instead of going to a museum in the morning, we stayed in, did laundry, and made lunch for the day to take with us. i also tailored twiddle thumbs's pants for her because the legs were much too long. i didn't have time to eat the prepared lunch until much later, ironically. sewing took up most of my time. if i had a machine i would have been done in 20 minutes perhaps. but i had to do it all by hand and actually didn't even get to finish.

free water at speight's brewery

i made the call to my bank this morning and figured out what happened. back in february or so they made the announcement to all customers who have a visa debit card that they will cancel those and issue new mastercard debit cards in march. i called my mom to have her go through my mail, find the card, and send it to me back at the hostel i will return to in queenstown. hopefully, everything will work out and i won't be doing anything illegal here to survive. (actually, prostitution is legal here.)

we did a little package tour with the bottom bus today. rugby game and speight's brewery. first was the brewery at 1pm. i got to learn how beer is made and the difference between beer (hops) and ale (no hops). i hate beer so i figure it's the hops i dislike. we sampled some of the beers: gold medal, a summer special apricot harvest, and an old recipe called distinction. beer is definitely not for me.

then they took us to baldwin street again and to the gardies pub. we sat around and waited. it was time for people to drink but we're not drinkers. i put $4 in the jukebox as to not hear the crap music that was playing. i think the jukebox was actually free so i lost some laundry money and we never got to hear our selections. as we were waiting, we received our free goodies. got a bottom bus shirt, a highlanders/speights flag, and bandana type merchandise. presents for those back home! after about 30-60 minutes of waiting around it was time to go upstairs to get some food. there was another jukebox upstairs but they decided to play a recorded rugby game of the all blacks vs. australia on the tvs so there was no point in putting money in the jukebox as the music was cut off. on another screen was a poker tournament. while we were waiting for food, it seems that everyone else decided to take part in the face painting. sorry but i'm not gonna look like an idiot tomorrow because i couldn't wash away all of it.

now i will take some time out to vent out about the crap music that i hear everyday riding the bus. it must be new zealand law to play "mr. jones" by the counting crows at least once a day. i swear to god i hear it on every bus. what's worse is that some of my fellow bus riders seem to be singing along now and then. some other mandatory groups: red hot chili peppers, green day, jack johnson (a motherfucker i never heard of until this trip), etc. it's all crap. not a single decent song has been played yet.

on a similar note, i just wanted to say that everyone has read or is reading a dan brown book. (mr. da vinci code) every time i turn my head i see someone on the bus with one of his books. it was bad enough that so many were talking about it when i was in america, but i've seen it more in new zealand than all the times i heard about it in america. i guess this means i will have to read it. i did try think about borrowing from the library when i was living in auckland but since it's so popular, it was in the new section that requires paying $5 or so. i'm not paying to borrow something from the library.

finally we were off to the super 12 rugby match at carisbrook ("house of pain") to see the highlanders (otago and southland) vs. the brumbies (australia). i really don't know shit about rugby other than i think it's another british thing americans got pissed about and said they'd do differently once they made their own country. just like driving on the other side of the street and making a few spelling adjustments. trust me, it's all for the better! ;)

i really wanted to like rugby because growing up i always thought that american football was a bit of a pussy sport because they're overprotected in padding and helmets and i did know that rugby players look a bit more bare shirts on their backs. watching the game was interesting, especially when it first started. there was this mad mascot guy for the highlanders who was dressed all braveheart (duh!), running around in a kilt and blue/yellow face paint, trying to get the crowd pumped. also, there were cheerleaders. they were dressed as cowgirls and danced to american country music. it was really quite bizarre. over here in the southern part of new zealand there is the image of the southern man, who is a very rugged cowboy type. i swear to god this is in many ways the 1800s american west. or maybe this place is just texas.

at my first rugby match

back at the pub i predicted the final score to be 23-18 in favor of the highlanders. whoever had the closest score would get a prize. it ended up being 19-18 in favor of the highlanders. i was the closest so i won a $25 bar tab back at the gardies. great! perfect prize for me. i exchanged it for a speight's shirt--more gifts for those back home! the 2nd place girl got the tab but she saw the line outside of the pub and gave it back too.

the bottom bus drivers wade and bloke took us to the match. wade drove us to get to dunedin from queenstown. bloke will be driving us later on during our bottom bus trip. both of these guys are really nice. they best drivers we've had so far.