Blenheim & Picton Take II - John's Birthday and a Maori Powhiri to Welcome the Italians

The week leading up to the Blenheim/Picton trip was another extremely exciting week filled with work, homemade dinners and movies, essentially in that order. We are fitting in nicely to an agreeable routine during our work week (it’s easy to be predictable while on a budget). We were making plans to go to the Western part of the Marlborough Sounds, of course plans changed as they do and we ended up in the Eastern part instead - Picton then South to Blenheim. This was once again a great time and the weather was quite cooperative - in the high teens or mid 60’s to those of you who haven’t or don’t want to figure out the conversion, don’t worry we have you covered.

Beautiful boathouses in a harbor in Picton

We spent the day driving around hanging out by the beach/water, playing some cribbage and of course doing a little snacking on some fine Kiwi treats, our first encounter with pineapple lumps. These are considered one of the most popular Kiwi snacks, being raved about in numerous travel guides and again by locals... all in all they made quit a underwhelming impression on us, even when we had them later that night after having chilled in the fridge to “crisp up”. A treat provided at Jeff’s parents house in Blenheim. We planned to meet Jeff and Kat there to enjoy a stellar dinner (our first lamb roast) some beers and of course a little All Black rugby verses those Aussie wankers, who ended up winning. This is a huge rivalry here, considering it is by far their most popular sport and Kiwis/Aussies have their cultural jabs, as we do back in the states. It would be level with the Griz/Cat and Bronco/Vandal football games. Pretty ruthless as you are all aware. All in all, a great night with fab company and something we’re hoping to repeat in the near future.

John's 27th Birthday (Beer and Meat Fest 2011)

 


















On Wed night, we celebrated John’s Bday by yet again working all day and then went out and enjoyed some tasty beers and food. We went to a kick off to celebrate Nelson as the craft brewing capital of NZ. With several breweries in the Nelson area it proved to be quite the time. More than 12 beers were on tap and representatives from the majority of the breweries were in attendance. The mayor made a speech commemorating Nelson as the Craft Capital. The GM of NZ Hops spoke as well. It’s great having the only hop company within 15 min of Nelson. After a few beers, a few introductions to some more of the brewing community and a small meat pie or 2, delicious by the way (Lorin and Paul you will enjoy these very much) we headed to dinner at the only German Restaurant in Nelson. Kraut’s was a great time, we went in intending to use our Grabone (groupon or living social) voucher in exchange for some schnitzel and ended up going for the meat platter, I know shocking that John would want a huge Pork shank, 2 schnitzels, 2 different brats, a huge lamb meat loaf, a basket of steak chips, and to balance out everything a full liter of beer. Shocking indeed but delicious all the way around. We closed up the bar with the owner and his sister and sipped on some quality German schnapps (no Kevin and Marshall not the peppermint stuff we drank at the Griz games). Work the next two days and before we knew it mayhem Saturday was upon us.


Powhiri pronounced (PO-PHER-EE) is a traditional Maori meeting ceremony that welcomes outsiders onto their Marae or meeting place). This particular Powhiri was to welcome the Italian Rugby team to Nelson which is the host city for the team – partly due to the large amount of Italian descendants that live in Nelson (each country visiting for the world cup receives a host city for the duration of the tournament). There was a group of about 100 of us who previously had not been welcomed onto the Marae who went through our own Powhiri prior to the Italian team arriving. Being previously welcomed is required to be eligible to stand on the Marae and welcome others. There was a traditional Haka and challenge to the Italian team to see if they were worthy of entering.  Below is a clip from the first Haka of the RCW2011 tournament to give you an idea of what we're talking about!

After the introduction, the team was seated and elders of the six Iwi (different tribes) affiliated or associated with the Marae Nelson spoke and greeted everyone in turn. A few Nelson dignitaries spoke as well. Following the ceremony we were invited to attend a Hangi; an amazing feast of wild boar, chicken, kumara (sweet potato’s), carrots, potato’s, pumpkin and stuffing all of which was smoked in the ground for over 12 hours, yes that’s right, slow roasted goodness. After about 5 hours of the entire ceremony it was time to celebrate John’s birthday again. 

The boys being boys...after many many many beers.

We went over to our Kat and Jeff’s house for some NZ Scotch Fillet Steaks (Rib eye’s- Oh Yeah), beers, wine, smoked grouper, roasted veggies with cous cous, and a few other things. We played some cribbage until the 2 girls started to cheat when Shannon was caught adding on extra points (I won’t delete this – but you must know that this accusation has not been proven…innocent until proven guilty I say!), then we went to the CBD (downtown) to make some bad decisions, mainly more beer. We went to a few craft brew bars and enjoyed some of the finest that NZ has to offer while sharing a few laughs and stories. The next day was spent having a movie marathon and hangover time. Not a lot was accomplished but it was a great time nonetheless. Happy 27th to John, damn he’s getting old. Thanks to all the birthday wishes and the presents. Shannon got me a variety 12 pack of international beers mainly from NZ, Germany and Belgian, what more could you want right? 

Thanks Mom and Pops Sanden for the Montana T-shirts, more homemade raspberry jam (thats what's in the bag), the card and MT smelling incense. It was a great birthday and thank you all very much.

Job updates:


Well, the RWC is in full swing…Shannon Barz from Nelson City Council (that was for you Kat) has been busy busy working with the team to ready the staff and venue in preparation for the first game on 20 September. The tournament officially kicked off yesterday, with the first match of RWC being played at Eden Park in Auckland - The All Blacks killed Tonga. It’s been truly incredible being part of this team and it’s amazing how much I’m going to take from this experience. First of which is making the cover of the Nelson Weekly (ha!) just kidding, not about making the cover but it was too hilarious not to share…
But really, it’s amazing to see all the preparation that goes into a tournament such as this, the third largest in the world. Who would’ve thought I would have ever had such a close tie to rugby?! I also would like to thank my temp agency for listing me as ‘Temp of the Month’! It brought back fond memories of when I made Citizen of the Month back in elementary school (shout out to the Liberty Eagles). All in all, the job is going very well and thanks to all of you for the support and hopeful thoughts that John and I would find something we’re happy with down here…it made all the difference.


John's update: I have been working with Bays Brewery for nearly 2 months now. Doing similar things to what I did with Bayern, I do some sales and marketing work. I also have rewritten the copy for the new website which should be live this weekend, never thought I would help out with websites. They are in the process of teaching me how to edit and update the new website as well, another first. I’ve made a few sales which has been nice. It’s hard to sell to all the bars here because some of them are “tied” or exclusively sell a major breweries products. It would be like going into a bar in the states and being only able to just get Bud or Miller products. It’s a horrible system but that’s the way it is and you just have to find the bars that are open to buying craft beer and specifically local craft beer. The overall craft market in NZ is a bit different verses the States as well as the beer itself. I would say that NZ is similar to the US about 10-15 years ago, on the brink of a craft revolution that is. Brewers are expereimenting more and more with different styles and varieties which is nice to see but they still mainly brew malty lagers and ales similar to English styles. You can find your occasional German or American style which are growing in popularity.


House update…don’t ask, we’ll get back to you on that.


Stay tuned for the next fortnightly posting; featuring new home beginnings (again, again…again), RWC, tramping and warmer weather.

For those that are interested; here's some additional information on what exactly a Marae is (provided by Shannon's fabulous colleague, the Lovely, Miss Rachel Gray)...
If we look at a marae in today's context, a marae is an area to practise certain cultural traditions, from welcoming and looking after visitors. Also then to celebrate; so to celebrate, you know, such things as birthdays, anniversaries, and then finally and probably most importantly it’s a way of farewelling our dead. So those are probably the main reasons why marae exist. So I suppose the marae is a gathering place, a place, a focal point for a community to be able to carry out cultural practices, traditions, and basically be Māori. The people that would belong to a marae are generally those people who are descended from ancestors who occupy it, that land area where the marae stands, or the marae is situated. In this case here, there will be a common ancestor that the people of this marae are descendants of, blood descendants. So the marae then becomes their collective responsibility. (Brian Morris – Te Reo Māori and tikanga expert)