Rugby

     Considering that it’s THE sport if you’re a kiwi, and I’m living in NZ, I do feel I must write a bit about rugby. I won’t pretend to completely understand it, but in general—although I have been told there are numerous significant differences—it is rather similar to American football. I have watched a couple of professional teams that were on TV, and have been to a local championship game in which one of my friends’ brother was playing. The crowd’s enthusiasm and excitement was infectious and it was easy to be on the edge of your seat for the entire game. The game moves quite quickly and the only time the clock stops is for injuries and halftime. As a spectator it feels as if the action never stops.

     On the note of injuries, I’m impressed with how few there seem to be, considering the force of the game and the lack of equipment. I found myself cringing many times through each of the games I’ve watched, and I am quite certain that I won’t be joining any teams in the near future.

     The national team rugby is the New Zealand All Blacks. They seem to be quite good, and have a huge following. Something I think is a neat aspect of their games is that before each game, the team performs a Haka, which is a traditional Maori dance. It has a lot of historical and cultural significance as it was New Zealand’s warrior dance. When Captain Cook first discovered New Zealand, he sailed into the Bay of Islands (which I’ve been to!!! [pictures to come] ) and was greeted by Maori warriors on the beach performing a Haka with the intention of intimidating Cook and his men. In my understanding they were quite successful.

     I’m sure I will get to experience rugby a bit more (I’ve heard in the summer it’s fun to go play touch games on the beach), but in the meantime, here’s a couple pictures from what I have seen J

Sand Boarding

Kiwis love their sports. Nearly everyone you meet is passionate about this team or that sport, and the majority of the population enjoys an active lifestyle with plenty of time spent outside. Bungee jumping had its start in Queenstown, on the South Island. High school kids learn to ski. Mountain biking, surfing, rugby, snowboarding, and tramping are just a tiny glimpse of the options for things to do in this beautiful country. My roommate and I have gone biking, I've watched rugby, and have already made plans for tramping up the mountain as soon as a bit of the snow melts (Mt. Taranaki being "the mountain").

 Last month, I was introduced to a sport I had never dreamed of existing: sand boarding. I was on a trip up to the Northern tip of the North Island (which is breathtaking, I highly recommend it to anyone planning to visit NZ). I hadn't made a lot of plans for my trip up North, just thought that I would embrace whatever came my way. So when I found a bus tour that would get me to several places I might not otherwise be able to see I jumped at the opportunity. Our bus driver casually mentioned in the morning that we'd maybe get to see some sand dunes, so I was crossing my fingers it would happen. About mid-way through the afternoon our bus driver asked us if we wanted to do something cool, to which we said of course, and so he promptly drove the bus right off the highway onto what may or may not have been a dirt path/road/trail.

We soon found ourselves amongst sand dunes. I'm not positive how tall they were. Our bus driver gave us an estimate of how many meters tall but my metric conversions are still a work in progress, not to mention I was more interested in staring at the sight out the window, so I failed to actually retain the information. But if I had to guess I'd say 2-3 stories high.

As we all hopped off the bus to meander around a bit our wonderful tour guide pulled a bunch of boards/sleds from the storage compartment on the bus. He then announced that anyone who wanted could sand board. So what is sand boarding? Well, it's basically sledding down a hill. That is actually sand. Yep. I did that :) Think of a giant, quite steep hill covered in wet sand instead of snow (well actually not just covered in sand, but IS sand), and pretend you're in shorts and a tanktop instead of boots and coat and hat/gloves, and you hop on a sled or toboggan or whatever and down you go.

So here's the method to sand boarding. You lay on the board on your tummy, so that you're going down head first. You hold on for dear life, and you keep your mouth shut to avoid eating sand, because well it's just not very tasty! If you want to go faster, you keep your feet off the ground. If you want to slow down, dig your toes into the sand. And when you get to the bottom, hold on til your board stops because the sand is not quite as cushioney to fall onto as snow. Due to the wind I couldn't take pictures of when we were sand boarding because I didn't want sand in my camera, but I did get some pictures of the dunes through the bus window. Climbing up the dunes was harder than I'd thought it would be. It starts out easy since it's wet, then you've climbed awhile and you start wondering if you'll actually get to the top, and then you get close to the top and it gets much harder to climb because the wind has dried it out, so every time you take a step you just kinda sink up to your knees. Then you get to the top and hurry up and board back down so you don't get blown away :)

Windy Wellington--Capital City

Just before starting work I thought I should head South a bit to see the Capital. Wellington is called the Windy City because there is often strong winds coming off the sea, but I was lucky the week I was there and didn't get blown away :) The weather was actually fabulous most of my trip, rain one day, an earthquake another day, clear skies 90% of the time.

Wellington is an excellent city to walk around. Most of the cool things to see you can get to on foot. There is also a bus system, and if you really want to get into the suburbs, you can attempt figuring out the train. Most of the "tourist-ey" stuff is in the center of the city which is then surrounded by several suburbs.

There is a lot of history in Wellington. One of the coolest things I got to see was the original treaty and documents signed between the Maori people and he European settlers. I had gotten lost while looking for something else and stumbled on the National Archive building, which had a viewing room for important historic documents. No photos allowed, so can't visually share with you, but it was neat to see.

Some highlights:

The capital building, also known as the "beehive."

The Botanical Garden. I know I only saw a small portion of it, but it is a delightful, quiet spot in the heart of the city.

Peppermint Tree

From Gondor?

The old Anglican Cathedral, St. Paul's. The US and Marine Corps flags were a gift to the cathedral during WWII. According to the curator, there were some US Marines stationed in Wellington on their way to some Pacific Islands and were told the only reason they'd be able to leave their ship is if they were leaving to attend church. So one Sunday a couple Marines ventured to the Cathedral, and after the service were invited over to a parishioners house for dinner. The next week nearly all the men stationed there decided to go to the Cathedral for church and were treated with wonderful hospitality by the parishioners of St. Pauls the entire time they stayed in Wellington. When they departed, they presented the flags to the cathedral in appreciation.

The flags

Cool street art :)

And graffiti, better painting than I can do!

Cable car museum! The car still runs during the day and is a nice shortcut to the botanical gardens.

A beautiful view of the city and harbor.

Batman IS real. I found where he eats.

Auckland

When I flew into New Zealand I landed in Auckland, which is the largest city in NZ. I spent three days checking out a bit of the city and trying to do important things like apply for an ID number (so I could actually get paid for work) and getting a bank account, considering cell phone options, etc etc etc. Despite the jet lag (I was dragging for about a week after arriving, which I blame on the unexpected 6 hour delay in the Brisbane airport), I enjoyed a bit of sightseeing. Auckland has the hustle and bustle of a big city (it seemed big to me, with a population of 1.5 million) so I would not have wanted to live there.

Auckland Skyline

One attraction which is impossible to miss is the Sky Tower, which is the largest man-made structure in the country. It stands 328 meters tall (1,076 feet), and you can go to a viewing platform that is 192 meters up (630 feet). I went up at night and really had a lovely view of the city at night. During the day I used the tower as a compass because it was close to my hostel so as long as I could see it I could find my way back :)

The city at night

Sky Tower, taken from Auckland Park

I stumbled on Auckland Park while I was lost and looking for something else, but it turned out to be a nice find. After ambling through and seeing statues, fountains, and supper cool trees, the sun came out so I could sit and read for a bit until I was ready to move on.

Queen Victoria

NZ has cool trees :) 

War Memorial from 1900-1901

My favorite day while in Auckland was the day I took a half hour ferry ride to Waiheke Island. It was a good day for "tramping" so when I found a hiking trail close to where the ferry docked I decided to check it out. I ended up spending the entire day traipsing around one end of the island. I managed to get to the very tip, which had an incredible view. I saw my first NZ sheep farm (only took 48 hours to find one!!), had a picnic lunch by a pretty little waterfall, and went beach combing. It was a wonderful first taste of the beauty of New Zealand.

Trail through a nature reserve

Where I sat to have an afternoon snack 

Auckland is 11 miles that way 

The tip of the island :)

Pretty flowers in winter!

Paritutu Rock

I've mentioned before that New Plymouth is right on the coast. One of the perks to this is that if you find the right spot, you get a delightful view of both land and sea. One such place, which is right on the edge of town, is called Paritutu Rock. The rock, along with the Sugar Loaf Islands (named by Captain Cook, one of the first explorers to NZ), are remnants of a volcano crater. The rock is 100 meters tall, but once you reach the top you have a spectacular 360 degree view. If you like diving, the underwater view is supposed to be incredible as well.

Climbing up is fun, if you like feeling like a mountain goat :) The first bit, probably about a third starts out nice and easy with stairs. Then it turns to a dirt path, and then becomes rocky path up to the top. There's a chain all the way to the top to hold onto, which is probably most helpful when descending.

The day I went was a bit cloudy, sadly that meant we couldn't see the mountain, but still a great view.

One of the Sugar Loaf Islands

Close to the top :)

New Zealand-ese

I've been working on my New Zealand lingo and thought I should share a bit of it. It's good practice, right? :)

Breakfast, lunch, and supper are referred to as morning tea, afternoon tea, and evening tea, or just tea. It is a common practice in the workplace to have a cup of tea mid-morning and mid-afternoon to ensure that you are not over-working (why do we not have this practice in America?), which is also called "tea."

Cheers is a common farewell expression. People say "Cheers" to thank the bus driver when getting off, or sign off on emails with "cheers" instead of "thanks."

I've been working part-time at a coffee shop and learned that if you ask someone a yes/no question, such as "would you like butter with your muffin?", if the answer is yes, they will simply say "thank you." Me being brilliant would look at them blankly and try to think of a polite way to say "yes thank you, or no thank you?". I am practicing not repeating the question when I receive an answer of just "thank you" and remember that it means yes. My housemate said it is a result of speech laziness.

Trash is rubbish and the trashcan is the bin. And you chuck rubbish in the bin :)

Forks, spoons, and knives are cutlery, not silverware. And napkins are called serviettes.

Powdered sugar is icing sugar, and the sweet yummy gooey stuff you put on cakes is known as icing, not frosting.

Cookies are biscuits, and biscuits, well they don't know what those are. On Tuesday I asked my "work mates" if they had ever had biscuits and gravy and their faces clearly communicated I was asking a completely absurd question!

Pick-up trucks are called yoots. This comes from the official term, utility truck. 

If you say someone got pissed it has nothing to do with their emotional state but rather indicates their level of intoxication. You can also say someone is getting tiddly.

The word "schedule" is pronounced shed-juu-ull. 

If you need to work something out, you are going to "get it sorted." 

Cheers for now!