Pop The Bubbly Our Boys Bring It Home

Reporter on the spot, TVNZ’s Rebecca Wright, shares her Team New Zealand joy ...

America’s Cup is now New Zealand’s Cup! Twenty-two years after that unforgettable line was famously declared, it finally got another hearing after a triumphant Team New Zealand crossed the finish line in Bermuda last Tuesday.

As helmsman Peter Burling and skipper Glenn Ashby popped the champagne on board their indomitable catamaran, Kiwis around the globe celebrated the emphatic 7-1 victory over the menacing Oracle Team USA.

And what a story it was! This America’s Cup had everything – grit, tenacity, drama, heroes, a heart-stopping capsize and a stunning victory, which was particularly poignant after the devastating loss in San Francisco four years ago, when we were defeated after letting an 8-1 lead slip.

No-one was happier than our newest sporting hero, the humble 26-year-old Peter, who after carrying the weight of the nation on his shoulders, became the youngest-ever helmsman to win the cup.

As a boy growing up in Tauranga, he’d seen the Auld Mug won and lost. So to bring it home was “something that will stay with me for the rest of my life”, he said with a grin. “We’re just blown away by what we’ve been able to achieve.”

For skipper Glenn – the only Team NZ member still on board from the San Fran defeat – it was redemption after four years of gruelling preparation.

An Aussie but surely now an honorary Kiwi, he couldn’t contain his delight. With his wife Mel and their two daughters – who live in Auckland – proudly supporting him in Bermuda for the cup, he said after the race, “Being able to pull off the almost unimaginable ... absolutely unbelievable! It’s been a huge rollercoaster ride.”