This week we travelled down to Hamilton to meet-up with Sian Beetham whom Ruth had been in school with in Brecon and her sons Evan and Rhys (Evan had been in Ellie’s class in Ysgol-y-Bannau).

Our visit coincides (and was planned to coincide) with the All Black’s test match against Canada at Waikato Stadium. So Saturday evening sees u head over to stadium where we stand on the terrace grass bank at the Seddon Road end of the ground.

The Welsh flag made it onto the TV screen and according to Ruth (who stayed at Sian’s to look after Meg) the kids (who had their faces painted in NZ colours) were zoomed in on.

The game was an interesting one as Canada are in Wales’ world cup group (and the Director of High Performance is Geriant John). They played with a very good defensive pattern and at half time it was 26 -13. They went on to loose the game 64 – 16 however they should not be underestimated and appear to have picked athletes rather than rugby players in several position. They will match Wales for pace and power and are no longer naive in the defensive organisation. At £10 for an adult and £3 for children attending the game was a bargain.

An unusual feature of the game (at least for me) was the NZ version of the mexican wave which involves throwing plastic beer bottles in the area as the wave moves around the stadium. It was raining plastic bottles and the game came quite close to being stopped as bottles were landing on the pitch.

The next day we say good-bye to Evan and Sian and head further south to Waitomo which is famous for its limestone cave system which is inhabited by glow worms. The white of the limestone made the interior quite spectacular and the guided tour culminated with us getting into a boat (while in the cave) and travel down the river in darkness apart from the pin prick lights of the glow worms in the roof of the cave. The river emerged from the cave and that was that. Spectacular.