Running

As I have mentioned before New Zealand loves its sport and has great facilities given the population. However they also like to make the most of the terrain and in running this means we spend the autumn and early winter pounding around sheep fields. I should of course note at this point that they remove the sheep first...!

A few club members, sometimes with the assistance of an ATV or 4x4 take out a pile of flags and set out a course which will certainly be chosen to run up and down the hills (the steeper the better) and might include stream crossings, mud and fences. Most weeks our local club members race each other with either a closed handicap (we all run together and the results are adjusted at the end based on your previous times) or open handicap (we set off at designated times with fastest last in the hope we all race together to the line).

At times however we get more adventurous and race around the fields in other places against other clubs. There seem to be clubs in almost every town so a lot of people turn out for these events. And when we are really lucky we take place in national races which usually feature racing in parks with nary a sheep in sight. Normality will soon return, after the North Island Cross Country Championship (NICCC) in two weeks we'll be back running on the road.

For those who care we men usually run about 8km, the ladies do "only" 6km and juniors run a little less. The courses are usually two laps so you get to enjoy the thought of running up all the hills for a second time. At the NICCC we old men (35+) actually get to run less than the younger ones, usually we run together.

Winter

We are finally getting some wintry weather, at least in Scottish terms. Some days have been clear and crisp with highs around 11-13 deg C (50-55 deg F) and nighttime temperatures dipping to only a few degrees above freezing. Others have been blustery and wet with chilly winds. It's still often pleasant outside in the sun and the stars are gorgeous on dark nights like tonight. I don't know if it is coincidence or weather patterns but very often the heavy rain (we've had some, though it is still quite dry around and farmers in the East of the island have been suffering) has been overnight with only squally showers in the day.

Like many in the area our house is not centrally heated, has single paned windows and is not well insulated. However we have a powerful gas fire in the living room and someone else pays the power bills. New Zealand is becoming more energy conscious and there are efforts to improve the energy efficiency of homes.

The ski season officially began this weekend on the north island but they don't have much natural snow and were not yet snow making last I checked. It is much colder inland at altitude than where we are on the coast but ski seasons are somewhat unpredictable. We will be spending time on the south island in August and should be able to ski there.

More Slang

Back working as a dentist gets me talking to the locals and two phrases crop up regularly:

Munted - As in "My tooth is munted"; means falling apart, decrepit.

Sook - Unlike in Scotland where a sook is a "suck-up", here "I'm a sook" means "I'm a wimp", commonly used by people who use being a sook as a reason for wanting an injection prior to dental care.