Things are a bit hectic in New Zealand at the moment. The weather has been shocking. While we were up in Christchurch we had rain , rain and more rain. Since arriving in Auckland it has also not stopped raining.

We weathered the long 10 hour flight from Johannesburg to Singapore and welcomed the stop over. Checking into a hotel at eight-o-clock in the morning we decided to sleep for about four hours before meeting as a team to do some sightseeing. Needles to say, only Anton Ferreira, myself, the coach, the manager, the 2 province boys and Davie Jacobs arrived for the trip into town. The rest of the guys went on to sleep until about 16h00 that afternoon. They missed a splendid afternoon on the island of Singapore before flying out to Christchurch - another 10 hour flight.

On arrival here in New Zealand, it had been raining in Christchurch for the past four days or so and was still raining! This made any practices outside impossible and we comprised by using indoor nets as well as some squash courts!

The opening ceremony happened yesterday and was fantastic - lots of traditional Maori dancers and local singers at the Christchurch Convention Center made the stop over well worth it before leaving for our next stop.

We arrived in Auckland this morning and low and behold, it was raining here too. Our practice this afternoon was cut short by rain as we were trying to prepare for our first practice match tomorrow against a local team called Cornwall.

So far the players who did not travel to New Zealand on the previous trip have been impressed by the New Zealand hospitality and the acres and acres of open spaces. A few of the players have also found it very difficult to adjust to the different time zones we have traveled through. (Singapore is six hours ahead of South Africa and New Zealand is 11 hours ahead) They have been spending all their free time catching up on sleep. Some have even taken to buying their own breakfast to a few more minutes sleep in the morning!

Hopefully all that is behind us now as we prepare for our first friendly match of the tournament. We are currently sharing dorms at the University of Auckland with the other teams in our group - India, Bangladesh and Canada.

We had a lazy afternoon after practice today, watching the national team beat the Kiwi's in Australia to go 2 games clear of the kangaroos in the VB One-Day Series!!! An inspiration to us all.

On the medical side of things, there are no serious injuries except for the usual niggles, stiff backs, tired muscles and general fatigue that comes with touring and lots of regular physical activity at high intensity.

In the few days we have been here, I have been kept fairly busy with routine treatments and general medical maintenance. However, I expect to be kept busy as the squad have set high standards, have a good work ethic and are fiercely competitive - a sure recipe for injuries to be sustained.

At the moment there is a good spirit within the squad and an eager anticipation by all for our first game tomorrow.

So watch this space!

(The warm-up game has since been called off due to more rain)

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