Hot Steamy Men and Naked Women - New Zealand Rugby at Its Best

This past weekend we traveled to Christchurch to see the New Zealand rugby team, the All Blacks, play Ireland's team.  It was a chilly night, damp but not raining (yeah!).   The city was pulsing with excitement for the game, which was extra special because it was the first national rugby match held in Christchurch since the major earthquakes last year. 

We had some inside help with logistics and trying to figure out what the hec was happening on the field because Tom, Julia, Maise and Tim went with us.  I sat next to Maise, who at 11, gave me all sorts of tips on what to cheer about and what to yell out.  Heave!  All Blacks!  etc.

The All Blacks start the game with the Huka - a traditional Maori war dance which is so cool.  The Irish had a good showing in the stands and acted quite....Irish!  (Alcohol consumption = louder chanting and yelling for your team).  Both teams played well and the score was 19-19 with seconds to go, when the All Blacks star kicked the ball through the end posts to win the game.  I probably have all sorts of terminology wrong but you get the idea, I hope. 

The game is mind boggling with the amount of tackling and lack of protective gear.  It was awesome to see the entire field, which you can't see on TV, to get a better sense of the plays and strategy.  To say that it's an extremely physical game is an enormous understatement. 

The mens legs are similar in size to tree trunks and they wear short shorts, which show them off quite nicely.  I'm not sure how cute their faces remain after years of play.  I'm sure they get pretty beat up.

Half time entertainment included a completely naked woman streaker.  The poor guards who had to catch her and get her off the field, she had no modesty and was wiggling out of their hold.  It took three of them to get her off the field.  It was hysterical.




Pre game prep

Maisie and I - face painted up - Go Blacks!

Lea and Maisie - nice team support girls!

The silver fern is their symbol - lit up at the start of the game.

The "new" stadium - the former stadium was ruined by the earthquake.  This stadium has been modified for larger matches.  It was the first time the All Blacks played at this stadium. Note that there isn't much distance from the fans to the field.  The ball went into the stands often, but always was tossed back onto the field.

The start of the game - the national anthem, sung in Maori and then English - couldn't follow either language!

The Haka - must be odd to be the opposing team - what do you do?  The war dance includes bulging eyes and sticking the tongue out really far. 

See video below

Pile up!  The ball isn't in the middle of this any longer.

The steam is coming off the players - it was a crazy sight.

The hot men were steamy!

I actually figured out when and why this type of play occurred.  Only I forget what this is called.

There actually is a fair amount of time that the players are not piled on top of one another.

Another steam pile - Number 10 is a star - Dan Carter - he also kicked the winning points with no time left on the clock and a tie score.  He's a NZ rugby hero. 

And a little half time show - right at our end of the field.  She ran on and shed the last of her clothes-her bra.  These poor guys probably didn't know where to grab her and she wiggled out of their hold a couple of times.  Finally one guy threw a coat over her. 

Then this mate had to go collect her bra off the field!

Another heave over the end line. Points for the All Blacks. 

Back to the huddle and the steaminess of it all. 

And on the way home, the next day, another New Zealand classic.  This farmer was training his sheep dogs with all sorts of whistling.

Going for it – A scenic flight over the Mt. Cook area

 Greg and I both turn 50 this year so it’s been easy to justify some extravagances by calling them early birthday presents.   

The first weekend in June was a long weekend in honor of the Queen’s birthday. (Queen Elizabeth II - Remember her from the previous post?)  We used the long weekend to travel to Mount Cook Village in Mount Cook National Park.  

We see Mount Cook from Hokitika every clear day, but to get from Hokitika to the village at the base of the mountain, it’s a 5 hour drive, going east over the divide and then south, then west  and then north.  The village is a little oasis at the end of a two-lane (sometimes one-lane!) road into the mountains.       

On the way there, we stopped overnight at Lake Tekapo, the second largest lake in New Zealand.  This lake must be the most turquoise colored lake in the world.  Its color is spectacular, which is a fair description even though I am biased to any and all things turquoise.  The town works very hard at eliminating night light pollution and is a destination for star gazing.  The University of Canterbury has a special observatory here.  

We woke up to a crystal clear sky day and decided it was a perfect day for a scenic flight.  The flight was breathtaking.   It was extra special to fly over locations we were familiar with from the ground, such as Franz Josef Glacier, Fox Glacier, Mount Tasman and Mount Cook.

After the scenic flight and a hike to the observatory, we headed to Mount Cook National Park and stayed in the village there for two nights.  

Twenty-two of New Zealand’s 27 mountains over 3050m (12,320 feet) are in Mount Cook National Park (per my travel companion – Lonely Planet New Zealand).  At 3755m, Mount Cook is the highest mountain in Australasia (NZ+Australia+New Guinea+Pacific Islands – per my other good travel friend Wikipedia).  The village is at elevation 747m, so  Mount Cook rises an impressive 9870 feet from the village.  All the mountains create dramatic and beautiful views especially with clear skies at sunrise and sunset.  The area has a significant focus and history on mountain climbing.  The first climbers to reach the peak of Mount Cook were New Zealanders who accomplished the ascent on Christmas day 1884!  The DOC visitor center does a great job with interpretation of then and now mountain climbing.  It’s so impressive to see the gear that early climbers used.  More impressive is to see the gear that women wore in the earlier days of tramping and climbing around the mountains, long dresses and heels!!!  We also visited the Sir Edmund Hillary Alpine Center which has a great movie about Ed, who is one of the most famous New Zealanders.   Of course seeing all this in the museum makes you want to get out and hike, which we did.  

Not much business this beautiful day - we were the only passengers!

Lea - assuming ready the position.

Lea in action - she needs to consciously make time not to look through the camera.

Lake Tekapo - the town and the lake - soooooooooooooooooooo Blue

Sky or water?

Lake Tekapo

Glacial Valley at Lake Tekapo

It's getting even more breathtaking

I'm out of words - just enjoy the beauty!

Franz Josef Glacier from above.

Mt. Cook on the left - Mount Tasman on the right - from this perspective they don't look that hard to summit!

The Observatory at Lake Tekapo

Sunset at Mt. Cook Village taken from the lounge balcony at our lodging.

Snow in June

Snow in June

As we approach the June equinox, it’s a different experience to be kicking off the winter season, counting down to the shortest day of the year, checking snow forecasts, and discussing skiing, snow pack, ski areas, opening dates, ticket prices and figuring out if we can get a ski day in.   Although it doesn’t snow in Hokitika, it does in the mountains we see every day and on the roads that connect to Hokitika to supplies!

The first storm was last week on June 6^th.  It snowed 125 cm (4 feet) in 20 hours, measured at Arthur’s Pass, the main road between here and Christchurch, about 1 ½ hours away.

The road was closed for a few days and several items in the supermarket ran out.  More importantly the hair product I was waiting to buy at “my” new hair salon couldn’t make it here for about 4 days!

If you can click on this link you can see spectacular footage of a train snowplowing through Arthur’s Pass on June 6, after the snow storm. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=6acPX_00M9Q



A friend sent this to me - Craigieburn Ski Valley - about 2 hours from here. Can there really be this much snow 2 hours from the palm tree in my driveway?  

Still mind boggling to look to the east and see snow capped mountains and then look to the west and see the ocean and temperate forest vegetation.

Bundling up for the frosty but beautiful commute to and from work.  See the snow caps in the background.

 Without Christmas as a distraction during the short days of the year, the community finds other ways to make the best of the lack of sunshine.  Upcoming events:

A lantern parade – kids will be making lanterns this weekend in preparation for a 5PM parade on June 20^th followed by a bonfire on the beach.  Co-workers of mine are coordinating this event, I did my part by volunteered Lea to play sax for the parade.   Update:  with hopes for 30 people to show up, the event attracted 150+ people, maybe 200.  So many kids had made lanterns.  Adults did too.  A trio of musicians, two saxs and a drummer led the parade.  Lea was one of the sax players!  The weather was perfect and we all ended up at a bonfire on the beach with sausies on the grill. 

Knitting is a big pastime here, all the kids have the cutest hand knit sweaters and hats

A big crowd gathered waiting for darkness

Boys and lanterns (Tim on the right)

The Red Moki from Hoki always adds excitement to an event

He's great at passing time, we were waiting for it to get a little darker out.  He told a great tale about a tavern that had floated away to sea during a storm.

The musical leaders

Such a pretty site to see everyone walking along the shore with their lanterns

All prepared for playing in the dark

A person who twirls a fire stick for extra entertainment on the beach.

Family party at work – Shortest day of the year, end the day a little early, enjoy fish and chips with mulled wine (a specialty of the Conservator (Regional Director) in the tea break "smoka" room.   I'll do my part by eating and drinking.   Apparently, the shortest day of the event, with mulled wine, has been a breakfast event in the past.  Productivity wasn't always great after the breakfast parties.  

Mulled wine and fish and chips

Chip Buttie or may chip buddy - people had buttered lots of pieces of bread before the fish and chips arrived.  We didn't know why until the fish and chips came and realized they make sandwiches with the deep fried chips and fish.  Does that sound good?  Well........

 

Lea tried it!  Greg used the bread as a plate.

Winter Market at the local primary school – food and festivities as a fund raiser for the school.  Julia, Tom's wife is organizing this event.  I'll do my part by being willing to be bossed around and helping where needed.

We spend the long dark evenings reading books, watching movies, discussing the weather, and moving  electric heaters from room to room.  We've got library cards for the local library (the library lends out puzzles!) and have joined the local movie rental place.  I've been working my way through watching the extended version + appendices of the Lord of the Rings Trilogy.  Wow..they are good.  The movies are produced by a kiwi and they were filmed all over New Zealand.  The movies and the story of the making of the movies are fantastic and sooooooooo New Zealand. 

Also, we try and catch sunset on the nice weather days and Lea plays with her camera alot - here's cool shot.  

Guess which Connors family member this is.  Hint - not Greg.

Working for the Queen

O.K. project buddies.  You know what it’s like when you submit a project to a regulatory agency for approval.  You are anxiously waiting to get approval, you hope the reviewer is a reasonable person and wish that any comments are easy to address.  

I submitted two applications for construction on April 4^th thinking it would take two weeks to get approvals.  The project is to construct two vehicle wash down pads, at two separate DOC maintenance facilities.  The project is one construction project, but because of the separate locations, two separate “consent applications” or construction approvals were required.   Several issues later, I finally got approval yesterday, June 14, 2012 (or today depending when you are reading this).  

Highlights -
1) Paying the application review fees.  Walked one block to the Council building with a project manager who has a purchase card.  Paid the fees by credit card in 1 minute or less.  This has never been so easy.  

2) Now the big one – on the approval letter for one of the sites, the property owner is identified as HER MAJESTY THE QUEEN.  How cool is that?  I didn’t know that Queen Elizabeth II is New Zealand’s head of state.  New Zealand is part of the Commonwealth of Nations which the Queen is the head of.  Interestingly, on the second  approval letter, the property owner is identified as the Department of Conservation.  That would normally have been exciting, because it makes me proud that I’ve completed this portion of the project for DOC, but that paled in comparison to doing work for the QUEEN!

The District Council Office - one block from my office with a delicious coffee shop on the way - I'm loving cappuccino

Such fancy approvals

Note who the owner is: Her Majest the Queen

See how happy she is about the approvals?