For the last couple decades the America’s Cup competition has (generally) made good to be a Kiwi.
Even though I haven’t lived in NZ since I was a young boy, I have resolutely held on to my Kiwi citizenship (and passport). During the cold war I argued that this was actually a measure of self preservation as I figured that if WW3 did break out, NZ would be close to the bottom of the list of targets and I could therefore return home to comparative safety.
I also thought that, in the days when I did a lot of travelling, the NZ passport would be close to the Swiss in terms of insignificance. This proved to be wishful thinking as NZ proceeded to ignore the rest of the world opinion and play sport with South Africa, as well as antagonise the USA with an anti-nuclear policy.
Well, *we* are now within the proverbial cat’s whisker of challenging for the Cup again.
And it looks like, for the third time in a row, I will be in Auckland when the races are held. The amazing euphoria of winning. The universal, palpable, despondency of loosing, And the general feeling of pride that a nation of about 5 million souls can take on the world in a high budget contest and win will hopefully be there to be experienced when I am in Auckland later this month.
And, of course, the continued success of the All Blacks helps too!
