Kiwis at Play

I'm not in a position to say whether Kiwis work hard (although my impression is that, between the Xmas/New Year's holiday and the arrival of summer, everyone is pretty relaxed at the moment), but they certainly play hard. This starts at a young age, with some of the most inviting playgrounds I've ever seen (and I got to go down the slide when there were no kids around).

The above is in the Botanic Gardens; below is right off Oriental Parade, on our route home:

The passion for physical activity manifests itself in many ways, including cricket (if you can call that physical activity). Wellington has both professional men's and women's teams (the Firebirds and the Blaze, respectively), and we attended part of a Blaze's match, against the Northern Spirit. It was, needless to say, incomprehensible to me as an American (for the best description of the perception of cricket to an American, check out Bill Bryson's hilarious description in "Down Under": "It is the only sport that incorporates meal breaks. It is the only sport that shares its name with an insect. It is the only sport in which spectators burn as many calories as the players (more if they are moderately restless). It is the only competitive activity of any type, other than perhaps baking, in which you can dress in white from head to toe and be as clean at the end of the day as you were at the beginning. Imagine a form of baseball in which the pitcher, after each delivery, collects the ball from the catcher and walks slowly with it out to center field; and that there, after a minute's pause to collect himself, he turns and runs full tilt towards the pitcher's mound before hurling the ball at the ankles of a man who stands before him wearing a riding hat, heavy gloves of the sort used to handle radioactive isotypes, and a mattress strapped to each leg."

That is not to take anything away from the Blaze, playing above in yellow. This morning's newspaper reported that their leading player "scored her maiden one-day ton to set up a six-wicket win. Her half century came at a run at the ball and her century came off 101 balls and included seven fours." (Huh? Sorry, I'm unable to translate, but I think it's a compliment).

But the real excitement here in Wellington has been the 2010 Unicycle World Championships, featuring 650 participants from all over (although Japan, Germany, Switzerland and Denmark seem to dominate the competition). All events have been free and open to the public. The first we attended was the artistic duets, where pubescent Japanese girls dressed in matching princess outfits seemed to have a lock on the competition (see below):

There are couples duets events as well, somewhat like ice skating pairs without a triple lutz:

Lest you think this is some effete activity, I can assure you that competitors come in all shapes and sizes, like Korea Man (left), who has become a fixture on the Parade, with many teenage boys vying to win in the more macho "street" competitions, jumping on and off steps and rails and performing various difficult manoevers, including doing a 360-degree flip and landing back on the unicycle--without smashing your skull.

The events also included a unicycle basketball tournament (the team from Berkeley, CA was appropriately named "Revolution" and wore long socks with blue and white horizontal stripes-- very intimidating). But the championship culminated in a 10km criterium around the waterfront, with separate races for those with larger and smaller wheels.

Of course, given Wellington's reputation as a beach town, it was the obvious choice for the national beach volleyball competition, held conveniently close to us off Oriental Parade, and attracting many gawkers.

But for sheer guts, my vote goes to this group of high school-age girls (below), who had a surfing outing to Castlepoint Beach, happily plunging into the pounding swells with their boogie boards.

Bungy jumping, anyone?

(Posted by Joan on Jan. 9)