Next stop: the South Pole

New Zealand

© Paulina Mingiacchi/Fagbokforlaget
Invercargill – the southernmost city in New Zealand

© William Stewart/Wikipedia
Abel Tasman National Park

© Natalia Pushchina/iStockphotos
Slope Point

© Bildagentur Zoonar GmbH/Shutterstock
The All Blacks

© Introsportphotography/Shutterstock

Next stop: the South Pole

Part 1: Growing up on the South Island

Before you listen

Martin grew up on the South Island of New Zealand. Which of these things do you think he will mention when he talks about his childhood?

Now listen to Martin and see if you were right.

I was born in a, a place called Invercargill. It’s a -, as you can hear it’s a Scottish er … from Scottish heritage. Er cos Inver means er on the river of er … but Cargill, there’s no Cargill river there, so I’m not sure why it’s called Invercargill.

So we er, we speak a bit differently down there. As you can hear, we can, we pronounce our R’s in the back of our throat, so er they can – they call it the rolling R, the Southland R.

I grew up in a Catholic family. I’ve got five sisters and er … most of the families had er about six kids. Six, seven, eight kids. The fathers er worked and the mothers er looked after the kids. Very conservative lifestyle.

We did er what we wanted to and we were always outside. So there was er – it’s not like today, gaming or you’re watching TV. We were outside mostly, we’d er, we were playing er with the rugby ball or soccer ball, er playing cricket, or we’d go into the bush, make a hut. Yeah, riding the bikes around, er go fishing, collect er tadpoles in the pond.

Grew up on the outside of the suburbs, so as the years went by, the er, the city slowly got bigger and er took over. So we had farmland on the outside when I was young and then -, but by the time I left home, when I was 18, the suburb had er engulfed us.

Wh-where I come from it’s very windy and it’s quite flat. But you could see the mountains from er where we were. We’d go out er … sometimes hunting, or most of the time just walking in the National Parks and er overnighting in the, in the cabins. DOC cabins we call them: the Department of Conservation, so D-O-C. We would erm … go out there for about maybe three or four days.

The safety rules for the er cars on the road were not the same as they are now. We had a big station wagon, fit all the, all eight of us in there. So there would be three in the front, four sisters in the back seat and I’d be in the boot with a duvet. That was my only safety device. There was no erm … seatbelt there. So there was a favourite pastime, pulling my sisters’ ponytails (laughs) as we were driving! But er actually, I had five sisters, I was the only boy, so I was a bit spoilt, I guess. Wasn’t always the best when I got the hand-me-downs, pink T-shirts, but … such is life.

Growing up on the South Island

Now do Part 1: Getting the gist and Checking details.

Part 2: Rugby

Martin’s favourite sport is rugby. It originated in England, and is now very popular in many Commonwealth countries. Listen to Martin talking to Lindis about the game.

Martin:Where I come from there’s a – well, we got fed rugby really. And er, as, as part of our erm upbringing. Not really er … soccer, which is er what you call football over here. So er … that’s what, that’s what we did. Er … everyone had a rugby ball er and that was, that was the sport that we done.
Lindis:And New Zealand’s got a very good national rugby team, hasn’t it?
Martin:Yes … yeah -. They’re called the All Blacks. They’re, yeah, they are very good, win a lot of the times erm … I think a lot of it is down to that – that’s, that’s what we do. Rugby is what we’ve really been brought up with. It was our meeting point. We did it at school, we played erm on Saturdays er … and we did our trainings through the week and it was er just the way it was.
Lindis:This year’s been quite special for the national rugby team, hasn’t it?
Martin:Yeah, New Zealand won the erm, the All Blacks won the World Cup this year in Britain. The, the final was between Australia and New Zealand, and I think it was probably the most er … exciting game I’ve seen. I had some friends who’d said “Come along, we’ve got to see this game!” So then … One (moment) I was on the edge of my seat and there was er, could not hear anybody else, was just watching the game and then er … It was very good, enjoyed it very very much, – so bring back, bring back er a lot of, a lot of memories so er ... Introduced some friends that have never seen rugby before. Some Norwegians and er … I work with erm … a guy from Turkey, so er they thought it was just fantastic. And another American guy, one of my neighbours. They could see the interest, just be-, because of the erm … the enthusiasm. All the rugby players there, the Australians and the New Zealanders, were going a hundred miles an hour from the start whistle to the end. There wasn’t any erm … slowing down, so it was er, very impressive.
Lindis:What’s the special kind of dance that the national team does before a match?
Martin:Yeah, that’s the, that’s the Maori Haka. It’s called, it’s, it’s a Maori war dance. When the erm … New Zealanders were playing another team, they’ll try and intimidate them. Cos the, a lot of the players are Maori or Maori descent, so it’s er fantastic to see.
But it’s erm …, it’s changed a lot since erm … I was a boy. The Haka’s changed. They have a, a different, erm, different words and different er … dance. So it’s still a Haka, but just a different – cos you get many different types of Haka. Before they used to jump up and er … at the end of the Haka and say “Hee”! And er … jump up with their arms in the air and er put their feet up towards their bum when they’re jumping up. But now the – they’re much more intimidating (laughs) so er … Before it was mostly erm … you’d say it was dominated by Europeans, but now there’s a lot of islanders and Maoris … in the, in the teams.
You split up the rugby team into two. You’ve got the forwards at the front and you’ve got the backs that are faster. So the forwards at the front, they’re more heavier and a bit slower, and the backs they’re a bit smaller, but they are fast. Er so it used to be that the … maybe the, the backs would be 80 kilos and a hundred and… eighty centimetres – or we’d say six foot in New Zealand. And er … they could run fast. But now er, even the, the backs, they are getting up to 120 kilos and 190 centimetres and they’re running fast so er (laughs) – Big men and they can run fast, that’s quite impressive! So now it’s a really tough game.

Rugby

Now do Part 2: Checking details and Your turn to talk.

Next stop: the South Pole

Next stop: the South Pole

Part 1: Growing up on the South Island

Before you listen

Part 2: Rugby

Part 1: Getting the gist

Part 1: Checking details

Part 2: Checking details

Part 2: Your turn to talk

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