6.30pm Wednesday 15 April and the Victoria contingent to Easter Tournament in Dunedin are waiting (im)patiently for yours truly to arrive with the ferry tickets. I duly arrive and everyone boards while I make a final phone call to Dunedin regarding certain travel arrangements made by another campus. 6.42pm and I'm running up the gangplank just as they're about the raise it (thankfully the ferry's slightly late).

Through such hustle and bustle I resign myself to the fact, along with everyone else, that tourney's started, and for the next few days nothing will resemble any real order.

It was a reasonably quiet and smooth crossing to Picton with everyone quickly finding the lounge bar on the ferry and settling down to a relaxing pre-tournament session. The buses were waiting dutifully in Picton and we set off to Dunedin to the not so musical sound of popping tear tabs, or for that matter not so musical choruses from the rear of the bus.

With little traffic on the road our buses made quick time through the dark South Island scenery and we eventually arrived in Dunedin at about 9.00am after swapping coaches at Oamaru and making the odd comfort stop.

For those of us who had to play cricket the day/night didn't stop there but for the others it was registration, find a billet, then sleep off the effects until Friday when competition started in most sports.

Thursday night was a free night in Dunedin with nothing organised although most people ended up at 'The Gardens' for a bit of pre-tournament socialising with locals and billetors.