Maori

One new and exciting thing I picked up since my last post, is Maori class. I know I’m a true language nerd, however, doing a class 6-9 on a Thursday evening made me feel a bit hesitant. Being the only non-kiwi made me aware that I would probably have the least prior knowledge to the language. How wrong could I be. On all levels!
The classes are in Maori style, so we start off with Karakia (prayers), Waiata (songs) and some meditation. Then the 3 hours are basically full of interactive learning with practising in pairs, doing songs, learning vocabulary while doing ‘haka’ like movements, doing hand/foot coordination and clapping rhythms while learning word combinations. We do games, we push each other, moreover we have fun. Lots of fun, it is totally cool. We are a very supportive team, I think!

Our group is interesting and you can sort off divide us in 3 categories. First category are people from Ngai Tahu descent (South Island tribe) who never learned Maori and now they want to learn it. Some youngsters and some wiser older people. Secondly, there is a big bunch of primary school teachers: Maori language and culture is part of the curriculum nowadays, so they feel the need to improve their language skills. And lastly, there is this group of random people who are just keen on learning Maori. I’m one of the random ones...

On an educational level it is very interesting to see how Hoani, my teacher, teaches. He is good at what he does. And honestly, the diversity is massive!! Some people have a huge bank of vocabulary and excellent pronunciation (mostly the Maori participants) and then you have me: nil knowledge nor pronunciation skills. You have people without any education and people who are highly educated. You have linguistic freaks like me and you have the rest of the group who are monolingual all their lives (Kiwi’s are basically shocking at learning languages) and barely understand the concept of how languages are constructed. The fact that I don’t know kiwi songs, is an immense shock for some.

But we have found our merry ways in it. If we start a song the entire class has their eyes (and ears) on me and starts laughing because I sing whatever I think the tune is...I attack my fellow learners with a zillion questions ‘ what does x mean, what does y mean’ and they are not surprised about even the most simple question: they know I have no basics. Then again, sometimes the English speakers find the pronunciation very hard, I find it easypeasy because I have that thing for languages. If sentence structures are completely not like English, the class struggles, I’m comfortable with it. Since I have always learned languages by the use of grammar and textbooks, Hoani sometimes gives me some grammar to please me. If Hoani doesn’t get the English grammar, I explain how it works. Or like Hoani says: I teach you Maori and you can teach me English. And he says that with the biggest grin on his face: he thinks I’m hilarious...little language nerd...

So yes, my Maori classes are really superb. Having exams every 5 weeks is quite full on, but they are very accommodating. You do them in pairs, lots is verbal and you never fail...just not yet achieved...!

Queen Charlotte track - late November

So. Last one with pictures. I still owe you my pictures from an amazing cool trip to Marlborough Sounds: biking the Queen Charlotte track with Amy, Michelle (aka Mighty Midgets) and Steve. It is a walking track but you can also bike it; we took a lazy-ish 3 days for it which meant about 3-4 hours of biking per day, then pitch up our tent, and give our legs and bums a well deserved rest. Biking was up and down....and up. Steep cliffs, amazing views and lots of learning. I improved my balancing act: going steep up is going much better now! Downhill was crazy and cool and I only fell off once at a switchback. No biggie. Then, nutters as we are, Amy, Michelle and I decided to bike back the last 25 km to the starting point. As you do.



I loved this trip so much more than I expected: the biking was awesome. I sound like a teenager. I know. But it was awesome! More pictures soon if I get them from the others...!

Wellington - Glynn and Jayne - in November

Finally I went to see the capital of New Zealand: Wellington. I heard lots about it, but unfortunately work has never taken me there. Auckland is more the hype for that...Anyway, one of Patrick’s best friends, Glynn, lives there with Jayne. So they had a spare bed for us and they showed me around. We visited some great musea (definitely a miss in Christchurch), went for walks and city-coffees!

Lake Chrisssstabel in late October

A three day weekend was spent around Lake Christabel and Robinson Valley. First big hike of the season... that backpack on your back is a familiar feeling, but still, it slows you down considerably! It was a great trip, lovely camping, nice chats with people and especially the second day over the tops in the snow was amazingly fantastic: really loved it!! Thanks to Patrick for the pictures...













And, finally, a lovely panorama which Patrick made!

Happy 29!

I don’t celebrate birthdays but since my 29th year turned out to be such a good one, I decide to celebrate it in style...A kiwi pot luck dinner with great friends...Special credits to Rachel who made the lovely truffle 30!
Go figure, 30 but still in need to ID myself to buy alcohol...!

Lake coleridge in early October

An easy weekend escape: 1,5 hours away from Christchurch is Lake Coleridge. Some undemanding hiking with stunning views. Fresh snow made the spring hike a bit tricky (I lost count after 5 falls...) but we enjoyed taking pictures...So close to home and it feels like a holiday!

Spring Challenge in September

The great Spring challenge: an all women’s adventure race (rafting, biking and walking/running) for teams of three...It all happened in September!! 'The Mighty Midgets' (aka Michelle, Amy and myself) had done some good Wednesday evening walks and biking and/or walking in the weekends. Steve, Hamish and Patrick kept on saying we weren’t doing enough, which is probably true, but we were going for no glory, but maximum fun!



Before we started we discussed that the main thing was that we should enjoy the race, so we classified ourselves as non-competitive. While looking at the map, the route and the day itself I suggested that we should aim for a race time of 8 hours and Michelle and Amy ‘mightly’ agreed.



We started with a hard 3 km tedious raft challenge across a lake: we paddled hard (we actually did...) and we were the 10th boat into the river (out of 40 boats so 80 teams). The river turned out to be an annoying bumpy 11 km run where 9 boats passed us...All that hard effort for nothing. Garumph...




Anyhow, Patrick and Steve were our heroes for the day: they made sure we had a smooth shift from wetsuits to bike gear, from empty bellies to filled muffin stomachs! Muscles were a bit cold, but Amy set the pace for the first 10 km mountainbiking! Next was hiking up the hill; the beautiful day had become a quite hot day and my body decided to go against that. I needed to go one gear lower, which was totally fine with Michelle who lead the way, but it frustrated me for a while....



After some excellent navigation (definitely our strong side compared to the other teams!) and a quick descent it was biking again. Still a happy trio, making fun along the way and not tempted to go crazy on the bike: some cool downhill bits made us pass several teams. This time I showed off the tricks, smoothly followed by the other 2. After a warm welcome at the transition spot, some more food in our body, it was off to do the last walking and navigation bit. And this is where the Mighty Midgets became more competitive than we thought we were. Steve reckoned we could not do it within an hour and although we promised each other that we would NOT run at all, we noticed that we were being overtaken by a few teams. Knowing we were good at the navigation we decided to run at strategic points. Amy up front, me happy following and Michelle struggling but damn serious! It resulted in taking back our position, keeping the last leg within the hour and we finished within less than 7 hours in total...We came 30th and they classify the first 40 as competitive teams... Great achievement!
However the real amazing thing about this event is, that there are competitive teams, but also teams who are in their sixties and who have never done this before. Someone took this picture below: it's a classic!



Very tired though extremely satisfied we, the Mighty Midgets, realised that we were a well balanced team: every time one of us felt extremely good and that person set the pace for the other 2. The training beforehand was never a boring moment and during the race there was no spark of frustration within the team (Amy didn’t need to use the ‘happy lollies’). We are definitely in for next year, this time as a better trained team with still maximum fun. And the best thing now is that we keep training together...

And finally, one of my favourite pictures: mighty Michelle and Amy...