Robocup

The Otago Museum hosted the Robocup competition over the weekend.  Robocup is a robotics competition using Lego Mindstorms to preform various functions.  This year's competitions were Search and Rescue, Soccer, and Dance.  Molly and her team entered the dance competition using a Harry Potter theme.

Molly prepares Harry.

Arrrr...there be pirate robots about!

SAR (Search and Rescue) Robots

Harry and Molly

Soccer 'Bots

Harry gets his wand.

Harry and Voldemort duel.

Its was a fun day and turned Molly into a media darling:

The ODT (be sure to click the picture)

Midwinter

To celebrate the longest night of the year (or at least the weekend closest to the longest night of the year) Dunedin hosts a Midwinter Carnival in the Octagon.  The event began in 1997 and draws about 10,000 people to the city centre.  


The Midwinter Carnival consists of a dozen or so food and craft stalls.  This event includes a spectacular Carnival Procession with dozens of giant lanterns, hundreds of hand-held lanterns, and many performers and stilt walkers.   Every year the carnival has a different theme and this year's theme was "A Frosty Night."  The evening finishes with a small firework display from atop the Forsyth-Barr building (one of Dunedin's taller buildings).


My night photography is not what it should be, but here are some pictures:

Frost Fairies

Snowman Lanterns

Ice Drummers and Stilt People 

Luminous Moth

Luminous Unicorn

Maori Dancer

Frost Fairy or Snow Joker

Lighting Effects

Giant heads to frighten children

Children not frightened by giant heads

Tree Lanterns

More tree lanterns

More Frost Fairies

Lantern Tree

In the months leading up to the carnival, workshops are held to build lanterns.  According to the website, "it takes roughly two hours to make a lantern and everyone who makes a lantern becomes part of the procession on Carnival night."  The cost of making a lantern is $5 and you must book well in advance.

Though it is almost July, I have missed Christmas lights with the cold weather.  This was a welcome event, but Santa was not at the end of the parade.

Swim

Like Sports Day, Columba Swimming Sports Day is a whole school event at the swimming pool.  The girls compete in various swimming events (50 m freestyle, 100 m backstroke, etc.) for he glory of their house, their year, and their own personal best.  I was an official lane timer. There are also some fun and games such as ring toss, handstand, and others.  It was a morning out at Moana Pool.

Diving in at Moana Pool

Although Molly was in a cast, that did not stop her from doing a cannonball.

The handstand competition.

SHARK!

Fracture

Who said netball was a non-contact sport?  Molly has a broken arm from netball.

The interesting part of the story is that this is Molly's second cast (or plaster as its called in New Zealand) this week.  The first cast was plaster of paris.  It had not been on long when Molly and her friend Camilia decided it needed to be painted.  And they did. Beautifully.  However, the paint they used caused a chemical reaction with the plaster and the cast constricted, painfully, on her arm.  Another trip back to the clinic and they decided that Molly has healed enough to go with a synthetic cast.  The first cast was removed with great care so as to preserve its artistic integrity.

1st and 2nd cast.

Molly is returning to Indiana on July 2nd.  I am going to miss her terribly.  

Wheels

I got a car.

At Harbour Cone (note extinct volcano in background*)

Some might call it a Miata, but it is a 1992 Mazda Eunos Roadster. Her name is Rosie (Rosalita (Come Out Tonight). Several of you know this has been a goal of mine for some time.  It makes my 3rd Mazda convertible. Happy, happy, happy...


*See March blog called Volcano.  Its the same place.

Netball

Netball is a national pastime, primarily for women, in New Zealand.  There are few male netball players (in fact, I haven't seen any but I'm told they do exist).  Netball is related closely to basketball but is completely different.

One cannot not dribble in netball, there is no backboard, the hoop is smaller, the shooter (GS: Goal Shooter) must be given 3 feet clearance making it difficult to defend a shot, you cannot successfully shoot a netball like a basketball...the list goes on.

Molly is on one of the four Year 9 netball teams (Columba has not less than 22 netball teams, not counting the social teams).  She managed to stop dribbling after the first couple of games and is developing into quite a good netball player, particularly at the Goal Attack (GA) position where she uses her basketball skills to create a high number of assists.

Molly does well at netball, even against taller players.

Molly shoots . . . 

(Notice the basketball followthrough. She is an unconventional shooter.)

. . . its up . . . 

SCORE!!

Molly on the assist.

Molly's team celebrates a victory.

Here are some older girls playing.  I think they were one of the University of Otago teams. 

Historically, netball was derived from basketball.  However, basketball is a 'red-headed stepchild' here (no offense to any stepchildren or ginger-maned readers).  This is particularly a disadvantage being from Indiana.  How bad is it?  I am a basketball coach at Columba.

No, seriously.

Slacker

I know, I know. The blog has been quiet for a while.  After Claire and Oliver left things got very busy.  We are now in the middle of exams which has given me a moment to catch my breath. I will make every attempt to be more productive in my writing and photography.

I have just recently added the last installment of the Queenstown trip, Routeburn.

Further, to tide you over, here is a picture of Port Chalmers at the north end of Otago Harbour.