Haka and Poi

 
The Haka is, in a simplified way, known as a traditional Maori male war dance. Recently it's been made popular by the All Black's, the New Zealand rugby team who perform it before the start of their matches.

Watch how intense the energy of these guys is. This is from the 2011 Rugby World Cup. France starts to move towards them, it's never happened that another team came to challenge this tradition in such a way. Watch what happens!

Poi on the other hand is the traditional women's way of telling stories and performing.
This is one of the things we went up the gondola to do, to watch, learn and participate in these Maori traditions!

Chris got elected as the spokesperson "chief: of the group and was formally accepted during the performance.

Then they went on to perform a few different types of dances.

And then it was our turn to learn.

All in all I'd say it was a success, we definitely weren't as good as them though. Maybe I'll suggest doing a haka at our weekly rugby matches. I'll let you guys know how that turns out.

We did 1 more activity up at the gondola.. Check out the blog tomorrow to see what it was!

Up the Gondola We Go

I much more preferred running/hiking up the gondola hill than taking the actual gondola (because I actually enjoy running up hills), however special occasions call for special modes of transportation. And the views are pretty killer.

Can you guess what fun things we got up to? Check back tomorrow to find out!

Touch

One of the best things I've done since coming to Singapore is start playing touch rugby. It's different to normal rugby same way as American football is different from touch football, therefore a lot more people can enjoy it.
It's amazing exercise running around for 2-3 hours in heat and humidity, starting and stopping, run forward, run back, down, up, jump, down, throw.
The biggest difference is you're not allowed to tackle the person with the ball, you simply touch them and they put the ball down. Another is instead of scrums to restart the play you just play the ball either by rolling it in between your legs, or if it's a penalty or successful try by touching it to your foot and going.
The views are incredible too! Most of the times we play on the river at the heart of the financial district. Other times we play on a man-made beach.
The best thing about playing though is the team; I only started a few weeks ago and they welcomed me (and any other new player) with open arms and taught me to play. Thanks team for being so great!
I'm already looking forward to the next game!

What new things have you learned to do recently?

Dun-Dun-Dunedin

Dunedin is an incredibly lovely little city. It's historic and full of charm, yet lively and hip. We didn't get nearly as much time as we wanted to explore it, but the time we did have was perfect.

#105: Learn to Play Chess

I feel every child starting at age 5 should be taught to play chess. I was not, but I have always wanted to learn.
It's an incredible way of keeping your mind young, to learn strategy, to think ahead, to gauge opponents strengths  and weaknesses, to see things in a new light, the list goes on! I put it on my bucketlist and have finally learned to play.
I learned on an old wooden chess set (how romantic!) but now play on my iPad to continue learning. Chris taught me and I'm determined to one day beat him 2 times in a row; that is when I will consider myself able to play chess well.

I also really enjoy coloring and doing Sudoku to keep my mind fresh. Anything you guys do to keep yourself sharp that I can add to my repertoire?

Here Ducky, Ducky

Queenstown has this little place called the Underwater Observatory. It's a little building that stands on the bottom of the lake. You can see directly into the lake, see the fish swimming around, the eel curling around the food baskets and the ducks diving from up above to fetch a little treat for themselves as well. I have never seen water so clear. None of the pictures below are edited, it's exactly how it looks down below.

Fun Fact: The water in Lake Wakatipu is so clean that if you're in the middle of the lake you can actually safely drink the water from it.

Patagonia Chocolates

Everyone has a favorite treats place. While in Queenstown, Patagonia was one of mine. Ice cream, chocolate, cakes, truffles and crepes. Definitely the place to be on cheat day. The ice cream is a little too sweet for me, but there are loads of flavors to choose from. I would normally go for 1 dark chocolate piece and 1 white chocolate one.

And then the day before we left I discovered this beauty... Two crepes filled generously with Nutella, with a scoop of vanilla ice cream on the side, a spot of homemade whipped cream, all topped with homemade melted chocolate and sprinkled with powdered sugar. Where has this been all my life?! It's an orgasm in your mouth. I think it's meant to be shared, I didn't. If you haven't tried it yet, do!

Breakfast Heaven

I love breakfast. Chris loves breakfast. Novotel has breakfast buffet deals on grabone about once a month for a half price breakfast buffet in Queenstown. Best $15 I ever spent on breakfast (maybe a little more than that because we got at least 2 each every time it came out we loved it so much). This is what round 1 looks like for us.

And this is round 2.

We would each get a glass of kiwi juice, orange juice and apple juice, a tea and a coffee. Then we would get kiwi and orange greek yogurt. Then come the pancakes with syrup, eggs (done 3 different ways), grilled tomatoes, bacon, waffles with homemade whipped cream, sausage, baked beans, mushrooms, hash browns croissant, cereal, cold cuts and a few slices of fruit with nuts on the side. We would also grab an apple and a banana each for the road. Breakfast would usually take us about 1.5-2 hours, but it's so, so worth it.
Anyone can go even without a grabone deal, it's about $28 for a breakfast buffet, but can you really argue with the amount of food you get for that price? Especially in Queenstown? If you see this deal on again, get it! I promise you won't regret it.