for tennis - not too hot, not too cold. A new element to the tournament was unveiled, creche corner - where more athletic ability was probably displayed than on court. Of course, the tennis once again took a back seat to the real purpose of the day - the drinking - a keg of Emersons Pilsner for the boys (perhaps a little too hoppy to accompany a day of tennis), and punch for the girls (minus 2).

But there has to be a winner on the day - and this year, finally, Rae & Tom managed to pick up the title to their own tournament. I think they were quietly chuffed, and there might have even been some subtle fist-pumping at the back of the court. Of course, the final game of tennis does no mean a halt to proceedings, as the trophy quickly becomes the object of attention with a game of "tennis-ball-soccer-header". This may go down as one of the best games ever, extending to a marathon 7 sets.

Post the BBQ dinner, the night finished much earlier this year - perhaps the influence of the kiddies, perhaps the extra strength in the Pilsner, perhaps we are all just getting older...

But still another great Taupombledon weekend.

City Chasing

On Saturday Tom and I took part in the inaugural ANZ City Chase. It drew more than 300 teams into an adventure which ranged from the North Shore's Devonport to the eastern waterfront's Okahu Bay.

The event was the first in New Zealand and the 300 teams made it the largest first time event per capita for any country that has a City Chase event. The winning team completed ten of the twenty chase points in 2hrs 9mins - a fair bit faster than Tom and I. But we were just in it for fun, and we had plenty of that.

Teams must travel only by foot or approved local public transport - bus, ferry or train, and stay within 25m of each other at all times. Any other methods of transportation, including any form of private transportation, bicycle, car, taxi, motorcycle, rollerblades, hang glider, magic carpet, camel and rickshaw were strictly prohibited

Tom and I finished down the pack in what was still a respectable 3hrs 40mins, well inside the deadline of 6 hours. Our biggest hindrance time-wise was heading over to Devonport to claim the chased points there - all of the top teams stayed on the southern side of the harbour. However, as a result they missed out on the best task of the day.

The Chase started off down at the Viaduct with an impromptu task. You couldn't get your Clue Sheet until you brought back two of - an ATM receipt, some foreign currency, or a coin from 1993. This set off a mad dash by all competitors, with every tourist (or anyone who looked like a tourist) hassled for change. This too longer than you think - even more frustrating that I had been to an ATM just 20 minutes earlier - but of course, no receipt.

Finally, with Clue Sheet in hand, Tom and I thought the best plan of attack would be head across to Devonport, where 5 of the tasks were located very close together. We weren't the only ones, as the first ferry was crowded by other teams with the same thought. Though the short trip gave us an opportunity to strategise - and also call Anna to google some of the clues.

Our first chase point proved simple enough. At Devonport Chocolates, we simply had to wrap a couple of chocolates to their approval - and we got to keep the chocolates.

Close by was our second task, which was to paint each other's faces to match the pictures. We choose what look to be easiest - the Dalmatian. Mistake was to let Tom go first, he was trying to make my face perfect and absolutely caked my face with paint. After looking at what some of the other efforts were given approval, I realised all I need to was randomly put some white and black paint on Tom's face and it would be fine.

Caked in paint, we headed off to the next stop, which was the "special ANZ Chase menu". This proved to be rolling a dice and having to eat a grub or insect. They were quite small so ended up pretty easy, the worst seemed to be the crickets and fortunately neither of us rolled those.

We now had a bit of a march to North Head where a queue had built up waiting for buckets. Fortunately I had a VIP pass, which enabled us to jump the queue - go to be some benefits working for the sponsor! We had to carry two buckets of water from the beach to the top of the Head and then complete a mental task with the water. I had seen it before, so it proved quite easy. However, the combination of all this running and and the sun meant we had quite a sweat on - not that great when you have a paint face!

We not just had one last task in Devonport - and this was the best of the day. We had to head in the Naval Base, where we had to done overalls and life jacket - all to the orders of a young drill sergeant. We then boarded the frigate Te Mana and had to leap from the side into the harbour, and the scale the ladder up the side back onto the frigate. It was absolutely awesome and if I had thought about it then, I would have done it again. It's not every day you get to jump off the side of a naval frigate.

With 5 Chase Points down, we were pretty chuffed with ourselves, and even had enough time for a pie and a coke before the ferry left to go back into the city (what we didn't know was that the winning team was finishing as we were chowing down!).

Back in the city, a short sprint to Britomart, where we soon found ourselves trying to find a stranger to sing Split Enz's I See Red with us.

It was then a short wait to take us up to Parnell, where we had to find a park to answer some questions about the ANZ Netball Championship and then shoot some hoops.

We then thought we were making our way across to the Parnell Rose Gardens, which we thought were an answer to another clue. However, on arriving we quickly realised we got that one wrong and there was no one else in sight! Fortunately, this was en route to the Parnell Baths anyway, which was definitely a correct answer. This involved swimming a length of the Parnell baths herding blow up sheep. A little unusual, but Tom and I aced this, even having to wait for a couple of young guys who we caught up, who couldn't control their sheep.

We were on the home straight now and only had two last Chase Points to collect, with plenty of options Downtown.

At the Ice Bar, there was the simple task of bobbing for of ice cubes. Though a little surreal with some tourists drinking cocktails out of ice glasses next to you (though why they are in the Ice Bar in the middle of the day, I do not know?).

Our tenth and last Chase Point was then just across in the Maritime Museum, which we had to scour for answers to a question sheet. Then it was a sprint (more a half-walk/half-jog by that stage) of about 200 metres to the finish at O'Hagans pub - and a much welcomed beer.

It was an awesome event and I cannot recommend it more highly for anyone who wants something fun to do next year.