Golden days

I meet Flora at the traffic lights, waiting with other pedestrians to cross the busy intersection. Tour Leader and I  are on our bikes, about to pedal off to another exciting session of Commonwealth Games hockey semi-finals. Flora is on foot, anchoring herself firmly to a lamp post as she waits for the little green man.

Games volunteers, always willing to give a big hand

She clocks my yellow hi-vis vest and offers, "Aussie, Aussie, Aussie?" Given that almost the entire Gold Coast population, those who haven't fled town, are wearing yellow and green this week, it's a natural assumption to make. She's had a bit much to drink, hence her attachment to the lamp post. But I've drunk two glasses of (erggh!) Aussie pinot gris with dinner - perhaps not the best choice before a 20km ride in the dark.

In this passing moment, we connect over our otherness. We shake hands and exchange names. Learning that I'm a New Zealander, Flora is quick to share that she's mixed race, aboriginal with some kiwi in there too. Like Flora, we're outsiders, witnesses to Australia's golden extravaganza that is the 2018 Commonwealth Games. Unlike Flora, we will soon be flying over the ditch to where we do belong.

Dancing security guards

These are, of course, the Friendly Games, not to be compared with the drug-infested winner-takes-all culture of the Olympic Games. Or so we are reminded. A lesson that  gold medallist Sam Gaze had to publicly learn this week too. And, to their credit, organisers of the Games and the accompanying festival events have attempted to embrace indigenous culture. Not everyone is happy about this, of course. It's Queensland after all. Pauline Hansen excelled herself in her, er, considered critique of the opening ceremony. "Disgusting" was her response to the 20 minutes or so of indigenous story-telling in the interminable event beamed to the bits of the world who cared enough to watch. If you open that link, above, you'll also learn that Hanson is not a racist.

Mountain bikers Cooper and Gaze

We can laugh at the likes of Pauline Hanson and her skewed world view. She's a ridiculous woman and a ridiculously easy target. Taika Waitati's recent comments, on the other hand, I find harder to gloss over. This Stuff article provides a short summary, if you've been living under a rock, or on the Gold Coast, lately.

I grew up in a casually racist era. We routinely mangled Maõri place names. In my grandparents' and parents' world, it was perfectly okay to say of a relative, "She married a Maori, you know.  But a good Maori". I've never forgotten that snippet of overheard adult conversation. We've come a long way since then for sure. But the journey is far from over. And the difference is that we now know that sort of casual, thoughtless racism is anything but okay.

Meanwhile, back in the endless summer that is the Gold Coast (forecast to be 32 degrees tomorrow and I packed three jerseys for this trip. Really?), the Aussie gold rush continues. Right now, the Lucky Country has won 72 gold medals, with plenty more to come. The local paper carried an article this week that was crowing, there's no other word for it, over the hapless English athletes who have managed only 40 golds so far. Only. The headline read, Hey Team England, where the bloody hell are you?

We've watched so many Ocker victories that we respond like good Pavlovian pooches now, springing to our feet and mouthing the words as 'Advance Australia Fair' fills the stadium again - and again. But how can we begrudge the Aussies their enthusiasm if their population can roam the streets and shopping malls of the Gold Coast in yellow shirts, accessorised with hats big enough to land a helicopter on and flags worn like Superman capes?

We'll just savour the sweet moments. Beach volleyball as a spectacular spectator sport. (And nothing to do with what plàyers were wearing.) The gold/silver double by our mountain bikers. The stunning gold medal performance of our Black Sticks women. Oh, was that a victory over the Australian team? Where the bloody hell were they?

Bloody great sparrows they have over here