It was an early morning start for the Christchurch crew with a 7.30am check in for our flight to link up with our Auckland counterparts to complete our U23 family. All of a sudden the reality of the experience was starting to kick in.......seeing everyone dressed in our number ones, ready to embark on our journey overseas with Silver Ferns proudly shining on our chests! The buzz, the energy and the smiles were a special sight to see.
Like with all travel, nothing ever seems to go smoothly. Problems checking in at Auckland were just the start. After arriving in Melbourne we had some difficulty sorting out our bags for the flight to Adelaide before spending a few hours refueling and exploring Melbourne Airport.
By this stage of the trip the points were starting to rack up for the game we always play on Korfball trips - see who gets asked "What's Korfball?" the most, with bonus points for the best explanation. Spencer deserves a special mention for the hour long conversation he had with a lovely couple from near Gisborne and he even convince them to come support us in Adelaide!
After a brief team meeting, a rather jaded looking crew jumped on the plane for the final flight to Adelaide. Just to top the day off, we arrived in Adelaide to find two bags got left back in Melbourne by the airline. Alisha was really hanging out for some clean clothes to change in to!
Finally, late in the evening after about 17 hours of travel we hit our accommodation at Shakespeare Backpackers, not exactly the Ritz but sure it'll provide some great stories for further posts.
Tomorrow we get to meet the Malaysian team in the afternoon and spend some time teaching them Korfball as part of their first international experience as a playing nation. Then most of the players will get their first taste of international Korfball with a friendly against Australia! Pumped much!!
Catch you back here later for a report from day 2, a match report from the Australia game, and a few more stories from the team. While you wait, check out our player profiles and the website that will have the live feed from the games at http://www.worldkorfball.org/competitions/59.html
Need to see Auckland player photos too. Jamie you have a fan club so get blogging...
ReplyDeleteFirst of all, Christopher i know that was you. Haha thanks dad. Have had some awesome experiences so far and no doubt there will be many more to come. For people who like flying you should have been on our flight to Melbourne. Talk about rollercoaster! :-P LOVED IT! Watched two movies, had a meal...even ate the greens!...can you believe it? Better yet we got a delicious ice cream too. If ours was good i wonder what business was like! Haven't bought anything YET...apart from food of course. Played Aus last night, first international game (friendly). Some awesome shooting from both teams. We dominated most of the two last thirds. Just had training in the stadium, pretty epic! Massive space seats all round.
ReplyDeleteBreath taking. Games start tomorrow cant wait.
Love to all xx<3
Jamie
Yoyo!! what an exciting game for us sitting infront of the updates... you shoulda seen me and mum yelling at the comp screen.. lol it was funny until dad walked in and complained that we were too noisy and the window was open... :P sux that you lost, but you guys did awesome keeping the score resonably low and several gaps of no scoring from them.... hope you dont have any blisters from those shoes... how is helens ankle healing up??????
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