Historic Tour

Broke the 200 mile drive from Napier to Wellington at Palmerston North where we tracked down the New Zealand Rugby Museum. A treasure trove but only room to show five per cent of the 30,000 items they have accumulated over the last 40 years or so.

The first All Blacks tour to the UK dates back to 1905 and they became known as the Originals. In their first match against a Devon XV in Exeter the tourists won 55-4 but at least one paper in London just would not believe it, thought it was a mistake and printed the result as 55-4 to Devon. Those who were there were astonished at the speed of the Kiwis’ play and dubbed them the All Backs because it looked like they were all backs and no scrum players. Only Wales beat them (3-0) on an historic tour. Dave

Tuesday 25th November 2008

The Toilet and the Rose Garden

It sounds a little like a modern day fable, doesn’t it? In fact, it’s two stories related to our trip between Napier and Wellington. We stopped off twice, firstly at Dannevirke, a town with Danish connections, for coffee and then at Palmerston North to visit the New Zealand Rugby Museum where I was shocked to find Jonah Lomu in the ladies toilet.

There is also a beautiful rose garden in the town which has won awards. This delightful specimen was named Dawn.

We gave a lift to the German young lady, Monika, who I’d met on the winery trip yesterday as she happened to be travelling to Wellington too.

Jean