More on Constellations, a HANGI!

Kia Ora!
After a brief chat with our New Zealand contact, I wanted to amend my prior
statements about the constellations.

Well, in the southern hemisphere, the pole star can't be seen, and much
of the year neither can the big dipper. So you will see an entirely
new set of constellations in the sky, the most well known being the
southern cross used on the New Zealand and Australian national flags.
You might want to pay attention to the night sky over the next few days
so you will be able to note the differences. You will see the familiar
zodiac constellations that occur in the direction of the equator, but
to the south you will see an entirely new sky.

It turns out you can't see the big dipper at all from New Zealand.
Also, those you can see that we are familiar with (such as Orion), will be
UPSIDE DOWN.
So, when you look at the horizon at night and the constellations you see,
you'll be able to look at the horizon from new Zealand and see the same
constellations but from the bottom up!

Graham, our NZ contact, says they are not upside down. He said when you
look at them from up here in the northern hemisphere they are upside down.

Graham also says we are in for a real treat on our second evening in NZ.
Our dessert (he insists it is spelled "desert") will be Kiwi Hokey Pokey Ice
Cream. I told Graham "Hokey Pokey" is a dance, but he insisted I was
talking about Hokey Tokey. Put your right foot in, put your right foot out,
and do the Hokey Tokey as you shake it all about. Just doesn't sound right,
you know?

Speaking of fun with language, Graham is putting together a short New
Zealand-American dictionary. He is getting some cots for some of us to
sleep on and kept referring to them as stretchers. We went back and forth
for a bit before he said they were also known as camp beds. I knew from my
trips to England that is what they call cots in England. So I asked. "No,
cots are what babies sleep in." "No" says I, "babies sleep in either a crib
or a cradle". "No" says he, "a cradle is only used to rock babies, they
sleep in cots."

Okay, maybe you had to be there to see the humor in it. Graham and I were
having fun, anyway.

After we looked a bit at our budget and activities (and Mark Liechty
complained about going to a Chinese Restaurant on Christmas day), Graham had
finally been able to negotiate a Maori Hangi for Christmas evening. So,
instead of Chinese and Polynesian pools, we will have a Maori Hangi (that is
kind of like a Hawaiian luau, including the pig roasted in the ground) that
includes Maori music, dancing, singing and LOTS of audience participation.
Should be a blast! Do you think we can get Chuck, Graham and me to do the
Haka together? Now THAT ought to be a scary picture! We want all the
ladies in Team 2 to become experts at poi balls before they leave New
Zealand.
Tue, Dec 9, 2008 at 8:23 AM
NINE days to go!
Cheers!
Don Roberts
Trek Organizer
Can you tell I'm having more fun putting this together than I'll probably
have just going?