Highlanders vs Brumbies - our first Super 14 adventure

Posing with a real Highlander!!
see all photos »

One of the plans from the start of our tour was to catch a game of Super 14’s Rugby Union, arguably the most exciting Union club tournament in the world, pitting teams from South Africa, Australia and New Zealand against each other. As things worked out our best opportunity to do this was whilst on the South island in New Zealand to watch the Highlanders play ACT Brumbies at Dunedin. Being in Queenstown at the time it was a reasonably easy drive out to Dunedin to catch the game.

Dunedin is not only home to the Highlanders, but it also is home to the University of Otago, New Zealand’s largest University so it made the visit even better. Leaving Queenstown late morning we started out on the drive which was due to take around four hours, the drive in itself was worth while as we got to see even more of the very picturesque South Island. We arrived at Dunedin a bit after schedule as we had to take a different route to the main road being closed; we dumped our bags at Ramsay Lodge, our home for the night, then joined the tour bus. On the bus we got geared up for the game with T-shirts and ridiculously oversized foam hats to get us in the mood. Picking up fellow travelers interested in catching a game, we headed to Carisbrook Stadium, home of the Highlanders.

Posted by Paul

With the free t-shirts and hats we were given!
see all photos »

Getting to the stadium just in time we found ourselves a space on the terraces to watch the game. The Highlanders had been struggling through the season and it showed as they were somewhat dominated by their Australian opposition. The game was by no means a classic but did have some moments of class to liven it up a bit and was well worth attending to experience the atmosphere of a Super 14’s game (and to experience the view of the cheerleaders! - Ed). The final score was a fairly comprehensive 29-10 victory to the ACT Brumbies.

A bit of the action.
see all photos »

After the game we rejoined the coach to take us back into town for a few consolation beers. The bars seemed fairly quiet before the University students turned up in large numbers and the town really came to life, with a buzzing city centre with many bars and clubs on offer. Some of the group took up this offer while some retired for an early night to prepare for the drive back to Queenstown in the morning.

In the morning we were quite excited to find out that Dunedin was home to the worlds steepest street; Baldwin Street. With a 35% grade slope we were keen to see if the street was a match for our two mighty rental cars. Driving myself I had a bit of fear when faced with the outrageous gradient! To my surprise the mighty Mazda and even the Daewoo cruised straight to the top where we stopped for some good photo opportunities. Running back up to the cars, 30m or so away seemed like a good idea, it was not. Feeling like we had not seen enough of Dunedin we decided to take a tour round the Otago Peninsular, which was a very beautiful drive along the coastline on winding roads very close to the sea. We went in the hope of seeing some Albatross but were sadly unsuccessful. We then left Dunedin to head back to our temporary home in Queenstown.