Softball in New Zealand is far different from softball in the United States. When I say “softball”, you probably think of an all-girls sport only played up through college. Well, that thinking is very wrong by the Kiwi standard. In New Zealand, softball does not have the gender definition that it has in the United States. Both men and women play softball, and they do so for as long as they like. At the competitive level, it is fast pitch just like you would see at the highest level of American softball. This is a product of the New Zealand club sport system. Adults can continue playing softball on club teams long after their high school days are over. It does eventually shift to slow pitch, similar to recreational softball in the United States.

On the international level, New Zealand fields a women’s and men’s team as well, the White Sox and Black Sox, respectively. (The United States actually has a men’s national softball team, too, but it obviously does not receive much support, although they are competitive on the international level.) The White Sox saw a good deal of success internationally in the 80s and early 90s, but have yet to return to that excellence since then. When softball was still an Olympic sport, they played in every qualifying tournament and often came very close to advancing. I would look for them to possibly make some noise in 2020 when softball returns to that stage. On the other hand, the Black Sox have had tremendous success in their history. They have been World Champions seven times, first in 1976 and most recently in 2017. Softball has always been women-only in the Olympics, and Baseball was the men’s-only counterpart, but baseball is just now starting to grow in participation in New Zealand and does not see the competitiveness that softball has successfully achieved.

In my opinion, softball as a gender-neutral sport would never work in the United States. I think it is “too far gone” at this point. Boys play baseball in their childhoods, and girls play softball. I think it is definitely a bit of a shame because it limits the choices of sports that children have to play, and it also hurts the general opinion of softball as a sort of younger sibling to baseball. For that reason, I really like the system that exists in New Zealand. The contrast of sport systems and dynamics that surround those systems is very interesting to me, and the fact that the same sports can exist in such different ways in two different countries is very surprising. As a baseball fan, I do hope that baseball continues to grow in New Zealand, but I also hope that it does not hurt the popularity of softball as a sport option for either gender in the country. 

Additional Blog Post #5

A New Zealander is a Kiwi. A Kiwi is someone who was born and raised in New Zealand and fully embraces those origins. It would be nearly impossible to spot a Kiwi just off of their appearance while walking through a New Zealand city like Auckland. However, there are common traits that I have noticed most Kiwis exhibit. The first, and probably most common trait, is that they are reserved and polite. Kiwis do not like the spotlight and are masters of subtlety. Rather than a wave, or certainly a yell, you would likely receive a slight head nod that is the multifaceted symbol for hello, thanks, etc. Furthermore, it is quite difficult to get a Kiwi to say “no”. Instead, you would likely hear what might even be considered a catchphrase: “yeah nah”. This is sort of like being let down easy, rather than receiving a hard “no”.

The second most common Kiwi trait that I noticed is that they are very blunt and can joke about themselves. Many of the business people and higher-ups that we were fortunate enough to meet with were very honest and open with us. This goes as far as some a marketing executive admitting to us that an ad they had produced was “shit”, but it did the job and had the desired effect. Some of the sports teams executives were also very blunt about their stadium and fan situations and they thought those could be improved. We heard many examples of this attitude, which was a big change from the way that Americans in those same positions might talk. In my experience, Americans like to talk as if everything they or their company has produced is the pinnacle example of what they wanted to do. Not many people will open up and be totally truthful about what they are thinking. This trait actually made Kiwis much more relatable for me, and it was like I was talking to a friend when I was actually learning a lot from an executive in an industry in which I aspire to work.

In terms of the national identity of New Zealand, it is largely based on one thing: sports. Sports play a huge role in New Zealand society, and just about any Kiwi you ask will tell you that first. I heard numerous times something along the lines of, “everybody plays rugby”, or, “if you did not play rugby growing up, you did not have friends”. This has been changing recently as participation rates of rugby are decreasing and participation rates of basketball and soccer are doing the opposite, but the general idea that sports are a major part of life from childhood still remains very true. Building off of this, New Zealand has a fantastic club sport system that allows for continued participation in sports until you literally can no longer walk. Unlike in the United States, once you leave high school, you can join provincial or local club teams in New Zealand. This system allows for almost anyone who wants to play any sport at any point in their life.

On the other hand, if you do not play a sport, you almost certainly are a fan. The All Blacks, New Zealand’s national rugby team (and one of if not the best in the world), are a point of national focus. When they are playing, the entire country is watching. If they win, the entire country celebrates, and if they lose, the entire country mourns. This is another thing that New Zealand does better than the United States. Their national teams are a serious point of national pride, and we do not really have one sport or team that unifies us as Americans quite like that. However, this can also be a source of exclusion. Some people that I met in New Zealand were not really sports fans, which is entirely acceptable. But in New Zealand, it makes you almost an outcast. To be a New Zealander is literally to be a New Zealand sports fan, according to the accepted beliefs about national identity. So while this is good in some cases and can unify most of the country, there are still those that are left out. Nevertheless, all of the Kiwis we encountered, even those that were not sports fans, were still proud to be Kiwis, and rightfully so.

Blog Entry #8: The Nation

The Maori people were the first to inhabit Aotearoa, or New Zealand, as we know it. They came from Polynesia in waves of large canoes called Waka. Waka could range from small, basic fishing canoes to large, elaborately carved and decorated war canoes holding up to 80 paddlers. The waka pictured below is one of these war canoes, called a waka taua, and is on display at the Otago Museum in Dunedin, New Zealand. It features the aforementioned carvings and decorations as well as an elaborate upright head and tailboard.

The original waka are one of the most important parts of Maori culture, as they are what the Maori consider to be their original place of belonging. The appreciation of origins is a strong theme in Maori culture. Probably the best example of this is the Pepeha. This is a traditional introduction where a person will explain a bit about themselves and where they come from. It can consist of up to 11 parts that are as follows:

The mountain that I affiliate to is __________

The body of water that I affiliate to is __________

The waka that I affiliate to is __________

My ancestor is __________

My tribe is __________

My sub-tribe is __________

My marae is __________

I am from __________

My parents are __________ and __________

My name is __________

As you can see from this template, the appreciation of origins is huge for the Maori people. Another part of this is the belief that being and nature are connected. You are part of a mountain, river, and/or land, and that land is connected to your spiritual wellbeing. This set of beliefs has become more widely accepted and appreciated in New Zealand in recent decades after they were largely unappreciated, or even ignored, during the process of colonization and up through the 20th century. In fact, the Whanganui River, which is highly sacred to the Maori people, was recently given legal personhood by the New Zealand government. Efforts like this to strengthen the appreciation of the Maori people and their beliefs have greatly improved the overall relationship in recent decades. The Maori people were truly the beginning of New Zealand and deserve to be appreciated as such.

Baseball in New Zealand is a growing but largely unpopular sport. However, its path to its current standing is quite an interesting story. The first instance of organized baseball in New Zealand actually traces back to 1888, but it was not until over 100 years later in 1989 that an actual governing body for organized baseball was formed. This is when the New Zealand Baseball Association was formed. It was made up of teams only in Auckland, but would soon expand to the rest of the country. Today, the New Zealand Baseball Association has become Baseball New Zealand, and there are 19 different club teams across five regions in New Zealand that feed up to the National Team, the Diamondblacks. The Diamondblacks have played the past two qualifying tournaments for the World Baseball Classic in 2012 and 2016 but failed to advance in both instances. Only three players from New Zealand have ever played professionally in the United States, but none have reached the Major Leagues.

One of Baseball New Zealand’s main purposes is to “raise the profile, standing of, and participation in Baseball” in the country. Two of their main efforts to achieve this are KiwiBall and Baseball5. KiwiBall is an entry-level equivalent to baseball. It is divided up by level of primary school and aims to be a fun and easy way for kids to get and stay involved in the sport. This helps Baseball New Zealand to reach their goal of increasing youth participation in baseball around the nation. This program has been successful since its implementation, as baseball continues to be one of the fastest growing sports in New Zealand.

Another one of the efforts to increase interest and participation in baseball – and the most interesting effort, in my opinion – is a thing called Baseball5. This is a variation of baseball that was actually invented by the World Baseball Softball Confederation. It is a 5-on-5 streetball version of baseball that is meant to be playable any time. It is played on a square “field”, usually concrete, with the bases 13 meters apart (about 43 feet). The defense plays with all of the normal infield positions from first base to third base as well as a midfielder who stands directly behind second base. There is not a pitcher. Instead, the batter slaps or punches the rubber Baseball5 ball into play and then runs the bases. All of the other rules are essentially the same as traditional baseball, except that games are just five innings. Again, the goal is that anyone can play anywhere.

In my opinion, this is a very creative idea, but it will not do anything to increase the popularity and participation of baseball because it is too different from the actual sport. Other sports that have tried modifying their rules to appeal to a broader audience have never fundamentally changed the actual playing of the game. For example, cricket introduced one day and Twenty20 matches that are shorter in length than the traditional test match, but the actual playing of the game is basically the same, albeit more aggressive. This is an entirely different game that takes one of the largest aspects of the game completely out: pitching. If kids were to grow up playing Baseball5, the transition to actual baseball would be nearly impossible, and I do not think it would increase their likelihood of becoming a fan significantly.

Additional Blog Post #4

Last semester, Lime and Bird electric scooters were introduced on Miami University’s campus. This introduction was anything but smooth as University officials took a lot of convincing before the scooters were fully allowed on campus. However, once they were fully introduced and allowed, they became extremely popular. Many of the concerns stemmed from the dangers of riding the scooters on roads without bike lanes and on sidewalks with pedestrians, but after a full semester of scooters on campus, the only accidents I ever heard of were people crashing because of bad road or sidewalk conditions or bad weather.

In comparison, Lime scooters were also just introduced to some of the big cities in New Zealand like Auckland and Dunedin. This introduction was also quite rocky and in contrast to the situation at Miami, it has only stayed that way. In the first three months of Lime’s existence in New Zealand, there were literally hundreds of accidents, and the Accident Compensation Corporation (ACC) paid out more than $200,000 in electric-scooter related claims. There was also an incident in Dunedin that left a woman seriously injured after a collision with a truck. Auckland and Dunedin city councils have now begun discussing more strict safety laws regarding Lime scooters, as well as a potential 10 km/h speed limit (the scooters can easily reach speeds of 25 km/h). All of this has led to a bad public perception of the scooters, which starkly contrasts the attitude held by the college students in Oxford, Ohio.

The main factor I would attribute these differences to is the pre-existing attitudes and tendencies of the people living in the places where the scooters have been introduced. In the college town of Oxford, there very much exists a pedestrian-first attitude among drivers. Most students walk or ride a bike to class, so electric scooters fit in decently with that traffic. Combine that with the fact that college students are probably the group of people that are most willing to buy into a quicker, more convenient way of transportation and you have the perfect market for Lime scooters in Oxford, Ohio. On the other hand, riding a Lime scooter through high traffic areas in Auckland or Dunedin garnered some dirty looks and even some refusals to move out of the way. I have also gotten the impression that New Zealand has a much less pedestrian-friendly driving attitude in most of its cities than that of the United States. It also certainly does not help that everything that the average New Zealander has heard about Lime scooters has been negative. While this was probably obvious anyway, introducing something like pay-per-use electric scooters is much easier to do with college kids than with middle-aged city-goers and tourists.

I do think that Lime scooters will stick here as there is very little talk of actually banning them. Additionally, there has been evidence that the use of scooters is related to increased physical activity because it gets them out of cars, forces them to stand up while riding, and requires walking to and from the scooter to reach your destination. Therefore, these scooters could be helpful in the push for a more physically active and healthy nation. I am certainly pro-scooter and cannot wait to be riding them to class again in just a few more days.

Additional Blog Post #3

In 1978, a 17-year-old Kiwi boy by the name of Peter Jackson saw an animated movie based on a series of books he had read and loved. That series that he loved was called The Lord of the Rings. Jackson loved the film, but at that time, he had no idea how important it would become to him and his home country, New Zealand. Almost twenty years later, Peter Jackson had begun to make a name for himself. He had actually made a career out of making movies; something he never expected back when he was watching that animated version of The Lord of the Rings. After a significant change in style from his early days as a satire and splatter/gore artist, Jackson found huge success with his creation of “Heavenly Creatures”, based on an actual murder case in New Zealand. This opened up the opportunity for Jackson to start making big-budget Hollywood Films. That is when he stumbled back onto The Lord of the Rings.

J.R.R. Tolkien’s stories were based in a fantastic land full of lore. In fact, that setting was so fantastic, and the lore so deep and complex, that nobody could even fathom the budget and resources that would be needed to create movie sets, costumes, props, fly all over the world and actually create a movie series that would do all of those details and storylines justice in a live-action film series. Many had tried to nail down this project for a while, but it was complex enough to cause it to be abandoned to the point that no one was even trying anymore. But Peter Jackson picked the books back up and began to think. It was then, in 1995, that Jackson thought, “Middle Earth sounds like New Zealand”, and thus began the legendary project that would help define Jackson’s outstanding career as a filmmaker and New Zealand’s astonishing role as “Middle Earth”.

Jackson had everything he needed for production and design in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand. Everything Jackson needed for location filming was scattered around the beautiful country. In Miramar, Jackson worked with a long-time collaborator named Richard Taylor at the Weta Workshop. This is where most of the design work on armor, weapons, prosthetics and makeup, creatures, and miniatures was conducted. [Sidenote: The Weta Workshop is still active today, and I was fortunate enough to tour it and get an inside look at the design process for many parts of The Lord of the Rings and numerous other projects that have taken/are taking place there. Unfortunately, no pictures or video were allowed during the tour.] Outside of the workshop, filming took place all over the country in numerous astonishing natural landscapes. This is part of the reason I was so excited to have the opportunity to visit New Zealand, and it is an aspect of the country that I have made sure to check out.

Perhaps the most popular filming location and the one I was most set on seeing during my visit is The Shire and Hobbiton. During a location scouting ride in a helicopter just outside of a town in Waikato called Matamata, Peter Jackson spotted a patch of land that belonged to a large family farm. He decided this hilly area would be perfect for the location of the home of the hobbits, The Shire and Hobbiton. For the filming of The Lord of the Rings, this village was only built to be a temporary set, and it quickly went to ruin once filming was finished. However, once Jackson began making The Hobbit series, this area was rebuilt permanently in order to remain as an environmentally friendly tourist attraction. It is a beautiful little village of hobbit holes, each occupied by specific hobbits with occupations and hobbies evidenced by the different items surrounding each hole. It also features the party field, pond, and The Green Dragon, all exactly as they appear in the movies. It was quite a surreal experience walking around in the exact setting of those movies that I love.

While there are no other filming locations with physical evidence like Hobbiton left from the movies created there, there are plenty that are extremely easy to imagine as their Middle Earth counterpart. Another one of my favorites is part of the Kawarau River in Queenstown. This specific part is seen in the movies as a gateway called The Argonath guarded by two massive statues of legendary men. The giant statues were never actually there – they were CGI creations – but it is not difficult to picture the heroes of the movie floating between them.

Another natural location that actually was not changed at all for filming purposes is the Putangirua Pinnacles. This naturally eerie location was used for the Path of the Dead in The Lord of the Rings and was shown in the movie au naturel. The same actually goes for the Hobbiton Woods (the exact spot where the hobbits hid from the black riders is pictured below) and Gardens of Isengard, shot at Mount Victoria and Harcourt Park in Wellington, respectively.

As you can see, the natural beauty of New Zealand serves yet another purpose all throughout The Lord of the Rings and The Hobbit movies. Because of Peter Jackson’s use of the country’s scenery, there is now a strong and proud connection between New Zealand and Middle Earth. Seeing these locations first-hand and having the opportunity to learn more about them and the films have been amazing, and it is definitely a tourist attraction I recommend making an effort to see.

Additional Blog Post #2

Back in Auckland, I caught an Uber ride from a guy named Chico. Chico was from the United Arab Emirates but has been living in New Zealand for seven years. I decided he would be the perfect person to interview about New Zealand.

I first asked Chico what sports he thought were most popular in New Zealand. His answer was basically what I expected: “Everybody plays rugby. The entire nation basically worships the All Blacks”, and if rugby is not your thing, you might play cricket or basketball. He also said that not being from New Zealand originally, he had become a rugby fan, but actually enjoyed watching NBA basketball the most. I thought this was interesting, and I asked if American sports were popular here. Chico said that they are not, mainly because it is nearly impossible to access them. NBA basketball is probably the most popular American sport, in his opinion, and there is a fair amount of people who subscribe to NBA League Pass. Other than that, American football, baseball, and other sports have very little following among New Zealanders and are difficult to access.

Off of the topic of sport, I asked Chico about his recommendations for tourism activities. This is where he got really excited. He said that, in his opinion, “Auckland isn’t the real New Zealand. Queenstown is where you have to go”. I told him we were going there for a free weekend and he immediately rattled off things to do; Bungee jumping, paragliding, jet boating, the shark submarine and more. He said Queenstown is his favorite place to go. It is surrounded by natural beauty, and the action sport scene is awesome. Now that I have visited for myself, I can confirm that everything Chico said was spot on.

Building further on the natural beauty aspect of New Zealand, Chico stated that this was his favorite part of the country. He mentioned the beaches, mountains, and the fact that the entire country has formed from volcanos, some of them still active. I was unaware of this, and it certainly added a new sort of astonishment at the country I would be living in for the next three weeks. This is also something I have heard from many other New Zealanders. The natural beauty of their country is something they are proud of and truly appreciate.

My interview/conversation with Chico was an awesome way to start this trip, and now having experienced it all, I can confirm that his statements were spot on. The sports scene, natural beauty, and experience of Queenstown are all wonderfully unique features that make New Zealand the amazing place that it is. 

Blog Entry #1: The Interview

When thinking of the top sports in New Zealand, rugby and cricket likely come to mind. However, the sport with the highest participation numbers is actually soccer. Similar to the dynamic with football in the United States, more and more people are turning away from rugby because of its ties to injuries (specifically concussions) and looking to soccer and basketball. But while youth and recreational participation levels are skyrocketing, the professional game has not quite seen that rise in popularity yet. This is where I would argue that soccer in New Zealand is on a path similar to that taken by soccer in the US, but I do not think it will ever see the same amount of support for the professional game.

The biggest issue for professional soccer in New Zealand, in my opinion, is the lack of markets capable of supporting new professional teams. The ability of New Zealand to support an entire professional league like the MLS on its own is undoubtedly out of the question. They have, however, had a franchise in the Australian A-League since the early 2000s. There was previously a franchise in Auckland, but it was terrible and could not get more than about 10,000 fans on average in the biggest city in the country by far. That franchise has since moved to Wellington; a much smaller city, but one with a more conveniently located stadium and more loyal supporters. The Wellington Phoenix play at WestPac Stadium, a cricket ground that can hold up to 34,500, and average about 7,000-9,000 fans per night. Playing in a stadium that is not meant for soccer is a product of the lack of support for professional teams combined with the fact that they play in the Australian A-League which does not require new teams to have a soccer-specific stadium. Building on the former, Phoenix general manager David Dome told us that if the team were to fund a new stadium, it would hold them under for years. Additionally, if the team were to try and sign a marquee player they just simply do not have enough to support to continue making money in that way. Because of that, they must sit well below the salary cap and do their best to identify and develop young, local talent to keep costs down. This obviously creates a challenge when winning has been identified as the best indicator of support and crowd turnout.

On the topic of soccer-specific stadia, this is one of the main reasons I believe the A-League and soccer in New Zealand will not see the support and the growth that the MLS has enjoyed. In order to join the MLS, a team must meet several specific criteria established by the MLS, one of which being “a stadium or approved plans for a stadium (preferably a soccer-specific stadium) that allows the team to control revenue streams such as parking and concessions”. The A-League does not have this, so the Phoenix play in a stadium that is not made for soccer, is nearly impossible to sell-out, and does not allow for them to fully control parking and concessions. This not only limits their ability to generate revenue, but it also has an effect of turning fans away because the viewing experience is less than desirable. Additionally, while they are seeing increased television exposure, they are televising a stadium that is as low as 20% full some nights. This is something the MLS has figured out, in my opinion. It may not be good for the ownership groups and cities that have to fund a $250+ million stadium, but when they can televise a sold out, beautiful, new stadium, it certainly looks good for the league and can create that honeymoon effect that will bring local fans to the games. In 2017, every MLS team reported an average capacity of over 73%, with the majority holding an average of 90% or higher. These are based on tickets distributed and do include teams that artificially reduce seating capacities in stadia that are not soccer-specific and special games played in larger venues, but they still draw crowds and percent capacities much larger than a team like the Phoenix will be able to reach any time in the near future.

This has made for an interesting fan experience in Wellington. The team certainly has its diehard supporters, as does just about any professional sports team, but without their own stadium, those diehard fans just sit together in a generic section instead of an actual supporter area like you would see in The Cauldron at a Sporting Kansas City match. If it were at all feasible, I do believe a smaller, soccer-specific stadium would create a much better fan experience and gameday atmosphere for the Phoenix, but as stated, that operation would send them under for at least a few years. Because of that, I think keeping a team or two in the A-League would be the best route for professional soccer in New Zealand. Youth and recreational participation should continue to flourish, which should create more avid fans as they become adults, but selling out to try and create something like an MLS-caliber team and experience would be ill-advised at this point in soccer’s development as a major sport in the country. For now, as was also stated by David Dome, it is best to try and field the best possible team for cheap because over everything else, winning increases attendance.

Additional Blog Post #1

Cricket is one of the top sports in New Zealand, and the men’s and women’s teams have recently been seeing tons of success. The men’s international team, the Black Caps, have been steadily improving for years and are now highly competitive on a regular basis. The women’s team from Wellington, the Blaze, just captured their second consecutive Twenty20 title with a dramatic win last Sunday. However, after the conclusion of this match, former Black Cap Peter McGlashan pointed out on social media that those champion women would receive zero dollars in prize money, while their male counterparts are in line to receive $80,000 bonuses for their championship to be held next month. This added more fuel to a fire that has already been burning hot in New Zealand. There is a huge gender pay gap in New Zealand Cricket. NZ Cricket has announced that it will address this gap at the end of the season, but their eventual decision is far from obvious. This is an issue that is becoming more and more important to fans, and it is actually extremely similar to the gender pay gap issue currently present in soccer in the United States.

After speaking with Liz Berry, the general manager of Wellington Cricket and captain of the Wellington Blaze, and checking out some recent articles on the topic, I have learned some pretty startling facts about this issue. For starters, the Firebirds (Wellington’s men’s team) are a professional cricket team who receive an $850 match fee for each Twenty20 match played. Meanwhile, the Blaze are an amateur team and receive just $45 per match played. Both of these teams feed directly into their respective national teams, the Black Caps and White Ferns. On the international level, the top retainer for a Black Caps player (the men’s side) is about $250,00 compared to the top retainer for a White Ferns player (the women’s side) of $40,000. This disparity is obvious and startling, in my opinion. However, there is an argument in defense of this that must be addressed.

The main argument against increasing funding and payment for women’s cricket is that it does not generate the crowds, viewership, and revenue that men’s cricket does. However, this brings up the chicken and the egg argument. Will more crowds and revenue lead to better payment and funding, or would better payment and funding lead to more crowds and revenue. An example of the latter is currently being enacted in both Australia and England. The governing organizations of cricket in both of these countries decided to go all in and practice equity in funding and payment between genders. Since then, they have seen their women’s teams begin to perform better and be more competitive. As a result, they have also seen higher viewership and crowd turnout, as well as higher revenue generated. This would seem to answer the big question of whether performance should lead to funding or vice versa. Either way, the White Ferns have already started increasing their competitiveness, and it is becoming harder and harder to justify the stark disparity in pay.

The reason I say this is extremely similar to the issue currently present in American soccer is because the poor payment of female professional soccer players in the United States has long been an issue. Women playing in the NWSL, the MLS’ female counterpart, and even for the USWNT, often have to work two jobs to sustain themselves. This is still the case even after the USWNT won the most recent women’s World Cup, while the men’s side failed to even qualify after losing to the likes of Trinidad and Tobago. It does not make much apparent sense to spend most of your funding on the team that cannot even make an appearance at the world’s largest sporting event, especially while their female counterparts are not only making an appearance but winning it in dominant fashion.

In conclusion, with evidence that increased funding and payment can lead to increased competitiveness, followed by better crowds, viewership, and revenue, combined with the obvious insanity of paying women 5% of their male counterparts, I think it should be an extremely easy decision for New Zealand Cricket to make when they address this ridiculous pay gap.

Blog Entry #7: The Current Event

I spent this past weekend in the amazing city of Queenstown, New Zealand. Everything about this city is pretty spectacular. It is surrounded by beautiful landscapes such as the Remarkables mountain range (given that name because they are one of three mountain ranges in the world to run true North to South), the Kawarau and Shotover Rivers, and the beautiful Lake Wakatipu. Using this to its advantage, Queenstown is known as the adventure capital of the world. Skydiving, bungee jumping, whitewater rafting, canyoning, and many more adventure sports and activities make Queenstown one of the most popular bucket list destinations in the world. So while ambitious young people like myself see this as a thrilling opportunity to avoid responsibilities for an action-packed weekend, this city is actually extremely important to the nation of New Zealand, as tourism is now the country’s main export. Building off of that, I would like to detail my own adventure sport experiences in Queenstown while also discussing the importance of sport tourism and its role in making Queenstown the adventure capital of the world.

My immediate reaction to learning about Queenstown and our options for activities was, “I’m going bungee jumping”. I feel like bungee jumping and skydiving are often the first things people think of when they learn about Queenstown or think of adventure sports in general. In fact, if you would have asked me to list the activities I thought would be available in Queenstown before I actually looked into it, I probably would not have gotten much further than those two alone. But what I realized during the past weekend is that sport and adventure tourism manifests itself in many different ways that actually make it accessible to so many more people than I ever thought possible.

I actually ended up avoiding bungee jumping, the main reasons being the cost and my perceived worth of it, and I would think that this is the same for many others. The cost of bungee jumping (which might last 20 seconds) was greater than the cost of each other activity I did. One issue with Queenstown is the cost, which is a major barrier for many people who wish to visit there and partake in adventurous activities. This is where the wide scope of sport and adventure tourism comes into play. Once I began looking around at other activities, I realized that the possibilities were endless. I could do something extreme like skydiving, or something active like mountain biking, or something relaxing like zip-lines or a cruise. One of the first things I found was jet boating at Lake Wakatipu. This was an hour of speeding around the beautiful lakes and rivers of Queenstown, missing obstacles by inches, doing 360 spins, and reaching speeds of 55 MPH. My combo also included a cruise around Lake Wakatipu afterward. These were thrilling, but also scenic and not all that dangerous. Anybody could do these activities, and they actually combined adventure sports and sightseeing by taking place in famous, scenic locations and featuring bits of commentary/information on the area from our guides.

On Sunday, I did canyoning with a large group of my classmates. This activity probably held the most value for me, but before I actually did it, I had no idea what it even entailed. We suited up and hiked into a canyon just outside the city. We then did a series of repelling, floating, sliding down small waterfalls, and jumping into natural pools. In total, it lasted about two hours, and we everything we did utilized the natural landscapes and obstacles in the canyon. This activity could be fun for just about anyone age 10 through 50, in my opinion, especially families and groups. After that, a couple of us went zip-lining as part of a scenic adventure/eco-tour. These zip-lines ran right through the forests of Bob’s Peak, which overlooks all of Queenstown and Lake Wakatipu. We learned about the natural history of the area, conservation efforts, and native legends about the formation of the lake and surrounding mountains. Anybody could do this activity, and it added an educational aspect to the scenic adventure tourism, as well.

For me, my experience really sums up what adventure and sport tourism are about. It is meant to be for anyone to enjoy however they would like. This is what makes Queenstown so amazing, and it is the reason it has become the adventure capital of the world. Your experience is truly what you make of it, and no matter what you are capable of, what you love to do, or what you want to try, there is something for you in adventure and sport tourism, and there is something for you in Queenstown, New Zealand.

Blog Entry #4: Queenstown