Old Photos

Here are some older photos we have been meaning to share...

1) Cool Tatoos, Perin's Soccer and a Random Rainbow:

Well the title says it all. Paul drew a very cool tatoo on my foot, worthy of a photo. We took some pics during my outdoor soccer league. The most interesting shots show my teammates and coach smoking cigarettes during the game (definitely a new experience for me). And as we have been saying all along, NZ is the pot of goldat the end of the rainbow or so it seemed from our window one Saturday morning.

Cool Tatoos, Perin's Soccer and a Random Rainbow

2)Taupo with Nicole

In early October, I participated in the inter-Deloitte soccer tournament. Though the tournament was just ok, the weekend was fabulous. My friend Nicole joined me for a weekend of fun. The pictures say it all...

Taupo with Nicole

3) Mt Ruapehu

In October Paul and I ventured north for some slushy spring skiing. Lucky for us the weather was fantastic and the mountain had some nice spring snow. Though we learned quickly to stay on the top of the mountain as the bottom only had one run open and mostly filled with dirt, slush and beginners which made it more like a death trap than skiing (hehe).

Mt Ruapehu

Hawaiian photos

Here are our photographs from Hawaii. Enjoy!

Hawaii

January update

We're still backlogged on pictures we need to share. They're coming soon. In the meantime, we had a great holiday with the family in Hawaii and another mini vacation with our friends Nick and Jen on the south island.

We came back on a Sunday night and were back at work on Monday. Perin and I both decided that holiday is more fun than working. I injured my knee playing indoor soccer right before we left, but I was still able to move around pretty well. My ACL is fine, my MCL is strained but will heal, but a small piece of my median meniscus (cartilage) was torn. I have pretty much full range of motion, but it hurts to straighten my leg completely. I have a "real doctor" appointment (as opposed to just the physiotherapist) on Tuesday, so I'll probably get scheduled for an MRI then. No soccer means I have to return to the gym. Boooo!

An interesting development in our understanding of Kiwi culture is the tallest poppy syndrome. We hadn't heard of this until December, when it was mentioned to us about six times. One way it was explained to us is that immigrants from England wanted to form a society without class consciousness and frowned upon individuals who drew attention to themselves as better than anyone else. However, the wikipedia link above states this term is not unique to NZ.

But it does relate to an earlier post about doing business here in NZ and now that we've heard of the syndrome, we can see examples of it more readily.