Yes, the America’s Cup is over. Alinghi has won in a 5-0 sweep. Team NZ again suffered gear failure, this time probably due to human error as the spinnaker pole broke toward the end of the 2nd run. As far as the rest of my trip is concerned, everything else is gravy.

Speaking of everything else, I can now follow through with my original plan of flying to Christchurch tomorrow and then taking the TransAlpine railway the day after. I then plan to hop down the west coast of the South Island, starting in Greymouth and then stopping in Hokitika (I want to buy a greenstone hei matau for myself). Then I’ll proceed to Franz Josef and Fox glaciers for some chilly hiking. Things get a little more fuzzy after that. I’ll go to Queenstown, Te Anau and Milford, but I don’t know the order or what exactly I’ll do in those places.

Today’s race wasn’t terribly exciting. Alinghi nailed the start again, getting a half a boatlength advantage over Team NZ right from the start. By the first mark, Alinghi was ahead by 20 seconds. That didn’t change much over the next few legs, as Alinghi gave a textbook course on how to preserve a lead in a match race. When Team NZ broke their spinnaker pole, it only cost them two boatlengths, but that took them from just barely within striking range to really having no hope left at all.