Taking it to the streets

Well, friends and relations, I almost had an address. I moved in to a place on Sunday and got along fantastically well with my housemate but the next day the place fell through. I'm back to looking for housing. In what I'm learning is typical Kiwi-style, though, my housemate has been extraordinarily helpful with my housing search. So far pretty much everyone here has been just fantastic, even when they're giving you bad news! Hopefully I'll have a new address to send around by the end of the week - keep your fingers crossed.

Otherwise things have been going relatively smoothly. I got my bike this weekend and discovered that Wellington rivals Seattle for steep hills. I also hiked to the top of Wright's Hill, overlooking a local nature reserve and further out to sea. It's way windy at the top of the hills here - looking out I could see several wind turbines on other surrounding hills. They're planning to put more in, but there are complaints about aesthetics. I've always thought wind turbines were very graceful looking, but they aren't exactly part of the natural landscape I suppose.

I identified my first birds as well - kaka (a type of parrot) and silvereyes (little bush birds). Ok, I didn't really identify them, I was told... but I know them now! It's hard to learn the birds when they all seem to always be hiding in the bush. I guess it's going to require lots more hiking...

I didn't actually go down into town for the Sevens, the international rugby tournament that was held here over the weekend. I did see many of the costumed fans wandering around the suburbs, which was pretty funny. It sounded like quite the crazy drunken debacle. I watched the games on tv though and I really like the sport. Sevens are much faster than usual rugby, with games that are about 20 minutes long. The Kiwis won and there was much jubilation. Since they were the victors the team did a traditional Maori dance after receiving the trophy called a haka. The whole team's not Maori (in fact the majority isn't) but New Zealanders have adopted many of the Maori customs and language as their own. I think they also do the haka in the film Whale Rider. If you can find a video of it on the internet check it out - it's goosebump-inducing.

It's strange - the US has teams in all these sports (Sevens, rugby, netball), but I don't remember ever hearing about them in the states. I wonder if most of the Americans who get involved are the family of 1st or 2nd generation immigrants, or people who've lived abroad.

Hope all's well in the northern hemisphere...