Monday 6th June was a public holiday. We met a classmate of Lisa’s in Nelson and cycled around the port and marina. It was a bit overcast with some rain, but mild (16°C)
Tuesday 7th We went to the swimming pool in Richmond in the morning. The centre was a hive of activity with little rippers doing all sorts of aquatic activities. Due to the facilities, we can get on with swimming without any ripper interruptions. A quick spell in the spa pool and sauna, then we headed off to the library. More job application stuff and then we came back to Mapua and went for a walk on the beach.
Wednesday 8th First day volunteering at Sport Tasman. Only an introduction session so stayed from 11am to 1pm. Collected the mountain bikes from the shop on my way home, as the first two services are included as part of the deal. The shop is one of about eight bike shops I have counted in an area which has about 90,000 people. Not a bad ratio and there are probably others I don’t know about! In the evening I watch paint dry, otherwise known as uploading photos onto the flickr website.
Thursday 9th In the afternoon we went out on the bikes and did a new route. It was beautiful and it followed the Motueka valley for some of the way. The scenery is very dramatic with large mountain ranges in the background. Large rivers, river valleys and pancake flat plains with orchards or vineyards. The scenery changes with every corner you go around. It also means the cycle routes can include lots of climbing and/or really flat roads. In the evening we took possession of the rugby world cup tickets !! we see that the price of the ticket includes the ‘free’ use of public transport to get you to and from the stadium. We need to book flights to Auckland and sort out accommodation.
We then watched our first netball match, live on TV. It was a revelation. It was very fast and exciting and was played in front of a crowd of about 8000. OK it was the Silver ferns playing the diamonds (Austalia)) . The ferns narrowly lost, and we cant wait to see the return match at the weekend. We are now netball fans and I never thought I would say that!
Friday 10th I went for a quick swim before going to work at Sport Tasman. A good day for going to work as it rained all day (temps still mild, probably just like a wet summer’s day in Portrush).
The main TV news each evening is at 6pm. It is one hour long and includes several lengthy weather reports as well as many sports reports. That is my perfect combination. This evening I counted six different sports being reported on. There are as many female sportspeople reported on as males. There is so much more equality, to the extent the often say men’s football, not assuming we will automatically think it is men they will be reporting. The same thing happens in the press. It is also noticeable that the reporters who interview the athletes, ask the women the same type of questions they would ask the men. There is no Chris Hollins asking a female some flippant question he would never dream of asking a guy. Perhaps this is just another reason why, a country with only 4 million people produce so many world class athletes in so many sports.
Saturday 11th I went for a run around Ruby bay and Mapua and Lisa went out for a cycle. In the afternoon we went for a drive to find the infamous Takaka Hill. It is the only category one ‘hill’ in NZ so we thought we would better take a look before we would try to cycle up it. It turned out to be a monster of a mountain with a climb that goes on for over 9km, some of which is steep. It looked so much harder than any Spanish route we had ever done, but Lisa is a veteran of the French Alps and she thought she had done worse! We stopped at a lookout point, which was a platform that sits out high above a valley. Breath-taking view. It would be a ‘breath-taking’ and leg-breaking climb if you cycle up here. We drove home a decided we would attempt it some day, date not yet specified!
In the evening we went to see the film Catfish in the little Gecko cinema. We sat in our usual sofa and had our usual hot chocolate. Four other people were also there and we all enjoyed the film. A great film, should be watched by anyone who uses facebook !
Sunday 12th after a few cloudy days, it was great to waken up to a sunny morning. It was sunny but cool. We waited for it to warm up, so went to the Wharfside for coffee. Lots of little rippers turned up with their parents to fish on the wharf. Lots of small children, with small fishing rods, all catching each other’s lines as they stood shoulder to shoulder. We got bored watching them and many of them got bored fishing.
It warmed up to about 13°C, so we headed off on another new route. The Neurdorf road was beautiful, surrounded by hobbit like rolling hills, with trees still showing autumn colours. The route included quite a bit of climbing and we were quite tired when we got home, but it is a route I think we will use a lot.
The big news this week was the death of Shrek. Shrek was a large Merino sheep, who enjoyed national celebrity status. He had fans all over Asia. He had avoided capture for years and lived in a cave. He then was caught and somehow turned into a household name. When he was shorn, it was televised live and it got over 1 million viewers including viewers in Japan! A day or two later other stories were reported that Shrek would continue to release more children’s books…. special powers indeed. Shrek is also going to be stuffed, but I’m not sure if that will happen before or after he writes his next book!
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