Blown Away
Jan 12, 2008
Atop Mount Victoria, overlooking Wellington. This is where I've been for the last
few weeks scraping together an existance and having fun doing it. My overall
impression of the city so far... amazing. It's like a "best-of" reel of what a city
should be; entertaining, cultural, culinary. Oh, and it's windy. Windy like you
wouldn't believe. Vicious.
Getting pre-drunk before going out on New Years Eve at Dan's flat. You can't go
wrong with a $7 bottle of bubbly.
Dan with one of his many flatmates. That night we crashed at his place,
there had to have been at least a dozen people sleeping there.
Dave enjoys an occasional beer, to go with his beer.
We went out that night to Cuba Street, one of the happening parts of Wellington. Overall,
the celebrations were a bit low key. It's not the same without the countdown in Timesquare
happening on TV. It actually won't be New Years for another 18 hours at home!
Dave reunited with Jule... again.
18 hours after New Years in New Zealand, I wanted to celebrate New Years in
New York by going on the bungy ride.
At least two riders had to go on, but Dave and Dan were both too broke to cough
up the 40 bucks (or maybe they were just being pussies). Two French Canadian girls
saved the day. They wanted to celebrate New Years at home just like me.
3....2....1....Happy New Yeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeaaaaaaaaaarrrrrrrr!
Wellington all sparkley at night.
Vroom Vroom.
Wellington retains a lot of its charm from the old days. There are whole
streets with buildings like this.
Another old fashioned building.
Me, standing in front of Parliament. This is where the government of a country with
a population of about four million people happens. Wow... even Connecticut has
a more people.
. 
That's the Executive building. It's better known as the "Beehive" for unusual shape.
We went on a tour of the complex, and the most interesting thing I learned was that
the banquet hall in the Beehive could be booked for private function. All I could imagine
was that show "Sweet Sixteen", and some spoiled girl saying, "Daddy, I want my party
at the Beehive", then the father says no, then the girl goes on a rampage yelling, "I hate
you! I hate you! I hate you!" Because stuff like that goes through my mind.
Me, walking a plank. One of the many free things to do in the city.
Another cool building. Have you ever seen such a stylish fire station?
The busses travel along some electic lines. I'm not really sure
what they're for.
Deja vu of hanging out with Dave and Dan in Napier. The circumstances behind us
running into Dan were quite comical. When Dave and I first arrived in Wellington, we
spent a night at the YHA hostel, but being a night before New Years Eve, they didn't
have any vacancies for the next few days. So we tried every single BBH hostel in town
and they were all booked. We were fucked. Plan B was to drive somewhere outside
the city and sleep in the car for the night. However, during our drive outside of town,
we couldn't find a single quite and safe picnic ground like we did on the Forgotton World
Highway. After a couple hours of frustration, we returned to Wellington to fill up on petrol
and try again on another highway. During my frustrated drive, someone had left a message
on my phone, but I was too frustrated to look at it. I read it when I got back into the city.
It was Dan asking if I was gonne be in town for New Years. I hadn't seen him since
Rakaunui, but kept in touch on facebook. Am I going to be in Wellington? I AM in
Wellington. Soon after, there was a joyous reunion and celebration that we weren't going
to be sleeping in the streets that night.
Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. Free = Good.
More exhibits and interesting things to mention than I care to mention, but this car
made with corrugated iron reminded me of the corrugated sheep building I saw on
the road trip long ago. Also reminded me of all the other buildings I'v seen that utilize
this versatile material. I guess it's a very Kiwi thing.
A fancy and modern Marae, a Maori place of worship and community gathering.
The treaty of Waitangi was the document that gave the Bristish
sovereignty over New Zealand, but left the Maori ownership of
land. The way the document was translated in both languages
left a lot of room for interpretation and judgement, hence there's
been a lot of debate over it.
Botanical gardens... lots of plants. I'm sure a plant lover would care more for it.
Yeeeahhh!!
A cable car runs from downtown Wellington up to the botanical gardens and mountaintop
view of the city.
All aboard!!
In my guidebook as well as the map of the city, "Katherine Mansfield's
Birthplace" is listed as a place of interest. Oh god... Uninteresting.
Advertisements for a football game between Wellington Phoenix
and Sydney. And by football I mean soccer, though soccer sounds
weird to me now.
Westpac stadium where the game was being held. Reminds me of the top of a tin can.
For the next 90 minutes... kicking, tripping, and lots of complaining.
Me at my first pro football game. Woohoo!
For the last home game of the season, there should've been a bigger turnout. Then again,
they lost 2-0 to Sydney, so maybe they just suck and don't have much support.
Violation of property has never been so funny.
Where I am right now... at the YHA using the internet time I bought.
I only paid for one night stay here, but ohhh have I exploited this place.
One of the most amazing things I've seen for a long time; a hologram movie of some
Maori legends at the Wellington City and Sea Museum. I was walking around the
projection baffled by how well the movie interacted with the real objects.
Some floating sculpture in Civic Square
I swear Wellington is a small town disguised as a major city. While wondering around
town, we ran into George who we haven't seen since Rotorua. A minute sooner and
we would've taken a turn toward the Indian restaurant. A minute later, and George
would've gone to the tourist information office to find his hostel. We ended up walking
him to it, because we were experts of the city by then
I hear way to much of the N-bomb being dropped here... like they think they're
black and they own it. Shame.
Dan & George hanging out on the rock climbing wall at the skatepark. Wellington
puts a lot of work into making it's people happy with free and fun stuff.
In our continuous search for work, Dave and I considered working for Allied Workforce,
they have a catchy jingle and a lot of job postings. When we showed up one morning, we
were surrounded by massive Pacific Islanders who looked like they were ready to crush our
skulls for fun. Needless to say, our scrawny selves didn't get any work.
Wellington is the city of public sculpture. If I posted all the pictures
of public art I took, this page would be endless. It's random stuff
like this that makes Wellington so awesome.
Waking up in the morning to the sound of waves crashing on the beach and a
peanut butter and jelly sandwich.
Gluttony to the max. Hey, when you settle with only having 2 meals a day,
those 2 meals better be damn good.
Cut throat razors? Whhhhhat????
Another arrogent New Zealand bird put in its place.
"Oh... are you taking a picture of me?" When you think of the
hundred of shots that were taken during the photo shoot... HOW
did they ever decide that this was the best one??? Such a ridiculous
expression.
