Polar Plunge

The day after the Mid-Winter festival, me, Aaron, Helen, Chanel and Grace went to St. Clair Beach where the lifeguards were holding their annual fundraiser - The Polar Plunge. Basically, you pay money to dress up in stupid costumes and run with about 500 other people into the freezing cold ocean on a freezing cold day. YOU COULD NOT PAY ME! I was cold just watching. I mean, like real cold.

These Kiwis are effing crazy people.

Dunedin's Mid-Winter Festival

Only in Dunedin do you celebrate the worst day of the whole year... the shortest day of the year. You gotta love it though. Right now, life is pretty damn miserable. You go to work and it is dark. You come out of work and it is dark. It is cold when you get out of bed. It is cold when you get into bed. People want to hibernate. I daydream of Chuy's patio with a cold beer.

But Dunedin in all of its optimism and "go get em" attitude, holds a parade to celebrate the shortest day of the year... The Mid-Winter Festival.

We were in Texas last year so we missed the parade, but this year we gathered a whole bunch of friends and their kids and toughed it out in the freezing cold weather. Of course a beer from the nearby bar helped a bit as well.

Here are some pictures from the very very cute parade. Kids work for weeks to make these beautiful lanterns and then march them around the main street of Dunedin (called the Octagon). This year's theme was Nautical.








Me and Aaron at Parade



Chanel, me and Helen



Aaron helping Grace see. Grace helping Aaron look pretty with the scarf.

All Blacks vs Wales

The same day as Chanel's Baby Shower, we went to the All Blacks vs Wales rugby game. Dunedin, yes, Dunedin had an amazing vibe to it all weekend. The city was alive and in good form. Harbour Fish hosted a corporate box at the stadium (they had important people down from Christchurch) so we had nice warm seats and plenty of drink! Not only was it a magnificent game and a great win for the All Blacks, it was also the very last All Blacks game at Carisbrook "The Brook" Stadium . (This would be like the last Cowboys game at Texas Stadium.) What a wonderful way to send the stadium off in All Black history.

The All Blacks


The Haka




Me and Chanel


Damon in front of the fridge. Look at all the beer we DIDN'T drink

Chanel's Baby Shower!

I had the honor of helping host Chanel's baby shower. It was the most beautiful day that Dunedin has put on in a while... 64 degrees!!!! (Sad, I know). We are so excited to meet the new addition to the family. As you can see, Chanel is 8 months pregnant and still beautiful as ever.


My Diaper Cake creation... or as they would call it here -- a Nappy Cake. (I hate that word, nappy).


Bottles filled with the candy here called Milk Bottles. hehhehe




Beautiful cupcakes Chanel found.




Grace helping Chanel open presents


Chanel's cute baby belly

The Radio Network takes over Dunedin Casino

As a reward for making our April budget, our sales team was given a nice reward!

We left work around 12.30 on a Friday and headed straight for the Dunedin Casino where management had set up a big black jack tournament for our team. We were given $2000 of fake money to place bets with and unlimited number of Vodka/Soda/limes to drink. After the tournament, we stayed at the Casino... some people were placing "real" bets, while others (me) watched from the sidelines!

After the Casino, we went to Plato for dinner - one of the best restaurants in town - and were treated to an amazing 3 course meal with beautiful red wine! After dinner and hours of drinking, of course the only logical thing to do was to continue to drink. We headed to town to finish the night. Aaron made a guest appearance at the bar.

Enjoy the pictures below! These were obviously taken toward the end of the night!


Jane, me and Jayne at bar in Casino


Dinner at Plato


Danny, Jayne, me, Jane and Racheal


Aaron and Sally!


Boyfriend behaving badly.

Embracing my Kiwiness

These were some pictures from the Flounder Fishing weekend that I got off of Chanel's camera. Thought they were pretty funny and showed just how Kiwi I have become.

Rachel Graduates from Uni!

Two weekends ago, Rachel graduated from Otago University with a degree in Arts. Now that she has been away in Wellington working on her honors degree in publishing, it was so great to have her back in town. (They do graduation a bit differently here, they graduate like 5 months after finished class -- weird).

We started off her graduation day with pictures on campus, then the graduates have a parade where they walk down the main street of the city. After that they have the same 2 hour commencement like we have back home. The biggest difference was of course the inclusion of New Zealand tradition. The Dean of Maori Studies gave a commencement speech in Maori - which was really cool (as he translated it for us whities). The other difference was when a Maori graduate walks across the stage, their family in the audience stands up and does a 2 minute Haka (their form of publicly acknowledging an accomplishment - you might has seen the boys do it at Haley and Chris' wedding). Although the Haka during graduation provided a type of relief from the usual bore of name calling and shaking hands of graduation, I also felt it extremely disrupting for the every day european student whose family had to wait until the end of the row was called to clap their hands. I understand why the Maori families do their thing, but it seemed a bit unfair to me... but I guess I also see this from American eyes not New Zealand ones.

After graduation, we had friends and family over to Chanel and Damon's house for snacks and drinks and then we took the party to nearby Pier 24 restaurant where we enjoyed a fabulous 3 course meal thanks to Aaron and Damon!

Rachel looked stunning in her graduation gown and I was so so so so proud of her for getting the first University degree out of the Cooper clan! What an amazing accomplishment!


Aaron, Rach and Damon





Aaron and his mom - I like this photo



Rach and her cute girl friends. They remind me of our friends in school.




Damon and Ainslie (their mom)... this picture makes me laugh! They are so alike!