Well, hi there ladies & gents, welcome to all our readers here in New Zealand & around the world, I'm Whets here & you're tuning into my Kiwiavenger blog (And it was ANZAC day yesterday which marked 110 years since the joint Aussie & Kiwi military forces landed in Gallipoli in Türkiye (Back then it was Turkey, we will remember them, lest we forget) against the Turkish forces on April 25th, 1915 during World War I (And I was in Coromandel a decade ago when I was with both the late Nan (Who passed away 9 months later on the 6th of January back in 2016 (Which took place before our last Wellington trip 5 months later in which me & Pops attended an All Blacks test against Wales with John Coburn (For which was my only ever live AB's game that I've been (And that was 4 years prior to COVID that began in 2020), then a day later met both these gorgeous ladies of my biological aunty Cathey Middelplaats & my dear cousin Paige Ahearn (Back then where she was known as Paige Williams at the time, 7 years before Norah was born & got married to her husband Jarrod one last time, & I haven't seen them since but I would like to meet both of them one day along with Cathey's granddaughter & Paige's daughter Norah for the first time as part of my future holiday plans) at Cathey's place for brunch in Petone), 10 months before Nana Minnie's) & Pops (Who was born in the Coromandel area in the Thames Valley province (Although his dad of Poppa Jim who served in the military during World War II for his country also back then), compared to Dad who was born a year after Aunty Tan in Motueka in the Nelson Bays province at the time some 37 years before it was merged into Tasman with the Marlborough province way back in 2006 (That was 13 years before winning their first full NPC title back in 2019, before completing their successful defence in a COVID-affected year of 2020 for which was their last ever NPC crown to date (That was the year before Waikato won in 2021, then Wellington in 2022 followed by Taranaki in 2023 before Wellington won it back last year), but according to the previous blog that I did in 2021 saying that the Aussies always beats us in every sport except rugby) when it was during the centenary celebrations over there) but first in music such as the video clip that I saw that Rick Beato saying that the 4 main rock bands who haven't released new records, will be still be playing on radio stations in the future like in 2100 (With the rock & metal music genre set to become non-existent) such as the Beatles, Nirvana, the Police & Queen with the Rolling Stones not making the cut because of them always releasing new material that came out but Pink Floyd may certainly be a possibility of joining the other 4.
And secondly that next year is the Football/Soccer World Cup being staged in the US, Canada & Mexico in which they'll be 48 teams taking part (Although the All Whites of New Zealand might even sniff a chance of making it for the first time since South Africa 2010 because we are in the semis of the OFC World Cup qualifiers against Fiji led by former Nix star Roy Krishna at Sky Stadium in Wellington before the final takes place at the iconic Eden Park venue scheduled on the 25th of March against either New Caledonia or Tahiti if we beat the Fijians during the OFC World Cup qualifier semi) with 32 of them advance to the historic first ever round of 32 which is the first phase of the knockouts with the 16 winning sides will contest the Round of 16, then 8 will go through to the quarterfinals followed by 4 in the semi while both losing semifinalists will contest the 3rd place playoff, & then both winning sides in the semi would go through to the final being held in East Rutherford, New Jersey at New York/New Jersey Stadium on July 19th to determine who'll become champion of the world, & even though I fear that it might be a Argentina - Spain final just like in the Finalissma being staged in the same year (Which was scheduled this year, but it had to change due to scheduling conflicts which is packed with the expanded Football/Soccer Club World Cup being taken place along with the Women's Euro 2025 being staged in Switzerland with England defending their title 3 years after their triumph on home soil at the delayed women's Euro 2021 held in 2022, & the packed FIFA men's World Cup qualifying schedule) with both sides who are champions of Europe (Spain) & South America as well as the world (Argentina) due to square off.
While thirdly that I was still watching old clips of America's Cup races from 2000 (It's been 25 years since the magnificent events of the 30th America's Cup had happened, compared to 30 years since Team New Zealand's ultimate mission of winning the Auld Mug had been accomplished in San Diego in which we triumphed against Young America led by Dennis Conner (Our ultimate nemesis before Aussie Jimmy Spithill took over from 2013, right through until 2021) & his Stars & Stripes crew in which the America's Cup had left the United States again to a different down under, New Zealand way, way back in 1995 (Same year that the late great All Black Jonah Lomu (One of by far, rugby's greatest players of all time, but now Frenchman Antoine Dupont has since taken over as the world's best rugby player of our current generation) & his heroics in the semi against England in Cape Town, South Africa in which he scored 4 tries for New Zealand en route to the final, including barging over South African born English player Mike Catt to score his 1st of 4 tries in one of the men's Rugby World Cup's most iconic moments) such as race 3 where Team New Zealand got off to a flying start against Prada in which we tacked during the race in the 1st clip, then we had spinnaker issues that our lead had been drastically reduced that almost cost our chance in the 2nd clip & the 3rd clip shows TNZ crossing the line to go 3 - 0 up in the series with the crew shaking hands at each other appreciating our victory, then the 4th clip shows the 4th race of the America's Cup in which we tacked after the start to catch the good wind, even though with the Prada Challenge of Italy opted not to tack by making a bad call (And if they tacked, the Italians would've remained in the lead after being in front on the 3rd cross) before we even crossed the finish line to be on match point against Luna Rossa, but the 5th clip shows New Zealand retaining the heavyweight crown of world sailing on the 2nd of March 2000 that history was made on the Hauraki Gulf in which we crossed the line to take race 5 & win the series 5 - nil moments before PJ famously said that the "America's Cup, is still New Zealand's Cup", while the 6th & final clip shows the celebrations when the amazing sight earlier that afternoon as the fleet follows NZL 60 Black Magic back into the Auckland harbour, after a 5 - 0 whitewash over Italy.
And finally onto a cricket related story that former Aussie paceman Brett Lee who revealed his fave rock band is, & it is by far the Killers (Who the man the call him Binga who is a huge fanatic of the American rock band, but there has been sad news to the rock industry here in New Zealand such as legendary Kiwi rock band Shihad is going to call it quits following the announcement of their farewell tour that will be their last in which the band had been active for 37 years since 1988, while Old Gods was their 10th & most recent album to date by the band when it was released in 2021 during the COVID age (But my reaction about Shihad quitting is like "Holy hell! I can't believe this is happening! And so it is", & the main reason why that the band is retiring is that the band members have kids who have families of their own (Well, that is a bit of a shock) while his fave rock song would have to be also by far which is 'Mr Brightside' by the Killers in which he plays bass with according to the Aussie cricket program I saw on Sky Sport, compared to Danish tennis player Caroline Wozniacki's fave rock song that she reveals is Wonderwall (One of my fave Oasis songs now because it used to be 'Cast No Shadow') by Oasis as seen in the ASB Classic women's tennis programme in 2020, while another Aussie cricketer Glenn Maxwell & his fave rock songs are, & it's Everlong (Another one of my fave Foo Fighters songs along with former late night talk show host & IndyCar team owner David Letterman) by the Foo Fighters then Bittersweet Symphony (That is my fave song by the Verve because it used to be 'Lucky Man') by the Verve as revealed on his playlist, but continuing onto the cricket stuff such as Indian all-rounder Hardik Pandya could even have a possibility of leading the side in the One Day International format, even if Rohit Sharma quits as captain when the Champions Trophy is being staged in both Pakistan & the UAE (With India scheduled to play the majority of its matches in Dubai (Including games against Bangladesh, New Zealand & Pakistan during the group games as well as their semifinal & final matches to be staged there for the entirety of the tournament, but the Champions Trophy is back after an 8 year absence (Including they were originally going to host it in 2021, but called off due to COVID in which the tournament has been moved to this year) in which the Pakistanis triumphed over their main rivals in the final at the Oval in London, including a no-ball from Indian ace bowler Jasprit Bumrah for overstepping that derailed India's aspirations of Champions Trophy glory once more, & also the Pakistani batter of Zaman for his ton as he posted 114 which was the turning point of the most recent Champions Trophy final to date) since their refusal of travelling to Pakistan, citing security concerns being the main factor in the aftermath of the ICC had recently approved a hybrid model with the United Arab Emirates not being far from Pakistan), just like if Pat Cummins is unavailable to lead Australia on a tour to Sri Lanka in a 2 match Warne-Muralidaran test trophy series due to a heavy workload of one of the tests, one of the co-vice captains in the test format of Travis Head may be the ideal man for the captaincy job although Steve Smith is maybe out of consideration since he already led the team in the past.
So that is my 592nd blog of the year 2025 (MMXXV) & my 16th of this year, viva Ukraine & Palestine.
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