Will you have your photo taken for a French magazine Edward? My friend Claire asked around the time the world cup was getting started. Adidas were arranging some photo shoots of kiwis for some French magazines. They wanted to do a story on All Blacks supporters in France WHEN the All Blacks made it to the semi finals. To get the full picture you first have to understand how much respect the French have for the All Blacks, and how much they LOVE the haka!

I’d won a couple of haka competitions in Parisian pubs as part of the France NZ Association’s welcome for the world cup crowds. The NZ Herald came to one event, then Sky Sport and finally TV3. But it didn’t stop there…

My photo shoot for Adidas was up in Monmartre. They were going to write a little piece on each of us and seeing I’m in the wine game over here that was their pitch on me (I still need to tell you that story). I stood there in the rain for 10 minutes or so while the photographer snapped away and they held flash devices near my face to get the right lighting. A crowd of nosey people started to hang around and two old kiwi ladies rocked up and wanted to take a pic of me with their cameras AHAHAHA!

Then my phone rang again, Claire had been contacted as a radio/tv station wanted some kiwis to go and do the haka for their breakfast program. I woke up super early and they sent a taxi to pick me up. I was laughing to myself as the taxi drove up the Champs-Élysées towards the Arc de Triomphe. I was thinking ‘shit me, I LIVE in Paris, I’m in a taxi heading up the Champs-Élysées first thing in the morning going to a TV STATION!!!’.

(At Fun Radio)

You can download the footage here (MerciXavier)

They took the piss a bit but it was great fun, I gave that haka my all, they seemed to like la rage)

Next I did the haka for France 3 just before the NZ France game. The camera crew interviewed me and my French friends before the match. They hung around and spoke to us at half time. Then as soon as the match was over the camera was thrown in my face, bright lights etc and “Que pense vous” or something along those lines. I was in a bar which was sponsored by Air New Zealand and 42 below. There were about 25 kiwis and 60 French people. It was the most humiliating moment of my entire life, but I’m over it now! The weekend after I had my face painted with the French colours and I was shattered once again when they didn’t pull through. I told that French camera crew that France was my home too now so I’d support them for the next match.

Some of the France 3 footage is here (Merci Jeff)

Then I did a little thing for BBC Breakfast, but bugger doing any more, I’ve had enough, they’d have to start paying me! I really gave that last haka a bash and it killed my foot, ha!

Anyway, there’s one last thing to do, one last haka to wrap things up! A French chemical company (Henkel) got in touch with me and they want me to teach 30 of their staff the haka. So tomorrow I’m going out to Stade de France to teach 30 French people how to do Ka Mate!! What a classic haha! I find it quite amusing, they are paying me extremely good money for it though.

So what else is up? I work with a great little team at Ô Chateau, check out the site! I do a mixture of things, I’m part Sommelier, SEO/marketing, and all things IT related. So that’s all going well, we’re about to launch an internet T.V channel so it’s project, project, project at the moment, I’m loving it. I have the pêche! I have many great meals at Xavier and Kristine’s, I run, ride bikes, and my life is becoming more and more bilingual – it’s brilliant! This weekend I’m off to SWITZERLAND!

(Claire AU, Iema Germany, Devi Gerogia and I)

(James, the reporter from TV3 and I)

(Yikes! Looking a bit rough here, I need a shave!)

This entry was posted on Wednesday, October 24th, 2007 at 6:31 am While Dave was in Paris. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.