Sports in NZ

New Zealand has, as every other country a number of popular sports. In NZ rugby is considered to be the  national sport, and in addition to that netball is very popular. Both sports are mainly played in Commonwealth of nation countries. The Commonwealth of nations is an organisation of fifty-two independent countries, which has developed from the old British Empire. Since New Zealand is a former English colony, and a member in the Commonwealth, it is natural that these two sports are of the most popular once.

The Commonwealth flag

As i mentioned earlier rugby is the national sport in New Zealand. Rugby, or Rugby Union which is the formal name of it, is a full contact team sport. It arised at the beginning of the 19th century, in England. In spite of their big differences the sport is often mixed up with American football. This is actually a bit weird, since their only similarity is the oval shaped ball. And as you can see from the picture below, the rugby players don't wear as much protection as the ones playing American Football. Rugby Union is the sport in New Zealand with the most following spectators, and their national rugby team, the All Blacks is considered to be the best national rugby team in the entire world.

From a match between NZ (Black) and South Africa (Green)

Another big sport in New Zealand is netball. It's an indoor ball sport, which has developed from early versions of basketball, found in England somewhere around the 1890s. In New Zealand, as well as in other netball-playing countries, netball is considered to be a woman's sport. It is played on a rectangular court, and at each end you find raised goal rings. The purpose of the game is for each team to pass the ball down the court in order to shoot it through the ring. A netball game is 60 minutes long, with a 10 minute break at half time. In New Zealand netball is the most popular women's sport, considering both participation and public interest. 

 

From a netball game between NZ (Black) and Samoa (Blue)

In addition to the two mentioned ones, sports like cricket, horseracing, soccer and tennis are quite popular. In fact the NZ national team in cricket is top three in the world. And several gold-medalists from the World Championship in horseracing are New Zealenders.

-Helene

10 year old boy performs CPR on father

A young boy, on 10 years, performed CPR on unconscious and trapped father after motorcycle crash at Riverdale beach. He was riding with his fath

er when they crashed in a sand dune. The unconscious father was pinned under the motorcycle with a broken collarbone and possible spinal injuries. A man who work at a shop nearby says he discovered the 10 year old boy perform CPR on his father. The father was jumping on the motorcycle but the jump went terribly wrong, he landed with the bike on top of him and got himself some severe burns. The man was also NOT wearing a helmet, so he was bleeding from the head which caused some concerns. He was flown with a helicopter to the Wellington Hospital emergency department. It is believed that the man will have plastic surgery for his burns.

- Andrea

A famous living person

A famous living person from New Zealand is the cricket player Daniel Luca Vettori. He is born on 27th of January in 1979 and he plays for the New Zealand cricket team. He is especially known for being the eighth player in Test history to take 300 wickets and score 3,000 runs. He made made is debut at the professional stage in New Zealand, making him the youngest player to play there. His fame is mostly spread around the cricket environment, as people in western-Europe are most likely to not know about him.

Vettori is known for his accuracy, flight and guile rather than prodigious turn. His role in the New Zealand national team is rather big, and he captained New Zealand between 2007 and 2011. He is also currently captain for his club, the Royal Challengers Bangalore team which plays in the Indian Premier League. One thing that distinguishes him is that he is one of the few athletes in the world to wear spectacles while playing sports, and he is also the first person with Italian descent to represent New Zealand in cricket.

Luca Vettori is a man who is very important for the people of New Zealand, as cricket is a huge sport there.

- Joakim (Tvetto)

Famous places

New Zealand got lots of amazing facilities to offer, but there are some particular places that stands out on the number of visitors.

Milford Sound Fjord is one of them, and it is found southwest on the south island of New Zealand. It is clearly one of the most visited tourist destination in the country, with approximately 550 thousand visitors every year. The fjord runs 15 kilometers inland from the Tasman Sea, and by travelling through it you get an amazing journey with a great view of stunning mountains and straight up cliff walls, climbing all 1,200 meters up from the ocean level. It is a kind of experience worth living for!

Milfjord Sound Fjord

Besides the Milford Sound Fjord, there's a lot of other breathtaking sites to visit, such as the Poor Knight Islands. The islands are not easily accessible caused by their steep cliff faces, although this doesn't keep the tourists away as it is a very popular place to visit. It is considered as natural reserves so exploring the entire island may be a bit hard, and so is also the ocean surrounding it.

Poor Knight Islands

However tourists are allowed to do several water activities which attracts many people on it own. Snorkeling, scuba diving, fishing and sailing are allowed, but only as long as they are with experienced tour guides. Poor Knight Islands is one of the most famous places to dive in the world!

The islands is located twenty-four kilometer off the northeastern coastline of New Zealand, and can only be reached by boat.

You can enter the islands by going to Tutukaka Bay, where from you can take a boat out to the islands.

A visit here is something you will remember for many years!

Diving in the Poor Knights area

- Joakim (Tvetto)

Climate and geography

New Zealand which is also called Aoteaora, is located in the South Pacific, and is a part of Oceania. The country consists of two main islands, and a number of smaller ones. All in all the country covers an area of roughly 270 000 square kilometers, which is about the same size as The United Kingdom. The two main islands are called North, and South Island. Where the northern one is smallest, but still the most crowded of the two. The country is divided in seventeen different regions, seven on the northern, and ten on the southern one. Auckland is New Zealand's biggest city, but Wellington is the capital, and they're both placed on The Northern Island.

NZ has a population of approximately 4,5 million, where the majority of them live in urban areas. The biggest cities in New Zealand are Auckland, Christchurch and Wellington, all of them with a population over 350 000.

Auckland by night

New Zealand has a maritime and mild climate, but it varies drastically from place to place. For example the Southland and West Coast regions on the South Island, are the most rainy, wet and cold ones. And in contrast The Northland region which is located in the far north have a more subtropical and hot climate.

In addition to this NZ has a tremendously dramatic and varied landscape. The South Island is the most mountainous of the two, and the southern alps divides it by it's length. Mount Cook is the highest peak, with it's 3754 meters, and all in all the alps contain over eighteen peaks of more then 3000 meters. This has made New Zealand a popular location for shooting films and TV-series, including The Lord of The Rings triology.

The southern alps 

-Helene

Music in New Zealand

In similarity to the other countries on this globe New Ze

aland has a folk genre, and it's called Mâori music. Earlier Mâori singing was "micro-tonal", with a melodic line that did not stray far from a central note. Instruments they used was a variety of blown, struck and twirled instruments. The Mâori music has evolved alot since the early 20th century and today the genre is more equal to the

music overseas. Here's a fun fact; New Zealand has more pipebands than Scotland! You'd never think so, but bagpipes are a big part of the musical tradition in New Zealand.

A pipeband from New Zealand

Of course, the people of New Zealand doesn't sit and listen

to the Mâori music all day long. They have pretty much the same music around them as us, with the radio, tv and all. New Zealand's first pop song was "Blue Smoke",written in the 1940's by Ruru Karatiana. Today the pop music in New Zealand is dominated with electropop, for example Zowie, Kids of 88 and Ruby Frost. The Rock scene in NZ started back in the 1960's when the british invasion started, the times when The Beatles and such influenced the world. Research has shown that Rock and Hip-Hop is the two most popular music genres in New Zealand, similiar to many other countries.

The very popular, now a days, singer Ruby Frost

- Andrea

Wellington, NZ

Hello!

Yesterday we visited the amazing capital of New Zealand, Wellington.

The weather was supreme and the city was nonetheless! Wellington is now one of my top favorite capitals of the world, they have these small cute boutiques you don’t find anywhere else on the globe and the people are so kind and helping you feel appreciated for just being in their hometown.

My favorite task of the day was the amazing Wellington Cable Car. This is one of Wellington's most popular tourist attractions. The cars run from Lambton Quay in the commercial heart of the city and continue up to the lookout, where you can see the whole city so beautifully! Especially on such a lovely day as it was.

The Wellington Cable Car was also the only real “tourist program” we visited. On the rest of the day we walked around in the city breathing in the humid air and capturing every moment in pictures. We ate on this amazing restaurant called Logan Brown and lied on Cuba street. They specialized on only using the finest ingredients made on the island and they had the most DELIGHTFUL lamb chops, they were divine! Oh I’m get watery in my mouth just thinking about them! TAKE ME BACK!

I didn’t buy a lot of souvenirs, just some clothing from a vintage shop, this was basically because I know that I can still feel the amazing atmosphere in Wellington and the experience will always be remembered with the all the memories in my memory – and in my camera of course!

See you soon!

- Andrea

Haka's 7 day South Island Snow Safari

Hi! 

We have just ended an amazing week of exploring the high-mountains on the south side of the island! We have visited six of the best ski fields in the southern Alps: Mt Hutt, Ohau, Treble Cone and Cardrona in Wanaka, and The Remarkables and Coronet Peak in Queenstown. 

We have been skiing in beautiful mountains with powder snow up to our knees on some occasions, and it has just been such a wonderful trip! 

We have also even been given the opportunity to go heli-skiing, being dropped off at the top of a mountain! It has been one of the most amazing feelings of my lifetime, and I can`t compare it to anything in the world. 

We all departed from Christchurch among with ten other people, and our guides. With everyone being pretty skilled with ski's on their legs, we could go more often outside the tracks and ski offpist. 

Despite some cold days, the spirit is on top and everyone is having a great time! During our days on the mountains, we have become pretty well known with our guides. We joined this excursion to experience something out of the usual that you do on vacations in typical tourist-places. As said during these six days we have earned a memory for life, and also a couple of new friends resident here in New Zealand.

We want to recommend this tour for everyone, weather you are a real pro with a pair of skis or a snowboard on your feet or not! :)

The price might felt a little bit high in the beginning, but now that we have experienced it we all say that the money was well worth it!

Signed: Joakim Giske Tvete (Tvetto)

Bay of Islands - Truly amazing

Hi everyone!
I just want to start off, by saying that New Zealand so far has proved to be one of the most beautiful, and peaceful places I've ever been to. We've already seen and experienced unforgettable things. After a day filled with action, bungee jumping and bridge climbing in Auckland, we decided to take a day "off", just to relax and really enjoy all the breathtaking sights that surrounds us.After some deliberation and discussion , our choice fell on a place called "The bay of Island" And despite me getting sunburned, which has resulted in me looking like a fried pig , I've truly  had a fantastic day.


The bay of Islands is an area located north-west of The Northern Island and Auckland, which contains approximately 150 different islands and a number of fabulous beaches and shores. And since the only way to reach The Bay is by boat, we got up fairly early to catch the first one, which left Auckland Harbor at 8am. After a two-hour boat trip on the open sea, we finally reached the main island.

Doesn't it look beautiful ? 

There were numerous of activities to choose among, but as I mentioned earlier we wanted to take the day off to "relax", so we planed on spending our entire day on the beach, swimming and sunbathing. I really enjoyed relaxing, but since I'm not too big a fan of just laying around getting sunburned I decided to explore my surroundings a bit on my own.I ended up with snorkeling and swimming with the dolphins. It was truly an amazing experience, and I am sure that it's something I will remember for a very long time.

As the day began to come to an end I returned back to my friends, which still was tanning on the beach, and we rounded off our day by eating at one of the many restaurants by the sea. The last boat back to the mainland left The Bay at 9pm, and now we are all just hanging around in my hotel room, but I think I'll just have to kick them out, because I'm really tired, and I need some sleep.

-Helene