THE DROP BEAR DIARIES - CHAPTER 8 "DESPERATELY SEEKING RUGBY"

Beach House sunset

We had arrived in Coles Bay, a small community on the Freycinet Peninsula.  Our accommodation for the next two nights a glorious Beach House set in a natural bush garden overlooking the ocean.

That evening the All Blacks were playing the Wallabies in Dunedin at “The House of Pain” - so named for the difficulty visiting teams often face when taking on the All Blacks.  

We were primed to watch the game as we ate supper at the only bar in Coles Bay.

Beach House bush garden

We arrived at the bar to find the clientele watching stock car racing.  We had come face to face with the Coles Bay locals - beanie bearing young men accompanied by a sole lady sporting Rastafarian braids. They were going through the motions of playing pool, supping beer while casting one eye at the TV screen and the other suspiciously at the interlopers.

Our travelling companions are incredibly polite, they could be taken for Canadians.  Displaying incredible diplomacy in their conversations with the bar staff it became apparent the rugby game would be shown over our dead bodies.  

We retreated with as much grace as possible.

We missed the Haka

Plan B would involve a trip to the grocery store and hopefully a barbecue back at the Beach House, if the grocery store had anything suitable for barbecuing.  This was a very small community.  As luck would have it magnificent fillet steak presented itself. The trimmings were collected along with some wine and we returned to the Beach House.

The television was turned on while we prepared dinner and a miracle manifested itself.  We were staring into the belly of the House of Pain.  

In spite of our intelligence to the contrary our Beach House had the requisite TV channel, despite the fact Internet connections required one to stand in the driveway facing the water to get a signal. 

We joined the game in the early stages of the first half and the Wallabies were putting up a good fight against the All Blacks but to no avail.

Which wine shall we open?

Julie concentrating on Cooper's
 attempted conversion

Talk about grasping victory from the jaws of defeat!  

Barbecued steak with all the trimmings, Tassie wine and a famous win by the All Blacks.  

What could be better!  

Men at work

Julie and Roger graciously displayed their excellent Canadian manners at the game's outcome.

Apparently Drop Bears prefer cricket and are quite afraid of athletic men in black.  Because of their familiarity with bush fires they have become accustomed to living with The Ashes, which unfortunately cannot be said for the rest of Australia.  Good luck this year!