Day 13

Today was a very full day which saw us saying our goodbyes to Katikati in the morning and heading off to the beach at Mt. Maunganui for a couple of hours of fun in the sun and in the surf on the beach.

 Despite it being about 10 o'clock in the morning
when we arrived at the beach, it was nice and warm..... the water was pretty good as well.









To add the to 'excitement' of the morning, the Brumbies, the professional Super 15 rugby team from Canberra, Australia, was staying at one of the hotels across the street from the beach.  Many of them were also out on the beach, so many of our boys, young & old, got to meet them as they were very friendly and approachable.

Here's Mr. Mallette with Brumbies and Australian National team hook, Stephen Moore.









After the beach, we headed further south, for an hour or so, to Rotorua to try the Zorbit, (the human, hamster ball experience!)  We signed up to do the Zydro, which is where 2 or 3 boys go together in a Zorbit ball at the same time and they put warm water inside the ball so you slosh around.

A good time was has by all....including the coaches!

We then headed back north to Tauranga, on the Bay of Plenty.  We had booked the youth hostel in Tauranga.  In fact, we had the entire facility to ourselves, which was great as the coaches cooked up a big dinner for the boys in the hostel before we headed off to watch the Super 15 match.

For many boys, going to see the Chiefs play the Brumbies in Super 15 action, was going to be one of the highlights of the tour.  The Bay Park Stadium was a few km from our youth hostel.

The game itself wasn't a great rugby spectacle... (although the last 10 minutes were outstanding), but it was a fabulous atmosphere and super opportunity for our boys to see world class rugby up close and personal.  The home team, The Chiefs were victorious 29-22, scoring the game winning try at the final whistle.
To cap off a great day, our boys got a chance to get photos and autographs from many of the Chiefs players, including 3 or 4 All Blacks, at the end of the match.......can't imagine the Canucks doing that for their fans!!