'soaking' in the culture

---

Nothing like a painfully bad pun on the NZ weather to start a blog entry. As you've guessed its wet here, and so there's been no chances to go to the beach, surf or any of that stuff lately. Still we did go to a big rugby game yesterday, which was mental but pretty good. Very rowdy, even before we'd left one girl had to go to hospital she was bleeding so bad from a glass cut on her foot; then one of our friends saw this and fainted from the amount of blood she saw and had to be hydrated and looked after. Definitely not the best start, it was also ridiculously busy and people were pretty much shoving each out of the way to get on the free coaches that showed up to take people to the arena every few minutes.

Still after a bad start, the rugby was awesome despite our team losing. We arrived early to see what my flatmate describes as 'NZ's biggest band' perform live - Opshop. They were great, though its odd seeing how crazy people go for a few people who are completely unfamiliar to you. I think they're quite big celebrities here and so its definitely cool to be able to see them, especially as their songs are great; you can hear them at www.myspace.com/opshop. The game itself was pretty exciting aswell, our team 'The Highlanders' played really well, and every time we scored a try some dirty, dirty cheerleaders did a dance for us at the front of the crowd. They even did a dance when the other team messed up and the chant 'You f*cked up!' began (much like we do in England).

Besides that its just been more parties, going out etc. It's quite ridiculous there's only been one night we haven't gone out since I arrived because of the amount of events that are organised. Most people have taken to having afternoon naps here to fuel themselves for another night out. Last night was a costume party in which I cashed in on my English accent a bit and went as Austin Powers, there'll be some pictures on facebook soon if you're interested.

I also did an open mic night with my flatmate Dan the other day which was great fun. We did a version of a song Dan loves called 'Wagon Wheel' and then Tenacious D's 'Kielbasa' and I also did 'New York, New York' by Ryan Adams by myself. It went pretty well I think and we got some free beers out of it which is always good, and the crowd were great aswell, a whole bunch of people who clapped along and cheered and sung along to each song.

Anyway I think thats about it for now, I'm going to try not to get settled and make sure I travel around a bit and try and take part in some white water rafting, tramping etc.

Hope everyones good, Tom

---