New Zealand Open

Here’s a good leaderboard for the New Zealand Open: http://www.pgatour.com/h/leaderboard/

Local Sports News

Washingtonian Alex Prugh leads the New Zealand Open Golf Tournament, being played now at the Hills near Queenstown.

Dunedin gets 3 games in the 2011 Rugby World Cup, including Scotland, England, and Ireland.

New Zealand 3rd in car ownership

Interesting article about car ownership, although if you read the comments there are many questions:

What’s a car? Truck? Pickup? Ute? What if 1 person owns more than 1 car? Cars on the road? Etc.

New Zealand Population

I found a great website showing city population (actually I found it last year but forgot about it). Here is the New Zealand page: http://www.citypopulation.de/NewZealand.html. It’s a great argument settler.

Niemi trip to Auckland

Ginny’s and Hank’s passports are only good for 5 years, and since we got them back in 2004, they were set to expire in June. It seems like it would be an easy thing to get them renewed, but because they were for minors, we all have to apply in person for new ones. The US Embassy is in Wellington, but for some reason, we could only do it at the Consulate, which is in Auckland. We decided to make a quick trip up to Auckland while the kids were on summer holiday. Wednesday morning we arrived at the Dunedin airport for our 1.5 hour flight. We each fit our clothes in a backpack so we had nothing to check and headed straight for the gate. The flight was over quickly and we were at the Auckland airport. We found the bus stop and about 10 minutes later were on a public bus to the CBD. Half hour later we were on Queen Street, Auckland’s main thoroughfare, and walked the couple blocks to the Rendezvous Hotel. I had found this hotel on the Internet and wasn’t sure what it would be like, but it turned out to be very nice.

The US Consulate is closed on the last Wednesday of the month so we had to wait for the next day to get the passports. We thought about going to the zoo, but decided that since we had a 5:30 booking for dinner, we didn’t have time to get out there and back, so we would do something in town. We chose the Auckland Museum. It took a 45 minute walk to the top of the hill in the Auckland Domain, but we finally made it. We spent a few hours in the museum. The kids particularly enjoyed the animal exhibits, the T. Rex, while I spent some time in the World War I and II exhibits. The highlights for me were the actual Spitfire and Zero planes in the War Memorial level. I’d say it’s about as good as Te Papa in Wellington. We headed back to the hotel to freshen up and then walked the 2 blocks to the Sky Tower for our dinner in the Orbit Restaurant. The restaurant rotates 360 degrees in one hour. We stayed for 2 hours, enjoying the good food and fantastic view. Afterwards we walked back to the hotel.

Thursday morning we got up early to be at the Consulate first thing. We weren’t sure how long it might take. We had breakfast in the hotel’s restaurant and then walked down to the Consulate on Customs Street. It took about 10 minutes to get through the security. It was more strict than airport security. Eventually we got through, leaving most of our stuff outside in a locker. We turned in our forms, and waited for about 10 minutes. It was great to see the new photos of the President, Vice President, and Secretary of State. We were called to the window and all had to swear to the truth of everything on the forms, with our right hands raised. That was it – we were done.

Now we had the whole rest of the day. We went back to the hotel and then caught a bus to the Auckland Zoo. After a 30 minute ride we got off and walked a few hundred metres to the entrance. We started with the giraffes, followed by rhinoceros, lion, flamingos, etc. etc. I lost track of all we saw. We especially like the meerkats. It was a very nice zoo, probably the best in New Zealand. By 1 or 2 we were exhausted so took the bus back to the CBD.

We looked around for some lunch, settling on a Mexican Restaurant across from the Sky Tower. It was actually pretty good. We had not had Mexican food in a couple of years now.  Fa had contacted her classmate George, who we were going to meet at 4:30, so we had some time to kill. We went to Albert park, next to the CBD. The kids played with toys while Fa and I watched a family feeding pigeons. Finally we walked down the hill to the Starbuck’s on Queen and Victoria. We ordered and waited a few minutes for George. We had a nice visit with him. He had to go back to work so we caught the bus to the airport. We arrived there, had a couple drinks, and soon boarded the plane. The flight back to Dunedin was very nice, as it was during the time they actually serve wine and cheese. We found the car and drove home as the sun set on a great 2 day holiday.

Check out the facebook photo album: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=88050&l=6733f&id=543764697

New Zealand Stick Insect

The other day Hank found a Stick Insect in the bathroom. Of course we got all excited, taking pictures and taking it outside. Then I looked it up and found out it is common here in New Zealand. I’m sure growing up here kids must be very used to them, although this is the first one we’ve seen in 2 years. I’m not sure which of the nine genera and 22 recognised species it is, but we thought it was pretty cool. Tell me, Kiwis, would you get excited finding a stick insect?

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

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

I’m Beached As

This is sweet as:

Heaps sweet as.