Bulls vs Waikato

If you are a sports fan, particularly a rugby fan, the good news throughout the long rainy winter is that there is usually some form of the game for you to watch. The All Blacks play periodically, Super Rugby franchise enjoys their season throughout June/July, and of course there’s always little league if you’re willing to brave the weather on Saturday mornings J 

This month saw the start of the provincial rugby season, so Sat night we headed out to Yarrow Stadium to watch the Port Taranaki Bulls take on Waikato (it is unclear to me what Waikato’s mascot is…). Provincial rugby would be equivalent to minor league baseball teams, if you happen to be like me and struggle with the difference between all of them. Of course it makes it harder when players team-hop because I’ll hear a familiar name and think I know what it’s all about.

I am not a diehard rugby fan (as evidenced by my falling asleep on the couch later Sat night as the All Blacks were beating Australia in game one of a three game series), but I do enjoy the stadium atmosphere. The weather had cleared a bit from the windy/rainy morning, so it was chilly but not too cool to be out and enjoy the sport. There is still a lot I do not understand about the game, but I have learned enough to be able to follow along. I now know what a scrum is, and a line out, and what it means if someone says "knock on" or "offside." I can also occasionally tell why a penalty was given, and know that if there's too many "dropkicks" in the game, it is considered boring.

It turned out to be a fairly exciting game. Both teams scored early, with the Bulls scoring significantly in the first half. Waikato made a comeback in the second half that put them very close to winning. However, Bulls tightened their defense and won by a margin of five points! We did have an interesting comparison conversation regarding terminology between rugby and football. The conclusion is that it is slightly less exciting to jubilantly say “Try” rather than “Touchdown” if a player successfully reaches the end zone. Since rugby requires the ball to touch the ground in the end zone for points to be scored, “touchdown” seems ironically to be more fitting. 

Ye old mascot

A line out

A scrum

Trade Aid Nice Spice Night

Now that I have caught up on sleep and recovery time from the busyness of the Mary Poppins show season, I have been enjoying having my schedule to myself again, and getting to choose where I am in the evenings. After so many months of late nights at the theater or rehearsal rooms, it almost feels like a novel concept! So I have had some much needed catch-up time with friends, gone to ladies night at Mitre10 (think Sutherlands type of store), and enjoyed a food tasting night at the local international store.

Trade Aid has become one of my favorite places to gift shop. Every time I stop in the store, there is something different to be found. It is a fair trade organization that sources all its products from solo or small business operations in Palestine, Asia, Latin America, etc. The items they sell are colorful, unique, and beautiful. I had stopped in awhile back and while there saw a sign for a "Spice Night." It turns out they were offering a free food tasting event highlighting some of the food items they sell.

So I called some friends, RSVP'd and away we went. We laughed a bit as the group ended up being yours truly, the resident American, a Brit and a Taiwanese. To round out the multi-culturalism, we met a lady from the Netherlands while at the event.

We were not entirely sure what we were in for, but it turned out to be a fun night. We were greeted with steaming cups of Indian/Sri Lankan hot chocolate and yummy products on sale. After a bit of mingling, the night opened with a speech about spices. The speaker was a young man whose family owns one of the local Indian restaurants, and he explained some of the little-known uses for the spices being used that night, and talked about the role spices play in Indian culture.

Next came the food. Best part of the night, by far! There were 10 to 15 different dishes, each delicious and unique in its own right. There were meat and vegetarian options; sweet and savoury; spicy and mild. Rice, vegetables, couscous, quinoa and lentils complemented the spices and meat used in each dish. Dessert was also available, and the spicy chocolate chip cookies, ginger crunch bars, and  steamed pudding were all a yummy twist on classic favorites.

My two favorites parts of the night was the ability to bring home recipes for everything we tasted, and unexpectedly winning the raffle, which resulted in a nice goodie bag :)

My winnings :)

York Loop Track

Hello my dear long lost readers. I really am still here, just short on spare time.
But I have wanted to share this post for awhile, as it was a very enjoyable afternoon one sunny weekend.

This is a 3 hour loop (although I did it in just under 2, but because I chose to speed along at some points) on the Eastern side of the mountain.
It runs along what used to be the Egmont Branch railway line. There are several points of interest along the way which detail some of the history of the railway line. It is quite a remote setting, although not far from a small town. I did not encounter any other hikers, but did enjoy lots of birds and lovely scenery. Funnily enough in true Taranaki fashion, it was a beautifully sunny day that just happened to decide to rain on that side of the mountain (while the sun was out of course), hence my speed walking at some points.

The railway line was set up in the early 1900's. It provide metal and rocks for constructing much of Taranaki's infrastructure, including Port Taranaki. It was closed in the 1940's. An interesting fact during the construction of the line is that in 1905 a construction worker was fired for being unmarried. In 1935 a large chunk of the line was washed out when the Manganui river flooded. The line was closed after WWII broke out, when the tracks were shipped to Europe in 1941 to help with the war effort.

The first point of interest along the way was the site of the Barracks. Only the foundation remains now, but during the years the railway operated there were 6 cottages, a bunk house for 20 men, and a kitchen/dining area. A couple of minutes walk further along the track is the Crusher site, which was operated by water turbines. The sand trap was the only other visible structure. It filter sand out of the water used to power the turbines at the Crusher site.
Other poiits along the way included the water line, which still has some pipes in the ground beneath the walkway, and stations were rocks were sent or obtained to be sent to the quarry.

It was a lovely hike that I hope to do again some. One section in particular made me feel as if I was in a fairy tale forest. The track was built up over where the water ran through, but was down the middle of a 9-meter high gorge blasted out so the water had a direct route.

Hope to write again soon!

Barrack Site

7 meter high wall of the Crusher site

Top of the crusher site where rocks were dumped

Site of a bridge built to transport rocks across the river

Original braces for the bridge

Pretty view from the bridge

Water pipes still in the ground

Sand trap

Supposedly this still works...

Rock collection site

Can you spot where the track carries on?

Part of the blasted out water line

Every hiking track needs a swing bridge!

Long time no see...

Some of you are probably wondering where I’ve disappeared to, or whether I have given up blogging. I’m still here, promise. Finding time and energy to write anything of interest has just been a challenge the last couple of months. I do have a list of things to post, just need the brainpower to make it logical!

So what is taking all my time you ask? Mary Poppins is the answer! Since the director arrived from Wellington after Easter, rehearsals have seriously taken off. Most weeks have something scheduled 6 days a week. Luckily I am not required at all of those rehearsals since the other accompanist covers some of that time, but it has still been a big addition to my normal schedule of teaching after work.

The hard work is paying off though, and the show is coming together nicely. The benefit of attending so many rehearsals is getting an inside look at how it becomes a great presentation for the audience. The wardrobe and props arrived last week, and the cast is very excited to have the opportunity to use the actual items. Costumes are not in play yet of course, as wardrobe is making the necessary fitting adjustments. But Mary did get to try out her “sensible shoes” (per one of her lines in the song Practically Perfect), and we enjoyed a laugh over how long it took to put them on due to the number of buttons down the side.

From a music perspective, it is great to have the keyboard I will play in the shows. It is all set up with a plethora of exciting sounds, including Bert’s barrel organ, a lark, and my personal favorite: gingerbread stars! I get lots of magical, twinkly sounds in my part, and the occasional interesting combination of low strings on one half of the keyboard and celeste or marimba on the other!

In other news, it made my day one afternoon when I drove past the police station and saw an officer out front, in full uniform (hat included), pulling weeds J

The British and Irish Lions rugby team is touring New Zealand this month. Last weekend’s game against the Super Rugby franchise top contender was painful enough that even my lack of rugby knowledge could figure out we should have won that one. But maybe NZ will fare better this weekend when they play the Maori All Blacks! Also, the America’s Cup yachting final is coming up soon. Since it is NZ vs US, it will be interesting since US won last time!

A pair of hardy kiwi blokes recently had an interesting adventure. According to the story on the radio, they were enjoying a couple of drinks one night when they decided it would be a good idea to do a 150-kilometer (93 miles) hike through the Appalachians wearing nothing but jandals (think sturdy flip-flops). They then decided they had to stick to it and what do you know, they did it! Seems they had to carefully attach crampons in some places, or go barefoot in others, but they can now tick “major hike in jandals” off the bucket list!

Have a great weekend, more updates to come soon I hope.

Veronica Loop Track

We have been fortunate and had good weather the last couple of weeks. So I thought I should find time to squeeze in a hike because we really never know when we will be plunged into the damp rainy season, when I find it much harder to convince myself I am interested in embracing time with nature.

I made my way to the Mt. Taranaki visitor center and set off. I settled on the Veronica Loop Track since I had started it once but had to turn back. It is only a 3 kilometer track, but takes a bit of energy, as the first half kilometer is nothing but stairs!

Near the start of the track is the Ambury Monument. This is a memorial to a hiker, Arthur Ambury, who died in June, 1918 when trying to save another hiker who had slipped on ice.

The signs along the way entice you with the promise of a look-out. What I did not realize until after the hike was that to find the lookout, you had to go off the track just a bit, (up more steps of course) along a track leading towards a hug. Clearly I will just have to go back :)

Once you survived the stairs, there were two cute little bridges nestled along the side of the ridge, which led to a walk along the top of a ridge. An impressive view of the valley below was the reward for the climb, followed by a descent into Kamahi and Totara forest, a pleasant way to cool off :)

Who needs a selfie stick haha!

The Leaning tree of Veronica?

Cool Job

Since New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth, it is pretty common to get updates on the Royal Family. Last year's visit from Charles and Camilla was huge news over here, and major events such as the birth of the adorable little Prince and Princess tend to get prime spots in the news list.

Every now and then, we get an interesting tidbit that is not major news, but will make your day anyway.
Today is one of those days; the radio has given an important announcement for the Royal Family.

The Queen is looking for someone with UK Size 4 feet that can break in her new shoes. She needs them to be all ready for her to wear without concern of getting any blisters. The job entails walking the halls of the Palace while wearing the Queens new shoes. Unfortunately details such as whether this is full-time work were not included (who knows how often she buys new shoes!) :)

Thought I would pass on a smile, hope you are having a great day!

Color Run

I feel as if I have been a bit neglectful of you, my dear readers, this year. I have thought of posting more, but somehow it does not seem to eventuate into anything that you get to read. I could use the excuse of being busy. Which, I have been, but still. I could also say I assumed you would not be interested in the busyness, but who knows, perhaps you are fascinated by my schedule of go to work, go for a run, teach some kids piano, go to work, and so on and so forth.

A cute black kitty named Minnie is helping me write this today. She torn between walking on the keyboard and simply attacking my fingers because they are moving. So I should not be held responsible for any spelling errors :)

A recent fun addition to the busyness that is my schedule is rehearsals for Mary Poppins. Last night I got to attend the choreography rehearsal and be their live music for the major dances. We had a lot of laughs, between my wrong notes and their missteps, but it is also fun to see how it is all coming together. They did mention that maybe saying I could pick the speed was unwise on their part, as by the time we were done they felt it was quite a bit faster than they were used to. However, the choreography director's response was "Let's do it again!" so maybe it was good after all! The adorable young man who will play Michael (he's 9 years old) snuck over and asked if I could just secretly play it even faster :)

Anyway, to get to what this post was meant to be about: we had a rare sunny weekend and I was able to take advantage of the nice weather. Sunday morning was the annual color run down the Coastal Walkway. We started out at East End Surfclub, and ran 5k down the walkway to the port. Along the way we got wonderfully doused in color. So much that I am still trying to scrub some of it off, and my running shoes will likely forever be rainbowesque!  It was great fun though, and my co-runner decided she will happily join me in future silly events.
The best part of the run was arriving at the port where the monthly craft and food market was in full swing. We got Turkish for lunch and enjoyed a browse through the stalls.

Hope all is well in your world and will (hopefully) write again soon!