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Published: November 14th 2009
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Crazed Rugby Fans
We went to the rugby match with a group of Aaron's coworkers. Some of them painted their faces in our team's colors. You know how, for the most part, you’d rather be travelling? Same with us. Yes, our entire New Zealand experience counts as travelling - but really, we like it best when we are sleeping somewhere other than our own bed. Not to say that we haven’t had some fun in our hometown lately. We’ve done some distinctly NZ things here and really enjoyed them.
First, the rugby game. We knew we didn’t want to let our time here go by without catching a rugby match, and we ended up going to one with a big group from the hospital. Rugby is a complicated sport, and after sitting through a game of it, I still have no idea what goes on or what the rules are. What I can tell you is:
• The scrum, or way the players kick off, appears to be the opposite of tug of war. They are smushing toward each other and look like they are trying to crush their skulls together.
• Rugby is ultra-violent. It makes hockey look like ballet. There are pile-ups or fights every couple minutes.
• These fights (and the rest of the game) take place with zero padding or protection.
The Scrum
Looks a little less civilized than kicking off at a football game. Just cleats, socks, shorts, and a rugby shirt.
• Our Bay of Plenty Steamers (named for the volcanic area in which we live) were heavily favored to win, but lost to the Hawkes Bay Magpies in the last second.
I’m glad we went to the game, but I feel no need to see another one.
Another cool thing we did recently was visit Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. I wish we had known that it’s free for Rotorua residents; we would have gone sooner! Wai-O-Tapu is a park with a path through some of the greatest (in both volume and appearance) geothermal activity in the world. There’s a large geyser, the Lady Knox geyser, that erupts each morning at 10:15. (It has a little help from a bar of soap.) There are some other really cool sights, too - bubbling mud, lots of steam, giant craters… We loved the Artist’s Palate, which was full of vibrant colors and adjacent to the Primrose Terrace, which looks like a slope of water. The most surprising feature was the Devil’s Bath, which is a neon green pool.
Yes, that activity was very much a Rotorua thing to do, as was the hangi
Ouch!
I don't know how they manage not to get hurt. we went to the week before last. A hangi is a traditional Maori meal, cooked in the ground. The Maoris here have different maraes, (muh-ryes’) or meeting places, where they often gather, and they invite the public to these maraes to experience their culture. We went to Te Puia, which was recommended to us and is very close to our house. The entire group on the excursion gathered at the waharoa (gateway) before walking over to the meeting house. Our friend Brian was chosen to serve as the chief of the tribe of visitors and had to engage in some traditional rituals to show that we came in peace. We watched the tribespeople sing and dance in the traditional Maori style before eating the hangi dinner. Finally, the evening concluded with a ride to the Pohutu Geyser. (I suspect that this geyser is also manipulated to go off regularly, but am not sure how.)
After a bit of being tourists in our hometown, we decided to take a quick trip to Auckland for a weekend. Auckland is very easy to get around, and the downtown area is very walkable. We rolled into town around lunchtime last Saturday and had
Lady Knox Geyser
A bar of soap serves as the catalyst. lunch in Ponsonby, a hip, eclectic neighborhood. Then, after checking in at our hotel, we walked around for a bit - a couple areas we had already been familiar with, but also some new-to-us areas, like Viaduct Harbour. We also went up the Sky Tower, which is the tallest observatory in the southern hemisphere. It was neat to have a 360o view of the city and see how large it really is - after all, ¼ of the country’s population lives here. There were some markers telling us what buildings and mountains we were looking at, as well as distances from some other large cities. I recall seeing that we were just under 14,000 kilometers, or 8,700 miles, from Chicago. It’s actually a shorter distance than I would have thought!
That night, we had a great dinner at a restaurant owned by an American couple. The husband is from Connecticut, and the wife is from Mt. Clemens, which made me really happy.
We wrapped up with brunch at the harbor on Sunday, and then a visit to the Auckland Art Gallery. A couple from New York is loaning some pieces from their private collection to the gallery, so
Lady Knox Again...
...in all her glory. we got to see a Dali, a Picasso, a Matisse, and a couple other modern pieces as part of a “sneak preview” prior to the unveiling of the entire exhibition. On our way out of town, we stopped at the Auckland Regional Botanic Gardens. There’s a new exhibit there in which sculptures of all different mediums are scattered throughout the gardens. So we looked at those - as well as the largest number of vibrantly colored roses either of us have ever seen.
So that’s what we’ve been up to. Lots of fun stuff, and all with local flavor. Pretty soon, though, we’re giving up the “local” for a little while. We are leaving on 19/11 for Australia. Melbourne, Sydney, Cairns, and Brisbane… two-and-a-half weeks… to say we’re excited is an understatement.
We’ll tell you all about it, and show some pictures, when we get back!
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robin
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about rugby
When I worked at Timaru, Saturdays were "rugby central" in the ED. The entire place was jammed with rugby injuries-it makes American style football look mild!!