Player Diary - Kieran Read

Dear Diary, today was a big day that started with hopping off the plane in Hong Kong. We're lucky enough to fly business class and you can fold the seat flat on the Air New Zealand planes. I still had to assume the foetal position because of my height but I still got a good seven hours sleep from the 11-hour trip.

I felt pretty good coming off the plane and, although I didn’t eat too much I felt quite full. The bus ride to the hotel took about 30 minutes and it looked pretty warm outside – a bit like Christchurch.

We all have our own room here at the hotel and there’s a big double bed so I made myself at home. It’s good because there’s no arguing over the remote or any snoring issues.

Although some guys unpack everything I just leave my gear in my suitcases – I have one for training and one for all my other stuff. I’m generally pretty tidy and everything is sort of an organised chaos.

Because we landed early in the morning I headed down for breakfast after I settled in. Although there’s the regular breakfast food like cereals there are also more Chinese dishes, which tends to be a lot of hot food, so I tried a few of those. They have labels on the food like beef but I’m not too sure of all the ingredients.

The hotel is in the heart of Causeway Bay district so Andy (Ellis) and I went for a stroll around the block. It’s our first time here so it was about soaking in what was happening. I didn’t buy anything but I do need a camera for the tour so I’ll pick that up soon.

I think I was the tallest guy I saw so I had a clear view around the streets because most people come up to chest height. All the boys are talking about the bamboo scaffolding which they use instead of steel scaffolding and because the buildings are so tall it must be a tough way to earn a living.

After that we had training at So Kon Po ground which is across the road from Hong Kong Stadium and that went pretty well. The heat hits you and you loose a few kilos of sweat so we need to drink plenty of water. I was wearing a monitor that measures the effort I put in so I think I went a little harder than normal.

After training we were driven to a club with a pool on the roof. I’m not a swimmer so I just relaxed and threw a ball around – that was until the lifeguards told us off and that put an end to the throwing.

I had the lasagna for dinner, which was quite good; in fact all the food has been good here. I’m pretty lucky and can eat what I like and as long as it’s the right food I won’t put on weight.

Five weeks is a long time to be away so it’s good to get into the swing of things fast. When I got the call-up to tour I wasn’t too sure of what to bring on tour so I gave Richie a call and he filled me in.

After dinner I kicked back in the team room because if I went to my room I would’ve fallen asleep. Hong Kong is five hours behind NZ so I needed to stay awake to sleep longer. Snakey (Conrad Smith) has got the series about Melbourne gangsters called Underbelly so I watched an episode of that before bed.

Finally packed it in at about 9.30pm and that was my first day in Hong Kong.
Cheers, Reado