Rugby World Cup Road Trip: Taumarunui - Tips from the Main Trunk Line

Photo / Matt Johnson

Anyone who has been to school in this country knows there are actually three islands in New Zealand: the North Island, the South Island and the Taumarunui Cossie Club.

In Taumarunui.

We got ship-wrecked there by accident, after a three-hour tour. Just like Gilligan. Stopped in to ask directions for the Cherry Grove Camping Ground... which as it turns out, didn't exist. Never had. Those three young scallywags back on the main street had been pulling my teet. Playing with the Townie.

Borrowed $1.50 off me for the privilege.

Inside, it was Quiz & Bingo night all rolled into one. At the bar, Clive was picking the All Blacks by twelve & under. Stu by more. Siren from Hamilton were playing this weekend, he said. If I fancied staying. The Dutch lady in the kitchen responded to my question by calling it a no-brainer.

At least, compared to the Quiz:

According to the carol what was given on the Third Day of Christmas?

What is motocross rider Bubba Stewart's race number? (7)

Who operated the sock puppet Lamb Chop? (Shari Lewis)

What was the film title of Star Wars Episode V? (MC: "It was released in 1980... when you were about 70, Cully.")

I sat down with a $12 Roast. Cody offered me her special pen for blotting the numbers out on my Bingo cards. The numbers came thick and fast. Colin & Marilyn offered me a berth for the Kea Kaha-mobile.

Breakfast too.

All along the North Island, people had been saying it was over. From Shannon's burnt out Public Bar to the shores of Waitarere Beach, no one would commit to the possibility of victory. Prophets of instant doom, every one of them. Just add semi-finals.

And here, as I polished off my carrot cake dessert (included), is why the Taumarunui Cossie Club struck me as an island. One you can only vote yourself off. The people on it were united in a common cause... if only (question 2) to find out what bean is used in baked Beans. (Haricot).

More than that, here too was an unblemished beacon of positivity. No one was winning the Quiz, but these people had the answer that mattered: we would have too much for the Aussies. Not on our home Patch. This is the year of the Favourites, mate. India won the Cricket World Cup. All of the above.

No one's saying it isn't blind faith. Yet amongst the twin juggernauts of conjecture and analysis; the talking heads, the deluge - metaphorical and otherwise - of limp wetness that had closed the Waitomo Caves by the next morning, wasn't that exactly what was needed? Now was our chance to believe, not Monday morning. Yet the country was already planning how to say 'I told you so'. Who said faith had to have eyes anyway?

Oh. And it was three French Hens.

On the third day of Christmas.

* Follow Matt across New Zealand at his RWC Road Trip blog or on twitter @KeaKaharoadtrip.

* Bid on Trade Me for your chance to win pieces of the Kea Kaha-Mobile, with our WHEN KEAS ATTACK auction.