Rugby

So we had our first official Rugby experience! For the first time in over 2 years high level professional rugby was played in Palmy. The league that these teams were in is called the Super 14 and includes teams from Australia, NZ, and S. Africa. Check out the website links if you are interested. It is actually pretty cool and there is no love lost between the teams!

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Super_14

http://www.super14.com/

We saw a match between the Highlanders (from Dunedin, NZ on the south island) and the Bulls (from somewhere in S. Africa). Despite not knowing all of the rules it was a great time, think a combo between football and soccer. There are 15 players on the field at any given time so there is a lot of off the ball runs and a battle for field position, but when people have the ball they get absolutely drilled. It is pretty exciting to watch. Anyways the Highlanders (the home team in this instance) won the game 35 to 12 (I think) so the atmosphere in the stadium was pretty cool.

It was pretty interesting the accommodations that these professional athletes get compared to what they get in the States. Let's just say for them playing the most popular sport in NZ they don't get the same luxuries as pro football, baseball or basketball players do. Although, I guess if you are a rugby player you are so tough that you don't need any pads so who needs luxuries, right?





The view from the stadium was pretty cool... it is pretty much the highest point in Palmy so you can see all the mountains, etc.


The game ball was flown in by helicopter. The kid is running with it from the helicopter to the referee.



So this is the players sideline accommodations. If you look closely you can see a huge guy in a kilt without a shirt... that is the 'highlander.' Supposedly there is a large Scottish population down there in Otago (the region where Dunedin is located).

Movies!

We are pretty happy with the movies that come out here - some release dates are later than the states, some are the same, and some not at all, but I tend to make Zac go to a lot of movies - he will be happy when I have someone go see chick flicks with me! This is a our American movie theater (it is on top of a plaza), they do have European films at another theater, but we haven't been there, I am not too keen on subtitles.

This past weekend we went to see Duplicity - it was really good and Julia looked gorgeous during the whole film - we both really enjoyed it!

Downtown

We went downtown this morning/afternoon to get some bagels! We found a great place - it's no BBC in B-town, but good! So i decided to take a picture of the fountain outside the bagel place that is in the square. I should take one when it is dark because it is so pretty, but still it's a great place to sit for awhile under a tree. Today in the square they were have an international food festival and the American table had hot dogs - disappointing, I was hoping for some fried chicken or BBQ, but we settled for ice cream instead.


This is a picture of the library - which is my lifeline these days - it's not the best library, but it works and you can rent some pretty good movies!

Happy St. Patty's Day

Yes Kiwis celebrate St. Patty's Day, but instead of going to one of the Irish pubs we opted to stay home and save our money for the weekend! Today was a very beautiful day and I thought the sunset from our window was very pretty and I wanted to share with everyone!

Car!

Well we finally got a car - sorry mom it took me so long to get the pictures posted here! These are the best pictures I could take while it was parked in our spot. I am finding it very difficult driving on the other side of the road - ask Zac he is terrified to ride with me! But this car is like my old white lightning so I am sure I will become comfortable soon.

Well Zac took the car the other day to first aid class and he forgot to turn off the lights, so yesterday when I tired to go soccer practice (in the rain, so glad I didn't have to ride) the battery was dead. So now we know that there is not a dinging sounds when you turn off the car and the lights are still on! No worries though we just had to jump it and the battery is fine.

Now we can start taking trips - we are going to start planning a trip soon to either Wellington or Hawke's Bay!

Happy Birthday Zac

Sorry all that it has been so long since our last post - we have been consumed with finding a car. We do have one and pictures will come once we pick it up (thanks Dad for the help with the car!!)

Here is the birthday cake and coffee cake that I made for Zac's birthday!