Rugby

Kia Ora! We have been to two rugby games. Rugby Southland, a local support organization, had a deal. Buy a game ticket and they would provide a free bus to the game in Dunedin. We continue to check out the things the Kiwis love - like harness racing and now rugby. This seemed like a good opportunity so we bought tickets. Saturday afternoon we boarded the bus at the Ascot Park Hotel along with about 50 other people. Dunedin is 3 hours each way so it was a big time investment. We arrived at Carisbrook Stadium at 6:30 PM, one hour before kickoff, and time for "dinner" before the game. The Kiwi Consort brought a PB&J (peanut butter and jelly) sandwich from home, scoffing at the junk food served in such venues. My feeling is that the ambiance, including the junk food, is part of the whole experience. Remembering hot dogs at baseball games, I opted for game food. I ordered a hot dog. I was taken back when I was handed a corn dog, with the option of having the top dipped in a spicy sauce. Obviously the concept of hot dog is something else here. It was greasy enough to keep me from feeling hunger all night. Some of our busmates reappeared wearing war paint to support their team. One man had a wooden sword, fake vest, and a cape in team colors. And he was our age! The Southland Highlanders were playing the Chieftains. There was some silly pregame entertainment. When the Chieftains appeared on the field, so did a large muscular long haired man wearing only a kilt and boots and waving a large sword. He is the archetypal Highlander brandishing his sword at the "enemy". He circled their huddle menacingly. I kept trying to apply American football terminology and concepts to the game, but it just doesn't translate. Rugby moves a lot faster, and the players do not wear protective gear. Scrums are frequent in which 3 players from each side lock arms over the shoulders and face each other. They crouch down and the entire rest of the team on each side circles in back of the front 3, all of them holding on to each other. Then it is like a reverse tug of war, each side pushing against the other. Eventually, the ball squirts out the side from somewhere in the scrum, a player from the side where it emerges grabs it and runs like the devil is behind him. And the devil is, in the form of every member of the opposing team. Quickly the guy with the ball laterals it to another player. He runs until pursuing players threaten to tackle him and laterals it to someone else and so on. Or so it appeared. There was a lot of kicking the ball back and forth. All in all, this was a pretty back and forth, lackluster game won by the Highlanders on two penalty kicks. The Highlanders and their fans were psyched. They are a bit of a losing team this season. After we had purchased these tickets, our friend and colleague Kate McIntosh informed us the Highlanders were playing the next week in Invercargill. I wished she had told us that before we got the tickets for the Dunedin game. Not to worry, she said, we could go again and she would provide the tickets. And so the next week we were back at the stadium with Kate and Alistair McIntosh, in Invercargill. We ate at home before the game; the food was better. The game was more exciting even though the Highlanders came out short this time. The younger fans participated in sword play after the game. Kate and Alistair's son Jamie is a "prop" for the national team, the All Blacks. A prop is comparable to the center in football. He is the big middle man in the front of the scrum. When the All-Blacks are off season, he plays for the Highlanders. But he is currently injured, so his job is to give a little personal attention to the high flyers in box seats. That wasn't us, but I met Jamie and got my picture taken with him, as promised. I think that about does it for the sports. There doesn't seem to be any local cricket though the national team keeps getting creamed by the Indians (Go, Indians!) right now. Netball and basketball are out of season. And the big golf tournament in Queenstown is over. Tiger wasn't here but a bunch of lower ranking Americans showed well. Cheers, Kiwi Traveler

The weather ... again

Kia Ora! We've had some really nice weather. The sun was warm and bright, the temperature reached 24 (felt like about 70F) for at least 3 days. I guess that was summer. And then we got another of those four-seasons-in-one-day days, which introduced a spate of weather that warned of the approaching winter. Snow fell at 600 metres, we got sleet, rain, strong winds, and a short spot of sun. Everyone says this has been a cool summer. Hear that as an understatement. My shorts haven't come out for wearing yet making me wonder why I brought them. Even at best, I recognize that this far south, the climate is temperate minus, which gives rise to several wry observations on the part of the people who live here. To wit: "If you can't see the mountains, it is raining. If you can see the mountains, it's going to rain." "If it rains before 10 (AM), the sun will shine by 2 (PM)." (Sam quoted Grandmother Carol: "Rain before 7, sun by 11.") And here is a poem written by Kiwi Anonymous: Southland Weather It rained and it rained and it rained and it rained; the average fall was well maintained, and when the tracks were simply bogs, it started raining cats and dogs. After a drought of half an hour we had a most refreshing shower, and then the most curious thing of all: a gentle rain began to fall. Next day was also fairly dry, save for the deluge from the sky, which wetted the party to the skin, and after that the rain set in. Cheers, Kiwi Traveler

Sam comes for a visit

Kia Ora! From Wanaka, about a 2 hour drive away, backpacker Sam hitchhiked to Invercargill and came to visit on Saturday last. We thoroughly enjoyed this 21-year old grand nephew, son of Steve and Wendy Kvale and grandson of Bill and Carol Kvale. Sam is a man with a mission to learn organic methods to produce and consume healthy food and protect the environment. (Perhaps he inherited a "green thumb" from his paternal grandmother?) He is in New Zealand as a WWOOFER (World Wide Opportunities On Organic Farms, http://www.google.com/search?q=wwoof&rls=com.microsoft:en-us:IE-SearchBox&ie=UTF-8&oe=UTF-8&sourceid=ie7&rlz=1I7PCTA_en). WWOOF is an international movement connecting volunteers with small organic growers to promote sustainable ways of living. Wwoofers work on farms or small acreages many places in the world for room and board, often as a means of traveling on the cheap. In this case, Sam contracts himself as a laborer on Southland organic farms to learn the principles of composting and permaculture. He has come to the right place to do so. New Zealand seriously promotes ways to preserve this mostly pollution-free, incredibly beautiful country and its creatures, unique in evolutionary history. The weekend Sam spent with us, he was on holiday between locations. We started with a trip to the Sunday morning Farmer's Market, where we purchased fresh organic produce, cheeses (a favorite for Sam), fresh seafood, and lamb. I don't think it is my imagination that these products taste better than the usual run at the supermarkets. Later we drove to the seaport of Bluff to buy the first oysters of the season. Bluff oysters are famed over the entire country for their delicious flavour. But the oyster outlet was closed, and we learned that the oyster boats had not yet returned. No oysters until Monday. So we visited the local seafarer's museum, which included climbing on and into a retired oyster boat. In the galley, Sam found a girlfriend. Lacking oysters, we treated ourselves to Devonshire tea and scones at the LandsEnd restaurant. From our window table we watched the oyster boats returning to port, one after the other, all heavy with their harvest and low in the water. Such irony! We came to get oysters, but had to be satisfied watching oyster boats coming back to port. Bluff is named for the high bluff that rises behind the village. Despite the cloud covering the top of the bluff, we drove all the way to the top for Sam to pose on a rock. Fall is coming, so Monday morning I borrowed the hospice car and Sam and I drove to the thrift shops to find him some warm clothing. Now, I know most of these shops well from my own forays for warm clothing before going to Antarctica: the Southland Hospice shop, two Salvation Army shops, St. Vincent de Paul, Methodist, as well as the private ones. But after just 3 shops and 2 purchases, Sam was done. An endurance shopper he is not. Sam thought I should check the seafood shops for oysters; he is really keen to taste them. I promised to fix him oysters when he returns. That is called providing incentive. Then I drove Sam to Riverton to his next job. We found the place easily enough, though Sam seemed uneasy because it is very close to the center of the town. The short driveway was overhung with shrubs and trees and a bit spooky. Bins and other equipment was strewn about the path to the door. I was uneasy too. The door was answered by a young woman who looked to be about Sam's age. "Come on in," she said with a distinct American accent. "I'm from Utah and I'm a Wwoofer too." Sam did not need a second invitation. (Just in case, we checked with our friends from Riverton, who had high praise for the family Sam is staying with.) Cheers, Kiwi Traveler PS I did go and get oysters when I got back to Invercargill, and they were fantastic! I honestly believe they are the best I have ever tasted. KT

Our Invercargill home

Kia Ora!

Date: October, 2009

We arrived in Invercargill via Air New Zealand at 7:30 PM. Three lovely women were awaiting our arrival: Nicki Kitson, the hospice CEO; Kate McIntosh, the nursing supervisor; and Judith the spiritual director. Jim and I each had two large pieces of luggage and it two cars to move us and those cases from the airport. After "tea", as the evening meal is called here, at Jagz, Nicki drove us to the house that will be our home for the next 6 months.

The house is unexpectedly lovely and large, with 4 bedrooms. It appears to have been recently completely redecorated: new carpet, wall covering, drapes and bed linens. Three smaller bedrooms, hooks for outerwear and a large bathroom are off a corridor as one enters the front door. The next section of the house is the kitchen and dining area opening to an outdoor patio on the north side and into a formal parlour on the east. Proceeding west is what appears to be a later addition of a small bathroom, tiny office, and large master bedroom which also opens out to the patio.

The patio extends into a large garden (yard) extending back 2 lots with with 2 small glass houses (though one is plastic), as they are commonly called. More about the grounds in another post. For now, I think we will be very comfortable here.

Cheers,

Kiwi Traveler