New Zealand vs West Indies Day 3 University Oval Dunedin 13 December 2008

Found some seats

We arrived at the University Oval at about 12:15 for the 3rd Day of the Test Match between the New Zealand Black Caps and the West Indies. Play was supposed to start at 11:30, but we were surprised to find that it hadn’t started. We bought our tickets, $17 Adult, $5 Children, and made our way inside. We heard as we bought tickets that the umpires would decide at 12:30 if the game could begin, since the heavy rain yesterday had saturated the field. We found some seats in the temporary bleachers, after wiping off the rainfall from last night. We watched as the grounds crew walked around with leaf blowers, trying to dry out the pitch.

Drying the grass

At 12:30 the umpires came out and examined the field, and the announcer informed us that they would re-examine the pitch at 1:30. So we now had at least another hour to wait. Fa and Ginny were smart and brought books to read, while Hank and I had to occupy ourselves. I sent the kids to the concessions stand with $20 to find us something, and they returned with some chips, which we quickly devoured. At 1:30, the umpires and the team captains met on the field and decided that play would begin at 2:45, when they would attempt to get in 67 overs. It was still a bit chilly, with a moderate wind, and Daniel Vettori, the NZ captain, looked ridiculous with his arms in his jersey trying to keep warm.

Shall we play?

Fa & Hank

We waited another hour, occasionally venturing around the Oval. Before play was to begin, the grounds crew spread what looked like kitty litter on a particular spot, which must have been wet and swampy.

Kitty litter

Soon it was 2:45 and play began. New Zealand was batting at 226/4. Thursday was the first day and ended at 6:15 due to bad light. Yesterday was completely called off because of the heavy rain, but at least some of the 3rd day would happen. Like I experienced last year watching 1st class cricket in person, it was hard to follow the ball, since it moved so fast. It took a few overs before I could really see it well. I can’t imagine how hard it must be for the batters! I tried to take a few pictures, but I was having a hard time capturing anything, it moved so fast.

Checking

Budget Brand

After about 3 overs, one of the West Indies players apparently complained about something on the field so time was called and the umpires and grounds crew came out to examine it. They eventually brought out a bag of kitty litter (Budget Brand) and spread it around, following up with racking and sweeping. It was pretty hilarious to watch. Finally, the field must have met their approval because play resumed.

Sweepers

Jesse Ryder

The batters settled in after a while, and by about 4:00 the Black Caps were approaching 300. Jesse Ryder was doing particularly well, and it looked to us like 100 was in sight, but he was finally caught for 89. The worst thing, though, for us to see, and probably for the batter himself, was when James Franklin got himself out by hitting his own wicket. I actually caught the play with my camera, but didn’t quite catch what exactly happened. He either hit the wicket with his bat or he fell and hit it with his foot. We’re not sure and couldn’t quite catch it on the big screen replay. It was an instant after this picture I took.

James Franklin getting himself out

We watched the West Indies’ bowler FH Edwards signing autographs in front of us when he was not bowling. He would be signing right up until the bowler finished his run-up, and then quickly turn around pay attention to the game. By tea at 5:10, we had seen some great cricket but were getting cold and hungry so we decided to skip the last session. We stopped at Flying Squid on the way home for some delicious fish & chips. Tomorrow we’ll be back for more.

FH Edwards

Kaikorai Vipers 13 December 2008

Hank bowling

Hank

As is usual for a Cricket Saturday I got up at 7:00 and made sausages and scrambled eggs. After finishing reading the paper and drinking my coffee we piled into the car and made it down to the Oval by 9:00 for the Kaikorai Vipers game against one of the Northest Valley teams. Hank’s side fielded first and held the other team to 37, with Hank bowling first and getting a wicket on his 2nd bowl. Several other of our bowlers got wickets and there was at least one runout. The Vipers then battled to a total of 105, with Hank getting 17. The other team was new and very inexperienced, which has been the case for the last few weeks. We were lucky it didn’t rain, but it was a bit cold, especially for summer. The Vipers are great fun to watch.

Enjoying the game

Otago Volts

A couple of Otago Volts cricket players came to Hank’s practice this week. Warren McSkimming and Derek de Boorder took over from regular coach Dion and ran the boys through some drills and a mock game.

Weekend Sports

Saturday morning was a bit complicated. Hank had his regular weekly cricket match at 9:00, in Tahuna School Dunedin, and Ginny had a swim meet at the same time, in Mosgiel. Somehow we all made it and as usual sports with the kids was a lot of fun.

Megan, Susan, Hallie

Friday morning at 9:10 we picked up Megan, Susan, Hallie at the airport. They looked pretty good considering the long flight from Seattle. Unfortunately, the weather was not great after weeks of dry and warm days. We drove them back to Dunedin, apologising for the rain. At the house we got them settled in to Ginny’s room for their stay. They all took quick naps and then walked down to the city with Fa while I worked. After picking up Hank and Ginny from school in the afternoon, we drove down to the MBA and found our guests with Fa. They had gone to the Otago Museum and the Butterfly exhibit, which they all enjoyed. On the way back home, we stopped at Flying Squid for some fish and chips. We ate the food and played some Texas Hold’em before bed.

Saturday morning I got up early to check the weather. Hank’s 9:00AM cricket match was cancelled due to rain. It was so cold (9C inside the house!) that I started a fire for the first time since November. I checked on our planned golf lesson for the afternoon and it too was cancelled due to the rain, so we made some plans for the day. Megan, Susan, Hallie, Hank, and I went to the Cadbury chocolate factory for the tour. Unfortunately, the factory wasn’t operating for the first Saturday in months, but we did the tour anyway. We hadn’t seen it since our holiday in Feb 2006 and Megan hadn’t seen it in 20 years. It was still fun and informative, with plenty of chocolate samples. After Cadbury’s we went to the Otago Museum so Megan, Susan, and Hallie could see the animal attic and the maritime room, which they missed the day before. They are our favourite parts of the museum and they really enjoyed them. On the way home from the museum we stopped at the supermarket, and then arrived home to find Fa had made some home-made chili and cornbread. We devoured it and then I made some sandwiches for our evening. We packed up a chilly bin with food and headed out to the peninsula. We arrived at the Taiaroa Head albatross colony and booked a tour. While waiting for the tour to start we wandered around in the high winds, occasionally seeing an albatross overhead. The tour started with a short talk and movie about the colony, then we climbed the hill to an observation area behind glass, where we could see about 10 albatrosses. Two or three were on nests, a group was socialising on the ground, and several were flying overhead. We stayed there for about half an hour, watching the albatrosses and even a cruise ship exiting the harbour. It was well worth the trip. Back at the car we set off for Sandfly Bay to see the yellow-eyed penguins. By the time we got to the track to the beach the weather was horrible so we decided to wait for another day to see the penguins. We drove back along Highcliff Road and into Dunedin. Back at home we ate the dinner we brought and settled into bed.

Yesterday Fa took our guests to Queenstown, via Lawrence. They left at about 10:00 with Fa driving the whole distance for the first time. They’re staying in Queenstown for one night and then are off to Manapouri for a night followed by an overnight boat ride on Doubtful Sound. Ginny, Hank and I are on our own until they return Wednesday.

Back to Cricket

The Kaikorai Vipers were back at it yesterday, the first game since December. They played very well but lost 95-79. Hank bowled very well and was good in the field. We’re looking forward to a great second half of the season.

Cloudy Dunedin

After a couple of nice days, we’re back to clouds and rain. Hank had sun for his cricket match on Saturday, although it was a bit windy. His team won 145-85. Thanks to Courtney, Corinna, Jorit, and Jennifer who came to watch the second innings. I’m not sure if anyone else does, but I really enjoy watching cricket. Yesterday started gloomy with low clouds, but eventually it warmed up and burned them off. However, we never really got going and missed out on the beach. Today the clouds hung around all day, with occasional light rain. I lost to Phil at squash, really horribly, after beating him 3 times in a row. I felt pretty sluggish all day. Fa is a bit under the weather too (sorry about the bad pun).

Man of the Match

Hank played a wonderful cricket match this morning. Not only was his batting and bowling well done, but his fielding was just beautiful. We could have done with some warmer weather, these early morning games are pretty cold. Congratulations, Hank!

Car & Cricket

We got up early for Hank’s cricket match this morning, but had some unexpected excitement. As I walked out to the car I noticed the interior light on, so I new the battery would be flat. There are something like 7 interior lights on when the door is open so the battery, even though it is good, can’t start the car after running those lights for 14 hours. One of the doors wasn’t closed last night. I new we didn’t have much time to get to cricket so I asked the neighbour across the street if he could give us a jump. Wes and I pushed the car out of the garage, clipping the driver door on the wall as it entered the street. We got the car started instantly with the jump, but then I noticed that the door was dented all to hell. Bummer. Fa encouraged me to just enjoy the game, which was good advice.

Cricket was a lot of fun for Hank and us. The sun came out and it was really warm. The team played really well. There was much good batting, running, bowling, and fielding. We won our first game 83-61. The team was in great spirits after the win. We’re getting better all of the time.

Afterwards, Hank and I took a look at the car door. It wasn’t closing properly so I grabbed a C-clamp and pried it back into some shape. At least the door closes better now. We picked up some touch-up paint to cover the bare metal. It looks horrible but works. Hopefully, it won’t fail WOF now.

Later we went to St. Clair, where Corinna met us to take Christmas pictures. She took about 150, which I am going through now. Then we walked down the beach for half an hour and back. Wes treated us to dinner at Starfish at the Esplanade. I had venison, which was one of the best meals I’ve had in New Zealand. Check the end of this photo album for new pics.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=17565&l=56840&id=543764697

Cricket

Hank’s team, the Kaikorai Junior Vipers, just finished their weekly cricket game. They are improving all the time and looked really good out there. Against an older team, they made 48 runs vs 73. I’m not sure how many runs Hank scored, but his bowling was good and he caught a ball. The weather was horrible, occasionally raining, but we all really enjoyed it. We’re looking forward to a great season.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16920&l=a480a&id=543764697

Wes has arrived

My father, Wes, arrived in Dunedin yesterday morning after a 24 hour trip from Seattle. Fa and I picked him up at 9:10 AM. He looked pretty wiped out, but did survive the trip. We took him to our house and showed him around. He took and nap and then we went to the bank to change some money. Then Wes wanted some lunch so we went to the new Cafe “Salt” at the St. Clair Esplanade. As usual for New Zealand it as slow but pretty good with nice service. We walked along the boardwalk and watched the huge waves crashing up and over the railing. It was very windy. We came back and picked up the kids. Wes of course thought they had grown a lot since he’d seen them. We had a lamb dinner to celebrate his arrival.

Today I got up early (5:00AM) to do some work so I could get it out of the way. After finishing I played Phil in squash, but lost. I was pretty wiped out from my 3rd squash match this week. Then we went to CBD to get Hank some proper cricket clothes. We found some nice whites at Sports Otago. After dropping off Fa at school, Wes and I went to Baldwin Street, the steepest street in the world. We walked almost all the way to the top before turning back. After coming down we drove up to the top, which was a lot easier. I remember the first time we drove up I was pretty nervous, but this time was easy. Then we drove up to the top of Mt. Cargill. The last time we (Hank, Ginny, and I) attempted it, we had to turn back because of snow. There was nothing like that this time, but the wind was ferocious. We stumbled around in the wind for a few minutes and took some pictures. On the way back, we stopped at a pine plantation so Wes (and I) could see what it was like. We walked around in there for a few minutes. It was actually pretty nice. Here’s a panorama from the top of the mountain:

We picked up the kids and then I went down to Flying Squid to get dinner. After picking up our usual (6 mussels, 4 blue cod, 5 chips) I got Fa and we came home for dinner. Excellent as always. After dinner Wes and I drove out to Outram to see about some fly fishing. It was super windy but we did manage to get our lines out. I missed 3 fish – too slow after 7 months off. We eventually got too cold and headed back, arriving home at 8:00PM.

Some pictures:

http://www.facebook.com/photo.php?pid=365326&l=20407&id=543764697

Cricket

Hank had his first real game of cricket this morning. It took place at the Dunedin Oval, in Princes Street. Hank plays for the Kaikorai Junior Vipers, who played against the Kaikorai Junior Lightning. Although the team lost by about 30 runs, they had a good time and made several great plays. Hank did well in his bowling and had a good innings for several runs. Several of the parents remarked that he looked good out there and certainly not like he’d never played before. Great job Hank.

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16920&l=a480a&id=543764697

Cool bowling sequence:

Another one:

Halloween

Halloween is pretty casually celebrated here, as we found out. One of the biggest differences with the US is the time of sunset. I remember starting out Trick or Treating at about 5:00PM. At 5:00 we were at Hank’s cricket practice. Nobody was talking about Halloween. It was nice and warm, quite a difference from the aborted game last Saturday.

After that, we went home and I made some fresh pasta, since Patria had sent the pasta maker. Fa and the kids loved it, but I couldn’t really eat any because I had a squash game at 8:00 so I didn’t want to fill myself up.

This was my first match of the summer squash league. It was quite a bit different than a regular game. A point is awarded on every serve, and you play to 15. No player gets more than 5 serves in a row. The loser of the game gets an extra 5 points in the next game, and if they lose again, they start with 10 points. If the loser then wins, they start the next at 5 again. I played Anne Marie, and I won the first 2, lost 1, then won again. All over in 30 minutes. It was a lot of fun. During the warm-up she looked really good, and I was worried, but when we started I think she was tricked by my sloppy play and fooled by my miss-hits. I felt out of control but won anyway.

By the time I drove home, it was finally getting dark. On the way home, I didn’t see a single Trick or Treater. We didn’t get any lollies (candy), but didn’t need any because not a single Trick or Treater was out. The whole day was pretty low-key. The next day the kids each talked to one or two kids out of their whole classes who went out. I hear it’s getting bigger every year, but it’s nothing like the States.

The day after Halloween Arthur Street School had a Halloween Disco (dance). I’d say most of the kids did get involved with this. They all dressed up, including Ginny as a skeleton face, and Hank as the devil. They had a good time for a couple of hours. I’ve loaded some pictures on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=16913&l=dfaab&id=543764697

Movies:

Snow

Just when we thought Spring had arrived, Winter returns. Hank’s first cricket match started off this morning in a light snow at Wakari School. After about half an hour of trying, the parents convinced the coaches to call it off. Someone said, “The rugby players were getting hypothermia.” (Implying cricketers are tougher than rugby players). Lets hope next week is nicer.

It’s so cold (6C) I am trying to get a fire started for the first time in a couple of weeks. It’s hard to type with frozen fingers.

Here are the Kaikorai Vipers warming (freezing) up.

Snowing, but can’t quite see it.

Recent Happenings

I haven’t written in a while. Sorry about that. Not much to say.

We’re starting the Labour Day holiday weekend, but it kind of sneaked up on us so we didn’t make any big plans. It feels so soon after the kids and Fa’s holidays too. The weather isn’t supposed to be great either. We’re just sticking close to home, maybe rent some video.

We got back into our regular schedule this past week.

Ginny had a social studies quiz competition the other day, put on by the Otago Daily Times. We don’t know how well her team did (with Alycia and Kayleigh), but do know they weren’t in the top three, so didn’t get a prize. They had fun, though.

Hank has swimming on Fridays at the Moana Pool. I volunteered to help this week, not realizing what I was getting myself into. I took the better kids, including Hank, and had them do some strokes for me for about 20 minutes, before they mutinied on me and just played around in the water. It was fun but kind of like herding cats.

What else? Fa got her grades from last module: All A’s – best yet. She and her syndicate went to Lawrence to visit the business they’re working with this module.

I played squash three times – lost all three, but each time went five games.

Had the oil changed in the car. Oil, like petrol and diesel, is super expensive. Around $10 litre (about a quart). Diesel is getting up again – $1.169/litre. Not to up on petrol, but I think it’s around $1.70/litre.

Got a haircut.First one in New Zealand. Probably the longest I’d gone since High School.

Hank has started cricket, but the first game was rained out and the second canceled for the holiday. Hopefully, next Saturday he’ll get to play.

I’ve been playing around with our webcam, pointing it out the back window and having it save every 5 minutes to the “About” page here on the blog, but it often fails. Sometimes the camera doesn’t show an image, or the site I’m ftp’ing it to (Comcast) doesn’t work, which is happening right now. Check again and you may see a new picture every once in a while.

Even without the All Black’s, we’re still watching the Rugby World Cup. Tomorrow’s final should be great. I don’t know why, but I’m rooting for the English. Probably because I just hate South Africa. I guess it’s my generation: growing up when the RSA was the great evil in the world, with Apartheid and Nelson Mandela and all that. Silly now, of course, but you kind of wonder why there are maybe two black players on the team.

Weather should be getting better in the next few weeks, so hopefully I can do some fishing. Too much rain lately has muddied the rivers. A week of dry weather and I’ll be sweet as.

Picnic

Today we took care of some errands before having some fun. After Fa went to school we eventually made it to her office and Susi kindly let us use the FAX machine. I faxed a letter to Mutual of Enumclaw to get them to fax proof of my having no insurance claims for the last five years to our new insurance company: State. It’s been quite a bit harder to get car insurance than to buy a car. Hopefully Mutual of Enumclaw will do as I’ve asked and help me out. It’s the difference between $NZ632 and $NZ332 if I get the proof so I hope they’ll do it. We then visited the insurance agent at State. They were very professional and got us out of there quickly.
We stopped at Telecom to see if they could get us on their mobile phone system, since they use CDMA, which we have on our Verizon phones, but they said they would only activate phones they sell – no exceptions. I deferred a decision on that until later.

After dropping the car back at the apartment, we walked down the road for five minutes to the Woodhaugh Gardens for a picnic with Fa’s colleagues. Of course they were a bit late so the three of us spent 45 minutes exploring the park. There was a nice native forest we walked through where we saw some of the 10 metre fern “trees” and other native plants. Eventually we met up with Maureen from the Business School and helped set up. We had a nice lunch and the kids met a couple of Kiwi friends: Josh and Reva. They took a while to warm up with each other but after a couple of hours they got along great. We had a brief cricket lesson and played for a bit with plastic bats and wickets. Hank and Ginny both enjoyed cricket a lot (me too – I was the wicket keeper).

We wandered home and later on had a steak, rice, and portebello mushroom dinner with NZ Sauvignon Blanc – very nice. Another great day in New Zealand.

Big Changes

This morning was our last at the Executive Residence. We had our good breakfast (we just love the coffee “robot”!) as usual and packed up all of our belongings. Fa went off to school so the kids and I planned our day. We were waiting for noon to get into our temporary apartment, but when Fa came back at 10:30 we decided to head out. Luckily, the new place was available so he checked in and got our keys. It’s just a little farther away at the north end of town. We took a few bags in the rental car, then left Ginny and Hank while we went back for the rest. Eventually, we had all of our luggage in the apartment. It’s nothing great but it does have a kitchen and washer/dryer in the unit. We’ll be fine here. No internet, though. We are close to some shops and we walked to the supermarket for groceries. After a nice lunch of grilled-cheese sandwiches and tomato soup, Fa left for her afternoon classes and the kids and I did some laundry. We decided to hang up the laundry instead of using the dryer. This is apparently very common here. I do remember doing this as a kid but Ginny and Hank had never seen such a thing. We scrambled to get the last bit up as we had to get to the car dealer by 2:00.
We filled up the rental car with petrol, about 10 litres for $15.00. I think we went maybe 100 kms. We arrived at the dealer and saw the Delica. The kids of course loved it and I thought it was pretty cool too. We took it for a test drive up to the house we’re eventually moving into. No one was home so I quickly drove into the garage/carport. I chickened out a few feet into it, but I think it will fit. If not, we’ll park it on the street. It took a bit of getting used to driving a diesel stick up and down the steep streets of Dunedin, but it was fun. I even tried four wheel high and low – what a blast. We headed back and agreed on a deal. Then I thought we’d be in the dealer’s office for a long time, but it turned out it the sale didn’t take long at all, but acquiring insurance took forever. Brian, the finance guy, was one the phone to a couple of insurers for probably 45 minutes before we finally came up with something. The only catch is I have to get letters from my previous insurers proving I haven’t had a claim in 5 years. I’ll work on that tomorrow. Then we took the rental back, followed by one of the shop guys in the Delica, and I dropped him back at the dealer. Then we were off in our own car. Wow.

We met Fa at the Executive Residence for “Nibbles & Drinks”. She is working with a great bunch of people. I learned a lot about rugby from Pip. I can’t wait until the season starts up in about a month. (Sorry about the Seahawks, I heard it was close, though)
After a couple of hours of mingling, we were back to the apartment and I watched the last 15 overs of the England-New Zealand cricket match. I really enjoyed it, but unfortunately England won on the second to last ball. It was a very close and exciting game.

Lazy day

Today was the first day in New Zealand that we didn’t have anything to do. Nothing to buy, nothing to set up, no one to talk to, nothing. We did think about heading to the Otago Museum after doing some laundry, but by about noon, Fa and the kids suggested just doing nothing. I thought that was just perfect. So we sat in the “Otago Daily Times” room, where we have internet access and Sky TV (satellite TV), and wiled away the afternoon. I got a brief lesson in Cricket from Nicola, the manager of the hotel, and then thoroughly enjoyed the Tri-Nation match between New Zealand and Australia. Hank, Ginny, and Fa wandered in and out of the room while I pretty much watched the whole thing. After about 7 hours New Zealand was defeated 290 to 186, I believe. It was great – much like baseball but each side gets all their outs and at-bats all at once. The Aussies were much better and had some fantastic plays. Their coach is an American and has some kind of baseball background, but I didn’t catch his name. I think I’ll have to get Sky TV now to watch this.

At the change of sides in the match Hank and I went to the store to get some food to cook. Nicola let us use the kitchen of the residence so we could have a home-cooked meal. Fa and I cooked lamb chops, rice, and fresh green beans. It was wonderful – the best meal we’ve had in NZ so far, if I do say so myself. We topped it off with a Central Otago Pinot Noir – perfect. I think New Zealand Sauvignon Blanc and Pinot Noir are my favourite wines in the world – good thing we moved here.

We found out we can stay here one more night so we won’t be out in the street. Tuesday we move to an apartment for a couple of weeks where we won’t have internet access so we’ll have to get on at the university.

Bye till tomorrow.