March of the Penguins (not really)

As I've said, the first few posts will attempt to provide you, the intrepid reader, with a summary of what's been going on in the first few months of my New Zealand adventure. Next up, March, a much sunnier experience on the whole.

No, I did not see any penguins in March. Or April. Or at all. Do not expect to see any pictures of penguins in this post, or any post, for a while now.

Now that both of my readers have abandoned this blog due to the lack of penguin-related news, I'll go ahead and proceed with my recap of the wonderful month of March, my second here in NZ. February, as discussed earlier, was a rather dull month, I didn't get up to much beyond settling in to a new routine in Dunners (another nickname for this wonderful city that seems to have more names than P-Diddy and Aragorn combined).

As good a cave for a party as any other. 

Anyway, onward we march to...March. The month started off with a bang, as I and a collection of other International students headed off into the wilderness to a party in a giant cave! Located at Long Beach, about 30 minutes outside of the city on the Pacific Coast, the cave party was a roaring success. Some might even say it ROCKED (geopun!). It certainly was an experience drinking and sleeping in a cave, and a great introduction to Kiwi culture - drinking and the outdoors.

Immediately upon my return from the cave, myself and some friends headed off to take part in another essential part of New Zealand life - rugby. Dunedin has a team that plays in the SuperXV Rugby league, the Southern Hemisphere's premier rugby union competition (with teams based in NZ, Australia and South Africa). The Highlanders, as they are known, represent the South Island provinces of Otago and Southland, and were playing their home opener (and first game in a new stadium, the incredible Forsyth Barr Stadium) against their South Island rivals the Crusaders, based out of Christchurch. The game was fast paced and well played on both sides, and in the end good guys came out on top 27-24. The game and the atmosphere in the student section, aka "The Zoo", were incredible, and I've since been to three other games. I now consider myself a loyal Highlanders man, and with a current record of 9 wins and 5 losses, we've still got a shot at the playoffs.

View from the Zoo. People in animal suits not pictured.

Getting my money's worth in free pints. Also, I got a haircut.

Next up in a busy March was something I had been looking forward to since I arrived: the Speight's Brewery Tour. Speight's is based in Dunedin, produces a wide range of delicious brews and prides itself on being "the Beer of the South." Much to my surprise, the tour began and it seemed as though we were actually going to get a tour of the brewery. This contrasts rather starkly with the idea of a brewery tour in Waterloo, which generally consists of sitting in a small room drinking as much as possible in two hours (not that I don't enjoy that, this was just different). Speight's is a gravity fed brewery, which means the brewing process starts on the sixth floor of the brewery building, with the delicious ale making it's way down to the ground floor for bottling/kegging/funneling. I'll spare the details of the tour itself (I was mostly too distracted by the upcoming challenge of a half hour open bar session) and skip right to the end: the drinking. As mentioned, the tour finished off with a tutorial on how to pour draught beer (I mucked up the first attempt, but was able to refine on subsequent trips to the bar) and a half hour of an all you can handle extravaganza. Needless to say, this was the highlight of the tour and I was able to sample each of the six beers in the Speight's range (some more than once).

One final memory from March was my first look at "ice" hockey in the land of the Kiwi. I stepped between the pipes for a team of high schoolers, and helped the team play out a valiant 0-0 draw. Nice to know that when I get shelled at home, I can always move to NZ for a confidence boost.

That's all for now, April adventure recap coming soon, maybe even in two parts (gasp)!

Dave