Last night reminded me why it’s great being a kiwi… The mighty All Blacks, rusty as all hell – getting across the line against the old foe England in our national game – rugby.

So, you arrive in PNG, get Hitron hooked up, and then discover that AB’s vs Springbok game isn’t on ANY channel… You flick from one Aussie channel to another, and can’t find it anywhere – you are in Rugby hell (Australian TV). Welcome to Port Moresby 2 years ago….

Have no fear rugby followers, although free to air Aussie tests are played on Channel 10 (currently Hitron Channel 60), all other games are generally shown on Foxtel (Aussie paid TV – like SKY). Woohoo! So we can get Foxtel here in PNG? Hmmmm. Actually, you can’t… However, if you have a big enough dish, pointed the right way, and with a paid Foxtel decoder (that you pay for in Aussie) then you too can have Foxtel… Or, when the game is on – you could just head down to kiwi expat Graham Osbourne’s bar “Ozzies” down at the Ela Beach hotel, grab a beer (SP of course), and enjoy the live feed on 2 big screen TV’s.

Of course, there is the inevitable PNG moments, the power going off in the game, or.. Like last night – the bar being drunk dry! And if you are there early – 1 to 1.5 hours before the game you can get front seats and a table. Arrive just before the game and it’s standing room only! And yes, if the game is on at 3am in the morning – it will be open :). If you need to check, ring the hotel the day before – or ring Scotty down at “The Edge” (another Osbourne eatery) to get a heads up.

The morning games are actually pretty good at Ozzies, with the restaurant next door, a waiter will take your breakfast order, make you a coffee etc…

Sometimes, the rain gets in the dish – so the whole system is bagarup. Get the boys to go up to the roof and clean out the water and it’s all good!

Last night was pretty epic – it seriously was a full packed house. People were outside in the doorway, the bar was 5 deep, and the banter was fantastic. When the game ended, all the Aussie’s were hanging outside for the Aussie vs France game, not realizing that there was no more beer inside.

Anyway – you wanna watch the game – you just got the insiders tip 😉