Melbs Trip

Craig and I are flying over tomorrow morning, staying at the Ibis in Little Bourke Street. Will head on to the Transport Bar in Fed Square Wednesday afternoon.

We've got tickets to the Collingwood vs. Geelong preliminary final on Friday night too. Sailing at the Sandringham Yacht Club Saturday... Heart game Sunday.

Epic.

About to head to the airport, ridiculously excited. See you all at Transport for pints and Evan Burgers.

 

Now you're talking.

Is there anyone willing to pick me up a match programme on sunday? I'll be able to get and pay for it at the next home game.

Can sort you out if no-one else has got back to you.

Looking forward to a big effort from the lads on the pitch (and the lads and lasses off the pitch) today!

Owwww, I just discovered Transport opens at 11am!!!

Off to the pub then.

Yarra Fever, Yarra Fever!

Boys in full voice today..

Id like to say thanks to the YF I met in Melbourne last week , The missus and I had a fantastic time at both games. The cops (they wore yellow and that was appreciated) next to us at the Victory game had a huge laugh at our "Your sh*t , they're not!" chant and even came over at Heart to say hello again.

By the way.. all "on tour" jokes remain valid until after the next home game.

On behalf of the Auckland triplets, thank you to the twins who suggested we were still in our twenties, and early twenties at that!

You may have been 10 years out, but it made my week 

You guys helped make two pretty sh*tty games really bloody entertaining - was awesome.

"Whats it like to lose at home" - was priceless

From the twins, we had a fantastic time and was great to meet a bunch of nice young men, who only found it necessay to remind us every hour, on the hour, that they had wives

I think I have only just started feeling alive again after Sunday.  What an awesome day!  You guys rock!  Bring on the next one.

Just looked the highlights from the Victory game. Sky did pick some of the better looking Nix fans to focus in on at the start. One of the twins made it into shot, but can't work out which one.

Well done all. My voice-box is still suffering, capes2010-09-22 09:45:17

So identical!

Stalked that nice photographer all the way back to Federation Square

Wo love you 240, we do!

I wrote this today for an online yachting club (VSK-AUS) that I am a member of... can't be bothered editing it overly much... apologies for the strange off topic parts...

What a thoroughly EXCELLENT week in Melbourne.

We left Wellington bright and early... take off at 6am meant arriving at the airport at 4.30am. That's 2.30am Australian Eastern time... Nice flight to Sydney, with one other Phoenix fan (Mike TurfMooore) on the flight. After battling through the International to domestic transfer horror at Sydney airport (is there a worse airport transfer system anywhere in the world?) we got to the lounge to wait to board our flight for Melbourne, due for boarding at 9.30am and to take off at 9.40am. We sat down with Mike, the other Phoenix fan who'd been on our flight from Wellington. His son lives in Auckland and was on a flight over for the game... he'd meet up with us in Melbourne.

Boarding was delayed by 10, then 20, then 30 minutes. The plane arrived late. Then we boarded, only to sit, and sit, and sit, and sit... the captain came on and said that the auxiliary engine in the tail was not working. Apparently they start it up first and use it to start the other engines. So they had engineers jump starting one of the main engines to get us away from the gate, and then they'd work on jump starting the other 3 engines. "Jump-starting" you say? Oh good.

So then with all 4 engines jump started successfully, we sit, and sit, and sit... captain comes on... one of the seats was broken, and the engineers had just secured it... just waiting for the paper work, it'll be 2 minutes. Oh good.

10 minutes later the captain comes on... "Sorry folks, it's just not our day - two more seats are broken and the engineers are just fixing them, oh, and the luggage doors are not closing properly." Oh good.

Eventually we took off, and luckily the plane held together all the way to Melbourne. Yay. Caught the sky bus to Southern Cross Station and walked all of 150 metres up Little Bourke Street to our hotel. Nice.

Went out for lunch, and back to the hotel for a nana-nap. Then we got up and went down to the designated pre-game bar, the Transport bar in Federation Square. We arrived to find a dozen 'Nix fans in yellow and black, grabbed a beer and started making friends. Good times. Several beers later we walked down to the ground, and what a ground for football! AAMI Park got a big thumbs up from the travelling Yellow Fever. We packed out bays 11 and 12 with what was probably 200 travelling fans in the end. Txt and emails from home indicated we were heard loud and clear by those back at the pubs in Wellington. The Tards north end group were going off behind the goal at the other end of the game. They really put on a good performance. The south end fans were weak lemon drinks, and we let them know it too with several strong renditions of "They're good (pointing to the North end Tards), You're s*** (pointing to the South end), They're good, you're s***!"

The 'Nix played out a very popular 0 - 0 victory, and we went back to the Transport Bar in good spirits with our first away point of the year in the bag. Some more beers followed, along with a VERY interesting 'discussion' with Sharron with a 'K' from Brisbane. She didn't mean to be racist, but... what you have to understand is - from an evolutionary point of view - New Zealand's Maoris are thousands of times more evolutionarily advanced than Australia's Aborigines. (That's what she really said!)... No, seriously, Maoris are intelligent, and Aborigines are just dumb. (She really said that too). Welcome to enlightened Queensland I guess?

We drifted home about 1.30am, planning on heading out for a late breakfast at about 11am.

Only we forgot that 11am is 1pm NZ time, and our body clocks were not yet adjusted... so at 8.30am we were up and about. Off to long relaxed breakfast with several coffees and a couple of newspapers. Apparently the Phoenix were lucky to escape with a draw, having packed 10 men behind the ball and hung on grimly for the draw. We resolved that next time we go on an away trip we really need to pay attention more and make sure we go to the right game! In the stadium we were at the Phoenix were ALL OVER the Victory in the second half, and were bloody unlucky not to win it, having had 3 chances to every one that the Victory created.

Thursday day was extended breakfast, tour of the MCG - Craig's first time there and my first time since the rebuilt the member's stand. We got the full tour too, sitting in the commentary box, in the Collingwood changing room for Friday's game, on the pitch, up to the top of the member's stand etc. All for $20, what great value!. Thursday night was a blast. We caught the tram down to St Kilda and went to dinner at Chicolinas in Acland Street. Easily one of the top 3 restaurant experiences I have ever had. Dave and Matt from the Yellow Fever joined us and the two of them plus Craig and I had a hilarious time eating the most incredible meals, drinking great beer (Little Creatures Pale Ale) and fantastic Sardinian red wine (Grotto Rosa). The staff were fantastic, lots of banter and hilarity. If you're stuck for a great restaurant in Melbourne hit Chiciolinas.

Friday followed a similar pattern - extended breakfast, nana-nap in the afternoon and then off to the Westpac Centre, Home of the Pies to meet up with Ralphie and his son Flynn and mate Brian before the first preliminary final in an almost sold out MCG. A massive massive massive thanks to Ralphie for organising the tickets, inviting us into the home of the Pies,  buying us a beer, and generally bending over backwards to make us a part of the big Friday night occasion. It's a highlight of the VSK-AUS experience that you can have such good mates on the ground in a foreign city who don't hesitate to help make your stay special. Craig's first time at the G for a live game of AFL and when the opening bounce went up and the crowd roared I looked over at a sporting tragic in a state of bliss... he was loving it.

Saturday I got up early, grabbed a quick breakfast and met Uanmi on the corner of King and Little Bourke Streets. He drove us down to Sandringham Yacht Club, where we met with Simon (Razorsedge), Paul (Oobie), Jordan (Stubby), Jesse (Halcyon), James (Jaycee) and two of Simon's regular crew off Razorsedge, Paul and Brendan. We went out for a sail in a 10 - 15 knot SW breeze. We got squeezed out at the starboard end of the start line (My fault - I was calling it and didn't see a J24 almost head to wind drifting up to close the gap on us...) so we spun around and crossed the line close to last... some work to do... a few good shifts, some clear air and an pretty good layline saw us 2nd after the 2 mile beat, just behind a Farr 1020 Wavelength. We went for the asymmetric kite for the downwind leg and at times it was definitely the right choice, allowing us to surf up onto Wavelength's air... but as we got down to the 2nd mark the wind lightened off and we were forced to watch them dig a hole and sail deep straight to the mark while we sailed the angles... two other boats sneaked though inside us and we rounded the bottom mark 4th. Then Huey showed he had a sense of humour - a 45 degree rightie meant we were close to leading as we lifted off the boats who rounded in front of us... only we were left over laid, and they all scooted up inside us... we did round 2nd though, back in it. We gained on Wavelength on the run, but the final leg to the finish after we did a killer late drop was a follow the leader slightly cracked sheets lay through, so there was no chance to pass Wavelength who finished 20 seconds ahead of us.

We were all pretty happy with a second though. It was a nice race and bloody good fun to sail with a group of guys you know from sailing online. A big thanks to Simon for making Razorsedge available, and to the guys who showed up to make it such a good day. We had a few rums on the boat and then headed up to the SYC.

Back at the Yacht club Ralphie came and joined us. We had a few more drinks and snacks on the deck and then all said our goodbyes. Ralphie, Stubby, Jesse and I went to Mordialloc to try and find a pub to watch the Saints vs. Bulldogs game, but the bouncer's were not buying that Stubby was old enough... so we went to plan B and went back to Stubby's house, ordered pizza's and gave his dad a couple of rums. Good times. Ralphie then gave me a ride back to the hotel. What a bloody good day!

Sunday we decided not to vary the winning formula. A bit of a sleep in was followed by a relaxed extended breakfast, this time in St. Kilda... then we met up with the Yellow Fever crew at the Transport Bar, underwent the necessary 'attitude adjustment' phase, and then walked down to the ground for the second Phoenix game, this time against the Melbourne Heart. And boy, were the travelling fans in awesome form. around 300 of us this time, swelled by those who could only make the weekend, and a number of locals, plus Gareth (from Perth) and Gavin from Wellington who had met up to celebrate Gareth's 40th birthday in Melbourne. Outstanding.

Unfortunately the Heart triumphed 2 - 1, so the after match function where we took over the Charles Dickens Pub in Collins Street was a little more muted than it otherwise would have been. Oh well.

Superb week, good times.

A couple of Fever-centric additional comments.

Nathan, you gotta learn when the keep quiet mate. You did well with the Chicken Parma question and shoulda quit while you were ahead.

Matt and Dave, thanks for the superb night on Thursday, cracking time.

Diz and Anna, Shane and Mike, Malcolm (Mike's better dressed twin brother) and Mike's son from Auckland, Charles Manson and everyone else who made the trip, what fantastic banter, great showing at the games, and fun times before and after both games.

The 9.30 Qantas flight home - oh what could have been!? Our seats were RIGHT in amongst the team, which meant it was like sitting at a wake. Had we won I think there would have been a lot of fun had by all on that flight.

Ricki came and talked to Craig and I at the airport in Wellington, and thanked us and everyone else for the fantastic support in Melbourne. He said it was really noticable from the bench. Both he and Wardie apologised for not coming through with a result vs. the Heart, and said they looked forward to putting it right on Friday.

Can't wait.

 I was not aware that Sky was broadcast outside of NZ?

Obv he means foxsports

Brilliant write up bwvaleo2010-09-23 23:38:36