The sports edition!

One month in we feel like we've had a bit of an insight into sporting life, and had a go at a few of sports with varied success! So this is the sports blog.

New Zealanders are well known for their sporting prowess; given the small population of 4 million they churn out pretty impressive sportsmen. It makes you wonder what we are doing to our 60 million back home! Well here are some clues as to where we might be going wrong...


1. Surf lifesaving

From the age of 5 years old there is a great deal of social pressure put on parents to take their kids to surf lifesaving on Sunday mornings. This involves not only taking your children there but also participating! Whether it is running around in circles in the sand, or jumping over each other, parents are frowned upon if they don't give it a go too! One particularly funny kiwi challenge involves kids having to run into the surf to retrieve a 'prize'. And then getting them to repeat the game an hour later when they all struggle through the surf as the incoming tide now almost washes them away. All character building stuff!

2. All-inclusive soccer
    
I've been recruited by the 'beach vets' 6-a-side football team to play Wednesday night soccer. This is very funny and I think Clare secretly enjoys being our number one cheerleader. The matches are played with players from 6-60 years old on the teams. Some teams just consist of an entire family and the mums always play too, The matches remain ridiculously competitive in typical kiwi style. Our squad has 5 girls (who have never played football) and 2 guys in it. Its high octane stuff. We frequently get beaten by 10 year old boys. Its pretty hard on my football ego to suffer these losses, but I'll get over it, maybe.

3. All-inclusive Netball

Yes that's right, whole families and work teams also undertake midweek netball. I haven't lowered myself to this yet, but I guess its only a matter of time.

4. Surfing!

My aspirations of becoming a cool surf dad are coming on, slowly and painfully! The first thing to say is that surfing is hard (before you look at my photo's and laugh). Once you struggle though the surf to get 'out the back' you then have to get over hallucinations of dorsal fins circling around you. (Apparently there are plenty of sharks around especially when it gets warmer, but no one can remember when there was last an attack here. As you can imagine, I have done a pretty comprehensive survey on the opinion of this)

I 've had a lesson with Trevor the local surf instructor, brought my own board and suffered lots of bruises. Think I need to do a bit of yoga like Clare to improve my balance! Managed to get a sequence of me standing up below though...

 

5. Shooting possums/wild pig/deer/anything that moves

This is another local pastime that kids are encouraged to get involved in as soon as they can walk and hold a gun.

6. Rugby

As you may have heard, the rugby world cup starts in New Zealand September 2011. We've heard about it, a lot! Rugby is still the biggest sport in the country- but soccer is getting a lot more popular. All the women here can speak very knowledgeably about rugby as it is just part of the culture, rather than a sport largely played by men. Sonny Bill Williams is the new rising star of New Zealand rugby. If they don't win the World Cup there will probably be a public holiday to facilitate national mourning.

7. Fishing

I would argue that this is not actually a sport, but its certainly a pastime that everyone partakes in here at the beach. You are not a true kiwi until you have your own boat, or one of these heavy duty harpoon style devices that shoot a fishing line with 20 hooks 2km out to sea from the beach. The 'fishermen' then sits and has a beer before pressing a button that winds the mechanical line back into shore. Now that's got to be cheating!  

So that's a quick summary of sporting pursuits over here, back to Clare's far more educational and informative blog next week!