Boot Throwographer

 

With my four research interview recordings and huge amount of other observations I came from Taihape to Wellington. Wellington is a typical city with buildings where people live above and below each other: they are called blocks of flats.

 

 

 

 

The conditions for university students in Wellington are excellent.

 

 

 

For a boot throwographer Wellington rises expectations. In addition to giving his name to this city, Arthur Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington gave his name to the Wellington or Wellie or Welly gumboot which is used by every herman in Britain.

 

But I have not seen any gumboot in Wellington. Anyhow, the conditions for boot throwing are good. Today the wind was so strong that I could have thrown at least 100 m, at least when measured with feet.

 

 

 

In Wellington and New Zealand in general sports grounds are large. Cricket field, for example, is circular and its diameter is approximately 150 m. It would be an ideal ground for boot-throwing.

 

 

 

 

The attitude to life among Wellington people resembles that of boot throwographers. Forwards!

  

 

 

I thank my travel mates, Anita, Eckehart, Eeva, Jari and Pirjo, and our hostesses and hosts in Taihape for their nice company and all kind of help!

 

To these words and photos Boot Throwographer ends his New Zealand travelogue. See you!

 

 

 

Compared with Finnish rural towns and places Taihape’s townscape is unexpected. The town centre is densely built, shops side by side. It is incredible that in a town of under 2 000 inhabitants there are shops and services for almost all needs. The backbone of Taihape centre is the State Highway 1, the main road of the North Island of New Zealand which passes through the town centre.

 

 

 

  

 

 

 

 

Today I was honoured to interview Michael, a farmer and the Professor of Gumboot Throwology.

  

  

After that I consulted the organizers of the Gumboot Day’s boot-throwing competition in setting up the throwing sectors.

   

 

 

 

16.3.2010

 

 

Early in the morning the Finnish-German expedition jumped on the Overlander train and started their journey to Taihape which is located 230 km north of the capital city, Wellington. The terrain in New Zealand is largely hilly.

 

 

However, some tens of kilometers to the north of Wellington there are quite large, flat agricultural areas with fields and farm houses, like in Ostrobothnia (only thing that is missing are the birches). Animal husbandry and breeding in New Zealand is largely based on grazing, and you can see sheep and cattle even on quite steep slopes. I wonder whether the hills are beautiful just because the sheep and cattle barber them clean.

  

 

When approaching Taihape the terrain gets hilly again and it is possible to see marks of tectonic movements.

  

 

Taihape welcomed us with sun and sunny smiles on faces of our hostess Elizabeth and her two friends, who took us to our accommodation place – Safari Motel.

  

 

On the way to the motel Terry showed us the old, permanent Gumboot throwing lane which is not in use in this year’s Gumboot Day.

 

 

 

After signing in to the motel we walked to the town centre for a lunch and for shopping food from the local supermarket. On the way we saw the monumental gumboot statue, the symbol of Taihape – the Gumboot Capital of the World. Obviously, we had to take some pictures…

 

 

 

The time and getting used to it is interesting in New Zealand. The current date and time in New Zealand come to Finland after eleven hours from this time on. For example, when I wake up in the morning here in NZ, in Finland my wife and three children are going to sleep for my previous night. I come mad when I think about it. There are challenges in getting used to the change of the sleep pattern: you wake up at 4 at night, and then you are tired in the afternoon, so you have to take a nap.

 

 

 

17.3.2010

 

Gumboot

 

In the morning of 17 March we had a chance to test brand new New Zealand gumboots, Skellerup Perth (sizes Men 7 & Women and Youth 5); they were very nice and soft to take a grip with a bare hand. Eeva made huge throws, but I threw Siili a bit longer than the Perth gumboot.

 

 

 

Airport is a good place to concretely sense the contemporaneousness of all spaces and places of the globe (see Massey 2005). In three hours I am going to leave my mother-country, wife and three lovely children for almost two weeks. Feeling homesickness already, but I think I will soon have also something else to think when my feet get loose of the Finnish ground.

 

 

  

Litterature

 

Massey, D. (2005). For space. Sage, London.