Alexandra and All Whites

Saturday (14 November) was more overcast but still warm and dry. We headed back to Lowburn in the early afternoon and set ourselves up again beside Lake Dunstan. It was very windy by this stage – a good Norwester was blowing. We loaded up our biking gear and headed off to Alexandra to visit a friend of Wyn’s. The wind followed and it was decided that a walk was going to be more pleasant. I went off by myself for a walk up past the clock on the hill – through fields of thyme. It is a bit of a scramble up past the clock but the views are well worth the effort. I walked back via the road and met up with Wyn and her friend checking out the new subdivision near Shaky Bridge. After a lovely tea and coffee it was well after 10pm by the time we headed back home to Lowburn.

Once inside we lined up the satellite dish and tuned into the delayed free coverage of the soccer (football) game between the All Whites (NZ) and Bahrain for the qualifying spot for the world Cup. We’d missed the first 20 minutes and tuned in to the spell when the All Whites were rampant – or dominant anyway. After a few misses they scored a goal just before halftime, setting up a great second half. From then on they had to win to qualify – a draw with goals scored was going to allow Bahrain to qualify. Bahrain became more dominant in the second half but somehow the All Whites kept them out. Bahrain even got a penalty shot at goal and the NZ keeper stopped it. Somehow you knew it was NZs day. Bahrain threw everything at them and the last minutes seemed to take ages. Finally it was full time and still 1-0 to NZ and time to celebrate a great sporting moment.

With the excitement of the soccer and the late coffee before that it was a long time before we got to sleep. Fortunately it was also a long time before we woke up but there wasn’t much left of yesterday (Sunday) morning. I decided it was time to clean up our bikes – Wyn’s especially had gotten dusty on the back of the car. By the time I finished with them I had to set to to clean up myself and the back of the car – both splattered with oil muck from the bike maintenance. So passed  much of the afternoon. Wyn went for a brisk walk and I took toilet cassettes into Cromwell to empty. Later we went round to have tea with my sister and brother-in-law just along the road at Pisa Moorings. It was lovely to catch-up and a lovely evening.

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