Sports Day, Cadbury, and the Big Shindig

So two days ago my flatmates and complex mates went to sports day which was a orientation event for all the first years. You could play netball, touch rugby, volleyball, or soccer. I got put onto a soccer team with a Frenchman, two Kiwis, and two Americans. We won 2 of our games and tied one but the tie was a fluke. The Kiwis here are actually pretty poor at soccer on the whole, although to be fair their main sport is rugby. Anyway, it was really fun and I got a free t-shirt out of the deal.

This is sports day at Logan Park

Yesterday we took a tour of the Cadbury factory here in Dunedin. They are the major chocolate provider for all of NZ and for some of Australasia. The tour was kind of flat because not a lot of the machines were working because most of the chocolate for the Easter rush had already been manufactured and the machines were now going unused. However, they did have a chocolate waterfall that let out a tonne of chocolate in about 45 seconds. They wouldn't allow us to take pictures so just imagine a huge purple silo about 45 meters tall with a deluge of chocolate falling through it. They gave us quite a bit of chocolate on the tour although I was a bit put off my appetite because they were making Turkish Delights downstairs which smelled horribly sweet. Anyway it was very cool.

We had to wear hair nets and I have a beard so I had to wear a "beard net" as well.

Then in the afternoon I went and played soccer with Colin and Martín. It was actually one of my favorite moments so far here just because it was an almost perfect day. We went to this field up in the hills surrounding Dunedin where the grass was like green velvet. The climate here must be perfect for grass because every field I have gone to has absolutely wonderful turf. The scenery was beautiful as well. The field was surrounded by these gnarled old pine trees and beyond them was either a view of Dunedin below us or a view up the mountains with clouds skidding across the sky. Absolutely beautiful.

Then last night we had a complex party and about 300 people came. My Kiwi host Ben had one of his friends come and DJ for the party so we had all the DJ stuff set up on our deck. Then at about 11:00 a fire breather showed up and did some fire tricks. He had little poles with fireballs on the end that he threw around and twirled and then he did some actual fire breathing and then he got out a whip which he set on fire and was snapping around, that's when we told him to tone it down a bit and he did but it was pretty cool none the less. 

Fire breather

This was taken from my deck