This year, Super Bowl Sunday was on the same Monday down here that just happened to be a New Zealand national holiday called Waitangi Day. For those that don't know it, it's basically the anniversary of a signing of a piece of paper between western colonists and the local indigenous people. Some modern Maoris (the people living in New Zealand first) don't think that they really got a fair deal when they signed it (and are possibly right). As a result, there can be mixed feelings about it but one thing that everyone loves is the day off. I know... I'll watch the Super Bowl!
I decided to bike into town to watch it at a local sports bar that was advertising that they were going to show it. On my way there, I was going to cut through the town square to save time (and pedal-power). I was stopped by a quite large gathering of people in a civic Waitangi Day celebration. I forgot about that. As I got off my bike and waded through the groups on my way to the other side, I noticed my lack of personal culture. On New Zealand's national day, everyone was watching a group from Samoa singing and dancing. And then there's me, (actually a Canadian) going to see an American tradition.
Walking up the street on the other side of the crowd, I could see that most pubs weren't showing the game. I knew that there was one place that advertised that they were putting it on their 'big screen'. Even they also showed golf and cricket on the other TV monitors though. As an infrequent sports fan of all types, I appreciated the high percentage of Americans here available to talk football and point out things that I would have missed. I made most of this sketch early in the game since it ended about 4 hours later. I made another illustration later that is a bit more finished that describes the strange end of the game. You can see it on my other blog.
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