Weekend Fun

The sun sets around 5:30pm now, so there is not much to do outdoors during the week after work. Unless your crazy like Tyler and like to go mountain biking in the dark with a head lamp on (not really my thing). We try to fill our weekends with as much as we can as the weather is still nice and there is still plenty to do outside. Last weekend we found ourselves at our first ever rugby game! For a smaller city, the rugby stadium is quite large, with seating for around 20,000 people. I understand the general idea of the game but we have no clue what the rules are and why they were blowing the whistle so many times. It was still fun to be a part of the crowd and we enjoyed our beer and mini doughnuts nonetheless :)

The video is the Maori doing there haka - which is a traditional war chant. Not quite like the All Blacks but still cool to see!

                                         

Rugby stadium

Maori people getting ready for their second haka.

I was too slow on the camera...the end result of the fireworks.

Unlike any other normal field sport, when someone is hurt they send out the medics onto the field during play and the game continues. The medics had their heads up the whole time to ensure they didn't get run over. What's the point?!

Tyler has joined a mountain biking club that meets every Wednesday night (hence why he wears the head lamp). There are lots of lovely biking trails we have explored around town. This weekend he took me to a lake a few minutes outside of town to show me around the trails he has been riding on with his group. It was pretty muddy but we had fun and got to see some new scenery which is always nice!

This part reminded me of Fish Creek Park, only with palm trees :)

Black swans with their babies!

Awesome spot for a snack. Can't wait to go back to have a BBQ!

Llamas we ran into on one of our bike rides :)

So this was random, but I found a sign in town advertising for a screening of the Banff Film Festival. I had to do a double take...like Banff, Alberta?! It turns out the festival has a world tour and they just happened to be showing films in New Plymouth! We've never actually been to the film festival in Banff, but I have always wanted to go. We watched about seven short films on biking, skiing, rock climbing and flying. The movies were all great and we were excited we finally got to go, even if it was in New Zealand instead of Banff!!

We knew there were lots of golf courses in and around New Plymouth and Tyler didn't want to have to go alone. So before we left home, he bought me my first set of golf clubs. I've only golfed a few times and am not very good, so I kind of thought it was a waste of money. I also didn't like golfing in Calgary as there was always so many people on the courses and it was really expensive. Well, golfing in New Zealand is awesome!!! We've probably been out around six or seven times and I am getting better already. The best part is that 18 holes of golf is only $20! $20!!! The second best part is that every time we have golfed we practically have the entire course to ourselves. The course we go to all the time doesn't even have anyone working in the club house so we just write down our names and leave our $20 in the mailbox. It is awesome.

The course below is down the street from our new house. I haven't been yet, but Tyler took these pictures when he was there last week. This course is also only $20 and is ON THE OCEAN! Where else can you get that for so cheap?! 

Mount Taranaki in the background

Ocean view on the golf course

Gigantic red mushrooms on the golf course

We also went on another hike on the weekend. There are so many hiking trails here, I want to do them all!! The actual "hiking" part of this trail wasn't really that great. It was pretty much the stair master for two solid hours. But it was totally worth it once we got to the top. It had the best views out of all of the hikes we have done around town so far. Too bad it was cloudy once again as we would have had the perfect up-close view of the mountain! 

Mini mountains beside the big Mount Taranaki

Mount Taranaki behind the clouds

We made it!

Wishing the clouds away...

We finally, FINALLY are getting our sea container this afternoon! We are beyond excited and can not wait to be moving into our new house and out of this hotel room!! I think we have 160 boxes to unpack and of course all of our furniture to set up. I will keep you posted once we are all moved in! :)