We woke up to the sound of motorbikes this morning - today was the annual Greymouth motorcycle street racing event, and most of the town centre was sealed off. There were a lot of bikers in town for the event, but we (just like the rugby) just happened to be there!

Our brewery tour wasn't until 2:30pm, so we had a bit of a lie-in and left the hostel at about 11:30. We walked to one of the entry points and paid our $5 entry fee (apparently this is a good price to watch street racing…?), and spent a few hours watching the races. We got hotdogs for lunch, and then had a quick drink in a pub before heading for our tour.

When we arrived at the Monteith's brewery we realised we'd picked a good day to do the tour - we were the only 2 people on the 2:30 tour! There is some construction work going on at the site at the minute as they're building a bar and restaurant to be attached to the brewery, so we didn't actually get to go inside this time, we just watched a DVD explaining how it all works. However, this being our 3rd brewery tour in NZ, we already have a pretty good idea of what goes on inside.

Then came the important part - the tastings! We were led into the bar (just for tours) and our guide poured us a sample (half a glass) of 7 Monteith's beers plus the crushed apple cider. And then we got to pour our own! Our guide had to leave us for a while to serve someone in the shop so I think we got a bit longer to pour our own than usual!

On our way out we bought some beers to take back to the hostel for later - Radler for Dave and Summer Ale for me - yum! We headed back to the hostel and used the computers for a while, before watching the start of the coverage for the big event of the day - the world cup final!

After drinking our beers, we walked back into town to a place called the 'Royal' bar and claimed our seats at the bar to watch the game. We weren't sure who to cheer for, and I decided that I wasn't bothered either way, but I'd be amused if France won because NZ have been so sure that they were going to win all along! However, we ended up with AB stripes on our cheeks after a woman was giving them out, so we were honorary AB 'fans' for the night.

There was one brave French bloke in the bar with the French flag painted on his cheeks and he got a lot of attention. The game was very close but in the end the Abs won 8-7, they should have won by more as Weepu missed a conversion and 2 penalties (look at us being all knowledgeable about rugby!!).

During the night, we made friends with a local woman who told us she doesn't get out much as she has 6 kids to look after - 4 are her own and 2 are her nephews, as her brother was one of the 29 miners who died in the Pike River mining disaster over here (a big story while we've been here as the court case has been going on). She was a lot of fun and nicknamed us William and Kate as she couldn't remember our names (cos we hadn't even told her!), and thought my engagement ring looks like Kate's! She asked us if we were in town for the motorbike racing or the rugby, and we replied 'neither!'. We chatted to her and her friends for most of the night, before walking back to the hostel. We were a bit surprised at the reaction to NZ winning the rugby world cup - a bit different to the reaction we'd expect if England ever won the football world cup….maybe we'll never know!