Netball tourney . . . What goes on the bus stays on the bus!

Broadside by Ingrid Tiriana
The old Kurangaituku tourney in Rotorua got me thinking about netball trips.
Ah the memories - the hijinks, the laughter, the shopping, the camaraderie ... the hangovers. And what about the netball, you might ask. Heck, there was netball? I vaguely recall one slow-as, half-hearted attempt at a game on a Sunday morning after two nights of revelry. The outcome escapes me.
Occasionally we'd organise a match in whichever city we were visiting, always with the best of intentions but inevitably, come game time, barely able to lift the ball, let alone throw it or put it through the hoop. Now had we had a tournament to play in every year, it might have been a different story.
For many North Island netball teams their regular end-of-season event is the Kurangaituku tournament in our own neck of the woods. For local teams it doesn't quite qualify as a trip but it is an extra weekend you get to hang out with the netball team. Oh yeah, and play some netball.
When the boss heard hordes of women were headed our way the first thing he wanted was an expose on netball trips. Like many men, I suspect, he was curious to know just what women actually get up to when they're away on a netball trip and decided this was his chance to find out.
As if. There was certainly no way I was going to enlighten him. As we all know, what goes on the bus, stays on the bus. It's an old mantra that applies to sports trips in general and it's one which should be adhered to - for everyone's sakes.
I've always been amazed at the enduring popularity of the Kurangaituku event, which this year clocked up 72 years. That's a heck of a history. Every year there are teams lining up to be part of the now three-weekend affair and those who don't get in quick enough find themselves on a waiting list.
If you head into town during a Kurangaituku weekend, chances are it will be a lengthy wait in a long queue before you get into just about any bar.
It's a credit to the organisers - and to Rotorua - that the event continues to draw such great numbers. Not too many events can cite more than seven decades of success.
Many of the players who participate come year after year. An Auckland friend and her team have made the trip to Rotorua annually for probably 15 years now. By all accounts they always have a great time but there's a major flaw in their organisational skills if you ask me. They invite their men along - and they actually bring them.
Quite frankly, the second you let the men tag along, it's no longer a bona fide netball trip. If you bring the blokes the definition changes to a couples weekend away with a few extra hangers-on who are either single or whose hubbies couldn't come. Still, to their credit they always seem to have a great time.
Sadly, it has been quite a few years since my last netball trip. Actually it's been a few years since my last netball game but both the trips and the Kurangaituku were annual highlights.
A male friend who lived right by the netball courts would be cleared out of his own house every Kurangaituku tournament, providing us with a great base at which to lax out between games and dry wet gear if it was raining. He would even put on a pot of soup or a roast for our lunch, bless him. And he knew to steer clear until we'd quite finished using his house.
Those were the days. There's something really great about being in a team - everyone working towards a common goal and all having a crucial part to play. Both on and off the court.