So Many Things to Do!

Since we’ve been in Christchurch, we’ve realized in just a week that there is so much to do here, it’s hard to fit it all in! The city was designed for people who love outdoor activities which could not be more perfect for us. So far, we’ve been able to play ultimate 3 nights a week, but yesterday, we tried our hand at orienteering and had a blast!

Since we’ve done orienteering a bunch of times at home before, we had an idea of what to expect, but what we didn’t know was that this would be our first “score o” event. The main difference is that in this event, everyone starts at the same time and the checkpoints can be found in any order. Each one is worth a certain predetermined amount of points so it’s up to you to plan your route to try to get the most number of points in the time allotted. Well, since we showed up thinking this was your average “staggered start; find the checkpoints in order” type of event, we weren’t prepared to see so many people all geared up to run the course. People here seem to be really hard core about whatever they do. They take their training and physical fitness pretty seriously.

So, once the race started, we had decided that we weren’t really dressed for running (since we thought we’d just be hiking), so we walked the course. That seemed to be going fine for a while and we saw some nice scenery around the area, but towards the end of our 75 minute time limit, we got a little greedy and went for one checkpoint (worth 40 points) that was a bit far away from the finish line. At that point, we knew we had to run to make it back (or else face the penalty of 20 points deducted for each minute late) so we were booking it! We managed to run all the way back to the finish line only to hear that we were 15 seconds late and had incurred the 20 point penalty (if only we hadn’t stopped to take this picture). Well, we did know they were hard core! Still, in all, it was a great time and we “won” a free voucher to the next event being held just outside the city in 2 weeks. We both think it may have been rigged since the people running the event absolutely loved the fact that we were “all the way from New York!” In all honesty, the people at this event were so unbelievably friendly and helpful; they were great to be around. They even lent us a compass…did you know that the northern hemisphere compasses don’t work correctly down here? We learn something new every day!

This Saturday we’re taking a wine tour in the Canterbury region, so we’ll certainly have more to post then. Hope you are all doing well!

Yay!!!!

Sorry it’s been so long since we last posted. We know that Hammy, in particular is getting restless. A lot has been going on since we arrived in Christchurch at the beginning of the week. We’ll try to get it all in now…

When we arrived in Christchurch on Monday night, we spotted banners all around the airport and city promoting the World Buskers Festival. Now, if you’re like us, you’d have no idea what that was about. So, we got up the next morning to check it out. Turns out that it’s a huge festival held in locations all throughout the city, featuring street performers from around the world. It’s free to go and watch and there are also tons of craft and food stands to visit. The best part of all, though, was the chance to see our favorite performers, The Amazing Drumming Monkeys! We first saw them in Darwin, Australia two summers ago and they were awesome! So, this time we thought we’d spread some of the monkeys to all of you back home with some video footage. They were performing in the Botanic Gardens and the weather was great. Hope you enjoy!

The Amazing Drumming Catchphrase...

As for the rest of the time that we’ve been here, most of it has been spent trying to find jobs and housing. We looked through many different options before we finally found a place to live just a 10 minute bus ride from the city center. We are living in a house with a bunch of different flatmates from all over the world. It’s been good so far and the house is really nice. And, it’s a hell of a lot cheaper than staying at a hostel! As for the jobs, so far, nothing much. Chris is working on a few leads and Jen had an interview but it turned out the position was too long-term. We have both registered with some temp agencies thinking that it will be our best bet to get some casual, short-term work. Hopefully, we’ll see some results soon!

After many days of looking at places to live and trying to figure out the job hunt, we were starting to get a bit run down and frustrated. So, we did what many of you would do, we found an ultimate game to play in to forget everything else! We played on Thursday night with a great mixed group of players from the US, Canada, UK, and New Zealand. They were a lot of fun and we’re going to be playing with them three nights a week. Mondays are summer league, Thursdays are practice/playing and Sundays are pick-up in the park. The people who play are really skilled and very cool. We’re looking forward to working our way into peak condition for Boston summer league by going to New Zealand Nationals in a couple months. Unfortunately, we missed the mixed tournaments, but we may be able to go to the Open and Women’s tournaments. Lookout, Ram Bots!

Speaking of ultimate, have you ever wondered where all of those shirts from Garb’s box of rejects end up? Of course you have, don’t deny it! Well, we found the place right on the main drag here in Christchurch (check out the photo). Who would have known that he was an international clothing entrepreneur?

Sue, do you recognize this one?

That’s about it for here. Today we’re headed out to see some more of the Busker’s Festival. Hope that you are all doing well back home. Wait, one more time for DPoz.

We’ll post more again soon!

The Tour of Auckland Continues…

With our trip to Kelly Tarlton’s Antarctic Adventure and Underwater World and The Auckland Museum. We know what you’re thinking…. “weren’t you guys supposed to play pick-up today?” Well, let’s just say we didn’t quite make it out there. With the weather looking bleak with lots of wind and threatening rain, we decided it wasn’t worth the trip out to get rained and winded out. Never count on a city known for sailing to have good ultimate conditions. Anyway, we hit the town’s museums instead and we’ll play our first pick-up on Thursday in Christchurch.

Kelly Tarlton’s was a really interesting place. We’re sure it doesn’t compare to the Antarctic Museum in Christchurch, (Cara, we promise to check that out while we’re there) but it was a really cool aquarium. We saw sting rays that were enormous…one weighing up to 400 lbs! Next, we took a ride on a conveyer belt in a glass tunnel right through the aquarium. We were able to get a great view of sharks, more rays, and tons of fish. When we arrived on the other side, they had a display called “freaky fish” and they certainly were! We saw one fish swimming in the tank and then it landed on the bottom and started walking! Yes, walking! It has six legs in addition to its fins and gills and everything else. How crazy is that? Of course we also found some “Nemos” (clownfish) too.

We then got on a snowcat ride that took us through the penguin enclosure which was pretty cool. We got to see the penguins up close but missed out on “Fat Boy”, the king of the colony. To make up for it, a giant motorized whale comes out of the water eating a seal lion a la the “Jaws” ride at Universal (or is it MGM, I can’t remember). It was hilarious.

After that it was off to the Auckland Museum where we saw tons of intricate Maori wood carvings and just about anything you could imagine. There was a section about volcanoes since Auckland is essentially the result of a group of volcanoes. That exhibit had a type of simulator room that you could go into and see what it would be like if a huge eruption happened off the coast of Auckland today. It was the kind of stuff that would leave a child scarred for life (and there were at least 5 kids in there watching this while we were there). To keep it short, they sat you down in a fake living room and had a news report about how the volcano is about to explode and everyone is evacuating the city. Meanwhile, out our fake bay window overlooking the harbour, we see a huge black cloud of volcanic ash and lava swallow us up in a matter of seconds. I guess we decided to go down with the ship. Pretty uplifting right? To be fair, there were warnings before we went in saying that “the content could be disturbing to some visitors”, but it was still really strange.

Speaking of strange, outside the museum when we left, we went to a jazz music concert in the park. No, that’s not the strange part. When we got settled down and were listening, Chris remembered that after reading the advertisement for the concert, it said that it would be all songs from the 80’s and 90’s. Well, they weren’t kidding. We never would have thought that you could do a jazz rendition of “Smells Like Teen Spirit” (as made famous by Nirvana), but oh yes, you can (and it actually was pretty good). “High and Dry” (as made famous by Radiohead) didn’t translate quite as well though. Overall, a pretty entertaining show nonetheless.

Glad to see the comments…keep them coming! Hope you’re all doing well at home!

Tramping on Rangitoto

Today we set off early to the island of Rangitoto, about 30 minutes ferry ride from the center of Auckland. The island is an extinct volcano, the largest and youngest in the Auckland volcanic field. There are no shops of any kind on the island and only a few houses here and there, presumably for people who work/look after the island. There are lots of hiking trails to choose from, so it would be impossible to do them all in one day. We decided to do the main trail that lead up to the summit lookout point and passed by a loop of lava caves.

The hike was very good. We were a little disappointed by the first section that we were forced to take due to a different drop off point from the ferry, but when we started hiking towards the lava caves, it was great! We got to go exploring and Chris was happy to be able to use his headlamp (or “torch”). The air inside the caves was so refreshing after walking in the hot, hot sun for about an hour. After the caves, we saw an awesome lookout point for the city of Auckland.

We stopped to get a photo of the great view and spent a few minutes enjoying it. Apparently the resident bees of the area didn’t like that too much and Jen ended up getting stung. There were a noticeable amount of bees along the trail but they seemed to keep to themselves, except for this one of course. It wasn’t too bad, just an annoying spot on the arm that made it impossible not to touch, which of course caused it to hurt more persistently. Ah, the dangers of the outdoors. Let’s just say that we now have afterbite witch will be traveling with us on all future hikes.

After our tango with the bees, we made it up to the summit of the island and saw some fantastic views! We stopped for some refueling and to enjoy the reward of all of our hard work hiking. The views did not disappoint. We headed back down and made our way over to the neighboring island of Motutapu. This island, although only a few meters away from Rangitoto, is completely different. We sat by the beach in the shade to relax. We watched the tide come in really quickly (you could actually see the water getting closer and closer) and waded in the super warm shallow water. The sand and warm water felt so good after 3 hours hiking.

Kia Ora and Welcome to New Zealand!

Welcome back to the blog! It seems like forever since we last blogged. To catch you all up on what you missed while we were off the grid, we had a wonderful time being back home for the holidays. It was so nice to see so many of you and to catch up on all the things going on at home. We also got the chance to visit a bunch of places (Pennsylvania, Boston, and Virginia) and see friends and family. All in all, it was a great way to spend our short time home!

Now that we’re back on the road again, we’re ready to start blogging! We hope that our South Pacific installment will keep you all entertained during those long hours at work and snow days at home. We can’t promise the same consistency as South America (we are actually going to be working here), but we’ll be sure to share all of our travel adventures along the way. Sit back, relax, and enjoy!

After 42 hours in transit to get here (including a 10 hour layover in LA and a 3 hour layover in Fiji), we finally made it to Auckland, exhausted but excited. We were greeted by great weather, each of the past two days have been in the mid 70’s and beautiful, if not a little cloudy at times. Yesterday, we spent the day getting over the jet lag and took a scenic walk around the area of Devonport, just a 12 minute ferry ride from the central city. The walk was great, including some nice views and an awesome buffet lunch we got at a place right on the beach…fantastic! We wished for some more sunshine, but the clouds seemed to prevail for most of the day. All for the best probably, since getting a sunburn in New Zealand is serious business and can happen in only 10 minutes! We took some photos of the city along our route; despite the clouds the city still looked nice.

Today we attended the orientation for our work abroad program in the morning. We won’t bore you with the tedious details, but we can now safely say that we are the proud owners of a second hand mobile phone (quite possibly one of the first ever made by nokia) and a New Zealand bank account (that makes 7.75% interest…take that ING!).

After the long morning, we decided to take a nice walk through some of the city parks since the weather was beautiful. Albert Park was our first stop where we saw fantastic flowers and a beautiful fountain. We continued on to Auckland Domain where the Auckland Museum is located and we stumbled upon a “Winter Garden” that has some of the most amazing flowers. We managed to get in only 20 minutes before they closed but it was well worth it. The flowers were gorgeous! After the garden, we wandered around and found a perfect spot to toss the disc around. We’re trying to get back in the swing since we’re going to attempt to find a pick-up game on Sunday. Gotta impress the locals right? Hopefully we’ll have more to report on the ultimate scene after Sunday.

That’s about it for our first couple of days. We hope that you are all doing well back at home and surviving the frigid winter (we don’t miss that one bit!). We’ll write more soon…enjoy!