Less than 1 year and counting

Hello again

Well it’s less than 1 year now until the opening match of the 2010 World Cup in South Africa and our plans for the next football pilgrimage are in full swing. I thought I would put together this post to let you know what we are up to.

Yates and I have been keeping our eye on the tickets sales phases for World Cup 2010, and so far we have tickets for 8 matches. These matches are: -

Match 2 - Green Point (Cape Town) - Group Stage
Match 11 - Green Point (Cape Town) - Group Stage
Match 20 - Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Group Stage
Match 24 - Royal Bafokeng (Rustenburg) - Group Stage
Match 29 - Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Group Stage
Match 39 - Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Group Stage
Match 52 - Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Round of 16
Match 58 - Soccer City (Johannesburg) - Quarter Final

World Cup 2010 tickets are ONLY available via the FIFA website, and the 2^nd Ticket Sales phase is currently open until 14^th November 2009, (http://www.fifa.com/worldcup/index.html). NOTE - Most of the games available in sales phase 2 are already sold out.

There are 3 further Sales Phases in which you can pick up tickets: -

• Third sales phase: 5^th December 2009 to 22^nd January 2010 - In this phase you will need to fill out an application for tickets, and then all applications will go into a random ballot on 1st February 2010
• Fourth sales phase: 9^th February 2010 to 7^th April 2010 - Ticket applications submitted during this sales phase will be processed, subject to availability, on a first-come-first-served basis - in the order of receipt.

• Final / Last Minute sales phase: 15^th April 2010 to 11^th July 2010 - Ticket applications will be processed on a first-come-first-served basis, but these tickets will only be available from the point-of-sale, (in South Africa), not via the website.

Yates and I will be applying for tickets in each of the succeeding sales phase in an attempt to get a maximum of 18 matches, including the World Cup Final.

Accommodation
We have been very busy over the past month or so and managed to secured our accommodation for both Cape Town and the Johannesburg areas. We have booked early to try and lock in a good rate for what is going to be a 'premium' period during the World Cup, Accommodation is only going to get both more expensive and harder to find as we get closer to the World Cup draw in December late this year, after which the location of all qualified teams will be known.

Cape Town - 6th June-16th June 2010 (10 nights)
We have booked a 2 bedroom Apartment in the City Bowl district of Cape Town, which is within walking distance to the Green Point Stadium and the V&A Waterfront, where the Fan Fest site is likely to be located. The apartment has secure underground parking as we will be hiring a car during our time in Cape Town and doing some touristy stuff on non-match days.

Pretoria - 16th June - 15th July (29 nights)
We have had a slight change of plan for our accommodation in the Johannesburg/Pretoria/Rustenburg area. Originally we were going to look at getting a corporate apartment in a complex in Central Johannesburg, but after some investigation, these apartments were just to expensive to be considered seriously. We also came to the conclusion that with Johannesburg's crime and safety problems that it may be a better plan to stay outside the city in a more countryside setting, and travel to the city for each game. Therefore we cast our net further afield and decided to stay at a bush lodge outside of Johannesburg. This luxury lodge on the edge of a scenic wildlife reserve area is only 1.5 hours from J'burg, 1 hr from Rustenburg and 20mins from Pretoria. Although this is an expensive option, I believe represents better value than an apartment in the city and will be more relaxing on non-match days.

Flights to South Africa for the World Cup period are about to become bookable in the next few weeks, (you can only book flights up to 330 days in advance). It is thought that there will be a high demand for flight during that period, and with a limited number of providers on the route into South Africa, popular thought is that prices will be high. We will certainly be looking to lock in flights from New Zealand, (via either Australia or Singapore), as soon as possible.

After scanning the major car hire websites, it is clear that there will be premium charged for care hire through the World Cup period, and with the higher cost of various insurances in South Africa, car hire is not going to be cheap. The last time I checked, the Avis at Cape Town International Airport did not have any cars even available for the World Cup period...! Car Hire is integral to our plan to allow us to travel to various stadiums, particularly in the Johannesburg area, so we may end up spending over US$100 per day to guarantee our mobility.

Fiona & I are about to book our Namibian Safari pre-trip. We expect to arrive in Windhoek in mid May, where we will stay for a couple of days before heading out on a 14-day Safari, getting us back to Windhoek in early June, before heading to Cape Town.

We are going with a company called 'Wild Dog & Crazy Kadu Tours' on their 14-Day Namibian Experience tour. You can check out the details at the following link: http://www.wilddog-safaris.com/safari_tours/namibian_experience/

More news next month......