E-scooters: a once fabled Christmas gift of childhood now commercialized into the transportation industry? Damn, I wish 7-year-old me thought of that. Looking firsthand at the impact Bird and Lime scooters had on Miami University’s campus in Oxford, Ohio through the fall semester of 2018 it was hard to ignore their presence in a different country. I can tell you for a fact that when Limes were first spotted in Auckland by some friends, there was zero hesitation to jump on and start riding. It absolutely made sense due to the frequency and intensity of hills that make up Auckland, but I definitely was curious of their possible existence in smaller cities throughout New Zealand. Jumping to our arrival in Dunedin a few days ago, we again saw Limes popping up on the map of our smartphones’ applications for the service. What I quickly learned from a very nice Uber driver was that Lime had just set up in Dunedin and the release of the scooters actually occurred 3 days prior to our arrival. I know for a fact I am not the only person writing about it, but as an American who lived with an ambassador for Bird on Miami’s campus I could not help but look into the matter.

Tim Miller of the Otago Daily Times wrote on article on the release date of January 10, 2019 discussing the impact the new service may have on the city. Heading up the launch was Matt McNeill, who helped put 300 of the scooters on the street of Dunedin. Miller reports that McNeill and the company decided upon the number, then would judge whether or not to release more and take some out of the city depending on usage and safety outcomes. I know for myself I walked around hilly Dunedin and only imagined how first-time users would navigate steep inclines and declines. I guess the public of Dunedin and I were on the same page. Most of the pushback against the release of Limes surrounded safety concerns of the riders. Still, unlike the city proceedings that occurred in Oxford, Dunedin’s city council said that they had no plans to remove scooters and were willing to work with Lime as the service progressed (Miller, 2019). Overall, it truly was crazy to see the contrast of governance when it came to their implementation, especially with the University of Otago being located in the city of Dunedin itself. Even stranger to me was the number of local users I saw doubling up on the scooters, which not only makes them harder to ride, but in turn a bit more dangerous than having the recommended one rider at a time. I am interested to see if Lime receives any lash back from injuries over the coming week in Dunedin.  

Blog Entry 5: The Current Event

Andy Grainer’s enthusiastic words, “Come on sack it up, young guys!” split through the windy pitch on the campus of the University of Waikato as myself and peers huffed and puffed toward the ending of a touch rugby match a few days ago. Quite ironic of Andy’s on-field encouragement was the fact that hours before we were sitting in a classroom receiving a lecture which incorporated how masculine identity is so strongly associated with the sport of rugby. The sport requires serious cardiovascular endurance, which apparently us “young guys” were not displaying on the field that day. Just to add emphasis to the level of endurance needed to compete, I was absolutely gassed while engaged in a form of rugby that involved no collisions or tests of resistance strength. Going in, I thought I was in shape. However, the reality of circumstances allowed me to see that I am not in rugby shape.

All of the sudden, this masculine identity said to be needed in order to succeed in the sport was put into a far more tangible perspective. This is not to say I am agreeing with that stereotype, but rather hold a better understanding of its origin. To be honest I think our teacher Tom was enjoying watching us struggle to figure out the game and persist through a lack of physical endurance. The touch rugby form of the sport Tom introduced to us was rather intuitive, where each team with the ball was allowed to be “tackled” 6 times in pursuit of scoring. Reaching the “try” zone meant the driving team crossed the front line of the zone and touched the ball to the ground. In rugby union a try is equivalent to five points, and in rugby league translates to four points. To simplify score keeping we counted each score as one point and played two halves up to five points. Other rules included touching the ball to your foot to start play, passing to teammates was legal so long as they were behind you, and a successful tackle resulted in the downed player moving the ball on the ground backwards to a teammate while the defense made a ten-yard run from the spot of the tackle towards their try zone.

Overall, it was a great experience that made me wish I had tried playing the sport earlier. At this point, I do not have much interest in playing full contact nor do I have the desire to train my body to be capable of doing so. Tom and our touch game of rugby instilled an advanced level of respect to those athletes who have dedicated their lives to the sport. I was also made aware of some of the rookie hazing that occurs in New Zealand rugby clubs and damn, Tom. No thanks, do not need to literally be breathing others vomit fumes. But the sport is fun.

Blog Entry 4: Sport of Rugby Post

Nearly half a month ago, I was fortunate enough to meet a young woman named Bex in the city of Auckland. Bex was living in a dorm apartment complex across from our accommodation University Hall. To her credit, I would not have been able to write this blog if she had never shouted out her window at myself and a few others on the second day we arrived in Auckland. Her confidence in doing so lends her outgoing personality observed in speaking with her. Most of our conversations were carried out with us standing under her window yelling back and forth to one another. However, one day Bex was walking back to her apartment as we were heading into town and I saw that as a perfect opportunity to gain her insights about New Zealand and sports in general (the picture below is the approximate spot where we finally talked face to face).

Bex is a sophomore studying Biology at the University of Auckland and is currently enrolled in summer classes. She is from a suburb just outside of Auckland which name has escaped me since the rather informal interview took place. She is an only child who was engaged in sport and physical activity early on in her life but did not pursue it much as she aged. In primary school Bex played netball and said she tried cricket for a short period of time before a strong disinterest in the sport overcame her. When I asked her about rugby, she said her dad played up until he hit the club level and often watched it with him at home. Bex definitely made it clear that she was not an avid fan of the sport, however, she understood its place in New Zealand culture. She believes many see it as an integral part of the development of young boys in the country, which I thought was very interesting due to the debate over whether or not sport builds character that we touched on in lecture. I regrettably did not raise that discussion with Bex in the moment, but also can see how that may have offended or embarrassed her in a way at that point in time. Regardless, Bex was a very likeable and happy individual that I am very glad I had the chance to speak with.

Blog Entry 3

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In the context of promotion, advertising agency Saatchi and Saatchi believe that “Nothing is Impossible”. The agency has helped countless businesses with advertising their respective brands to desired target markets all over the globe. Today, I was fortunate enough to visit Saatchi and Saatchi’s impressive office in Auckland (as seen above). More captivating than its physical aesthetic appeal were the examples of messages presented to us by our key speaker, Dane. Dane provided us numerous advertisements communicated by video that focused on marketing in sport. By far the most creative, interesting, and seemingly successful campaign they ran was for Tui beer, that truly engaged fans in the sport of cricket. The premise of the promotion is that fans buy Tui beer and receive an orange t-shirt, which then makes them eligible to win a part of NZ$1 million by catching a “six” (ball hit outside boundary equaling 6 “runs”) with one hand. Dane then introduced us to some of the work they have done to appeal to the country as a whole by utilizing nationally known athletes in an attempt to unify New Zealand through sports. This is where I found myself internalizing and questioning the media before me, rather than feeling inspired or impressed by the creativity they employed with corporate sponsors….

The first of these advertisements was made for ANZ Bank prior to the Commonwealth Games and featured three New Zealand athletes: Shot Putter Tom Walsh, Cyclist Sam Webster, and Netball player Katrina Rore. The video showed athletes partaking in their respective sports, with examples of supportive social media posts coming from New Zealanders floating in the background. Immediately, I thought this advertisement was a means of showing how the games and athletes in particular bring the nation together. Then it occurred to me that each athlete appeared to be representative of the Pakeha population. It was reminiscent of reading I had done surrounding Dave Gallaher and his rise from rugby player to national hero where the embodiment of his person formed a sort of national identity for New Zealand. Then again, this is an advertising agency attempting to appeal to a certain target audience for ANZ Bank where those athletes may have been chosen for more specified marketing reasons. On another yet related note, we viewed some of their work with NBA player Steven Adams and his promotion of PowerAde. Aside from being the only active NBA player from New Zealand, to me Adams persona and background truly is a unifying example of sport in the nation. His father was a massive (6’11) Englishman and his mother from a small country called Tonga in Oceania. Steven Adams is a known figure in sports, but formerly unknown to me was that he is a fusion of the Paheka and Polynesian cultures that have split the New Zealand population throughout history. Each time the behemoth Englishman steps on the court for the Thunder, his sleeve of tribal tattoos encompassing his middle name, “Funaki”, remind us of his roots in the indigenous Maori culture.  

Personal Post_1: Blog Entry 2

Hi all and thank you for taking some time to allow me to share my young knowledge and experience surrounding New Zealand. I plan to write blogs every other day for the next few weeks as I journey throughout the country and invite all to read as I will cover numerous topics related to my travels.

When I initially heard of this trip offered by Miami University, the first thing that crossed my mind was rugby. I had been introduced to the sport while in high school, when our first rugby team was formed my sophomore year. The foremost reason rugby grabbed my interest was due to the fact that it was stealing athletes away from our lacrosse team, and secondly because some team called the All Blacks did this thing before games that everyone was talking about and imitating. About a year later, I saw the haka performed by the New Zealand Basketball team in the 2014 Olympics where they faced the United States. Watching team U.S.A. stare in awe and confusion was wild, as I shared in those same emotions. However, I was intrigued and sort of smacked in the face by my lack of cultural competence. Even though I have begun to study New Zealand and its cultures, I am still nervous for my attempt to embrace a new country and its people. Moreover, I am concerned for how we will all be welcomed, or maybe at points not so much. On the other hand, I am exploding with excitement to engage in many new adventures, with many individuals who are nearly as foreign to me as the country we will be roaming. I cannot wait to see what New Zealand brings me and the lessons it has to offer, but for now I am preoccupied with figuring out how I am going to get some sleep on this flight

Blog Entry 1-Pre Departure