It Isn’t Easy Going Back to Green (Oct. 8)

As you can see we’re no longer All Black With NZ, meaning that either NZ has won the Rugby World Cup or has crashed out of it. If you’re following the RWC at all you know that the latter has unfortunately happened, the All Blacks having lost a crushing defeat to the French in Cardiff yesterday morning, 20-18. Like the rest of New Zealand we’re gutted by this loss, as it was a heartbreaker.

Heavily favored to win this year’s RWC, the All Blacks came in looking like world-beaters, having lost only 5 matches over the past four years. After a far-too-easy first round RWC group, however, the ABs hadn’t had a challenge in beating the likes of Portugal and Romania in what were little more than glorified exhibition matches. The doomsayers were correct that this was poor preparation for a game against the French, a side that shocked the ABs in the 1999 semifinals.

In the past few weeks, no one from the sports media to the NZ public rated the French as having much of a chance, especially given their surprise loss to the Argentines in group play. Additionally, the ABs gave a visiting French side several sound thrashings in their NZ tour earlier this year. Having never lost before the semifinal round in a RWC, it was also unthinkable for the boys in black to lose this early.

However, the French didn’t read this script and came out defiant, standing up to the ABs’ haka, and giving no quarter, especially on defense. Though they were undoubtedly aided by some very questionable refereeing, especially on a yellow card on the ABs’ Luke McAlister and a missed call on a terribly blatant forward pass on what was France’s winning try late in the 2^nd half, the French certainly played hard enough to win. In the end the AB’s didn’t get it done, and the French were jubilant. From our perspective, it was one of the most nerve-wracking sporting events I’ve watched, and when the French showed life in the 2^nd half I began to have a sinking feeling, like it just wasn’t the ABs’ day.

At the moment, we’re out on an island in the Marlborough Sounds but I’m sure the rest of the country is in a serious funk. They love their rugby and their ABs here, and I imagine most of NZ will be having a ‘case of the Mondays’ tomorrow. Expect heaps of recriminations and self-flagellating commentary here, but all I know is that we’re bumming. Between the Penn State-Michigan game and now this, it hasn’t been a good few weeks for us in sport, and this certainly is not the way we wanted to go back to Green. I’d say c’est la vie, but it just might be too soon to use a French phrase ‘round these parts. For now, All Blacks fans will have to wait another 4 long years until the 2011 RWC, which will be held here in NZ. Where there’ll be no pressure on that squad, I’m sure!

All Black with NZ!

In honor of the Rugby World Cup and in support of the New Zealand national team, the All Blacks, we’ve gone all black, at least for the time being. To do that we’ve had to ditch our previous template, as it was seriously tough to modify for a couple of HTML-neophytes like ourselves. At the end of the RWC, we’ll probably be faced with a difficult decision whether or not to go back, but that’s another story. Most of you are probably unaware (and we would be, too, had we not come here) that the 6^th RWC has started in France, and will continue for the next six weeks or so. Rugby hardly rates a mention in the States, but in NZ it’s practically a religion.

We’ve touched on it before, but New Zealand is absolutely mad for rugby (the Union form, as opposed to League, which is a different beast that’s much bigger in Aussie), with other sports hardly comparing in terms of popularity. You can hardly swing a dead possum anywhere in the country without hitting a set of rugby goalposts. On any given weekend heaps of Kiwis are either playing or going to ‘the rugby.’ We’ve gone to a few games and found it to be just as entertaining as any football game back home. You have to admire the power, agility, and fitness of all the players on the field, and especially the abuse they take. No playing only half the game or wearing huge pads here!

The countdown to the RWC was on in Auckland when we visited in January

At the peak of rugby and NZ sporting are the All Blacks, probably the best rugby team in the world and the subject of the entire country’s focus and support. If baseball is American as apple pie, rugby is as Kiwi as No. 8 wire, or the haka, the Maori war dance that the team does before each match. Rooting for the ABs is practically a patriotic duty here; it’s rare to find a New Zealander who doesn’t. Being from America this is a pretty novel concept, as we don’t get behind any one team as a country, except for maybe a few times in the Olympics. Here in NZ we’re struck by the absolute devotion shown by Kiwis for their team nationwide, and obviously have caught the fever ourselves.

Ever since we arrived in NZ in January, the RWC seems to have been on many Kiwi’s minds. Being a sports junkie but generally uninformed about rugby, I’ve brought up rugby in conversation countless times this year, and nearly everyone has mentioned the RWC and how they reckon the ABs should be poised to bring home the Cup this year. The ABs won the inaugural Cup in 1987 and have been favored to win it a number of times since, but have been snakebitten in their last five attempts. It’s quite a sore spot for many here, and even though the ABs have been the best team in the world for the past couple years and are heavily favored for this Cup, I suspect that many are trying to engage in a ‘reverse jinx’ by playing down the team’s chances.

The ABs perform the haka against S. Africa in their Tri-Nations match in Chch in July

If anything, the country may be too wrapped up in the RWC and how the ABs are doing. Over the last few weeks, there’s been little actual sporting news, but they manage to fill the allotted time by reporting on every detail of the ABs’ health, practice regimen, potential lineups, off-field activities, and most hilariously, changes to their breakfast schedule. I like sports as much as the next bloke, and living here I realize there are a lot of slow news days here, but that’s some serious overkill. Perhaps NZ takes the whole thing a bit too seriously, like countries in South America tend to take the World Cup in soccer. Hopefully Kiwis don’t take success or failure at RWC as a referendum on the country’s worth. You guys are alright, seriously.

We meant to get this post up a couple days ago, before the RWC started, but technical difficulties got in the way. The ABs have already had their first game, beating Italy 76-14 in a romp that got out of hand in the first ten minutes. In other news, the US played a valiant game, losing to defending champion England 28-10, a heartening outcome for the Eagles, who the bookies have at the longest odds of the tourney, 5000 to 1. It’s going to be a bit of a struggle watching many of the games live as they start around 12-4 am in NZ, but I’ll give it my best effort. Who said being a fan was easy?

She Works Hard For The Money (July 9 – 31)

After traveling for what seemed to be the vast majority of our trip in New Zealand, Andrew and I are temporarily hanging up our hobo bags to once gain join the real world of the employed. Although it is easy to believe that one can go unemployed indefinitely, it turned out to not be the case if you value your sanity. Seeing our bank accounts dwindle while the Kiwi dollar has done nothing but go up over the past few months, we decided it was finally time to do what our parents did… get a job, sir!

Finding work in New Zealand is really pretty easy if you put little value in a) the type of work to be done, and b) the location of said employment. Like our brief adventure in the Marlborough vineyards where everyone seemed to be hiring, it took only a few days of “job hunting” before I was able to secure a position in Christchurch. My rather lackluster job hunt consisted of sending off my CV to several job agencies and waiting for the best. Although I would prefer working at a restaurant, the pay rate is far better for office workers, and I figured without the motivational boost of tipping… Anyhoo, I had received a few phone calls by the end of the day and quickly lined up several interviews with job agencies around Christchurch.

I guess it’s good to know that I test well at these things. Both agencies were wowed by my typing ability, which at 90+ words per minute and less than 1% error was “the best they’d ever seen” but considering that there are only four million people in all of New Zealand, I suppose the potential applicant pool really isn’t that big. Thank you, 7^th grade typing class! I also managed a slam dunk on the Microsoft Office applications and even managed to pass the spelling test. Don’t laugh, it’s a surprisingly tough task in the Age of the Automatic Spell Check… The one major concern that the agencies had was with my wardrobe, which is funny since the ad I responded to was specifically targeted to backpackers.

Had I brought professional business wear to New Zealand, they wanted to know. Hmm, let me see, I’ll just check my backpack?!? As a side note, I actually wouldn’t have any professional business wear even if I was working out of my closet at home… Apparently, not bringing a suit was a bad choice as that would inevitably limit the offices I could work in and probably reduce my pay rate (you can’t make the really big bucks without nice shoes). Regardless, within several days of incessant phone tag with the various chipper personalities at both job agencies (apparently the key pre-condition for these positions is to be over-caffeinated and hyper-perky) I had lined up a job working for an engineering firm in Christchurch.

It’s scary how similar working in an office in New Zealand is to working in an office in the States. Things are run pretty much exactly the same way. I guess I shouldn’t be surprised, but when you travel half-way around the world, you get to thinking they might have a different phone and filing system. I’m currently filling in for a few weeks at an engineering firm while a permanent staffer takes her annual leave in Perth, Australia. Unfortunately, they don’t actually have enough work for a temp to do, so my main task is to answer the phones and “look busy.”

It turns out that I’m terrible at looking busy (luckily I wasn’t tested on that at the agency), so I end up spending most of my day pretending to look like I’m not surfing the web (which I’m quite good at). When given tasks to do (mostly filing), I tend to get them done pretty quickly, because to be honest, they’re pretty uncomplicated. My fellow administrative assistant marvels at the speed at which I get things done and has even commented “we’re going to have to call the temp agency back to tell them to send someone who works slower the next time.” If you can hear a slight thumping sound, that’s probably just me, whacking my head against the desk.

Meanwhile, Andrew’s been doing casual labor for a bottling company in Amberley. It has worked out really well, as it still gives him time to get the chores done around K&B’s and at the brewery. Speaking of which, we’re still at Kieran and Belinda’s these days. They took a holiday to the States and suggested that we watch the house for them while they are gone. I love it here, so even with the hour commute to Christchurch, we quickly agreed to the arrangement. We agreed to split the cost of a load of firewood (the only means by which they heat their house, so it’s important to have some); otherwise, we feed the chooks (chickens) and collect eggs, feed the horses, split firewood, keep the place tidy, and make sure to keep the cows out of the vineyard next-door… Andrew’s also been keeping an eye on the brewery in Kieran’s absence. He had to make a few deliveries, fill a keg, and make some beer shipments, all of which has gone really well. It’s been a little surreal having a whole house to ourselves after months at backpackers, CouchSurfing, WWOOFing. We haven’t taken to walking around the place naked or anything, but we could! We continue to be amazed by K&B’s generosity and couldn’t feel more lucky that we met them during our travels.

Little known fact: real farmers wear pajamas out on the farm.

So we’ve been managing to keep ourselves pretty busy between working, commuting, chores, and the brewery. We also managed to squeeze in a trip to see the All Blacks play the South Africans in Christchurch. Although it was a rather uninspired match, it was still a lot of fun to see the All Blacks play a live match. I think the haka (Maori war dance performed by the All Blacks before every match) is even more impressive in person, but Andrew liked it better on TV. That might just be because they were facing away from us when they did this one. Apparently, the South Africans are looking to revive a Zulu war dance they used to perform in the 1920s for the upcoming Rugby World Cup. It’ll be interesting to see, but I can’t imagine that it will come close to the ferocity of the haka.

And one for the kids...

Immediate P.S.: Well, we'd hardly gotten a chance to post this latest installment and already our circumstances have changed, making it hard to keep the blog up-to-date at this rate. Kieran arrived back from the States a few days ago, and Andrew helped him do a brew and some bottling early this week while I went into work. Unfortunately, they seem to have figured out that they don't really need a temp, so they told me I should start looking into new assignments ASAP, putting me out of work until a new position opens up, hopefully soon. And to think that last week they were considering asking me to stay on longer to sort their long-ignored and hugely-unorganized files! I guess that's how it goes in the thrill-a-minute world of temping... We're moving into Chch today to rent a room for six weeks, and Andrew should be starting to do a wee bit of work at a new brewery, Three Boys, very soon. Keep tuned for further details and keep your fingers crossed so that I can find a new job to do nothing at in the near future! Oh, a note for anyone who's been dissuaded from commenting due to the onerous sign-in requirements: they've been lifted so now anyone can post, with or without a Google account. I hope we can trust all of you not to abuse this, hehe. Adios, muchachos!

To Christchurch…And Beyond! (Jun. 1 - 5)

Leaving Oamaru and the squawking penguins behind, we set off further north towards Christchurch with Rachel, another backpacker from the UK along for the ride. I forgot to mention in our last post, but we had a really weird experience in trying to get a hostel in Oamaru. We went to a well-rated hostel there, but when we met the owner, she seemed on the verge of a nervous breakdown, recounting all the other recent guests who all seemed “plausibly nice” like us, but who had stolen her duvets and blankets, leaving her faith in humanity apparently shaken. It seemed like she didn’t want us there and was basically pre-emptively accusing us of wanting to steal her duvets as well, so we said, umm…maybe we’d come back after we went to see the penguins. We can do without psycho hostel owners - hopefully we didn’t squeal the tires too much in getting the hell out of there as fast as possible.

Unfortunately, this is as close as you can get to taking pictures of the penguins in Oamaru

We spent a few days over the Queen’s Birthday holiday in unseasonably warm Chch: on the first day of winter here, June 1, the weather was fantastic: 20C and sunny, warmer than the first day of summer in Chch. They seem to be having some weird seasons here this year, but we didn’t mind, eating ice cream and tossing Frisbee on the beach in Sumner. Amusingly enough, Kiwi’s get a national holiday for Queen Liz’s birthday, while the Brits don’t even get a day off for it. Not to mention that her birthday, according to Rachel, is actually in April, anyway, making it even more puzzling. We’ll let you know if we figure it out, but don’t hold your breath.

On one of the nights we were in Chch the NZ national rugby team, the All Blacks, were playing the French in Auckland in a test match ahead of the World Cup in September. Conveniently we were staying next to a Speight’s Ale House showing the game on about 10 TV’s, and we entered the bar finding it packed with Kiwis to watch the ABs stomp the French 42-11. If you’ve never seen a rugby match, we recommend you try and see at least one WC game this September, especially if you can see the ABs do their haka (Maori war dance) before the game. Watching them do the haka is spine-tingling, and if it doesn’t get you pumped up, you should just stop watching sports right then and there. Plus the ABs have perhaps the coolest kit in sports.

The game actually was pretty close for the first twenty minutes, with the French defense playing pretty stoutly, but eventually the All Blacks wore down the outgunned Frenchies and ran all over them. The French did have one guy, Charal, who looked like a freaking caveman, with a bushy beard and long, greasy hair, and who made a few crushing tackles. Since we were staying really near to where Tony (the Kiwi we couchsurfed with in Chch in February) lived we texted him and he and his girlfriend Keri showed up for the game. It was great to catch up and hang out with them again, and we warned him that it probably wouldn’t the last he’d see of us…

We meet again! Hanging with Tony and Keri at the bar for the All Blacks match

After a few days in Chch we left Rachel at a nearby hostel (some free advice: don’t bother trying to drive through a city when a marathon is being run, unless you’re looking forward to some quality time in gridlock) and headed off to Blenheim, intending to do a few weeks of pruning work somewhere in the heap of vineyards there. We stayed in Blenheim a few months ago and so we went back to same backpackers again, Leeways. Blenheim, or at least Leeways, is like NZ’s Little Germany, as our hostel was nearly completely full of Germans, mostly long-termers doing pruning work as well. We were happy to once again see Thilo, one of our fellow wwoofers from the Lemon Tree in Lawrence a few weeks ago, but were less excited to run into the depressive German girls from the Catlins. As people say in the hostels here in NZ, “See you in the soup,” which is apt since the NZ backpacking world is so small that you’re bound to run into people again in this country.

This doesn't actually relate to the post, per se, I just liked this building in Christchurch - Mondrian!

Talking with Thilo, he apparently had a bad experience at the Lemon Tree as well, getting ‘fired’ one Monday after he and Cam took too long in cleaning the kitchen. Things were getting a bit odd there, he said, with several wwoofers leaving after just a few days. The owners’ attitudes and demands didn’t seem to be sitting well with most of the people going through there, certainly something we could identify with. As we expected, we had joined the canon of bad wwoofers in the owners’ minds, as they had nothing good to say about us after we left. Hardly surprising, but it is a bit funny since they never felt like they needed to tell us how badly we were doing while we were there. At any rate, it feels good to have them in our rear-view mirror in Lawrence.

Looking west (not north) from the South Island towards the North Island

At the moment, we’re hanging at the backpackers, trying to psych ourselves up for our upcoming work. Before we left for here we told everyone we’d do some orchard work at some point, but we’ve been able to avoid it until right about now. With a few weeks with nothing to do before Marie and Alex arrived, and with the NZ$ to US$ exchange growing increasingly unfavorable, it seems like a good time to embrace our migrant worker side. To give you some idea of how the exchange rate has changed over the past few years, when Brian from Renaissance came over to NZ 4 or 5 years ago, he was able to change over money at NZ$1:US$0.39, whereas it now sits at NZ$1:US$0.75, and it’s predicted to go higher still, yikes. Guess we’ll have to get cracking on the pruning!