Ka mate! Ka mate!

Actually....ka ora ka ora, but that isn't how the All Blacks haka goes. From party town NZ I headed back to the place I started here, Christchurch. It was somewhat sad leaving Queenstown and the beauty of the southern Alps behind, I made sure to get up early to watch the sunrise over the Remarkable mountain range one more time, to head back to the "city" of Christchurch. It's really not a city, NZ doesn't really have real cities.

I was hoping to stop at Mt Cook on the way up to Christchurch but much of the village at the mountain is closed down from winter conditions so instead I headed straight through so that I could catch the All Blacks game. For those that don't know, the All Blacks are New Zealand's international rugby team and are usually ranked as the best team in the world. Rugby isn't necessarily watched all that much back at home, and it took a few games before I even started to get the general gist of things, but it, particularly the All Blacks, is as closely watched here as the NFL is back in the States.

The All Blacks were playing England who is on their summer tour....to the winter season in NZ. They had played the previous weeks and it didn't go well for England, I was hoping for more of the same because I was going to the game with a bus full of Brits whom I wanted to laugh because they find it fun to make fun of the States. Really in all of my travels they have been the only nationality to make ignorant comments about other countries, besides them just about everyone I have met has been super friendly and accepting. Thats not to say all of them are bad, in fact some have been my favorite people I have met, but they have tended to be the most ignorant at times. So that, in addition to poking fun at some of the British friends along the way, and the fact that I was in NZ made me support the All Blacks by painting my face black and wearing....all black.

The game was pretty much over when it started. New Zealand ended up winning 44-12 despite pulling 2 of their best players due to injuries in the first half. The real highlight of the game ended up happening before the game started. The New Zealand Maori, similar to the Native Americans back at home, have a war cry that they chant when welcoming guests, before fighting, etc. This was primarily used back in the day. It is in the Maori language so I don't really understand it and is coupled with the men of the tribe (or rugby team) slapping their arms, chests, and legs while their eyes bulge and with their tongues sticking out. As I later found out it is meant to intimidate and psyche the tribe/team up for big events.

This war cry is called the haka and was made famous by the All Blacks, because after the national anthems of the 2 teams are played, the team performs the haka in front of the other team. Needless to say its intimidating as hell. Rugby players are huge and are rather fearsome to begin with, to see them yelling and batting their chests with eyes bulging and tongues out was really really impressive.

Here is a youtube video of what it looks like....

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9Zvs4T4RU30

Pretty awesome if you ask me.