NZ Life

Getting READY for the PLUNGE!

ARRRGGGGHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! #$%!@%#$%!@%^^!#

And… look at that BIG smile on his face!!!! .. take that Nevis!!..

How come I didn’t get a front page link off cnn.com for my Nevis leap!?!

The bungy was a piece of cake compared to holiday traffic through a winding mountain pass, but we’re safely back in Christchurch after a great weekend. There are plenty of pictures to post, but not tonight… The full day and long drive back have made collapsing on the couch much more appealing than staring at a computer.

This morning we’ll be setting off to Queenstown for the long Easter weekend (we get Monday off too). Queenstown is located about 6 hours south of Christchurch and is a top tourist destination, along with being considered the adventure activity mecca in a country filled with extreme sports. We’ve planned to check out the whitewater rafting, jetboating and a day long hike on the Routeburn Track. There is loads to do in an around town so I don’t expect a lot of lounging around on this trip! And that all of this is nestled in the mountains near a picturesque lake doesn’t hurt.

Kiwis like their extreme sports and bungy jumping would qualify as such. The commercial version of the activity was (I’ve been told) born in New Zealand–in Queenstown no less! The original jump still operates there, but so do dozens of others. I skydove in 1998 as a thing to try, and bungy jumping has been on the list for years so I figured if I don’t do it in New Zealand, I probably won’t get around to it at all. Choosing a jump wasn’t too hard. There is price (ranging from expensive to very expensive), height, ambiance and gimmickry (i.e. night jumps, naked jumps, jumping from a parasails, etc.) Since I don’t think it really takes any skill, and I’ll probably bother only once or twice in my life, I decided to go for the highest static jump I could find. It just so happens that the supposed highest static jump in the world is in Queenstown! That’s good and bad, because I committed myself to do it, but after looking at lots of pictures of it and talking to lots of Xtreme people who refuse to do it because “it’s just too high”, I’m really getting queasy. The Nevis Highwire is not the typical jump from a bridge or off a ledge. Rather, AJ Hacket–the bungy empire in NZ–spent millions building a jump pod suspended (photos: 1, 2) about 134m (440ft) above the Nevis Gorge. At this height you get to enjoy an 8.5 second free fall. There are purportedly all sort of innovations and patents surrounding the whole system, but I don’t think many care because it’s just so damn high!

I’m booked on this jump and they have my credit card number. Monday morning I’ll go do this and Angela will watch (maybe). It’s all supposed to be safe and certified, but writing a pre-jump blog seemed nonetheless like a good idea. I hope to write the next post too!

Here are a couple of pictures of our place in Westmorland, Christchurch. It is the house with the red roof. If you look up from the road, its between the yellow sign and the blue car. (Click on the picture to enlarge). The biker looks pretty good too :-)… and hence the focus!

The middle house on the hill is our house.

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.