1/18/2008
hiya mates...
wow, using that term seems so weird, yet over here it is used about as much as I say the word "ya'll". anyways, jenelle and I are playing tomorrow in the quarterfinals in the Auckland Open, one of the bigger tourneys on the NZ Open. It's in a tennis center (which we are quite used to from AVP tourneys). however, we are only playing on center court, everyone is, which is kinda different. So needless to say, its a long day to get 24 teams (12 men, 12 women) on the center court. very interesting! we played at 3:15pm and then again at 8pm. quite fun actually to have only two games the whole day and get so much time to prepare and rest in between.
We will have some tough games tomorrow but we are "gunnin" for the brazil team and cant wait to play them and beat them! They have just been dominating everyone...so frustrating.
Last weekend was interesting as well, we played in wellington, which is quite a windy city, or "blowy" as they call it here and blowy does not do justification...its was windy as all hell. I mean serious wind like I've ever played in before. They say its always like that but was extra tough this year. Kinda cold too and then windy like a mix of chicago and san fran. It becomes a game of "just get the ball over the net" and "keep your serve in". It was a rough weekend for us as we just felt we had no control over our games that we lost cuz it was all up to the wind where the ball was going. I'm sure that is not how it should be but it was pretty ridiculous conditions. Regardless, we took a 3rd, and enjoyed a very artsy, lively, fun city. Then we enjoyed a long break before this weekend's tourney.
Needless to say... it was a week full of travel, sightseeing, adventure, driving, lots of driving, and learning how to navigate our own car over here with the kiwis. The driving on the wrong side of the road wasn't too bad, jenelle picked it up quickly as well. It was more that their "highways" are just two lanes and hard to dechiper which was is what. Street names are tough and many streets have the same name so it was a challenging route to auckland but we made it. And along the way, we experienced many great things from "farm animals" such as llamas, ostriches, cows, deer and heaps and heaps of sheep to rolling down a hill in a huge plastic bubble ball that is filled with water (zorbing as its called). It's a fast ride but quite fun and just hilarious. J and I are convinced we could open up one in Cali and it would be a hit. Apparently there is a zorbing place in Tennessee somewhere...definitely finding out which AVP tourney is close to that one next summer so we can make a stop along the way. :)
We went tubing/climbing/walking through caves in this area called Waitomo Caves (roughly about 350 caves in this small town area) and then camped there in a lodge for the night. We also were able to see the beautiful Huka Falls in a gorgeous town called Lake Taupo (very similar to Big Bear in Cali I was told) luged (basically riding on these scooter sleds on winding paths down a mountain), and visited this gorgeous area called Napier with about 35 vineyards in a 20 mi radius. Oh and in the same place we zorbed and luged, I also did what was called Xtreme free-fallin...it is supposed to simulate skydiving as you are put out on top of a enormous fan that blows at a ridiculous speed to propel you upwards into the air...there is some netting above so you can only fly so high but it was crazy. It had a skydiving feel but not quite the same...though was hilarious and we got some good pics!
We also stayed with another vball girl and her famliy on their lakehouse home. And this was an interesting story. So... we bbq-ed with Debbie (kiwi vball girl) and fam out on the porch for dinner the night we stayed. we were looking around and comparing their hometown of Roturua with places in america and talking about the difference, similarities, etc. (happens a lot when traveling). And Deb's dad is telling us about this mountain island in the middle of the lake and how people will canoe, kayak over for the day to get a look at it. we were saying how beautiful it is and whatnot and he informs us..." Did you realize this lake is the top of a volcano crater?" J and I are like " were sitting on a volcano crater?" and their entire family just answers us like "yeah of course, duh". much of the land over here is formed on volcanic rock and is considered thermal. We knew that from maps and tourist info but I don't think we quite understood the extent of it til Deb's dad informed us that basically their house is on where a volcano once erupted with the island in the middle of the lake being the center. Then to the left of that island was another that was still partially active (as in randomly erupted about 10 or so years ago causing much of the town to have to rebuild). It's just crazy and amazing all in the same!
It was a good trip all in all, very tiresome trying to fit all that in. But well worth it to see the great parts of the North Island of NZ and enjoy the break from vball to be tourists. I have more pics up on my web gallery so just click the link below and it should take you to the gallery no problem. Enjoy! These have most from our trip but their are still more to come so I will keep adding them to the gallery. If you can just save this website...you can go to it at anytime and take a look at the pics. As soon as I add more to the gallery, it updates automatically and will always be at the same link! Paige's gallery
Cheers, Paige :)