Mikie Linch Trip Report #3

The last time I left off on my stories about my adventures was at the beginning of week three. I think week three was really the start of me getting used to the New Zealand boarding house way of life. I was starting to make friends too.

For the first two weeks I think both the other guys and I were a little apprehensive to become “mates”. Up to this point the only thing people really talked to me was about the States but around this time guys were starting to talk to me like I was one of “the boys”.

Oddly enough most of the guys I was hanging around were 1st XV players even though I was on the seconds. Trainings went along as usual, and we prepared for a game that we all knew we could win, vs. Melville 1st XV (won 89-0 from my second trip report). After the game I went to stay at Roy Steel’s house for the long weekend. While I was at Roy’s I read Jonah Lomu’s biography, and it has become one of my favorite books.

Week four was much like week three. I was really starting to hit it off with the guys from the house. I was worried that I wasn’t going to be able to fit in here but the more I got to know the other guys and the more I hung around the house I started to realize that they aren’t much different then my friends back home. Some are rich, some are poor. Some play sports, others don’t. Some are hyper, others are really relaxed. Once I learned that, making friends became easy. But I was still getting out and doing some type of rugby work everyday.

Week four’s game against Frasier HS 1st XV went really well. We won in a close one 13-12 as I mentioned in my last report.

Week four ended on quite a funny note for me. I got in a little trouble in chapel for laughing during one of our hymns. Now this was meant as no disrespect. I was trying my best not to laugh but the song was called “Lord of the Dance” and I couldn’t stop thinking of Jesus river dancing like the Lord of the Dance guy. So week four had quite an interesting ending to it.

The boarding house has produced some very interesting experiences to say the least. All the guys in the house are dedicated to having a good time. We’ve done anything from playing tackle rugby in a four foot wide hallway, or running into each other with one of those big inflated workout balls bouncing each other away.

Everyday I am grateful that I was able to board because I know my experience here would not have nearly been as good if I was a day student. The only bad thing I have to say about boarding is “Prep”.

Prep for those of you lucky enough not to know is the time every night when you have to sit at your desk for two hours and do all your homework. Now that sounds all fine and dandy but when you are not given any work to do, Prep becomes a challenge to preoccupy your time as you count the seconds until it’s over. I find myself many night wandering around the hall of the 6th form dorm talking to the other guys and then getting caught by the staff member on duty and having to talk my way out of it.

Week five was one of those crazy weeks. It was arts week and I was “chosen” to represent my house in drama. And by chosen I mean I was told that since I wasn’t in the country when people chose what art they wanted to be in, I had to do drama.

Arts week was definitely an experience. The events were painting, photography, lip sync (air-band as we call in America), chalk art, movie, and of course drama. We had been rehearsing for about four weeks at this point and I was only one of two students out of twelve that knew his lines two days before we were scheduled to be performing. So I was not expecting much.

As one of two senior students, half the rehearsals consisted of me and the other older guy trying to calm everyone down. But surprisingly everyone was able to learn their lines and we actually did really well.

Our house took 3rd in drama which in hindsight was really good, because we had the worst script and more of the youngest guys. I was really impressed by some of the work done by some of the other houses. Even though my house was disqualified in two events (movie and lip sync) for “inappropriate school behavior”, I think we well.

But through all of this there was still rugby going on.

Week five’s game against Putaruru College 1st XV was a heated contest, but we won it 21-7. The game started off with Putaruru trying to pound the ball inside with their forwards but we were able to defend with a lot of heart.

Once we got the ball it was show time. Our halfback took a quick tap and raced up the sidelines then off loaded the ball to our winger who was just caught from behind and was knocked out of bounds. Their lineout throw was not straight, so we took another lineout 5 meters away from the try line, and the forwards drove it in.

The game was matched up pretty evenly for the next 10-15 minutes. We were using our forward pack effectively and after we had drawn a lot of their forwards and backs into a ruck we spun it out. I was playing on the outside and got the ball about 15 meters out. I was able to draw the defender and offload to our winger who scored easily in the corner.

Our 3rd try came right before halftime. Just like our 1st try we were able to win our lineout and drive the ball into the try zone from about 10 meters out.

The second half was all about defense, showing our toughness keeping them out of the try zone on more then one occasion when they were inside our 5 meter line.

They scored in the last two minutes of the game, when they got it to their very big Maori wing who just ran right through our outside defense.

Overall our forwards played a strong game on both defense and attack. We were dominant in the line outs and scrums. My scrummaging has gotten better every week, and this week I was able to really beat up on my opponent. I had two big runs in this game and was able to set up a try for our winger. I think this was our best played game as a team.

Week six started with some good news from the 1st XV coach. He invited me (and Mike Lazarz) to the Quadrangular (4 team) tournament in Palmerston North (about 100 miles from the bottom of the north Island). He told us from the start we were not going on the trip to play, but I was really just excited to go on the trip.

The week went really smooth, until I went to use my ATM card for the first time and found that no ATM machine here accepts my card. So after two or three days of being flat broke in a foreign country, my parents just sent me all my money from my bank account (I’m having the housemaster hold on to it for me). It really wasn’t that big of a deal, I just had to go a couple of days without going anywhere, but it was mid week and I didn’t really miss anything.

On Friday, after being decked out in all the cool 1st XV gear (team bag and training shirt), we were off on our seven hour bus trip to Palmerston North for the Quad Tournament.

I think when people were thinking about the experiences I was going to get, this was the sort of trip they were thinking about. The whole ride was just filled with laughs. All the guys on the 1st XV are cool guys and there was a very interesting choice of music being played for a lot of the trip. At any point you could hear rap, rock, oldies, reggae, techno, or even N’SYNC and the Backstreet Boys.

Some of the scenery on the trip was breathtaking. On more then one occasion I found myself just gazing out the window awe-struck at what I was seeing. It was one of those times where I was thinking, “I’m actually in New Zealand playing rugby”.

A lot of people told me I was going to take some things for granted while I was out here. Or that I may not see how much of a life changing experience this is until many years later. But this drive was one of those times were I immediately appreciated what I was looking at. EVERYTHING was green.

I can remember one moment in particular when we were driving and I looked to my left and saw what almost looked like a jungle it was so green, and then I looked to my right and saw just this beautiful beach. The guys on the bus must have thought I was crazy because I kept looking back and forth from right to left.

I also saw the mountain that some scenes from Lord of the Rings were filmed at (Ruapehu). But what I thought was one of the coolest parts was when we stopped at Taupo, the largest crater lake in the world. The water was just crystal clear and it was just this gigantic lake that seemed like it just went forever, almost as if it were an ocean.

When we finally arrived at Palmerston North Boys High School, surprisingly - all the guys were energized. I thought after such a long trip everyone was just going to want to sleep, but instead once we put our stuff in the house, we grabbed a ball and went out to play some touch rugby.

The games didn’t go like we wanted them to. We lost both games but we could have easily won them both. The boys played really well, it was just too many mistakes at crucial times that lost the games (how often do you hear that?).

I did experience something I’ve wanted to do for many years; I got to perform the schools Haka with the team. The Haka produced probably the coolest moment of this trip so far for me. On the second day when we did our Haka the team we were playing also had a Haka so it was almost like a battle between whose Haka was better. It was electrifying. I’m starting to shake right now just thinking about it.

This was probably one of the coolest things I’ve ever done now that I think about it. I hope to at some point make the 1st XV just some I can do the Haka again with the boys.

It was also neat how they ran the after match function. Instead of everyone just sitting with their team they forced people to sit with the other teams. It was great hearing some of the other guys’ stories at the table with me.

Overall the trip was an awesome experience but my weekend was not over just yet. We had a long weekend which means we didn’t have school until Wednesday. So after the tournament, one of the players (Zach) invited me to his parent’s house for the rest of the weekend.

So on Sunday after our seven hour trip back to Hamilton, I drove with Zach to his house two and a half hours away in Coromandel. Once we got to his place we just passed out.

The next day we mostly just hung out at the house. He drove me around the town and showed me the beach. This was once again one of those amazing scenic places. He introduced me to a lot of his “family” around town.

It’s really cool in New Zealand, because it seems like in their home town, everyone knows everyone else. Zach introduced a lot of people to me as his cousins or brothers or aunts or uncles and then when we’d get back in the car he’d tell me they’re not really related they just call each other cousin or brother or aunt or uncle.

The second day was much of the same we just relaxed and went off-roading a little bit. I had a lot of fun, and if I could choose a place to retire when I’m old, this place would be right up there. Everyone was nice and it was just ridiculously beautiful.

That ends my third update of my adventure. At the moment though, I’m packing for a “tramping” (camping) trip that I’m leaving for tomorrow. This is also part of our assessment for PE class. So that should produce some stories.

Mikie Linch