On Friday, Kelly and I went to the Auckland Art Gallery to explore the different type of paintings and culture that Auckland and New Zealand had to offer. What I noticed from the beginning was that the majority of the paintings were about women and had the majority of the art gallery revolved around the women culture and how importance women are in the gallery mainly having to do with women having the ability to deal with reproducing life and being a mother protecting her children.

One of the pictures that will be displayed below is about mothers and protecting their children in general. One of the paintings that we found was called Shield for Ancient Mothers by Claudia Pond Eyley. This particular artists loved making shields and focused on making shields that embodied for artists and contemporary women. Claudia in the 80s especially, wanted to embody ancient cultures of women and how ancient women were worshiped because they reproduced life. They thought in the ancient cultures that women giving birth was considered magical and made women more empowered. Her picture right below this has 5 moons like shapes and these moons represent the women symbol is the moon and gives constant symbols for the spiritual elements of the women and the reasons women are empowered.

These triangles that you see on the painting made the shields “have both structural and intrinsic uses…they allow her to use a collage technique and allows her to use images and symbols. The most interesting thing about the triangles was that the triangles gave her a net like pattern that gave each quality that was important to society all equal. The fertility images and symbols all have equal quality and importance” (Claudia Pond Eyley).

Shield Paintings. (n.d.). Retrieved January 13, 2019, from http://www.claudiapondeyley.com/shields.htm

Today, I woke up feeling dangerous and decided to climb a volcano called Mount Rangitoto. Mount Rangitoto was one of the most beautiful hikes I have ever done in my entire life. Our group made the quick trip up the mountain and found the peak within 40 minutes. Our group took amazing pictures but it was a straight grind up the mountain. There was hardly any flat surfaces within the trek. Once our group got to the top, my breath was taken away but the one of the most spectacular views I have ever witnessed. This view displayed the beautiful skyline which is Auckland and beautiful other islands and the stunning blue water of the Pacific.

When I looked around the summit, I noticed their was a huge barrack at the top. I went into the barrack and noticed that the barrack was actually a World War I and II fire command post and a fortress to protect New Zealand. This volcanic island was meant for its premium position and uninterrupted views. They built these barracks because the citizens in New Zealand had fear about warships taking the Auckland port. Our group also made the trek around the volcano and noticed how the island had a 360 view of the all of the water. This means that these barracks had a great view of the potential enemy coming to steal their resources. Also, this barrack would communicate target information on the fire command posts and batteries. The thing about the defenses that was being made by New Zealand is that no invasion by sea never came in World War I. In World War II, the defenses came back and activity was short lived throughout World War II. The reason why I wrote this post was because I always was interested in American History and World War II and it really shocked me today because I had no idea that New Zealand was even threatened or even part of the World War I and II.

Military defences on Rangitoto Island. (n.d.). Retrieved January 12, 2019, from https://www.doc.govt.nz/parks-and-recreation/places-to-go/auckland/places/rangitoto-island/military-defences-on-rangitoto-island/

Today, we learned one of the fastest growing sports but also the sport that rarely a few people know what it is exactly about. I used to think that parkour was some of funny thing I could do to make my friends laugh if I were to just jump on and off a bench and yell “parkour”. However, this sport is more than what actually meets the eye. Parkour is often described as moving point A to point B quietly and as subtle as possible. The main part of parkour that I didn’t know about was it is used as a philosophy to move your whole body as one and become one with your body by making sure you are fully concentrated on the task/goal at hand. People think that parkour is on two different spectrum. One spectrum is from the hit TV-series called The Office. The office really made it seem like you can just jump off of anything and just yell “parkour”. However, parkour is about using your body in a smooth motion to get from one place to another. This sport originally started in France and it was used for training in World War I and World War II. This soon became French’s main way for education and training in the military. This training was soon brought to the citizens of France where civilians used parkour as a form of a workout. The most interesting thing about parkour that I found out was how the name “parkour” got it’s name. The french had made military obstacle courses and they called them parcours du combattant. Raymond Belle had his mother separated from him and his father died in the Indonesian War. Raymond did not want to end up like his dad when he was training for the military. Raymond would sneak out at night and proceed to climb different trees and obstacles and keep trying them every night to do them faster than the last night. That was Raymond’s main training for him while he was in the military. The founder of parkour was David Belle, the son of Raymond Belle, David learned from his father that his father’s training was called parcours. David loved this type of training and gave up school and devoted his life to this type of training.

Sources:

Giapo Ice Cream. (n.d.). Retrieved January 7, 2019, from https://www.giapo.com/

I would like to start off and say welcome visitors of my page. I chose to write a blog for my first trip out of the country. The country that I am going to is New Zealand. For my blog, I’m going to be writing about the culture in New Zealand as well as the idea of how sport is embedded into the culture. I am going to blog about my experiences while I am in New Zealand for 22 days. I know that New Zealand has a spectacular sporting culture. The sporting culture there has seven main priority sports which include golf, equestrian, cricket, netball, rowing, rugby and yachting. New Zealand has had two cultures in their history; the Maori culture and the Pakeha culture. The Maori culture was a fierce culture and started the fierce sport of rugby and have made it one of their main sports that is one of the most well recognized sport in their country and in the world. The reason why rugby is well known in New Zealand is because of the success of the All Blacks and because the All Blacks got a contract from the global sport company, Adidas. This put All Blacks rugby team and the New Zealand country on a global perspective. One of the main things that I am excited for is to experience the new sports and get to experience everything that New Zealand has to offer especially surfing and sailing. One thing that I am nervous about is losing my passport or losing any part of my belongings because I have a tendency to lose things. Finally, one thing I hope to learn from this program is the differences between cultures and the opinions from locals that live in the area on what it means to be from New Zealand, what it means to live in New Zealand and what their opinion is on the American culture. I will be posting again when I arrive in New Zealand.

Thanks for joining me!

Good company in a journey makes the way seem shorter. — Izaak Walton