by Angela

Ever heard of underwater hockey? We hadn’t either until we looked at the sports offered through Charles’s school.  It’s interesting when you encounter things that don’t fit into your ideas of what is logical, you almost don’t believe they exist. Like who would wear a snorkel and swim underwater to hit a puck? A few weeks ago we met with Danny’s boss and found out that his son played. We thought, I guess it is a thing. I think Danny and I were both hoping to get to see it in action but unsure how that would ever happen. Then we received a Howick college (Charles’s school) email advertising “underwater hockey have a go day,” encouraging kids to come to the pool and try it out. Danny and I immediately turned to Charles and asked him if he had any interest. No, I take that back. We practically begged him to go and put the pressure on, hoping to see this weird sport in action. Seriously though, isn’t that what being here for 6 months is about? Trying new things and if you suck at them then it doesn’t matter. Charles, thinking this could be something to at least tell his U.S. friends about, surprisingly agreed. Yes!

That’s how we found ourselves at a pool 30 min away watching a pool full of snorkelers swim around and periodically dive underwater. It is not a sport for spectators, lol. You can only imagine what might be going on under the water from the view of the surface. I could only tell it was Charles by the number on his cap. Apparently it is great for the kids because they don’t have to deal with yelling parents on the sidelines. The aim of the game is to use a little curved stick to hit the puck into a metal lipped goal that sits on the bottom on each side of the pool. The sticks are either white or black depending on your team so you can surmise who is who underwater. Charles had a two hour go at it. He spent most of the time at the surface looking underwater. He told me excitedly how he managed to hit the puck once during a scrimmage, only to have it intercepted and the other team scored, lol. He said underwater hockey is not his thing, but he is glad he tried it. We are too!

Our first sightseeing expedition away from Auckland was a month ago. Danny was orienting on his job and heard a speaker talk about some cool sights south of us, so he decided we should check it out. I decided to suppress the urge to plan (aka control things), so I let Danny take the reins on this one which meant I hadn’t a clue what we were seeing and might have gotten a little irritable at having to drive almost 2 hours to do some hiking. Aren’t there enough cool things to see closer to us?? But then after we arrived, my tune changed. This place was so cool. A winding canyon formed by a river creating much natural beauty along with gold mining history. At one point it was home to a lucrative gold strike and remnants of those days were scattered about including mining tunnels, building remains, and railways. The landscape reminded me a little bit of Zion National Park. While googling over the beautiful scenery, we got to walk through mining tunnels. They weren’t kidding when they said to bring a torch (aka flashlight). There was also an old railway which used to run through the gorge which was turned into a walkway/cycleway. It was strange and exciting to walk through the dimly lit super long 1km (0.6 miles for you non-metric minded people) railway tunnel through the gorge. 

On the way home we stopped at Subway for dinner. Side note-I was a bit disappointed at the paucity of meat they put on my sandwich. Whether this is a New Zealand thing or just a fluke is yet to be determined. But a light dinner meant we had room for another stop at McDonalds for Danny to try the McDip. Now that everyone has tried it, we can move on with our dessert lives, haha. We have gotten to know New Zealand’s favorite ice cream- Tip Top which now takes up a chunk of our grocery budget. Venturing into the unknown, our first tub of ice cream here was a mix of 4 flavors and we have found a flavor we all DO NOT like- “Groovy Gumdrops.” But the next unknown (aided by a quick google search) may have become an all-time favorite flavor for at least 3 out of us. The flavor is “Hokey Pokey.” When we eat this, we try not to put our left foot in and out and shake it all about (insert your laughter here). Plain vanilla ice cream with small, solid lumps of honeycomb toffee… that’s what it’s all about!

Coming up next week- our little one is turning 8. I think she has been thinking about her birthday ever since she turned 7. She won’t have the usual family or friend gatherings, but hopefully it will be special (no pressure for me!).