Dunedin to Olympia

I’m flying from Dunedin to Olympia tomorrow morning, for a 3 month stay. 2 hours Dunedin – Auckland, 8 hours in Auckland, 12 hours Auckland – San Francisco, maybe 2 hours there, and then 2 hours San Francisco – Seattle, where Kaya will pick me up for the 1 hour trip to Olympia. It should be about 30 hours, I think. Yikes.

Fog rolls into Dunedin

On Friday morning fog moved up the harbour and then over South Dunedin, while up on the hill here we were bathed in sunshine. What I find interesting is how wonderful the view is here in person, but when you look at the photo, you see all the telephone wires and poles and other visual junk. The fog lasted through the morning, preventing some cruise ships to dock, but then cleared and it was over 30 degrees in the afternoon.

Cockles

Cockles

Otago Harbour

Fa, Ginny, and I went to Aramoana to get some cockles for dinner. Hank was at his friend Josh’s bach for a couple of days so he didn’t come. It was a sunny day in Dunedin but a bit cloudy at the coast, although still very warm. It only took 20 minutes for us to get a bucket full, about 300, just by running our fingers through the sand. Back home Hank returned and we had a big feed of steamed clams along with paella Fa made up. It’s so great that we can do such fun things here in New Zealand.

Notice the shirts

St. Kilda Beach Education

On Friday, the last day of school, Fa and Hank joined Hank’s Year 4 class at St. Kilda Beach. I drove our car with the food, towels, wetsuits, and body boards, while Fa rode with the kids in a bus. The bus broke down a few blocks from the beach but the kids eventually made it on foot. We met in the St. Kilda Surf Life Saving Club, where life guards instructed us in proper beach attire, supplies, and behaviour, and we watched a couple of videos too. I think we were well prepared, having gone to the beach many times while we are here in New Zealand, but for some of the kids it was their first time at the beach. We had tea and lunch, then the kids played Octopus.

Eventually we put on our togs and wetsuits and swam for maybe 20 minutes. We came back after a great day at the beach right here in Dunedin.

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

It’s Snowing

on my blog, that is. Here in Dunedin it’s raining and 10C as usual.