Kiwi-isms

I thought I'd give you guys an idea of what New Zealand is actually like, aka the quirks of the country and its people.

1. Spaghetti or beans on toast - seems to be a common breakfast item (actually anything on toast). Our dining hall usually serves it at least 3 times a week. You make toast and spoon spaghetti on top... but it tastes more like spaghetti-o's as it's fake, canned spaghetti. Not half bad, but not necessary either.

2. Kiwis love to walk around barefoot, even to class. They had to make a rule in the dining hall that you can't be barefoot, or they probably would be. Sounds like fun to me, so my friend and I have decided we are going to go a week barefoot - probably starting this coming Monday.

3. Things are EXPENSIVE. You'd think due to the favorable exchange rate the country would be cheap, but its not. They compensate by overpricing everything. The only good thing about their economy is that the smallest coin is 10 cents, so everything is rounded nicely.

4. Kiwis enjoy their yeast spreads (Vegemite in Australia, Marmite in NZ). It's black, thick and gross. However, the factory is apparently based out of Christchurch and was damaged by the quake, so soon they will run out of Marmite. Sounds OK with me ;) I've been too scared to try it... probably going to have to soon though.

5. New Zealand is all about their pies!! And I TOTALLY approve. They make a lot of meat pies - they're cheap, delicious, warm and filling. Usually they're mince and cheese or steak and cheese, but another popular flavor (that they also like to use in sandwiches) is cranberry, brie and chicken.

6. Fashion trends.... particularly on the south island they like to wear stubbies (short, rugby shorts), gumboots (black rain boots), and wool sweaters... Together. Or in the girls case, big puffy down jackets even when it's like 65 degrees. Also, for some reason girls have decided that duffel bugs are a good substitute for back packs. Why anyone would want to lug around a duffel bag full of books is beyond me.

7. Mullets and rat tails are popular hair styles here.. or just generally messy hair. It's odd.

8. They eat way too much starch and carbohydrates. There are about 5 different ways to eat potatoes at every meal. There is a salad option, but the only salad dressing they provide you with is mayonnaise, which is surprisingly popular.

9. They have funny words for things. For example, cookies are biscuits, trash/garbage is rubbish, flip flops are jandals and they like to use keen and heaps all the time.

10. They have penguins in this country!! I need to find them...

That's all for now. I hope that helps you better relate to kiwis, a great fun-loving group of people!

Go Crusaders!

Great rugby game this evening! Canterbury Crusaders (home team) vs. the Cheetahs from South Africa. This was the first home game for the Crusaders since the earthquake so it was a very big deal for the people of Christchurch and a bit emotional. 

I certainly am no rugby expert but I do know a few basic rules. The ball cannot be passed forwards, only sideways or backwards. However, the ball can be ran or kicked forward. So the basic formation is always the two teams working in a line trying to get through the other team. When someone is tackled or the ball is dropped, the play does not stop... the ball is just picked up and that team continues. So it is a pretty quick moving game. 

When a ball is kicked out of bounds, it is thrown back in at what's called a line-out (shown below) where the players throw a jumper into the air in attempts to gain possession. 

And finally, this is called a scrum and is used to restart the game when the ball is out of play. The ball is placed in the center of the teams and they push against each other while using their feet to kick the ball out to a team member.

It was a really great game and I'm so glad I went. The Crusaders won 28-21, a victory for Christchurch!

Lots of planning

This week my weekend has pretty much started as of Wednesday afternoon. I had one class Wednesday, nothing today (Thursday) due to it being a campus wide field trip day, and one class on Friday. It's a pretty sweet deal!

Tonight I'm seeing the Hunger Games movie with my friends. It'll be interesting to see how the movies differ here, for one they are $15 and two, it's assigned seating which is interesting. Should be a great movie though, and I'm excited about the fact that we get to see it before it comes in the US!

This Saturday I'm going to my first rugby game with the U of Canterbury students here through Australearn! This is the first game being played in the new stadium since the earthquake.

Another exciting today was the fact that our April trip has been finalized and various activities and reservations have been purchased online. I'm making the south island trip that was planned for the first week (the big ticket items including a Fox glacier hike and a Milford Sound cruise), and am now also going to explore the north island on the second week of break. My wallet is certainly already feeling it, but between hostels, tents, and cheap groceries, I'll be making up for it the best I can.

Pictures to come!
Cheers!

Surfing in Christchurch

This past weekend was beautiful and my friends and I decided to go to New Brighton beach for a beach day/surfing expedition. It's about an hour bus ride, but well worth it. I didn't try surfing, I was designated photographer, but Maggie and Ericka made valiant attempts at surfing. They didn't progress much past their knees, but they had a good time! We also had lunch in the town and checked out some of the local shops. We all had fish and chips, which was good but still not nearly as good as the fish I had in Akaroa a couple weeks ago. That fish set my standard so high I'm not sure it will ever be met again...

Maggie on the left, and Ericka on the right. 

I got to use my zoom lens for the first time, which worked really well. It's definitely zoom only though.. to get the posed shots they had to stand pretty far away. 

If we go again I will definitely try surfing again. They had a lot of fun, and the water was definitely warmer than California!

Also, we've started making our April break plans - and if all goes as planned this is the proposed road trip: http://g.co/maps/zj5gq

Wildfoods weekend!

This weekend we travelled to the east coast for the Wildfoods Festival in Hokitika, New Zealand. We left Friday morning and drove to Arthur's Pass National Park, about 2-3 hours away. This was where our house was that we would sleep in Friday and Saturday night.. the festival on Saturday was only about an hour and a half beyond that. 

On the way to Arthur's Pass we stopped at Castle Hill, a common bouldering area. There was a lot of rock formations to climb on, and the views were spectacular. We lucked out as well, as the weather was clear and hot. Of course we were told to pack warm and I did not bring any shorts with me... but it all worked out okay. 

Later that day we arrived in Arthur's Pass and had some time to explore before dinner. We were told of a short hike not far from the house up to a waterfall called Devil's Punchbowl. It was mostly a stair climb, but totally worth it. We all decided to swim in the waterfall which was freezing cold, especially due to all the wind and mist coming off of it. Thankfully it was a warm day and we dried off alright. 

Finally on Saturday we made it to the Wildfoods Festival. While it had a lot of good, normal food there was of course "wild" foods. I ate grubs, fried shark, honeycomb, and sheep brain. The shark was definitely my favorite and was legitimately really good. It was a great weekend of good food, beautiful landscapes and sunburns. 

Akaroa, Cars & The Hub

This weekend consisted mostly of running errands (like sleeping pads for camping, blankets and laundry baskets) and making discoveries. It pretty much started late thursday afternoon, as I only have class on Friday sometimes, and this was one of those times that I didn't. So one of my flatmates, Ericka, and I went to Akaroa to watch our RA's touch rugby tournament. Akaroa is a harbor town about an hour east on the coast. It was beautiful but a bit cold and windy. Thankfully, our RA recommended us eat fish and chips for dinner there and it was the best fried fish I have ever had.

As a hall we are planning on buying a car, hopefully within the next couple weeks. We are planning on getting something for $1500-2000 and split it between the four of us. While there is bussing to travel places, the buses mostly leave in the morning.. which means we'd have to leave Friday morning, or Saturday if we have class.. get somewhere in the afternoon and then leave again on Sunday morning - it's just not practical. The car will give us the freedom and convenience to go where we want to... plus, by the end of it all we should get most of our money back when we resell. 

And the last big excitement of the weekend has been the use of this magical program called "the hub." It's a free program from the school that gives us access to about 10 TB of movies, music, tv shows etc. that we can download for free. It's awesome. I've downloaded 8 movies so far, with many more to come!