Merry Christmas!

And a big hello from a New country - New Zealand.
Much smaller than Australia, New Zealand is a similar size to the UK.  The first few days after I arrived it rained quite a bit, so it even looked a bit like a home! Luckily things have brightened up now.  It is pretty hard to feel Christmassy in the sunshine, the decorations look a bit strange! It is great to be here though, some of you may know that I worked here for a while (quite a long time ago) so it's been great to visit friends for the Christmas break.

Anyway, if you click the link above there's a Christmas Quiz for you in case Christmas TV or COD get too much.
Christmas wishes to you all,
Miss B

Sport in Australia

Despite it's small population, Australia has produced many leading sports stars, and excels in many sports on a world level.  We especially Australia with swimming, cricket, netball and surfing.  I'm sure you can think of a few famous Australian sports people.

Sport is a very popular hobby here, both the playing and watching.  The pictures in this section show a few sports that I've seen/played since being here. 

  

Beach-y Sports

Let's face it, it's easier to be active when the weather is nice.  It's difficult to be motivated to do outdoor sports when it's cold/wet/windy.  Lucky Australia! The weather is warmer all year round (though in some places far too hot). There are volleyball courts on a number of beaches and social leagues going on all the time.  In the background you can see people surfing, body boarding and sailing.

Social Sport

There are a lot more opportunities to play team games at a social level, for example women's social 6-a-side football competitions, instead of more serious 11-a-side leagues.  I've also played mixed touch rugby in Melbourne with some friends. 

As you can see, I had my first lawn bowls experience too!  Bowls is popular with a range of ages in Australia.  At weekends you can play at clubs without being a member - as long as you take your shoes off so as not to spoil the grass!  For a small fee we got unlimited games and a BBQ - it was very busy with groups of friends out for the evening.

Professional Sports 

This is a very famous cricket ground - the MCG.  The match is a four day interstate game between Victoria and New South Wales, as you can see it wasn't very busy! Bear in mind though that it's a bit like going to watch Leicestershire play a four day game against Glamorgan in a stadium that's bigger than Wembley!  This ground is used in the winter for AFL games - Aussie Rules Football.  This is a bit of a crazy sport.  There are 18 players, and the pitch is the full size of the oval in the photo.  There are goal posts a bit like rugby ones, but with extra posts either side. Players pass the ball by knocking out of their hand with the other fist or kicking it.  They can tackle either other with not very many restrictions!  If you'd like to see more try this link for highlights of the 2011 Grand Final: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jikkqu7wJ6Q  or http://www.afl.com.au/ for general info.

The National Sports Museum

Also at the MCG is the Australian National Sports Museum, which was awesome to visit. Lots of interesting stuff about past Olympic Games, Australian sports people, cricket, and loads of stuff to play on, as you can see below. 

This was a Netball passing and shooting test.  Netball is very popular here, interstate games are watched by large crowds in big arenas.  At a high level netball is a very fast and skillful sport.  Check out this link http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bgr2zmq9CUk from the world cup final in 2011 - extra time after a draw in normal time!

This is a cricket run out game - the ball was sent out along the floor to be fielded and thrown at the stumps before the batter on the video screen reached the crease.  My only chance to run out Adam Gilchrist!

Several of the games were Aussie Rules related. In this one the ball was dropped from a height, to be caught and then passed through the round windows.  As you can imagine, things got a little competitive!  There was also archery, bike sprints, soccer penalty kicks and reaction time tests - great fun!

There was lots of sports memorabilia in the museum, but one of the best things wasn't on display.  There were loads of drawers of items donated by sports people that there wasn't room for - one of the museum staff showed me this pair of shoes...  The photo isn't that good, but you can see they are pretty massive (I am size 6). The shoe belonged to Ian Thorpe, an Olympic swimmer who has recently come back to the sport.  He has size 17 feet - pretty helpful for swimming!



Pedal Power

The better weather here makes cycling a more popular hobby.  Some of you will remember that I cycle a lot at home, sometimes to school.  In New Zealand in 2012 I'll be doing a very long cycle ride - sadly I haven't had much practice recently! This is one of only two rides in Australia, so I think my legs might get a shock in New Zealand!  Cycling became very prominent in Australia in 2011, maybe some of you know why?!



'X' Games?!

Not quite - but this is the Australian Pro-Am Skateboarding Championship Final.  It was part of a skating and street art festival I went to in Sydney in December.  They fell off quite a lot, but the tricks were very impressive to see live. The art exhibitions were cool too, there was a bit of British representation from the world-famous Banksy (check out the links if you're not sure who this is!)

http://www.banksy.co.uk/ 

http://news.bbc.co.uk/local/bristol/hi/people_and_places/arts_and_culture/newsid_8096000/8096891.stm.