Report 4

Feb. 18-22. We spent this period in a B&B in Auckland, Chalet Chevron, our first stop awaiting the move to our townhouse. The B&B is at the top of the hill in Parnell; our townhouse is at the bottom, about a mile away. The city is hilly and we are carless for a while, so walking it is--which is great for our cardiovascular systems but overworking our sweat glands. Rob found his way to the campus – down a steep hill, then up a steep hill on the other side of the “arroyo” – about a half-hour trek. On the second day, carrying a heavy briefcase with laptop and books, he found a bus route home that eliminated the down-then-up walk.

We have been regularly checking our e-mail at establishments set up for such a thing. In the USA the Vietamese do nails—here the Asians do e-mail shops (please pardon the stereotyping). We should have our own e-mail up and running before long, but please e-mail us. We are anxious to hear from all of you. I haven’t figured out or tried to load the address list to whom we plan to send these priceless reports, so these reports are being delayed until we can get that access. Should be able to do it by taking my laptop to campus, but am not yet set up with account there.

Linguistic Note. One thing for sure—these Kiwis have such a charming accent that they can tell you to “Go to Hell” and you will think it is a compliment. They’re not too happy right now, though, because they’re down 0-3 in the America’s Cup regatta. Incidentally, I buy a newspaper most every day. The sports section, though, is totally incomprehensible – cricket, rugby, yachting. The last I can grasp – do you know what a dummy gybe is? – but cricket might as well be in a foreign language – actually it is. I’ll send you a clip some time. But, their high-profile athletes get in trouble just like they do in the good old USA. Cricket World Cup is going on now in Africa. NZ refused to play match in Kenya because of safety concerns. Then, with time on their hands a bunch of the players over-indulged at a bar in South Africa, got into a brawl, and one star was bonked by thrown bottle – not exactly safe behavior. One grammatical note. NZers us collective nouns as plurals. Thus, Team NZ are not too happy today after losing to Alinghi, who are happy. It’s all very entertaining. Also, papers and TV news have many reports of sex crimes, dog-maulings, murders, traffic accidents, so we feel at home.

On Th., the 18^th, Michael Taylor took us to see a loft apartment out in the country, about 45 mins. N of Auckland, that a connection had told him about. Could be our lodgings these three weeks we wait for our townhouse. We were quite taken by it – last part of trip is one mile along a gravel road. As I reported to some of you earlier, we’re surrounded by rolling hills, cows, and sheep – and you should see those sheep roll! It will be a lovely change of pace from city life, so we moved here on the 22^nd, also the day we took possession of the car we bought from Michael.

Before that, on Friday, I took the day off from the rigors of class preparation and we spent the day on a bus tour of Auckland, with a long stop at the America’s Cup yacht area. We bought some heavily discounted souvenirs from the Stars and Stripe shop, an American contender associated with Dennis Connor who lost out in the challenge round but still had shirts to sell. Thought I’d wear a Stars and Stripe shirt to class so the students could see my loyalties in case my accent didn’t give it away. (Also, I’ve been wearing my Albuquerque Isotopes T-shirt around nuclear-free NZ. Ugly American.) We could see the two Cup finalists, hoisted out of the water in their headquarters sheds, which was neat, but the yacht collection in the area was really something to behold.

Kiwi saleschick says we might like to try this one

Where do I sign up for the crew?

T OF C