Kia Ora

Welcome back to the blog! It's been far too long I know. At first I had nothing special to write about and then I got to busy once I did...so let's begin. The major thing that I've done in the last month was make a journey to New Zealand to visit Justin Underhill. I went in around and Wellington for a week. It was a great time! For those of you that don't know, NZ is made up of two major islands - North and South - and a bunch of small ones. Wellington is the most southerly capital in the world (before I arrived I thought the capital was Auckland....ooops). It lies on the southern tip of the north island. Most of NZ consists of hills/mountains and valleys. Not a lot of flat land. It used to be quite forested but now the forests are in the areas where people don't want to live. While I was there, I climbed a mountain with a view overlooking the city on one side and the ocean on the other. If memory serves correct, the elevation was about 700-800 meters from where we started walking. Another day, we took a train out to this little beach town. We got lucky on the day we went. It was sunny in wellington so we didn't bother to check the weather report. About 20 minutes in to hour 50-60 minute train ride it gets cloudy, then starts raining. What a day for the beach! About an hour or so later, it all cleared up and the sun was shining. The rain must have scared everyone away because the beach and town were empty. The sun was shining so hard that it got the melanocytes on my stomach kicked into overdrive. Apparently, you need more sunscreen in NZ than Australia because of that hole in the ozone. Ooooops - don't worry it wasn't that bad, its just my stomach was that white. I posted a photo album so you can see a bunch of landscape pics from both of those days.

The two touristy things I did in Wellington were kind of dissapointing. The first was riding this cable car up to the top of the city and hiking back down through the botanical gardens. It was straight up lame. It didn't go very high - which is why I climbed the aforementioned hill later on. And the botanical garden seemed to lack any plants that looked good. The other thing was the Te Papa National Museum. It gets hyped all of NZ and in all the tourist books and guides. I thought it was trash....unless you are 12. In that case, the depth of the museums artifacts, stories and "innovative" areas may have challenged you thinking! It was supposed to show both NZ art and culture, old tools, how the land was formed and much much more. I don't really don't know why it got such great reviews. I did the whole musuem in 2 hours. Maybe I just expected too much going in.

One thing that I did enjoy in NZ, was that the Maori culture is a full part of their national identity. Unlike in Australia, they treated the local indigenous people with respect. I don't know if that has always been the case, but certainly it is now and for a while. (On a side note, I heard one theory saying they got respect, back in the 18th century, because they could fight -and eat eachother! Whereas, Europeans demolished any Aboriginal tribe that attempted to fight back. No idea whether its true or not.) Anyways, all the signs are written in both English and Maori. You can just feel that they appreciate the Maoris more there. Another thing, is Maori's are typically large people. It seems all the islanders (Samoa, Tonga, Fiji, etc) are just large people. I don't know what they put in their water, but something keeps em big! Which is good because they love to smash eachother on the rugby pitch!! And I love to watch. Which brings me to my next point....

I went to a Super 14 rugby game between the Wellington Hurricanes and Canterbury Crusaders. This is the same league I watch in Australia. But most Australians play for the Aussie teams, South Africans on their teams, and New Zealanders for their teams. And New Zealand rugby means only one thing: All Blacks. I didn't get to watch them in action as a unit, but there were over 20 All Blacks spread out over these two teams. As such, they are two of the top teams in the league and the locals take it seriously. Justin managed to get us 3rd row seats at the half line! Unbelievable. The yelling that comes out of peoples mouths when their team sucked or they thought the other guys cheated was not for the faint of heart! Naturally me and the other boys couldn't contain our laughter. At this point in the week, Blyth Gill had also arrived in Wellington. He played rugby at UW....when we played in London against UWO one year he came over pregame for some bagels and cream cheese! Anyways, back to the All Blacks. I met Jerry Collins in the bar a few nights before. I believe my reaction resembled a 13 year old girl's reaction to the Backstreet Boys coming to town. Probably the only words that came out of my mouth were along the lines of "Oh my god, its really you! I love you! You're my favourite player eveeerrrrrrrrr" After I composed and pinched myself, I realized I was standing beside a 6'3 240 pound tank. This guy flattened the massive, caveman-looking dude on the french rugby team! Unfortunately, the people who took a picture of me and Justin with him did a poor job so its not too clear.


I posted a bunch of the pictures. http://picasaweb.google.com/MattSolomon85/NewZealand

Also, I got a new cell phone. The number is the same 0011(61)405634417. However this phone brings the magic of Skype (free international calls) from my computer to my cell phone! So, you can either dial me up on your regular phone OR use your computer and Skype me. My skype name is "mattsolomon85". (some people couldn't add me, just let me know and I'll add you.) I usually answer my cell phone unless I'm in class, lab, etc. So give it a try!