I activated Skype Voicemail, so feel free to use it. The phone service and our cheapo phone equipment is making Skype the preferred way to talk all around. I might even spring for a Skype-In number (Angela is already using one for work with good results).
I mentioned that I thought the crying over the haka not being televised was a bit much. Well the Aussie’s think there’s just a bit too much haka going on at the games and say it’s devaluing a sacred NZ custom. Referring to it as the “hakarena” and that “hakas for bronze medals had as much value as Zimbabwean dollars” will stoke the fire nicely. Game on!
There seems to be no end to high-publicity sporting events. Right now I’d say for most of you this would currently mean March Madness. Down here no one knows or cares about the NCAA tournament, but the Commonwealth Games have just started so that’s taking over where the Olympics left off (not that the kiwis seemed too interested in the winter games either). And then there’s cricket, which runs in the summer here and is still going on, or so I glean from the occasional news report. But even that’s a distant second to, of course, rugby.
This is a one sport country from what I can tell. People schedule their weekends around upcoming rugby matches, the media blasts ads for matches constantly, and the in-depth sports news seems nearly devoted to rugby. I’ve been watching the games and find them reasonably entertaining, as did I cricket. In the Commonwealth Games they play Rugby Sevens which is the same game with half the guys and crammed into less than 20 minutes. I watched the finals last night and to no one’s surprise the Kiwis won gold. Actually, the commentators tried to create surprise, because despite NZ being ranked #1 they somehow were portrayed as going to Melbourne as underdogs, eeking out a win. It was weird. And since TVNZ just picks up the Aussie feed as-is, there was outrage that the post-win Haka (a Maori war dance that NZ Rugby annexed) wasn’t aired. It’s a pretty cool dance but I’ve already seen it 5000 times since I’ve been here so I wasn’t too put out. Then came arguments why Rugby Sevens should be in the Olympics. Enough already! Yes NZ kicks ass at rugby, yes it’s popular here, but exporting it beyond the League of Nations Who Care About Rubgy seems futile. I heard NZ beat Japan roughly 150-0 once. Fun!! Watching the Dream Team was fun once too, until the last Olympics when it was more fun to root against their arrogance.
There is one international forum that continues to sting the Kiwis: The Rugby World Cup. They haven’t won since the first contest in 1987 (ouch!). This despite doing well against the same core strong rugby nations in all the other international tournaments. (For a taste of what the Olympics would be like, take a look at some of the World Cup scores between the strong vs. other: NZ-Tonga 91-7, England-Uruguay 111-13, NZ-Italy 101-3.)
What I’m most interested in now: that I still have 187 points possible in my March Madness bracket.
I finally got around to getting a Flickr Pro account and have uploaded a couple of picture sets. Check out the home page, or jump directly to Akaroa or Marlborough/Nelson sets. I only wish I had enough time to photograph and upload the 2GB/month limit Flickr allows 🙂 Enjoy.
In the last few weeks Angela made it back from India fine, our stuff arrived here, and we’ve been juggling work and homemaking. Aside from being busy, there hasn’t been a lot of terribly interesting NZ material to report. That changed after our 4-day weekend to Nelson which I’ll write up soon, complete with photographs. In short it was a great trip. Stay tuned…