Tiki Taane

We'll be on holidays for the next ten days (going to Melbourne for a bit of koala spotting and so on), so we thought we should leave you here with some entertaining music made in Aotearoa New Zealand. This is Tiki Taane, a maori artist responsible for one of the most successful singles in New Zealand music, "Always on my mind":

80th Anniversary Muac

The Massey University Alpine Club celebrated its 80th anniversary last Saturday. The club organised an evening of dinner and entertainment with special guest speakers and former club's members.

(Muac's current president, Jackson, giving the first speech of the night)

The Club started running in June 1929, and it only stopped organising activities during World War II. It isthe second oldest club at Massey University (for only half an hour, behind the rugby guys) and still the most popular.
Although it's named "alpine club", nowadays it focuses on many more activities such as kayaking, rock climbing, caving or slacklining. It's a great place for first years and international students to meet people and get into the outdoors of this amazing country.

(Muac members in the Tararua Ranges in 1931)

The Flight of the Conchords

Here's a TV show made by kiwis that everybody should watch before coming to NZ. So funny...this guys are hilarious! Check out their accent, and their outfits (specially Bret's T-shirts). If you've never heard of them, I recommend you watch their HBO one night stand, that's a good start. These are two of our favourite videos- It's business time...

Kiwiana

On our recent visit to Christchurch we spent a rainy afternoon at the Canterbury Museum, a highly recommendable place if you are visiting the city, with lots of information about the first Maori and European settlers, and a pretty cool interactive exhibition about the body (sometimes I wish I was 7 again...).

Well, there we came across a replica of one of New Zealand's most famous houses: Fred and Myrtle's Paua Shell House. There were lots of people in the queue to see the house, and we had no idea what the story behind this place was, so we joined them just in time for the next show to begin. So we entered this small cinema where we learnt about Fred and Myrtle's collection of paua shell and other kiwiana stuff.

Fred and Myrtle Flutey spent their whole life together in their small house in Bluff collecting paua shells from the sea, polishing them and hanging them on the living room walls. Along with the paua, they gathered and displayed all sorts of items and icons from New Zealand's pop culture and heritage (what people here call kiwiana-generally seen as kitsch, but loved by everyone). They opened their house to the public and it became one of the most popular tourist attractions in the area until their recent death some years ago.

The collection has now been brought back to life thanks to the Fluteys' family and the museum, and here you can see Phil with his cheeky smile in the living-room replica we saw:

And...yes, polishing all those shells is a lot of work!

Esterilla's attempt

Up on the board...

and...plaff! :-(

Muac Hut Rules: Stairs-Traverse challenge

Ester

Jackson

Phil

Erich

Another crazy weekend up at mt.Ruapehu saw the establishment of the Muac Hut Rules. Here is the first one: The Stairs Traverse Challenge!

King and Queen of Spain visit New Zealand

Spain and New Zealand have been somehow connected in the past weeks, and not only because we scored 5 goals against the all whites in the confederations cup ;-), but also because the King of Spain has come here to open the Spanish Embassy in Wellington. A new agreement between the two countries will allow young spaniards to benefit from the working holiday visa scheme.

Palmerston North from the air

Palmerston North!! The heart and soul of the Manawatu region and also the place we call home (sweet home). On this picture our house is somewhere on the top right, close to the river. Around 80,000 people live here. Of those, a significant percentage are students at Massey University who come from everywhere around the country and overseas and have made of this place one of the most important student cities in the country. We all call this place "Palmy".

In case you were wandering...yes, there is a Palmerston (south). The city was initially named Palmerston, but then the word "north" was added to differentiate it from the town of Palmerston in the south island.

The Tranzalpine

The TranzAlpine scenic train travels between Christchurch and Greymouth. From the carriage you get fantastic views of the Canterbury Plains and the Arthur's Pass.
An open air viewing platform on the train allows you to get closer to the scenery and provides many opportunities to get good pictures.

The journey takes 4 and a half hours one way, it is 223.8 kilometres long and there are 16 tunnels, one of them being 8 kms long.

Lyttelton

Lyttelton is a small port town next to the Banks Peninsula, and it's pretty much where the colonisation of the area started a hundred and sixty years ago. It's a nice little place to spend a sunny day, and a great spot to take pictures of the surrounding scenery.

Ed showed us around Lyttelton on our second "proper" visit to Christchurch and the Canterbury region.

Longview Hut Track

The track is on the Eastern Ruahine Forest Park, quite steep, but only 3 hours long.
Nice for a day trip.

Snowboarding in Turoa, Mt.Ruapehu

Not bad for a first timer, is it?

Castle Point on a stormy day

Gustly winds, rain, hail and massive waves (5m swell) last sunday at Castle Point.