Eh Up! Ere come the Pielice!!! Happy Easter, not
Trip Start
Feb 03, 2008
1
22
30
Trip End
Apr 14, 2008
Napier,
New Zealand
Tuesday, March 25, 2008
"Anyway day one was a nightmare here but I'd rather not talk about
that. Oh,.....you'd love New Zealand's Easter licensing laws!!! On
Good Friday and Easter Sunday you can only drink alcohol in a pub if
you buy food! The guy in the pub we were in yesterday (Good Friday)
found a loophole in the law which says a pie constitutes a meal so we
had to buy a pie each every hour to carry on drinking!!!! This sounds
ridiculous but stay with me...it gets worse!!! The Police (or Pielice
as we have nicknamed them) actually enforce and came round issuing
tickets to people drinking outside the pub who hadn't got a receipt
proving that they had purchased a pie in the last hour. It's the most
ridiculous thing I've ever seen to be honest and has tainted my view of
New Zealand a bit. Put it this way there are several thousand slightly
disgruntled Englishmen here!!! What didn't help my mood yesterday is
that I couldn't get anywhere to stay in Napier so I am actually staying
20kms (12-13 miles) down the road in a town called Hastings. They
don't really do public transport here, particularly over Easter where
everything closes (I mean everything!!!) but I've managed to get booked
on the mainline coach route everyday of the test match which is
thankfully running over Easter. But put it this way Napier is not the
English fans favourite place as the town is chocker block and there are
quite a few people kipping on floors and beaches etc!!! And then to
top it off they have this stupid Stone Age law, which the Pielice as
they have nothing better to do actually enforce!!!! Anyway its a story
to tell and the weathers still a damn sight better than at home so I
guess we can't complain too much!!! So anyway think of me if you hit
the pub on Sunday!!! Mind you we are OK at the cricket as they have a
special licence, its afterwards that we are all buggered - so I'll be
hitting the sauce big time at the cricket tomorrow, me thinks!!!"
Well you'll be pleased to know that we did actually find out that the local RSA (Returned services association - just like the Legion at home) had a special licence and could serve beer whenever they like, so we hit the RSA for a few handles of Tui (one of New Zealand's main beers which has been described by our mate Shep as "lager with food colouring in it" and by everyone else as "dishwater"!), so many in fact that I didn't bother going all the way back to Hastings last night and instead kipped on a mates floor here in Napier. Anyway the cricket is going well and we should wrap it up tomorrow - unless it rains or something pretty shocking happens. I'm off out for a meal in the steakhouse with all our crowd from this test match for an end of tour dinner in a minute, but I might just go and grab a sneaky pint first. I can hear the Barmy Army trumpeter in the pub just down the road, so I might join them for a chorus of the Sidebottom chant and a handle of lager with food colouring in it!
My plan once the cricket ends is to head down to the South Island. I'm looking to head down to Kaikoura and do a bit of whale watching towards the weekend and then head on to Christchurch, Queenstown, the glaciers on the west coast and then back up to Auckland before I begin the long journey back to Blighty, 2 weeks on Sunday!!!! :((( At the moment I'm really looking forward to seeing you all, but I'd much rather stay here, the sun is shining and the weather is sweet again!!! I'm also somewhat scared of what Browny is planning for my homecoming by the sounds of the rather strange message he left me on Facebook!
Anyway stay warm, enjoy de-icing your cars and dodging blizzards and I will see you all soon.
