Fitting a whole Room into a Suitcase

Column May/June 2019

I close the front door behind me and start walking. After a few steps I notice that it is much colder now than before the holidays. So I turn around, run up the stars and take my puffer jacket out of the closet. Well wrapped up, I hurry off to get to school on time. The walk there takes about 15 minutes, past endlessly long roads that run dead straight over hills and disappear somewhere behind them in the morning mist. But something has changed here as well. The leaves on the trees have discoloured. Brown, red, orange – the autumnally blaze of colours adorn the streets.

After picking up some cricket in summer, I really wanted to try New Zealand’s national sport, Rugby Union. With a bit of luck, I was accepted into the U16 school team, although I’m technically too old to join. The sport originated in England. It all began back in 1823 when a student picked up the ball during a football match and ran off. The object of today’s Rugby is to place the ball behind the oppositions try line. You may only pass backwards and kick forwards. To stop an opponent, you are allowed to tackle him, i.e. knock him down as long as you do so in a fair manner and below the shoulders. When the Kiwis suddenly began to win against the British after a few years, the full-contact sport quickly became a national sport. The “All Blacks”, New Zealand’s national team, are number one in the world ranking and have won the last two World Cups.

We train twice a week so that we are always prepared for the following game on Saturday. After the first round, we are in fourth place on the table and still have a few games ahead of us before the finals. Rugby is definitely more intense and not as long-winded as cricket. In addition, the game is also played in any condition, also when it pours down. This means that everyone gets plenty of dirt up their face and sometimes one can literally eat grass.

In Outdoor Ed we spent all of May on two wheels. On narrow tracks we rushed down the hills with our mountain bikes. To see whether we actually learned something we spent two days biking out in the Queen Charlotte Sounds. I really enjoyed my last Outdoor Ed camp, even though it was absolutely bucketing down on the second day. I also got to go on a geography field trip with school, where we looked at coastal processes in the region.

In a few weeks my stay in New Zealand will be over and I already wonder how I’ll fit an entire room into my suitcase.