Well it is now Sunday evening around 11:30 and I have just got back in after walking Charlotte home, she has stayed with me all weekend which was lovely, as I had not really seen much of her during the week. The weather this evening was warm and even though the breeze remained a feature, the air was pretty humid to. This is often the case in Wellington and is charaterised by low cloud hanging around the surrounding mountain peaks and some say, a feeling of melancholy in the air.
Not sure if the news about the death of Sir Edmund Hillary received much coverage in the UK, I suspect it did, but this was a fairly major story here. They knew it may be imminent due to his recent bad health and the fact that within 4 hours the NZ equivalent of Radio Four, called National Radio, had a special hour long tribute show on air. Still, at 88 the man truly did lead the 'ideal Kiwi' life, having of course claimed Everest, or 'knocked the bastard off' as he famously said afterwards.
Caroline and I were driving over the Rimutaka mountain range on route to Greytown when we heard the news, and in fact the morning he died is the same one I captured on the time lapse imagery of Wellington in my last post. I think this and the combined recent events of my continued joblessness, the loss of the iconic Chocolate Fish Cafe, slow progress for Caroline's visa, Charlotte's long term job prospects and even the Burgerfuel place I featured in an earlier blog has burned down, could be misconstrued as insurmountable negative notes on this Kiwi adventure, which is a shame but a thought which needed to be aired.
I guess I miss some things about the UK, such as my bike, cat and family, but on the whole I am still extremely glad I have made this journey and continue to enjoy the Wellington vibe. for example my book about Wellington benches now has a better title 'All the best in your sitting - A pictorial study of Wellington Benches'...I may tidy up the strap line a little, but the first bit actually comes from some graffiti written on one of the featured benches, and I think it fits really well.
Also if truth be told then there are some things which bug me about New Zealand and/or Wellington, but rather than go into them here I shall add a new bit down the side and update them as they come up. The locals, naturally, do not like the stereotypical winging pom, especially when talking about a Kiwi way of things - however you know me and apart from mentioning things loudly in the local supermarket, I think this will be a good forum to vent. Don't get me wrong or add knowing comments along the lines of 'mmm, a touch of home sickness and now moaning about things - guess he wants to come home', as I could add another section about all the crap in the UK...and you do not even get the views to compensate it!
Well maybe I should write these updates on a morning rather than last thing at night, then they may be a bit more upbeat? Ah, mmm last night was a bit of a drinking session for Charlotte, Caroline and me...now I remember why I lost some of this morning and am typing this up now!
Drinking session? Tell us more I hear you say. Well I don't obviously, but I thought that made a better intro than 'Well...' Erm, so the we had a relaxed start to Saturday morning, Charlotte had gone to see her mentee (mmm, not sure if that is the correct word, in fact I know it is not, but as she is a volunteer mentor on a scheme for disadvantaged Wellington children, I did not know how else to put it). Caroline had gone to the hair dressers for a new 'do' and I basically went shopping. One great advantage of using a car in Wellington, apart from being quicker up the hills, is after my 3rd attempt to pay a parking meter for street parking, I actually noticed it saying 'Weekends are free' every time it spat my credit card out! Perfect, the time you need to park and parking is free and right outside the places you need to go in the city centre.
Well after doing our respective bits, we all met up again, commented on how nice Caroline's new hair do looked (picture here soon) and then decided to spend the afternoon in Days Bay which is on the other side of the natural harbour area of Wellington. You can reach it via a regular ferry from the city but not being sure of the times, I choose to drive there. The afternoon and evening sun was warm and attracting many into the sea, with a large group choosing to swim out to a raft which was anchored about 100m off of shore - these are a common feature here and you may be able to see some swimmers going for the Oriental bay ones in my time lapse film.
Not sure if the news about the death of Sir Edmund Hillary received much coverage in the UK, I suspect it did, but this was a fairly major story here. They knew it may be imminent due to his recent bad health and the fact that within 4 hours the NZ equivalent of Radio Four, called National Radio, had a special hour long tribute show on air. Still, at 88 the man truly did lead the 'ideal Kiwi' life, having of course claimed Everest, or 'knocked the bastard off' as he famously said afterwards.
Caroline and I were driving over the Rimutaka mountain range on route to Greytown when we heard the news, and in fact the morning he died is the same one I captured on the time lapse imagery of Wellington in my last post. I think this and the combined recent events of my continued joblessness, the loss of the iconic Chocolate Fish Cafe, slow progress for Caroline's visa, Charlotte's long term job prospects and even the Burgerfuel place I featured in an earlier blog has burned down, could be misconstrued as insurmountable negative notes on this Kiwi adventure, which is a shame but a thought which needed to be aired.
I guess I miss some things about the UK, such as my bike, cat and family, but on the whole I am still extremely glad I have made this journey and continue to enjoy the Wellington vibe. for example my book about Wellington benches now has a better title 'All the best in your sitting - A pictorial study of Wellington Benches'...I may tidy up the strap line a little, but the first bit actually comes from some graffiti written on one of the featured benches, and I think it fits really well.
Also if truth be told then there are some things which bug me about New Zealand and/or Wellington, but rather than go into them here I shall add a new bit down the side and update them as they come up. The locals, naturally, do not like the stereotypical winging pom, especially when talking about a Kiwi way of things - however you know me and apart from mentioning things loudly in the local supermarket, I think this will be a good forum to vent. Don't get me wrong or add knowing comments along the lines of 'mmm, a touch of home sickness and now moaning about things - guess he wants to come home', as I could add another section about all the crap in the UK...and you do not even get the views to compensate it!
Well maybe I should write these updates on a morning rather than last thing at night, then they may be a bit more upbeat? Ah, mmm last night was a bit of a drinking session for Charlotte, Caroline and me...now I remember why I lost some of this morning and am typing this up now!
Drinking session? Tell us more I hear you say. Well I don't obviously, but I thought that made a better intro than 'Well...' Erm, so the we had a relaxed start to Saturday morning, Charlotte had gone to see her mentee (mmm, not sure if that is the correct word, in fact I know it is not, but as she is a volunteer mentor on a scheme for disadvantaged Wellington children, I did not know how else to put it). Caroline had gone to the hair dressers for a new 'do' and I basically went shopping. One great advantage of using a car in Wellington, apart from being quicker up the hills, is after my 3rd attempt to pay a parking meter for street parking, I actually noticed it saying 'Weekends are free' every time it spat my credit card out! Perfect, the time you need to park and parking is free and right outside the places you need to go in the city centre.
Well after doing our respective bits, we all met up again, commented on how nice Caroline's new hair do looked (picture here soon) and then decided to spend the afternoon in Days Bay which is on the other side of the natural harbour area of Wellington. You can reach it via a regular ferry from the city but not being sure of the times, I choose to drive there. The afternoon and evening sun was warm and attracting many into the sea, with a large group choosing to swim out to a raft which was anchored about 100m off of shore - these are a common feature here and you may be able to see some swimmers going for the Oriental bay ones in my time lapse film.
We found a cafe called Chocolate Days cafe, and yes it was once related to the Chocolate Fish cafe I have mentioned before, but now only the painted chairs remained as a link to its past. Sitting, chatting and drinking coffee and wine, lead into kedgeree dinner. Yes, for those that know me, I have changed a habit of 33 years since arriving in New Zealand I have become a regular coffee drinker - one in the morning and 2 or 3 flat whites during the day...heck I even make the stuff myself!.
Whilst in Days Bay, I also took another photo for the book as technically it is still Wellington and the image of the bench and beach was pretty good together - incidentally the photographer I met in Greytown on Friday had also taken a photo of a Wellington bench, this one being on Oriental Bay and identical in many ways to one I had taken, I am becoming worried someone will steal my idea, but hopefully this blog and conversations with publishers (to be concluded after 21st Jan) will act as prior art in some way.
Upon returning to Wellington I dropped Charlotte and Caroline off at a local bar (the tasting rooms on Courtney Place), and returned to the apartment to leave the car. I drove past the construction on the beach I mentioned in my last blog and filmed being made - this turned out to be a beach volley ball stadium, including three platforms of special sand for the courts, and tiered seating. Now, I know some of you may be thinking, 'Where are the pictures of the volley ball girls then Kev?', and sorry but every time I went past it only the guys were playing and I did not have my camera or they had finished. Guess you could say I dropped the ball on that one!
Another poor show related to the volley ball was the rather bad mix of Wellington wind and 'imported' fine sand being spread about - yes, on my return walk to the bar that evening I found out what it was like to be sand blasted, which felt even worse when I saw the scoreboard and the words 'Double elimination' - still, I just walked a little quicker that night! Or at least I did up until the 2nd bar and 3rd or 4th Vodka with Cranberry juice. OK, some of you may be thinking that is less than a manly style of drink, well, true - but the pints of summer ale do leave a gassy feeling after a while and besides I was living up to an earlier, impromptu, yet missed, opportunity to give Robin (of Batman fame) a kiss on the lips!
Yep, in one of the bars we were joined by a Kiwi stag night - complete with groom to be in Robin costume and his 10 or so mates in non-superhero garb. They pandered to my last employed task as each of them had a laminated Scorecard hung around their necks which listed venues and scorable tasks. The organisation which had gone into this was impressive and the creator was one of the stagees, only he was different as he had a little hole punch for marking off the others cards. You could gain points by the usual 'downing a pint' or spirit, but also extra ones for meeting and kissing girls around you. So when the request went out for a girl to kiss Robin, Caroline was eager to jump up (even though she preferred Number 42!), followed by Charlotte, and not wanting to be left out - me - however the startled look on his face and the hysterical laughter from his mates, confirmed that the Kiwi sense of 'men being men' and anything else just not being cricket, curtailed what was just going to be a motion from me anyway. Still, having ones advances spurned by a superhero sidekick can be as painful as it sounds!
The night continued on with much drinking and even dancing in one of the Cuba street venues we ended up in. We also managed to stagger back to home without buying a kebab which clearly indicated we could have had more to drink I guess!
Well there you have it, another weekend under my belt and I am still here. I have lost count how many now, and my parents have not called tonight to provide the weekly update either, I think Clive, Ashley or Wendy will be reading this at some point if I do not manage to call in before hand. Until the next one...