All things rugby ...

So I went to the first Super 14 rugby game for the 2010 season. It was at the North Harbour Stadium in Auckland and the Blues were playing the Hurricances. I was so excited cos it has been YEARS since I've been to a rugby game at home. Traffic was crazy getting there cos it was Friday night and getting over that Harbour bridge (which is the one I bungeed, off see previous post) can be a nightmare especially in peak hour traffic. Everyone was getting anxious with the traffic but I on the other hand was just loving the idea of going to the rugby. I was feeling all nostalgic thinking about growing up in NZ and how rugby is definitely part of who I am. We got our tickets for free through some promo and we were in the 6th row from the field. I loved seeing kiwis getting all excited going to the game, the boys outside the park drinking out of there van, kids waving flags, face painting, the ladies wanting to get into the stadium to check out the players and a mince pie with a bottle of L&P. It was a beautiful summers evening with no breeze yet it was in the evening enough so that it wasn't too hot.

Before the game started they had a helicopter land on the field it was kinda exciting. It was the army and they dropped off "Michael Jones". He has and always will be my favourite rugby player so I was extremely excited for that moment. That in itself was worth going to the game. They introduced him and of course I got up with a hiss and roar. People around me were like "Who is that". All I can say is "rookies".

Here are the Blues warming up ready to get going and they had a cracker first 20 mins. They broke the Hurricanes back line a couple of times, one leading to a try and it was pretty exciting.

I managed to snap a pic of Joe Rockococko hanging out on the wing. He had a quiet game but made one impressive run that nearly led to a try but the Blues stuffed it up right before their try line. Unfortunately the Blues had a decent lead at one point and then got complacent and they made several basic handling errors. It was really frustrating at times to watch.

There was a lineout right in front of us so I managed to snap another pic and this is where the blues were on attack and they never capitalised on it so they lost all that field advantage and came up empty handed.

Blues scrum right by their try line thanks to a great breakthrough however once again they messed up and no try. The Hurricanes ended up winning the game 34-20. They deserved to win and they made less mistakes. They clawed back into the game and then showed some real hunger for the win. Go the Canes!!! They had some solid tackles and Piri had a great kicking game in the second half.

The game was awesome and I'm just looking forward to the rest of the season and getting excited for the NRL to start. I forgot how awesome footy season is in NZ. In a roundup of the weekend Crusaders won, Chiefs squeaked through with a 1 pt win (still not a Donald fan) and we are in full swing. Eden Park is still under rennovation for the world cup and over budget (surprise surprise). Some businessmen can't budget a decent cup of coffee. Last rugby news is that they are changing the school terms next year to coincide with the Rugby World Cup. Gotta love our priorities!!!

Today's gonna be a good day ...

I've decided that today's gonna be a good day, and every other day for that matter.

What the hell have I been up to - 2009 / 2010 Update

Well its been ages since I've blogged and I wanted to post what I've been up to, so here goes:

August / September
I was still trying to make the adjustment to being home. It wasn't as easy as I thought. I missed my friends, teaching, Provo, gym with Ande and Kjell, shopping at Ross, Costco and Old Navy and having a routine that I love. The food is so rich and wonderful here that I found comfort in it and put on about 7-10 lbs. I still haven't lost any of that weight but its all good. I was staying in Hamilton and then travelling to Auckland for a change and sorting out school. This was a really hard month but learned none the less.
I got a part-time job teaching at Worldwide School of English in Auckland city in New Zealand. The job was great and I was loving being back in the classroom. It was driving my crazy not doing anything so the work was just what I needed. The teachers there were so great to work with. It was so different from teaching in an LDS environment e.g., they had pub night, teachers and students would go have drinks, and students hung out for breaks to have a cigarette and coffee. Not only was the job good but the hours and money were great too.

October / November
Got accepted into the Auckland University of Technology (AUT) in the Applied Linguistics PhD program. I have a great supervisor who is so flexible, simplistic and just awesome to work with. I love the school and the application process was so much more simplistic than applying for a PhD program in the states. Some things I like about the application process was: the application is a 2 page application form, you are notified of the outcome within a month, you are notified by email, mail and text and my supervisor looked over my application before submission to ensure the best possible outcome. My program is solely research with no class requirements. I study from home, school, down country and even overseas. Another great thing is that I have access to some great financial assistance. The downside is that I have to be totally self motivated and organized which is not always easy to do. However I'm excited to be here getting my PhD.
I also took a quick trip to re-energize myself and it was great.

December
December 5th I performed with the CCNZ alumni maori culture group for the Church College Closing celebration. It was such a great evening and just full of nostalgia. I cried through 50% of the performance just thinking of all the great memories that Church College provided me. I grew up in the dorms, went to school there and have such great life time friends from it all. It was great to see so many people at the concert and it was awesome to do maori culture again. I absolutely loved it.
On the 18th I flew to Gold Coast Australia to spend Christmas with my brother Sinclair and his family and mum and dad. I arrived to hot sweltering weather which was awesome and we went straight to the water park and swam most of the day. My trip consisted mostly of beach, pool and eating. I still have that 10 lbs I found and I can truly say I'm officially a pumpleduff!!!! This food is killing me (literally) so I need to make a change there. My body misses Kjell to push me and Ande to support me!!!

Surfing 101

My brother is an avid surfer and he said he wanted to give Paul and I a surf lesson before we left. So here we are at the beach (can't remember the name, I know ...) getting our surf on. Remember its Winter here but NOTHING compared to the Utah winter. The water was cold to begin with but it was fine once we got going.



Here we are at the beach unloading the boards. My brother designed the stickers on the boards.



This is just before we started paddling out. As you can see I hardly have a surfing physique but I figured what the hell, lets give it a go. This was not as harrowing as my bungee jump (refer previous post) that apparently provided of you with hours of entertainment.



Right here I'm feeling the cold water and asking my brother if he could just push me out rather than me having to paddle. Me paddling out is kinda like Shamu doing the dance move "The Worm" yeah not pretty.




Here we are beginning the paddle (or in my case my brother pushing/pulling me) kinda like a tug boat being towed.




Here I am starting the great stand up stance, slowly pushing the board down while trying to keep my balance (I bet you are on the edge of your seat) watching my form, steady on there now ....



.... and then I crash and burn. Here I am just falling off and not quite making it up. Aren't you sad you didn't get to see that in slow motion in HD!



Here is Paul up and standing like he has been surfing for years on like his second go. Yeah I don't feel inadequate at all but I do want to scratch his eyes out :)



Here is my sister in law Tina who was freezing and didn't even want it get it. But she thought she better so she slowly walked in the water with a wet suit on, got on the board, stood up and then got out. She didn't even get her hair wet, so yeah I wanted to scratch her eyes out too :)



Here is my baby bro. He's awesome and Paul and I had a great day. He was such a patient and fun teacher even though he did say later that he wanted me to paddle cos he was getting sick of pushing me. He would line us up and push us into the wave it was fun. If we were out there on our own who knows how long it would have taken us.

Everybody bounce bounce ...

One afternoon with nothing to do the kids and Paul decided to play on the trampoline and have bouncy competitions. It was so fun to see who had the funnest jumps and it was quite hilarious to watch, so here are the best shots from the bunch.



Everyone jumping with Cyprus taking the best jump in this shot.



Paul definitely taking the best jump award in this shot. He even has added facial expressions for full effect and use of most of his limbs :)



Celsius wins here with great height (so much that you don't even see his face).



This is my favorite! Seeney boy wins this with his "hey watsup" or "just hangin out" pose. His cheesy grin just cracks me up.