Poneke 2023, Week 3: Exploration and First Game

Each summer, Michigan Rugby sends one or two select players to New Zealand to train with our partner club, Poneke FC. Shea Loughnane and Luke Zana are there now, and Luke is writing about his experiences abroad each week. This post concerns May 18-24.

Week three had another huge milestone, as Shea started for the team at wing! In Poneke’s Old Timers match (their version of Olde Blue Weekend) Shea and 14 others fought a brutal slogging match in a downpour. The field devolved into a mud pit, and because both teams struggled to handle the ball, the score remained low. Poneke lost a tough game 12-14, and had a real chance near the end of the game to punch in one more score, but just couldn’t quite get over the line.

After the game all the Poneke teams headed up to the clubhouse for the Old Timers Banquet. There were several awards given along with some great speeches. After the ceremony was an impromptu karaoke party. Surprisingly, most of the music was American. “Take Me Home, Country Roads” by John Denver and “Have You Ever Seen The Rain?” by Creedence Clearwater Revival were big hits.

In addition to the games on the weekend, I got a chance to explore some more of the sights around Wellington. I rode the cable car to Wellington’s beautiful botanical gardens, which had a surprising number of flowers considering it’s winter right now. Wellington also has some cool beaches, and I did a 7-mile hike along the Red Rocks beach before jumping in for a quick cold plunge in the ocean. I also got a chance to visit the free Te Papa History Museum right downtown, which had a fascinating exhibit on New Zealand’s military participation in WWI. 

The highlight of my week has to be the tour I took of the Weta Workshop. New Zealand is the filming site of the Lord of the Rings, and Wellington is the home of cinema in New Zealand. Located in a small suburb on a residential street is a place called Weta Workshop, a world famous prop design studio. Here I got to get an inside look at everything behind the scenes of a movie from prop design, to makeup, to mask-making, and even saw a full on blacksmith at work on creating swords for movie use. This studio has taken part in countless films, including making nearly all the props for Lord of the Rings, and the tour was full of little nuggets about the series. My favorite was the fact that Viggo Mortensen, the actor who plays Aragorn, insisted on wearing real chainmail armor for his scenes instead of the considerably lighter fake mail. I got to try just the shirt on, and it weighed nearly forty pounds! I was amazed that he would insist on such a thing, and gained a real appreciation for the dedication actors put into their roles.