That's the slogan for the Under 20s FIFA World Cup this year. Lance and I went to the New Zealand vs. USA game (we won!) with our friends from the consulate. The NZ soccer team is/are (not sure on the grammar for this) the All Whites and they wear all white uniforms. The NZ rugby team is/are the All Blacks and their uniforms are purple. No, just kidding; they're black. But either way, it was pretty ironic to see signs all over the Auckland stadium that read "Say No to Racism!" followed by the whole stadium cheering "All Whites! *clap clap clap* All Whites! *clap clap clap*". Good times, FIFA.
Sweet Baby James took his first couple of steps last week to the tune of William Tell overture, which was pretty dramatic. The kid has good timing. This past weekend his walking improved by leaps and bounds (figuratively, not literally- he's only a baby after all) and we got some cute clips.
Last week- didn't quite get the camera started in time, but you get the jist.
This past weekend- much better. You'll have to excuse my cheering. My voice gets pretty shrill when I'm excited. This is Maggie writing, by the way. Lance doesn't get shrill when he cheers in case you needed the clarification.
I was browsing the books at the local Auckland Library and I stumbled upon this gem.
Good Night California? Sure, Kiwis go to California for vacation all the time. Good Night New York? Why not, it's a well known state/city. But Iowa? Checked that out in a heartbeat.
We ourselves own Colorado, Denver, Michigan, and Baby Jesus (it's a series).
The Queen's Birthday is a formal occasion here in NZ and therefor a public holiday. Happy 89th Birthday Queen Elizabeth!
Looooong live the queen!
We took advantage of the three day weekend at the beginning of June to go south to the volcanic valley of Rotorua.
Rotorua is a series of lakes created by volcanic activity. The whole city smells like sulfur/rotten eggs, but I'm one of those weird people that secretly (or not so secretly since I'm writing it on a public blog) likes the smell of sulfur. Lance was not nearly as taken. But we put up with it for the weekend in order to experience the geothermal parks. They've been on my list since before we moved here. This turned out to be a 'things-Maggie-likes' weekend and Lance was very gracious to let me do all the nerdy things to my heart's content.
First thing upon arrival was a walk through the local redwood forest, which was lovely. Rotorua has a very active mountain biking community and the forest paths were roped off for a race.
Next up was a trip to Wingspan National Bird of Prey Centre, which I LOVED. If I could have any pastime in the world, I would be a falconer. Seriously, how cool would that be? They have falcons, hawks, and owls that they nurse back to health and then release into the wild. They have a couple resident falcons that live there permanently that they use for the demonstrations. The NZD $20 note has one of their falcons pictured on it.
We got fish n' chips from a place down the street that won best chips on the north island a couple years ago. I personally didn't think they were anything special, but James was a fan. Especially since he got to sit in a big boy seat at the table with us.
One guess what he's going after- my beer bottle. As usual.
The next morning we got up bright and early to go ZORBing. If you've never heard of ZORBing, you should know that it's awesome. You're basically put in a large bubble roughly the size of a minivan that resembles a hamster ball, with a layer of water in the bottom. Then they roll you down a hill. Lance and I went together and went down twice, once down the straight path and once down the sidewinder. We asked some random Chinese grandparents to watch James since they were waiting for their son to go. They didn't speak any English but thankfully 'Cute Baby' is a universal language. She had James out of my arms and into hers faster than I could point at myself then point to the top of the hill. Very kind of them.
I've been enjoying learning how to edit and enhance GoPro videos and was proud of myself for putting music with this one, but then I got a message from Youtube that I broke copyright laws by using Surfin' USA by the Beach Boys so they muted it. Bummer. Just pretend you're hearing Surfin' USA while you're watching it, otherwise it's kind of boring.
After a quick hop into the hot tub provided (it's winter here now so being wet outside at 9 a.m. was chilly) we dried off and headed to Wai-O-Tapu Thermal Wonderland. It was gorgeous! So many beautiful colors from all the minerals making their way from the geothermal activity under the surface into the water that was boiling and steaming through every crack. You felt like you were in Hell, but a pretty Hell painted by Degas if he decided to take a break from ballerinas.
After walking around outside for a couple hours with wet hair we decided to make our way to the cozy Waikite Valley Thermal Pools. James LOVES hot springs, so we are lucky that NZ is chock full of them. He really gets a kick out of being in water of any type, and warm water that he can stay in for longer than 5 minutes (unlike the Pacific) makes him really happy. Plus this place even had a toddler section which was shallow enough for him to crawl.
We took a break back at the hotel to shower and relax before our Maori 'Te Po' at Te Puia, which is a combo Maori village/cultural center/arts school/geothermal park/restaurant...place. Basically the entire Rotorua area is a tourist trap, but a Maori Te Po is just kind of something you do at some point before you leave NZ. We enjoyed it.
You arrive around dinner and they start with a traditional welcome ceremony, cultural performance with singing and dancing, demonstrate some weapons and fighting techniques, show the food being prepared in a hangi (underground oven), eat dinner, then make our way to the largest naturally active geyser in the southern hemisphere to hopefully watch it erupt if we time it correctly. We were lucky with our timing and only had to wait about 5 minutes before it started spitting. It reached its full height of 100 feet within a couple minutes and it was beautiful while back-lit in the dark.
With James finally getting sleeping several hours past his bedtime (what a trooper), we headed back to the hotel. The next morning a storm rolled in so we decided to skip any possible hikes in the area (I had even rented a hiking book from the library!) and drove back to Auckland. We managed to pack in a lot of activities over two days and didn't regret cutting out early.
