Rugby - the basics

Rugby indeed is the kiwi answer to cross country skiing. Everybody down under are more or less crazy about the sport. Of course, rugby matches are best seen at a pub accompanied by a beer or two. The last three saturday nights we've been watching this appearantly violent sport, "enjoying well-fit men in tight t-shirts roar and realise all of their macho potential" (Quoting Mari). Christian enjoying a beer and a beer

"All Blacks" is the name of the NZ national team. The big star is Daniel Carter, or "Dan" as the fans and press call him.

Daniel Carter has earned his nickname: He's tall, dark, good at sports, drives his pretty girlfriend around in a fancy car and even has his ovn bloody video game. Could he be any more "Dan"?

Anyways, if you are to watch rugby in an NZ pub and concerve a certain amount of street cred, you need to know a few expressions related to the sport. I've tried to work out some of them for you below.

• Try: Analogue to a touchdown. Incurs when someone manages to get the ball all the way to the opposite side, dive onto the grass and then get up and roar. If the referee thinks you are man enough, your team get a few points.
• Sin bin: Where you have to stay for 10 minutes if you do something that is against the rules and qualify for a yellow card, e.g. kill a player on the opponents team (and his entire family).
• Blood bin: Where they sew you up before you get back into the game. The most common item used is the ice spray - it fixes everything from broken bones to broken hearts.
• Scrum: When everybody gathers to fight for the ball.
• Tackle: Anything that doesn't kill a man.

Three men kicking the fourth ones ass. A typical rugby moment.

I gotta admit that I am a bit fascinated by this sport, though. Perhaps I should try it some day and get doormat-ears like the star players; you won't have a hard time picking out who has played rugby on a high level if you consider the kiwi male population. It is quite common that their ears take on spectacular shapes as a result of many hours with soccer shoes rubbing against them. This occurs when you are lying on the grassfield with the ball underneath you and 29 other men are trying to get hold of it. Some ears look so nasty that you would need to glue on your reading glasses! Nah, I think cricket suits me better. There I get to wear a white shirt. As and indoker, that sounds appealing.

One Tree Hill - a minor Sunday expedition

A typical Eden Crescent-way of handling hangovers is going for a jog. So today, Mari & me went out on a 2 hour excursion to One Tree Hill, only 8 hours after finishing a cup of Karsk at the Smalosen's.

One Tree Hill is a 182 metre volcanic peak located in Auckland, New Zealand. The suburb which is built around the base of the hill is also called One Tree Hill. The hill is also known under its Maori name Maungakiekie, which translates to 'hill of the kiekie vine'. The mountain and its surrounds were home to the Wai o Hua tribe, since the early 1700s and probally before that time. Other Maori tribes in the Auckland area can also trace their ancestry to the Mountain.

On the summit of the hill is the grave of Sir John Logan Campbell surmounted by an obelisk, and until recently a Radiata pine tree. This tree (one of two pines) had been planted to replace a sacred Maori Totara tree, the tree which had given Maungakiekie its English name. The Totara was cut down by a white settler in 1852 for firewood. The obelisk was constructed in accordance with the wishes and provisions in John Campbell's will to commemorate his admiration for the Maori people. Before it stands a bronze statue of a Maori warrior.

The stone Obelisk was completed by 1940 – the centennial year of the signing of the Treaty of Waitangi but the unveiling of the Obelisk was delayed until 24 April 1948, after World War II was over, in keeping with Maori custom of not holding such ceremonies during a time of bloodshed.
There were initially two pines. However, in the early 1960s during a Scout Jamboree, a group of overseas Boy Scouts cut down one of them. The remaining tree was attacked with chainsaws twice by Maori protesters. The final attack left the tree unable to recover and so was removed on October 26, 2000, due to the risk of it dying and falling down. A new nickname "No Tree Hill" soon became popular.


One Tree Hill after the removal of the "One Tree"The hill's scoria cones erupted 20,000 - 30,000 years ago, creating lava flows that covered an area of 20 square kilometres. The summit provides views across the Auckland area, and allows visitors to see both of Auckland's Harbours.

Quiz night

Yesterday it was quiz night at the shadows. Our team name was "Noway" and it was really no way. We could not excatly answer a lot of the questions but we had fun anyway! Jorgen tried to buy a new type of beer, and it actually tasted like beer mixed with sprite so I could also drink it. So maybe I can learn to drink beer, while I am here! I can offcourse not promise anything, but I can try....:)

I have also signed up for Yoga classes. So every monday I am going to learn how to release all tension and stress. At least that what I have been told, so I hope it works because my shoulders is not excatly nice to me.... anyway it will be fun to try something new:)

Christian and Jorgen have actually signed up for Street funk(a cool danceform). So Christian and Jorgen I am looking forward to dance shows every tuesday night when you have finished youre dance sessions!

Jogging to Mt Eden Summit

Today we went jogging to Mount Eden. Mt Eden is one of Auckland's most famous landmarks. As the highest volcano on the Auckland isthmus it provides good views over the city and the Waitemata Harbour. Close to the centre of the city, Mt Eden is a constant reminder that Auckland is situated on a potentially active volcanic field. The Auckland volcanic field is comprised of monogenetic volcanoes. This means it is unlikely that Mt Eden or any of the existing volcanoes will erupt again. The next eruption will probably (hopefully) occur in a new location.

Some romantic scenery our folks probably will be glad to see :-)

There is a beautiful 360 degree view of Auckland from the top of the volcano. The city and its suburbs stretch as far as the eye can see.

CEO: Basic Concentrated Juice

'Basic' is the NZ equivalent to the Norwegian grocery brand 'First Price' - and since it is considerably cheaper than other brands, it is every students favourite.

The Basic concentrated juice is a bottle consisting of 375 ml of purple fluid. Mixed with water, you can get 20 l (!) of 'regular' juice. In other words, Basic gives the word 'concentrated' a new meaning. But what happens if you use to much concentrate? Jup, you'll get the same look as I did.

A daemon? The devil reincarneted as a Gudbrandsdol? Nope, just what happens to you when you make Basic mistakes!

CEO: Deep Sea Dory a la Stalham

This is the first contribution in our competition 'Culinaric Experients Open'. Magnus Stalhane (a real Tronder) shows us how to kill those deep sea dory pieces once and for all.

Preparations / ingredients:

• No cooking experience whatsoever
• A black frying pan
• Not enough butter
• An oven, with maximum heat turned on
• 2 pieces of deep sea dory

Leave 2 pieces of frozen deep sea dory in the pre-heated pan until there is no color difference between the black pan and the fish. Do not turn them, just let 'em fry while reading the latest news on NZ rugby. Serve immediately.

Can you see the difference between the black pan and the deep sea dories after 10 minutes of frying? If yes, make sure you keep them in the pan a little longer.

Why did everybody leave the table when I told them dinner was ready?

Blog Competition: Culinaric Experimenting Open (CEO)

We hereby invite all our readers to join our competition 'Culinaric Experimenting Open' ( or CEO for short) where you get your chance to document more or less sucessfull food experiments and win heaps of glory and street cred. The only thing you have to do is send a recipe (in English, please) with some attached photos on your latest non-successful cooking to chrism(aaT) stud.ntnu.no.

You will be rewarded for:

• Creative writing
• The usage of non-normal ingredients under non-normal circumstances.
• Pictures

Moving in to Eden Crescent 7J/32!

We signed the tenants agreement yesterday and have moved in. We went shopping for things to the appartment and we really shopped until we dropped. We filled a whole basket with things and the trip back to the appartment was rather heavy. But we made it! The only thing still missing in the appartment are some posters on the wall.

Yesterday after we had fixed the appartment all day, we went training with Jorgen. We trained agility and when I woke up today my whole body was aching:)

Our first morning at 7J we found out that we have morning sun on our balcony. So we can enjoy our breakfast there:) The weather here is really nice now, and Christian get sunburned as always:)

Today is the first school day. I have been to my first lecture today in Enviremental modelling. I am not sure I am taking that course it seems like it is a lot of maths and computer and we have 4 labs that each counts 10% of the grade. And I am not exactly a fan of computer labs:)

Here are some pictures...

Christian carrying 2 backpacks and 6 bags of food etc after raiding FoodTown (pronounced 'futah' by all the asians working there :))

Look! He can cook! A very healthy dinner indeed; deep sea dory, rice & lettuce. Some parents back home should be very satisfied by this!

Some pictures from our first week in Auckland

Cheers! Below you'll find some pictures from our 1st week in Auckland.

There are some 200 international students starting at the University of Auckland this semester. On Tuesday, we all queued up and went to the Auckland National Museum. The museum contains all sorts of historical artifacts and items related to the history of NZ. Veeeeery interesting...?

A somewhat tired Mari @ the Auckland National Museum

Maori folklore show @ the museum.

Jorgen & Mari enjoying themselves in our temporary accomodation. We've been staying with Jorgen & Magnus for the first week - and we've had a lot of fun!

First Down Undah Hangover

Today, we are having our first official hangover after a trimendous kickoff-party @ 'The Globe' on Queen Street. 250 international students gathered on 100 sq.ft, beer sold at the price of 20 kroner and 'the-best-and-most-party-friendly-clubmusic-in-NZ' (quoting the club owner) makes up a guarantee for a soar throats and beeping ears the morning after.

During this first week, we've met heaps of friendly people - kiwis, Danish, German, African...all sorts of nationalities are represented here. The International Section here @ UoA and their work is really impressive - as an International Student you get a warm welcome, great councelling and lots of pre-arranged opportunities to make new friends during the first week. Besides, they have a very well organized web-page that provides every 'jet-lagged' IntStud with all necessary information. InterSek @ NTNU: Watch & learn!

Hopefully, some pictures will be coming up soon!

We have got an appartment!

We have now got an appartment! Joho! It is perfect, and all we need, is included so we don't have to buy anything. The people who owned the appartment is really nice. They just asked us what we needed, and they fixed everthing. So we have tv, dvd player, washingmachine, dryer, livingroom with diningtabel+ chairs and a sofa, bedroom with one double bed and two desks, a very nice kitchen and bathroom and a balcony:) We also got a dishwasher:) The price is 280$ a week, and the appartment lies only 3 minutes walk from the school, city and the recreation center. We are moving in on saturday, so we stay at Magnus and Jorgens place until saturday.

I have also got all the courses I want, so that is really great. The first day at school have been fun, we have startet practice our english. But there is a lot of other skandinavian here, so it is easy to just speak norwegian. But we try to speak english most of the time. Since one of the reason we are here is to learn english. The lectures starts next monday, so this is the last week with vacation. There are many events and things going on every day, so we have enough things to do. I don't think we will get bored this semester. There are a lot of trips and things going on all semester. We also have a midbreak(2 weeks), so we have to figure out something fun we can do those week.

(Mari)

Let's go flatting, mate!

Today me & Mari have searched all' round the city looking for the perfect flat. It strikes us that as a Norwegian student, a pent-house-like apartment is almost affordable. We found the 'perfect' apartment right next to Hilton Hotel Auckland, with a beautiful view to the sea and Queen Street (the Kiwi analogue to the Norwegian Carl Johans gate) just a quick 5-minute stroll away. To quote the residental owner, Stuart H: It looks like a f***in' hotel room, just with the minibar replaced by a kitchen! And the price? $260 per week (approx 2600 per person per month). Unfortunately, it was a studio apartment (that is, the bed is almost integrated into the stove). As Christian require a little more space to do his morning exercises (no further comment on those), we'll keep looking for something else. We'll keep ya all posted once we've found something.

First indokers in Auckland since spring, 2006

Welcome to our brand new weblog! After a streneous 48-hour flight, me and Mari finally arrived in Auckland on Thursday. Our fligth route was not very well optimized, so to say: Oslo - Frankfurt - London - Bangkok - Sidney - Auckland created a jetlag worse than ever before. It is quite nice to finally be here, though!

Mari, Christian & Magnus enjoying their first NZ meal after arrival. Taco. Very original, huh?

As you might have noticed already, I'll be writing this blog in English. The reason why is firstly beacuse I need to practise (so do not be to harsh on us when discovering spelling and / or grammar errors) and secondly because the keyboards down under are lacking the beautiful Norwegian letters ae, oe and aa.

Christian building up his jetlag @ Gardermoen Airport.