All Blacks and More!

Well it has been an interesting, and busy, few weeks since we last wrote! The fun started two weeks ago, with All Blacks weekend. We spent the night before the game at a birthday party for one of the other students, Charlie, in my department. It was a fun night, with a wonderful dinner out at an Indian restaurant near our flat and a visit to some pubs on the Octagon. I also learned, while eating Chicken tikka masala, that I am allergic to cashews! It isn't a serious allergy but still, good to know.

All Blacks day was exciting from the start, the city felt full and had a serious buzz about it. We spent most of the day before the game relaxing and hanging around the house. Due to a weird online ticketing issue we actually had three tickets to the game, so our roommate Michi was joining us. It also turned out at the last minute that one of our friends Elli had been given two tickets for free, so she invited our roommate Sandra and they joined us on the walk to the game.

Excited for the All Blacks

The walk to the stadium was pretty incredible. Dunedin is a fairly sizable city of about 120,000 people, and the rugby stadium is not massive (about 35,000 or so in seating). The streets however were absolutely packed with people, and a number of streets around the stadium were closed off and filled with rugby fans. Jess also found a ticket on the sidewalk, which two of our roommates eventually sold for $120, splitting the profits with Jess. The game itself was pretty fantastic. It wasn't the most exciting game of rugby, a lot of tough tackling and poor kicking, but the atmosphere was amazing. It was very different from an American sporting event, in that there were no vendors or piped in music. Just a lot of people who wanted to watch rugby.  The All Blacks won as well, which was good. The city was even crazier after the game. Half of the Octagon, the central downtown area, was blocked off from traffic to allow the bars to more than double their outdoor seating. We didn't stay out too late, just a few drinks at the downtown barbershop our roommate Vea owns, but still really enjoyed the atmosphere.

At the All Blacks match

Walking through downtown

The stadium after Aaron Smith's try

After the game

The day after the game we didn't rest on our laurels, and went on a hike for most of the afternoon. We hiked up Flagstaff Peak on the Pineapple Track, which was a short 5 minute drive from our flat. While it was quite hilly it offered some nice views of the city.

Dunedin

The next week brought even more excitement as Jess got a job! She is working as an administrative assistant at Nidd Property Management. So far she is really enjoying it, as her office mates are very welcoming and it is a bit less stressful than working on a medical unit. It is part-time to start, but there is plenty of work which means plenty of opportunities for hours. After Jess accepted her job offer we also got a New Zealand bank account, so we can truly call ourselves locals now!

The excitement kept coming, as we were invited over the weekend to visit Cromwell, a small town on the wet coast of the South Island. Lucy, one of the other students in my department, has a family cabin in Cromwell and invited us to join her and her boyfriend Freddy on a visit. We were there from Friday to Sunday, and had a great time with some wonderful weather. We spent all of Saturday on a hike, called the Devil's Creek Track. In total the track was 14 km, so it was quite exhausting. The scenery was incredible, and reminiscent of Rohan from Lord of the Rings.

Start of the track

Sheep!

Simba!

Stopping for lunch

End of the track

Rohan! 

After our hike we got some of New Zealand's famous frozen berry ice cream, which was delicious. The next day we visited the world's first permanent bungee jumping site, Kawarau Bridge, and Arrowtown, a small town outside of Queenstown. It was a small village, which was fun to explore. We also bought some pretty great creme brûlée flavored fudge.

Birthday!

The rest of our week was pretty uneventful, until Wednesday which was of course Jess' birthday! As you can see from the picture we had plenty of snacks. After the customary department pub meeting we had a number of friends over for drinks, which was a lot of fun. Over all I think it was a good birthday. The rest of the week, and this weekend, has been very quiet. As soon as more excitement comes, however, we will blog about it first thing!