That Was Sweet As

Friday

Friday was an absolute wonderful day! We got to experience two things that are special and unique to New Zealand. We went to the Auckland War Memorial Museum and then a rugby game!

Museum

We first went to the war museum. This was absolutely fascinating to me. I know so much about Americas history but I didn’t know much about any other countries history until then. It was interesting to see another countries perspective to both of the World Wars. They had entire wings of the museum dedicated to each war. Here were some of my favorite parts of the museum.

I loved the introduction we received. They had a Maori cultural performance that was amazing. There was a group of “warriors” and “maidens” that sang and danced for us. They showed us many things that were specific to the Maori culture.

They showed us the titi torea, the word used for the double short sticks. There are many forms for playing titi torea, starting from the simple ones where a player learns to change hands with the sticks they have, through to the sticks coming from behind and having to be caught. Both children and adults play titi torea. Competitions are sometimes held, with the aim being for each team to complete a certain set of patterns without going out of beat or dropping any.

They also did a dance with Poi. They dance swinging these balls, which are attached to flax strings. The poi they swing rhythmically can have short or long cords. Sometimes the dancers will be grouped so that dancing can be performed with both short and long cords swinging in harmony. Originally the poi was used as a means of training and developing strength, accuracy, flexibility and poise.

Then of course they did the famous Haka. There are two different types of Hakas. Peruperu is the style for true war dance. Weapons are involved and one of the characteristics would include a high jump with the legs folded under at the end of the dance. Ka Mate, on the other hand, is not a war dance. It was originally of the ngeri style, a short, free form of Haka whereby performers interpret as they feel fit. Weapons are not involved. When the All Blacks rugby team does the haka they do the Ka Mate version. Here are the lyrics to the Haka:

Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!


Ka mate! Ka mate! Ka ora! Ka ora!


Tenei te tangata puhuru huru

Nana nei i tiki mai


Whakawhiti te ra
A upa … ne! 

ka upa … ne!


A upane kaupane whiti te ra!


Hi!

I die! I die! I live! I live!


I die! I die! I live! I live!


This is the hairy man


Who fetched the Sun


And caused it to shine again


One upward step! Another upward step!


An upward step, another … the Sun shines!

The music that they shared with us was amazing! Here is a video of a mix of all of the songs they performed! 

I also loved walking through the areas of World War II. There was a wall that had a wall that said, “were you a prisoner of war?” with words below encouraging those that were in concentration camps to go to the front desk and write down the camps they were in and when. I carefully read the pieces of paper added to this wall and my heart about broke. It was very appropriate to then have a room dedicated to those who survived the concentration camps, with pictures, their stories, and also when they arrived in New Zealand.

Next, as simple as it was, I loved this bronze statue of men that was a memorial of New Zealand bomber command. This memorial depicts an RAF Lancaster Bomber crew after returning from a night operation and honors the 2157 New Zealand airmen, all volunteers, lost while flying with RAF bomber command in Europe during WWII. 

Last but not least, there was an entire room dedicated to olden day instruments! I was so excited when I saw this room I could hardly stand it. They had some really interesting looking instruments. First, they had rows and rows of violins. They had the most rich colors and interesting markings I could stare and examine them all day. There were also some instruments that looked like violins and cellos but they had 6-8 strings on them! How weird is that? There was also some other instruments that kind of looked like guitars/ukulele’s but they weren’t. I don’t even know what you would call them but they sure looked neat!

*that thing in the middle is a cello*

Rugby

After the museum we went to the rugby game. The game was between Auckland Blues and the Christchurch Crusaders. This was the first game of the Super 15 Tournament. 15 of the players, combined from both teams, are on the All Blacks team as well. I have come to the conclusion that rugby is awesome, it is intense, it looks painful and much more fun to watch than football. The game is so fast paced that there is never a dull moment. Rugby is sweet as.

Dog pile! 

Christchurch Crusaders 

Auckland Blues 

Auckland Blues maskot! 

Saturday

Saturday was so relaxed it was delightful. We were going to go to the beach but it was so windy that it would have been miserable, so we made a last minute decision to go to the Kelly Tarlton’s Underwater World. Oh my gosh I loved it. It was super small, but it was worth it to me to go to the aquarium.  Just like the zoo I got reconnected with my inner child. Everything was so exciting to see even if I had seen them before. Here are the highlights.

My absolute favorite part of the entire aquarium was all of the penguins!! There was tons of them and they are probably the funniest animals to me. In the penguin habitat they have soccer balls, Frisbees and balls on strings for them to play with to keep them interested and stimulated. It was funny to see that even the penguins have clicks. There were certain groups of penguins that were together and each group of penguins had their own look to them. Funny. I have decided that their little waddle is great.

My next favorite part was seeing the whole entire cast of Finding Nemo. When I spotted Dory, Bubbles (part of the tank gang), and Nemo in the tank I about died. Kirsten was probably embarrassed to be with such a fanatic of a Disney movie. Then there was a giant Crush hanging out for the little ones to climb on. Since he was there I had to have a picture too.  There was even Bob and Sheldon, the sea horses! It was a great, great day.

Here's some other things that we saw and did.