coroneljan.

Saturday, 15 March 2014

Day 13: Wellington: Coffee + Dragonboat + Parliament

I decided that one week was enough time to see Wellington so I booked a car rental for the next day. I think what motivated me to move on and see more was how everyone I met was moving on to the South Island or moving on to somewhere else. Since I was planning to fly to Christchurch in 4 days I felt like Id rather spend on a rental and see Tongariro National Park rather than spend on staying in a city that Ive explored already.

I spent the afternoon with the taiwanese student I met recently and the spanish girl I met the night before. We went for brunch on cuba street, went to check out a dragonboat competition, sat in front of parliament , had coffee again, the brazilian from bar crawl came by, then we checked out a capoeira circle nearby.

Unfortunately the spanish girl had to fly back that night so she left, and the brazilian decided to stay in the capoeira circle so I went back to the hostel.

For dinner I had 99 cent spaghetti in a can (tastes bad when its not warm), and had some beer with some randoms that came by. There was a brazilian, a swedish dude, 2 german girls, 2 german dude, 3 other canadians and an english couple. A nice international mix.

3 best friends that anyone can have

Parliament chillin

Waiting for dragonboats

Parliament building looks like it was made from egg cartons. Big art attack?

Beehive

Dragonboat competition

Capoeira

Drinks with a bunch of people featuring Swedish dude's legs

- mike

Day 12: Wellington: Waterfront

I woke up at 1pm. I didnt realize that I got back to the hostel at 3:30 am.

I went to go pennyboarding along the waterfront and when I got back a few of the guys from the bar crawl wanted to check out the waterfront too so this time I ditched the pennyboard and walked with them.

There were 2 argentinians so they introduced me to this drink called Mate (mateh?). Its sortof like a tea that you drink from a gourd cup with a metal straw. So educational! Should ve taken a picture...

After cooking dinner i decided to say hi to a random person and eat with them (lent). She is a spanish girl working as a nanny in auckland, and she liked how I randomly decided to say hi and eat with her. I didnt realize how easy it would be to make new friends...

After that she invited me to have mcdonalds with her swedish friend and on the way out I invited the french guy from the bar crawl. After mcdonalds we bought some beers from the supermarket and played some pool. Yey to new friends.

Wellington civic square

French, brazilian, swedish, spanish, canadian

-mike

Day 11: Wellington: Mt Victoria

My goal for today was to climb Mt Victoria and go hunting for some LOTR filming locations.

On the way up to the top I happen to pass by a german from the first hostel I stayed in, so I went up with him to the top (There are a lot of germans travelling in New Zealand).

After reaching the top I decided to ditch him and his friend to look for the filming location. It was pretty difficult to find since I didnt really look up where it was exactly. I eventually found it by following the road until I saw a tour bus parked in one area. I followed them to get to the location and waited for them to leave to take some pictures and geek out on my own.

After my little geek moment I went back to the hostel and got ready for a bar crawl that was set to happen that night. This made it so easy to meet new people. The first bar was a nice chill sit down bar. 30 dollar pitchers... yeh expensive... the next bar was a fancy lounge, also with expensive beers so I stuck with buying just one glass. The next bar was a bar with a live band, and the last bar was actually a club. It was an interesting night with full costume pirates... and beer... and yeah.

I met 2 canadians, 1 french, 1 swedish, 3 germans, and 1 brazilian.

-mike

"Get off the road!"

Sign post

Signpost direction

Top if Mt Victoria

Top of Mt Victoria

Mt Victoria Path

Geeking out in the hobbit hiding spot

Mt Victoria path

- mike

Day 10: Wellington: Ash Wednesday

It was a raining in the morning but I still managed to grab a coffee with a Vancouverite from the hostel. I noticed that New Zealanders take their coffee seriously and apparently Wellington has some great coffee shops so I figured why not try a few.

After coffee I decided to just chill and wait till church since it was ash wednesday. The church I went to was on mt Victoria and could be seen from the city.

Ash wednesday marks the first day of lent, so that means I had to think of something to give up or a goal to strive for. I already gave up posting on facebook and instagram while Im here so I guess that counts, but I also decided to do something else:

- Meet someone new everyday (or learn something new about a friend)

I thought this would be a good idea because it would encourage me to make new friends and meet new people. So for every post Im going to mention someone I met or a new thing Ive learned about someone.

I started right away after church.... a german fellow was walking the same way back to the city so it was easy to start a conversation. He s planning to work in landscaping in wellington or auckland.

To me lent has been a good time to try to get rid of bad habits or help start some good ones. Even if I wasnt religious I think it would be a fun personal challenge to give something up or try something new.

View before church

View after church

Church on Mt Victoria

Wednesday, 5 March 2014

Day 9: Wellington: WETA Cave

Okay. Today. Is a day I looked forward to since I first decided to come here.

WETA CAVE DAY!

In the morning I went to the library to apply to jobs and get myself sorted for the day. I decided to pick up a penny board! Being in auckland and wellington was itching to longboard... I never expected to get one here but I think itll be a worthwhile purchase for exploring cities. After I bought the penny board I went on my way to Miramar where WETA workshop is.

It was a long way there.... and it rained. But it was something I had to do... and when I got there... oh man

Nerd chills. The whole time. I took the window into weta tour to see the inside of the workshop. In the workshop I wasnt allowed to take pictures so let me tell you some of the things that were there...

- sauron costume (i touched it!)
- props from district 9
- halo warthog (fully functional)
- hobbit feet
- thorin statue
- urakai full scale model
- gandalf full scale model

After the tour I geeked out in the cave for a solid half hour maybe more. I ended up getting the LOTR broach and 2 bilbo baggin buttons. It cost a lot.... but the people before me made me feel better about it. They bought 600 dollars worth. To be honest... if I had the space to bring it around I would have bought gandalfs staff. It costed less than the broach I bought.

In conclusion I dropped a lot of money today. A penny board and weta souvenirs... worth.

After the workshop I decided to bus back since it was still raining. I made a new friend! A masters student in musical therapy. Had a chat at dinner and hopefully when she s actually free from school we ll find time to hang out. By then hopefully I ll have stories to tell.

Left- swords of mordor

Right- weapons from prince caspian

Collectables museum. All sold out.

Top left- rohan suit (i think)

Bottom left- witch king (old design of sauron)

Right- urakai

Geeking out with the trolls. Im a geek IDGAF.

Top left: Vanguard

Bottom left: axe

Right: Demon Edge

WETA workshop made dota 2 weapon replicas.

Radagast concepts (notice they all have bird shit)

Hobbit feet!

Avatar props

Halo props

Helmets

Top left- mouth of sauron

Top right- King of the Dead helmet

Bottom left and right- gondorian helmets

Workshop driveway entrance

Windy Wellington. Also wet...

Park road. Where everyone is busting their ass to finish hobbit 3.

Figure museum

District 9 display

- mike

Day 8: Wellington: Library

Today was pretty much a planning day. I took the day in the library to plan what to do in wellington and just get my shit together.

I opened a bank account so I dont have to pay foreign transaction fees for taking out cash. So far Ive been running off my visa and a couple hundred NZD. I also grabbed a coffee and gelato.

I got the reply from the hazelnut picking job, so I arranged a flight to the south island for March 12. What Im going to be doing is working for accomodation and food so I wont actually get paid. Im set to work for around 3 weeks so that ll help me reach my goal of staying here for a minimum of 2 months. I realized being in the main cities has slowly been eating away at my money.

I think my original plan was to stay in wellington for a month then do a road trip of the whole country, but I think one week is plenty of time to see what I need to see.
At night I felt I didnt really accomplish anything so I decided to get lost in the city. I wandered the streets of Wellington CBD. Even though the stores were closed, the displays were lit and the streets were fairly empty. It was a bit surreal. Once I got to the other side I decided to check out the botanical gardens. I decided to wing it so I got lost.... had to go up and down hills... dark alleys.... and when I finally got there the cable cars down the mountain were closed and the gardens were dark. All I got at the end was a shitty picture of the city at night (smartphones cant take good night pictures...). Thats a disadvantage of no planning. Sometimes when you get to your destination a lot of time is wasted. Lesson learned. It wasnt a big deal though theres always another day.

-mike

Sunday, 2 March 2014

Day 7: Wellington: Cuba St + Te Papa + St Paul

Another city, another day to wander around. I'll try to keep this quick...

I switched hostels to one thats more central to the city. I originally booked it for one week but i reduced it to 3 nights. The reason I did this was because I got a reply from a farm! I didnt accept it yet just to see what my other options are. There are 2 farms that i could potentially choose from depending if they both accept me. One is working with animals and customer service (a farmstay). And another is picking hazelnuts. The farm that replied first was the farmstay, but the hazelnut picking job includes weekly trips (one of them includes a trip to see rohan). So this is sortof a no brainer. Im going to bust my ass to get to hazelnut picking (although working with animals would be awesome, even if it is shovelling shit). So I have decided to wait for the hazelnut picking opportunity, but if I end up losing both opportunities........ then...... thats okay I ll just continue travelling through New Zealand.

Aside from trying to actually use my work holiday visa, I wandered through Wellington and down Cuba street, which is a nice little hipster street with coffee shops and other little boutique store thingies. I figured I should try the coffee, so I chose one with free wifi. My opinion? The coffee was damn good.

After Cuba St I wandered past a farmers market and went to Te Papa museum. So educational!

After the museum I wandered past a little art exhibit by the waterfront. They were held in freights. One was strings that you could tie together. The weird lady showed me what to do in the exhibit, and later told me that I looked like crushed berries... I hate art thats too abstract. Another freight had fragile boats with little model people and cups of water in the middle. The artist told me to bring back water from the center and save the people if I wanted to. So I tiptoed to bring water and people. I think this was a cool little experiment. The art exhibit lasts a few days so I ll come back another day to see if any douchebags destroy all the fragile pieces.

I then went to St Pauls for church around 5. It wasnt mass, it was an evensong, which is mostly the choir singing for the hour (they were really good). Maybe its an Anglican thing? I figured church would be similar enough. I made sure to pay attention to what I was reading.

In church I always take time to reflect. And that I will share in another post.

- Mike