Wellington, the cool

My coldest Winter was a Summer in San Francisco, said Mark Twain, and that could probably apply to Wellington too.

Like San Francisco, New Zealand's capital is a very cool city in every sense of the word cool. Cool because of the chilly gushes of wind from the Cook Strait, cool because of its overall vibe. Modern and dynamic but laid-back, with good museums and culture, fun bars and cafes, good restaurants. Friendly people, everyone seems to be into one sport or another. All of this by a very beautiful landscape, water ever-present.

While traveling for my project on rugby in New Zealand, I got a call from one of the photo editors at M, the weekly magazine of Le Monde. "Can you fly to Wellington and shoot something for us?"

Why, of course ...

Some photo assignments are more fun than others, and this one fell in the camp of the really fun ones. M has a section where a local who knows a city well, writer Eleanor Catton in this case, picks her five favourite spots. My job was to take photos of those places: a theater, a pizzeria, a bar, a pie shop, and a trendy street.

Camera in one hand, pizza, mince pie, flat white or beer in the other. Fun.

Eleanor Catton takes us to Wellington, Le Monde's on-line slide show.

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Final - All Blacks vs France

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

Congratulations to the All Blacks for becoming the World Champions, 24 years later, and to France for putting a good fight. After my previous comment, which came out a bit harsh on the French, this time I have to give them credit for falling with honor. In front they had the best team in the world.

More photos of rugby in New Zealand in my website.

Rugby World Cup 2011 - Semifinals

This past week-end, semifinals at Eden Park.

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

 Next Sunday France and New Zealand, the All Blacks, will play the final of the 2011 Rugby World Cup. One of these two teams represents the greatness, the passion, the honor, the respect for the shirt one wears and for the legacy it carries, the love of rugby. The other one (at least in its current incarnation) represents the mediocrity, the lack of respect for the public and for its own colors, the search of the result no matter what. Two very different ways of seeing and living the most beautiful sport there is. Unless the Gods of rugby decide to play a big, cruel joke on rugby fans worldwide, we already have our Champion. Let's just hope the final result is a crushing victory for one, a humiliating defeat for the other. A lesson for decades to come.

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

Rugby World Cup 2011 - quarter finals

Some photos from last week-end, during the quarter finals of the Rugby World Cup 2011. Auckland is oozing rugby ...

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

© nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

It will only get better this week-end, with the semifinals.

New Zealand's passion for rugby

My work on rugby in New Zealand was featured this week-end in the BBC website.

You can read the whole story here.

I am now back in Auckland to continue this project during the knock-out phase of the Rugby World Cup. Will post some new photos soon. Stay tuned!

Kia Rite! Kia Rite! Prepare yourself!

  New Plymouth Boys High School, Taranaki                                                                    © nacho hernandez, all rights reserved

The Rugby World Cup in New Zealand is about to start.  Rugby (or any other sport) does not get better than this.


                     

Rugby in New Zealand

The Guardian - Weekend Magazine

The Guardian, in its Weekend Magazine, published this past Saturday one of the photos from my project  on rugby in New Zealand.

Very timely, as the Rugby World Cup starts in New Zealand in two days.

Rugby in New Zealand

© nacho hernandez

I am in New Zealand for the next six weeks, to continue shooting my project about rugby. As the country prepares to host the 2011 Rugby World Cup (September/October 2011) rugby is, more than ever, everywhere.

I have created a specific gallery in my website for this project: Rugby in New Zealand

Photos and text available for publication. Please get in touch if interested.

Rugby in New Zealand

Raglan, New Zealand      © nacho hernandez

Back in Manila, editing the first photos from my ongoing project on rugby in New Zealand. I will post a selection soon.

Blood, sweat, tears, rain and champagne

At the final of New Zealand's national provincial rugby championship or ITM Cup, played in Christchurch ten days ago. Canterbury beat Waikato, thus winning the cup for the third consecutive year.

© nacho hernandez

© nacho hernandez

Charles Monro

I just visited Palmerston North. The city is not particularly exciting. This is a city that was put on the map internationally when Monty Python's John Cleese declared that "if you wish to kill yourself but lack the courage to, I think a visit to Palmerston North will do the trick". Palmerston North responded by naming a local dump "Mount Cleese".

But I digress. I came to Palmerston North because it hosts the Rugby Museum of New Zealand. I thought that there, I might be able to get a nice shot related to early rugby in the country. In particular, I was hoping to find some memorabilia from Charles Monro, the "father of New Zealand rugby", the man who organized the very first rugby game played in New Zealand, in 1870. When I arrived to the old, small museum, a very nice gentleman greeted me. He asked me where I came from and what I was doing in New Zealand. I was the only visitor so we chit-chatted for a while. When I explained that I was shooting a story about rugby he was truly sorry to inform me that they were moving to a better location and almost all their best memorabilia had already been put in boxes. I was starting to feel like John Cleese. I mentioned how I had wanted to take photos of some of Charles Monro's items, which would have worked nicely for my story. At that point, a woman rushed out of the back office. If you are interested in the history of rugby in New Zealand, she said, you will like to know who this gentleman's grandfather was.

At the end, I got to photograph my Charles Monro "item". The best one. His own grandson.

Neil Monro, grandson of Charles Monro, browsing a book with a portrait of his grandfather in it.       © nacho hernandez

In the Garden of Eden

© nacho hernandez

Eden Park in Auckland is one of the most important rugby fields in the world. It has hosted rugby games since the early 1900s, and is home to Auckland Rugby (in the photo, last Sunday) since 1925. It hosted the final of the very first Rugby World Cup, won by the All Blacks in 1987, and will also host the final of the 2011 edition, exactly one year from this Saturday.

In a country where rugby is lived almost as a religion, being on the grass at Eden Park feels like stepping on hallowed ground. Or like walking in the Garden of Eden.

New Zealand and Rugby

I just arrived in New Zealand, where I’ll spend the next month doing some research and shooting for a long-term photographic project very close to my heart.

My plane landed in Auckland very late, almost at two in the morning. I was hoping for a quick pass through immigration so that I could rush to my (excellent) hostel and get some much-needed sleep. Immigration officers had a different idea. Something in my profile had raised red flags. Maybe the fact that I am traveling by myself for a month without really knowing where I’ll go? Maybe that I was a Spaniard, living in the Philippines, coming from Australia? I will never know, but the truth is that I was grilled with questions for quite some time. A tough-looking agent would ask me the same questions again and again, like a Stasi agent trying to catch me in a contradiction. Finally he asked: what do you know about New Zealand? 

I candidly replied: “Not much, but I do know about your passion for rugby and, since the times when I was a rugby player myself, have always thought that the All Blacks are the best team in the world”.

The agent raised his eyes from the computer and gave me a broad, warm smile. Ah, you’re a rugby player? What position did you play?

“Fullback” I said, somewhat proudly.

At that point he stood up and left, only to come back 20 seconds later with something in his hand. He looked at me, then at my passport and, with a slam that made the desk creak in protest, stamped it. Approved. Enjoy your stay! 

He was an almost two-meter tall, strong, honest-looking man. Probably a second-row in his younger days.

(Note to self: In this wonderful country, always mention that I played rugby in the first two minutes of any conversation).

Today I met and interviewed a legend of the sport, as nice as a person as great he was as a player with the All Blacks. But I will leave that for another post.