Day 2 of 🇳🇿 Masters

Here I am sitting at the rink writing about something that happened a couple days ago . It’s always hard to regain those memories but thankfully I have enough pictures and check ins on Facebook to keep track of what the heck I’m doing this way I can do my best to maintain some reality in my stories .... they are all true and factual and never exaggerated lol 😝 

Travelling Goons have two games on deck today with our first matchup against The Wookies and we really need to win both of these games to assure ourselves a showdown for the gold medal 🥇 which we already assume will be against our competition on the last day vs. Matt Damons but we can’t look past our opposition today . Thankfully when I woke up I had already shaken off that urge to be cranky and I began to mend my relationship with my team mates who probably weren’t loving me the day before . Maybe a couple big wins will help out . Last nights 9-0 exhibition drubbing  didn’t help with the old confidence as I’m still struggling with injuries and the mental aspect of all the losses I’ve been racking up on this trip . I know I’m not the best goalie but I’d like to at least put my best effort out there . So the whole team gathered at Goon Manor and we made our way to the rink as we all chatted about our game play once we hit the room . I’m not sure where The Wookies are from but certainly they are a kiwi squad since I’m pretty sure the only foreign team are actually from Adelaide but they are in the lower pool which at first we thought we should be in but let’s see what happens today . 

The game kicked off and we got off to a good start and really never did look back in this one . If my memory is correct they never came back and we probably played one of our better games of the tourney and it seemed as though our lines were gelling quite well . The Goons cruised to a 6-3 win and really I had to hand it to my team mates for controlling the better part of the game . After our game we went back to Goon Manor and we had a nice bbq amongst ourselves . I bought a piece of pork but probably should have bought something more communal as we had not exactly had the best lines of communication as we did over in Adelaide . Not too sure what is wrong with us but there is definitely a difference between the two teams . Regardless this didn’t matter as we had a good feast and relaxed and watched some action flicks between games ! 

Our schedule was pretty good in the sense that we didn’t have games too close to each other .... sometimes it’s better but here it was better this way as our squad was more about chilling then drinking . I’m pretty cool with that as I’ve just had a hard week of enjoying the bevs and this was exactly what the doctor ordered ..... after all I was in the midst of playing 11 games in 16 days in two different countries .... maybe it’s 12 but you get the idea ? I’m tired and old and falling apart ! 

Going into our fourth game here we were undefeated in tournament play and winning this will guarantee that we get at least a silver but I’m sure The Jurrasics had plans of their own .... they came out the aggressor this game and we were tied in a deadlock for a bit before we broke the eggshell and jumped ahead and they kept coming back .... we were switching the lines as we didn’t find our perfect combinations and then the line that would push us through was lined up with Drew, Marku and klick klack ! They tore through the opposition as I kicked away shot after shot and in the end we ended up on top winning the game 5-3 with an empty netter which we didn’t score the easy way hahaha ! We are going to medal here and tomorrow we find out what color but first things first .... we are going to watch a super league rugby match between The Highlanders and Sharks from South Africa . I’ve never been to a live pro match before but have seen my buddy Gary Bock play in South Africa a few years back but they were not pros . 

So the whole Goon squad headed to the game got us some brewskis and enjoyed a good game which unfortunately the home side lost in their home opener 😕 at least Quintin our South African import was happy . We all had fun and Cam and I split the tabs for some drinks and had some snacks between half’s . Rugby was a short game with only two 40 minute half’s and seemed to end pretty quickly almost too quickly and the stadium here in Dunedin is actually quite impressive as it’s got clear plexi surrounding the stadium keeping us all dry and out of the extreme elements here . It can be sunny one second and blistering wind the next , pretty crazy shit . After the game we had a few laughs walking back to the car that we parked illegally as did everyone else around the stadium 🤪 and we decided to keep the drinks flowing so we headed into the Octagon and there was a band called Divas playing some pretty good cover music in the giant bandshell set up for the Masters Games which is more then just hockey 🏒 it’s sorta like an olympics for people over 40 . I don’t know if or why there isn’t one in Canada 🇨🇦 it would be amazing if someone started this there . Anyways this event is every two years and the Kiwi Masters is every two years also so yearly there is a masters between the two competitions except the kiwis is a younger age level . 

We met up with Benji and a couple of the teams at the bar and everyone seemed to be nice and loose . I ordered some wings which were not terrible but nothing to write home about and we hopped a few bars as the crowd moved . It was around midnight when I decided to bail and call an uber because I wanted to try to be sharp for this gold medal game . Noble joined me and we walked down the road to Nandos to meet our ride where we jumped in headed back to the house and watched some movie that the boys that left earlier were watching . 

Overall I had a great day .... hopefully tomorrow will be greater !