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Southland captain Jamie Mackintosh carries the Ranfurly Shield at Invercargill airport - Source: Photosport -
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Invercargill, home of the Ranfurly Shield ... they may well be renaming the town for good if Ranfurly Shield fever is anything to go by. More on that a bit later.
We rocked into town on Monday night, the McCafé Winnebago Cruiser attracting a lot of attention along the way. In fact on arrival at the airport (some kind soul had driven the Cruiser from Auckland down to our starting point in Invercargill) we were met by a taxi driver who, even though the Cruiser had only been there a few hours, had already seen it!
It's the start of the trip, and we're all pretty excited about it.
Setting up outside the Southland Museum, the whole scene was pretty impressive. It's an incredible building, iconic Southland really, and people definitely knew where to come to meet us.
Getting underway, I counted that just on Tuesday morning I had four coffees, due to them being a) free and b) conveniently located less than 100 metres from me all morning. I can feel an addiction coming on.
Ranfurly Shield fever is rife down in Invercargill and after learning a bit about the history I can admittedly say I'm on board. These guys haven't had the "Log-O-Wood" for over 50 years, and they're stoked to get it back.
Shop front windows are showing their support, the cabin attendant on the plane announced "Welcome to Invercargill, home of the Ranfurly Shield". Even the local paper has changed their main by-line to announce the Shields new location. But by far, the biggest show of support I've seen so far is how many people came down to our morning location, not to get free coffee or hang out with me and the crew, but to meet the players and get their photo with Southland's Ranfurly!! Pretty cool really.
Next stop is Gore, which I'm sure will be an adventure. I'm going to get a private lesson on cheese rolling techniques from the national 2008 cheese rolling winner. Yes, cheese rolling is a big deal in Gore! And as always, if you can make it down, the coffees are free.
Tamati
Check out Tamati's schedule for week one of The Great Coffey Road Trip
