The Super Bowl (?) in New Zealand

I got back to Auckland Sunday afternoon after a congested 3-hour drive from Taupo and got a motel room north of Auckland where I spent that evening packing up.  My plane for Sydney didn't leave until Thursday, but I wanted to get packed up and ready to go a few days early so I could spend some time visiting the northern tip of New Zealand called, not surprisingly, The Northland.  I stayed in the motel room the next day, as well -- which happened to be Super Bowl Sunday (or, because of the time difference, "Super Bowl Monday" in New Zealand) so I watched the Patriots beat the Rams Monday afternoon while packing two big boxes of camping gear to send off to Sydney and another box to send back to the U.S.  

Left:  In an Auckland motel room, packing up for my trip to Australia and watching the Super Bowl.  They didn't show any commercials, though, darn it.

Unfortunately, as I discovered, New Zealand television stations broadcast only the "European Version" of the Super Bowl.  They're the same video feeds as the American version, but they use a couple of second-rate American announcers and some hyperactive Scottish guy  (folks in Europe apparently understand football better if it's translated by a guy who sounds like Scotty from "Star Trek.") 

Throughout the game, the announcers painstakingly described many of the game's intricacies, such as the subtle difference between "Holding" and a "First Down," since football is, I'm sure, a mystifying sport in Europe, just as cricket is in America.  The biggest disappointment, though, was that they didn't show any commercials -- undoubtedly the best part of any Super Bowl broadcast.  Frankly, without the commercials the game was pretty bland, despite both the close score and the sputterings of the lone Scotsman:  "Captain, the Patriots have lost their dilithium crystals!  They can't take much more of this!" 

Despite the announcers, it actually turned out to be a pretty good game, which is unusual for a Super Bowl.  Still, though, it just wasn't the same without the ads.

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