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.

Bondi Beach

When a country prints its currency in waterproof paper you know its people are serious about their relationship with the sea. In few places is this idyll with the big blue more present than in gorgeous Bondi, one of Sydney's Eastern beaches. In "Bon-dy" surf is king. Even its name, which in aboriginal means "the sound of water", speaks of good waves to catch. You'll see surfers running into the water just before sunrise and retire exhausted, with a big smile in their faces, long after the sun is gone. Only a few meters away from the beach, like an evolved species that left the sea long time ago, skateboarders "surf" in their own way.

But there is much more than surf to Bondi: trendy cafes, crazy partying, the odd charming bookstore, families and groups of friends enjoying the beach, children training to be the Ian Thorpes of tomorrow, sexy women jogging around, clad in impossibly tight running pants, lifeguards that would make David Hasselhoff blush in shame. Everyone is there, coexisting in a rare harmony. My kind of place.

© nacho hernandez

© nacho hernandez

© nacho hernandez

© nacho hernandez

More photos of Bondi in my archive. Photos and text available for publication.

© all photos nacho hernandez. All rights reserved.

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.