NZ couple win Lumberjack competition while 6 months pregnant

Here's a nice kiwi woman for ya...

http://nz.news.yahoo.com/a/-/top-stories/5758768/nz-couple-chop-down-lumberjack-opposition/

A New Zealand couple have cleaned up at the 50th Lumberjack World Championships at Hayward, Wisconsin.

On Monday (NZ time) Jason Wynyard, 34, of Auckland, won five events, was second in two others, and easily captured his 11th consecutive all-around championship, the New York Times reported.

He and his wife, Karmyn -- who won two events despite being six months pregnant -- combined to win the jack and jill double buck (two-person sawing).

There were 114 professional competitors this year watched by 4500 spectators.

Jason Wynyard -- the only full-time competitor in the field -- was "built like an NFL defensive end with a buzz cut," the New York Times reported. "He speaks softly and carries a metal box of axes that hack through 30cm of aspen in little more than 15 seconds, and sheaths of 180cm-long saw blades that cut through 50cm pine logs in about 10sec.

Together, he and Karmyn won $US6175 ($NZ9511).

"What the Lumberjack World Championships lack in prize money it makes up for in prestige," the newspaper reported.

The Wynyards compete mostly in New Zealand and Australia, and used to chase summer to North America, competing every weekend for three months.

But the circuit has shrunk in recent years, and they now only go for the world championships and the Timbersports series, sponsored by a chainsaw maker.

"I had big hopes," Jason Wynyard said of when he started his career in the mid-1990s. "I thought maybe it's going to really take off and be something big.

"It's a great spectator sport. But it hasn't really taken off. It's gone the other way, which is too bad."

The competition saws cost $US1500 to $US1800 each, and most serious competitors own several.

Axes can cost $US500 each, and competitors may own 20.

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Kiwi's... our pregnant women can kick your ass!

Yum Cha: A Kiwi Experience?

    What is Yum Cha you might ask.  Kiwi’s here will know, but I don’t think Americans will immediately understand it.  I think it is similar to Dim Sum, but since I never experienced that in the US, I don’t really know.
    So… Yum Cha might be a strangely Kiwi-Chinese experience.  This is how it goes.  You walk in to a something that looks like a cheap Chinese food restaurant.  You will be greeted by an Asian person who typically speaks about 2 words of English.  These words are “Yes” and “No”.  You are directed via smiles and gestures to sit down.  You’re given tea, a set of chop sticks, a blank bill, and a small empty plate.
    Now the fun begins.  An Asian woman will come to your table with a tray of 6-10 plates and ask you (with gestures and badly accented phrases) if you want one of these items she has.  You really only get to say “No” as anything other than an emphatic and clear “No” will get one of these plates on your table.  She will then make a tick mark on your bill.  More Asian women will follow with perhaps a dozen trays of fairly random bits.
    The small plate you just ordered will usually have 3 large bite sized portions of food on it.  Perhaps a pork bun, or 3 spring rolls, or something similar.  However many things are unrecognizable.  But don’t ask about them as you may end up with 4 plates of them by accident!
    The first time I experienced one of these places I quickly adapted to the concept, but in my attempt to order water and a fork I inadvertently got 5 more plates of food.
    I have now accidentally ended up eating Yum Cha twice now.  It is not immediately obvious that any particular Chinese restaurant is serving it first off.  Second is the obvious language barrier.  But I also think they owners use these two factors to their best advantage! “Oh, stupid American… give him 5 plates!”
    Luckily I happen to be fairly non-particular about what I’m eating.  But I am sensitive in the pocket book.  Usually Yum Cha is a great deal for 3 people (as most plates have 3 “portions”), it is much less so for one person.  You can expect to pay $20 NSD for a Yum Cha meal.  While weird, it is pretty tasty.