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Hour 36

As I move into hour 36 of the flight home, as i'm on my 3rd layover of the day (thinking about how my first layover was 23 hours ago), i've had time to really think about how amazing my experience has been. Being able to up and fly internationally, meet new people and fully emerge myself into a new culture for three weeks isn't really something that everyone is blessed with doing. This trip has motivated me to want to travel more, to continue pushing my comfort zone and exceed my limits. New Zealand is a beautiful country, with unreal sights that no picture or film could ever do it justice. The people are kind and welcoming and they have the sickest accents. The food is incredible and the water is so blue. I definitely fell in love over there. We went to New Zealand as a group to learn about sport culture in the marketplace. Our instructors, Adam and Josh (hi guys i know you have to read this) gave us the free time to make the trip what we wanted to, while still sticking to the itinerary. The inter group competition we had going definitely got intense but overall I'm glad it ended in a draw (even though team josh was the better team). We learned how to sail, lawn bowl, parkour, play (modified) touch rugby, netball, cricket, korfball, and floor hockey, among other physical activities we partook in. We learned a lot about Maori culture and it's impact on sports. We learned about the locals and how they identify with sports. We learned about how to sell a sport to a group of people. We learned how to relate what we learned in lecture to what we experience around us. As for the group, everyone was uniquely special and I couldn't have asked for anyone different to have gone on this trip. We lost one to a death in the family (miss you jake) but he was with us every step of the way. I hope to see my new friends back in college park. I highly encourage anyone to go to nz any chance they get. It's truly beautiful. As for this blog, I'll keep updating it for the next few days, but I hope anyone who kept up enjoyed what I had to say about it. See you in a few hours, maryland. See you in a few years, NZ. This is jack and the beans, signing off.

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I wouldn't come home if I didn't have to

Me

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Day 2 Wellington

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Day 1 Wellington

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Weekend in queenstown pt 2: ICE BAR - a real neat hole in the wall that was below 5 degrees celsius. 

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Weekend in Queenstown: what an amazing time. this city is rightfully titled the adventure capital of the world! we began with the skyline tour followed by a luge race with the most amazing of sights. totally breathtaking. Not only did we spend time becoming accustomed to the city, we stayed in a hostile and did some adventuring of our own! everyone did Bungy jumping off of the very first Bungy, the Kawaru bridge that is about 43 meters above the water. the weather was beautiful and the adrenaline was pumping! it was cussing lit. Abby, Kinsey and i had planned to go on a fox zip line afterword but it was cancelled because it was too windy. Otherwise the weekend was still lit. we made an Irish friend named Cormack who was super into american politics and kept talking about trump and what we need to do as a country to be better and it was super funny. Because we weren’t able to do the fox but we got the wristbands for it we ended up getting discounted drinks so we hit up happy hour and had a nice nap afterward. The locals are just as nice as you’d think they’d be and the bars are just like any other bar. but that being said, its not about where you are its about who you’re with, and our group was great and we all danced and just did what made us happy. next stop: wellington

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Final day in Dunedin

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Thursday in Dunedin

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since my last update we have done a lot of activities and learned a bunch of things. tuesday in dunedin, we got acquainted with the city of dunedin after we had lecture with Mark Falcous, who is very well respected in the kinesiology industry. With him, we discussed whether or not sport unites a nation. in NZ, people tend do identify nationalism with certain sports teams, for example the All Blacks rugby team. When the team wins, the country thrives, whereas when the team loses, the country seems to dip. The conclusion included the main points that: media coverage mobilizes patriotism by idealizing and caricaturing sport, there is an emphasis on bi - cultural inclusivity, male heroism is the national archetype (i.e. with the all blacks rugby team), and that sports are generally geared toward being a male event. That being said, this is seen all throughout the sporting industry in NZ, as there are no female voices in the sport in commentating and coverage, mainly the WAGS get attention.

the activity of today was netball! which is a really neat and interesting spin off of basketball and ultimate frisbee (even though it is it’s own sport it’s the best way i can describe the general concept of the sport). netball is wildly popular in New Zealand. we played like 3 games in total and we only counted the last one  as a part of the competition that we have amongst the group. team josh won, so that was really awesome. this was also the first real competition that we had between team josh and team adam and it was interesting to see how quickly we turned a non contact sport into something quite physical. netball, in new zealand is considered to be an elite sport and it’s highly advertised on posters and such throughout the cities. this sport was cool to play with our group because we quickly learned each others strengths and weaknesses and used our strategies to end it with a 7-6 point win against team adam. after netball we all decided to check out the town and really get to know the local eateries and bars.

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Wednesday in Dunedin

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Weekend update even thought its been a few days since these events.

Saturday: beautiful day spent in auckland, we went canyoning! basically what we did was put on wet suits and helmets, hiked up a mountain, and jumped, slid and repelled down rocks. it was really neat and we had some really nice guides named shannon, elise, euan and cam. they are the ones who took the pics. the blue canyon that we were in was absolutely breathtaking! i have honestly never been so speechless about nature than i had at that point. but the hike up was not only exhausting but the hike back up was worse because we had sopping wet suits on, which only weighed us down more. coming back to campus i was honestly so exhausted that i just fell asleep as soon as i laid down after showering. 

Sunday: Sunday was another early morning, we went to the beach! a beautiful little tourist island called Waiheke island, we got brunch, did some shopping, and went to the beach! we did hecka exploring at the beach, mainly because when we get back to Maryland its going to be a solid 5 months before we go to the beach again (minus spring break of course). i think we were at the beach for a solid 4 hours. the water is so blue its really really breathtaking, i wish these pictures could do it justice. after the beach we got back and got ready to see the national basketball team (the NZ Breakers) take on the Australian team, the 36ers. we lost, but it was still interesting to see the difference of pace in this sport that is so widely admired in the states. 

Monday: earlier morning than the rest of the weekend because we flew over to dunedin (which is on the south island). we got to the airport about 6 am and flew out at like 7, and most of us slept on the plane. upon arrival we set up camp in the beautiful university of otago. we got changed and head out to sight see and went on a hike to check out the organ pipes on the side of a mountain. this hike was really great but preferred to do it at your own pace. at the top we were able to see the skyline of the city and the water and again, no picture could ever do it justice. when the weather started to dampen we head back to the uni and went out to dinner at the reef, which is pretty much a surf and turf restaurant. after dinner we did a little bar hopping, ate some ice cream and went to bed. 

the weekend was really fantastic and i think its so great that we have so much free time to experience this beautiful country. 11/10 would recommend. 

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Danger never takes a holiday

Elise

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I sampled every flavor from giapos and then got froyo from the place next door"

Shelley Chernin

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Day 4: Suuuuuuper neat day activity wise. Today we learned about lawn bowling, which is actually a lot more technical than it sounds. unfortunately, team josh lost but we’ll win it in the next round of games we play. It was such a beautiful day for living. Still no motivation to come home. After lawn bowling we had lecture on gender.

In lecture, we talked about women in the rugby union in New Zealand. In summation, our lecturer talked about how women have always played an important role in the game of rugby - that being said, rugby is highly perceived to being a mans game. Throughout history, women have always attended the games, since like 1906. The mothers of the players held an important role through raising them and caring for them, while wives, the “holders of the shield” were sent to purchase the tickets while the husbands were away at work. eventually, through an event called the “rotra” women began to consistently show up to games, and even better they got in for free! initially this was in hope that the men in the stadium would be less rowdy in the stands because of the ladies present, but the league began to lose money because the women would end up showing up with their girlfriends and drink all the free tea. lol. Women would show up even when it would be raining and muddy but they didn’t seem to mind considering that the game became an important aspect in social status, it was really the place to be seen!

Currently in New Zealand there is a woman’s rugby league and they are actually quite successful in the game. The game is continually growing in popularity and support but, as many women’s teams in the athletic world have seen, there are many shortcomings due to the patriarchy that is literally everywhere in the world (nice to know theres some consistency across the board right? *sarcasm*)

After lecture we went sailing and this is actually a lot more difficult than it seems. really i might have pulled my right tricep. we got some splashies and hecka sunburn, just ask Kerianne, she was literally radiating heat when we got home. her name in the groupme is now “sunburn”. when we got back from this we were all so tired we literally slept, except for the crazy few that decided to check out another pub. 

i swear the day was a lot more interesting than what i wrote, but in fear of over writing ill post more pics and vids and shit on fb.

day 4: 11/10, i love all things sailing and water related.

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Men gaze for the love of sport, women gaze for the love of men

Jennifer Curtin

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Day 3: Another neat day in paradise! The longer im in this country the less i want to return (sorry mom). This day was a little more lax than the previous two days, now that we know the city a little better and are beginning to adjust to the time change. When we woke up we got ready and eagerly waited for the bus to take us to talk to the NZ breakers (the only professional basketball team that New Zealand has). This was really neat and all but the shuttle showed up a solid 30 minutes late, was only able to take about half of us, and then ended up taking us to the wrong facility. But it wasn’t a total because it gave the few of us in that grouping a chance to see the high performance facility where many of the New Zealand olympians go to train, and we talked about how different it is to be an olympian in this country versus in the US. Basically the difference is that in the US, the olympians who aren’t as famous as, say Michael Phelps, have to be able to fund themselves to maintain their status in training and by doing this they go to extremes by selling body parts to sponsors. In NZ, each participant is funded to train through Olympic Solidarity, which is a group that essentially gives the olympians the funds to train year round. SO ONCE THE SHUTTLE FIASCO WAS FIXED we got to the NZ breakers headquarters and listened to the way they try to popularize basketball to the other parts of the country. They talked about how they fund and market each game and how they use the media to appeal to locals. We also listened to what they have to do in order to prepare for each game, when they’re on a budget while still appealing to the fans and perspective fans of the game. 

Lecture was with a man named Geoff Dixon, and we discussed the Maori people and sport and how they are involved in the athletic world. Unfortunately, as we experience in the US, there is some exclusion of the Maori people because of their color but they are still very well represented in the elite level of sports in NZ. There is a better relationship between the Maori people and the pakeha people (the white people) because of a respect treaty that was signed many many years ago. 

We discussed the importance of the Haka, which is a traditional ancestral war cry, dance or challenge. It is mainly used as an intimidation method but it is also used for respect rituals during special occasions (i.e. funerals). There is a great deal of controversies that go about the Haka, because some believe that it might be performed too often, and appropriated in the media and among the sporting team. 

lecture summary: 

-maori peoples are reasonably integrated into NZ sport

-maori people are well represented in sport

-Haka is embraced by both the maori and pakeha (only performed by men)

-australia has a long way to go with the indigenous people relationship than NZ

We had some free time after lecture so we decided to get some alcohols (we’re all legal here so don’t say anything about being underaged). we went to this lit bar called bar 101 (name originality gets an A+ for sure) and we danced our faces off, made friends with locals, and then fuzzy details until Ali and i uberd back to the apartments. 

Day 3: 9/10 would hit up that bar again, DJ was straight fire, but the lecturer wasnt my fave.