Final few weeks in Wellington

The last couple of weeks have been action packed as I’ve tried to fit in as much as possible before I finish my time in Wellington.

After the excitement of the Sevens, a quiet next weekend would have made a lot of sense. A group of us decided to meet up and watch a fireworks display for the end of Chinese New Year and go for a karaoke session. I never have a desperate desire for karaoke, but was happy to go with the flow. The venue was a booth in the upstairs of a Korean restaurant that felt a lot like someone’s sitting room. Safely out of the public gave and after quite a few beers it was a great laugh. We carried on to a few bars afterwards and I didn’t make it home until five am. Sunday was spent moving very slowly and enjoying a bit of all too rare sunshine on the beach.

The next weekend was another busy one. After work on Friday evening we went to watch the first Twenty20 game in the South Africa tour of New Zealand. It was a close game with the Black Caps (NZ’s team) winning in the last over. On Saturday the centre of town was turned over to a music festival called Homegrown, which showcases Kiwi bands of all different genres. It was a fantastic afternoon and evening soaking up the sunshine and the music. After a year here I’d heard of quite a few of the bands, so it was great to set to see them live.

In between all of this we were searching for a new flatmate to take over my room and I was selling off the bulky things I’d bought on Trademe, the local ebay. In a reversal of the process I went through to find a flat last year, we spent several weekends interviewing prospective flatties. It all got a bit disheartening when we had a procession of people who couldn’t read the add (‘no students’ apparently wasn’t clear enough), couldn’t string a sentence together or didn’t know when to stop talking! Eventually we found a laid back Scottish guide called Alisdair who’s now settling in to what was my room.

I was also wrapping things up at work, trying to tie up at least some of the loose ends on things I’d been working on and hand things over. A big new project has started up in the last few months and so rather than gradually winding down, I found myself rushing around with urgent meetings and briefings. It’s strange to look back on a whole year of working in a role that was both similar and different to what I was used to back in England.

During my final week I had something on almost every evening. Not long after I arrived, I was told about how John, who was here on secondment the year before me, had jumped into the harbour with a few other people shortly before he left. Not to be outdone, I was keen to do the same and on Tuesday evening got the chance.

Getting ready to jump

Here goes nothing

This one didn't end quite so well!

On Wednesday evening we went to watch Back Benchers being filmed. Then on Thursday a whole group of us went along with Helen to see what the Zumba class she has been raving about was really like, it was much more exercise than I expected.

My final weekend came round all too soon. Friday was my last day at work and so we had some farewell drinks at the end of the day. I’ve been immensely lucky to have landed in such a friendly and supportive team (and I’m not just writing that because some of them may read this post!). It made a huge difference, particularly when I first arrived, to enjoy going in to work and getting to know my colleagues. My manager put together the most incredible leaving present, an apple photobook with all the pictures off this blog along with others from trips and nights out through the whole year. It’s going to be a treasured memento of my year out here.

Saturday was mostly spent sorting through all the stuff I’ve accumulated and trying to pack my bags for travelling. In the evening, Harry and I went to see Hugo, which is great, and grabbed some dinner. Then it was back to more packing.

All of this needs to fit into two 23kg suitcases (except the furniture)

This morning (Sunday) I was entered into the Round the Bays Half Marathon. I was running with Carina (of cupcake and previous half marathon fame) and the goal was to help her get her first sub-2 hour time. We had good conditions, without too much wind and ran a great pace finishing in about 1:56 (the results are published in the paper tomorrow so they haven't yet loaded them online...grr). Angela and a couple of friends all ran the seven km course and so we got to meet up at the finish line. I would have loved to spend the afternoon relaxing and having a few well earned beers with everyone, but had to dash off to load my car up and make a start on my trip.

Wellington sevens

The first weekend in February was a long weekend to mark Waitangi Day. It was also the weekend of the Wellington Sevens. The Sevens is a Wellington institution and a must do on the global calendar of any serious fancy-dress fan. Part of the World HSBC Sevens Series, it's gained a reputation as one of the biggest fancy dress parties in the World. Apparently there's also some rugby going on in the background.


Tens of thousands of Kiwis (and a few expats) descend on the Wellington stadium for two days in some of the most impressive costumes I've ever seen. In the two days I noticed only two people at the tournament not wearing fancy dress...truly spectacular!


Helen, Harry, Angela and I decided to find a theme with four characters. After much deliberation we settled on Wizard of Oz. We had a mix of bought and home-made costumes. I was the tinman, which involved two cans of silver car spray paint, two pots of silver face paint, lots of cardboard, red material and about a week of evenings to prepare. It turned out to be quite a good choice as we only ran into a couple of other groups who had chosen the same (among 35,000 people in fancy dress that represents pretty good odds).

Costume components

Getting silver

The end result

We're off to see the wizard...after another beer

The effort that some people had gone to was incredible. The ideas ranged from traditional to topical, via trashy and truly bizarre. I didn't take many photos, but the newspapers got plenty.

Before we even got to the stadium

Lego men was a popular theme

These guys don't look to happy with their outfits

After the end of the rugby on the Friday night we headed into town to party. I eventually made it home about 5am. Getting up the next morning and doing it all over again was pretty hard!


I arrived in NZ just after the Sevens last year and all year people had been telling me I had to make sure I went. Now I've been I understand why. It was a legendary weekend, like no other party I've ever been to. Oh, and New Zealand won in the rugby.

Kiwi Christmas and New Year

I had a pretty packed couple of weeks over the Christmas and New Year holidays.


My friend Tyra came out to visit again. Her birthday is on the 24th of December and she'd always wanted to celebrate somewhere warm. In the weeks running up to her visit I was getting worried as the weather was pretty mixed. Luckily, New Zealand put on the sunshine and heat for her trip. We spent her birthday driving all along the coastline around Wellington, starting with Oriental Bay, which starts in the heart of the city.

Wellington from Oriental Bay

We stopped off at a couple of the bays to enjoy the sun, including Lyall Bay. We had lunch at the Chocolate Fish Cafe, which is famous for being a hangout for the Lord of the Rings cast and crew.


We then came back to the flat for a birthday cake. New World, a local supermarket chain with a very Orwellian name, supplied an amazingly tasty chocolate cake that got the thumbs up all round.

Tyra's cake

Christmas day itself started with pancakes and bubbles (the Kiwi name of champagne and sparkling wine). While my Mum was over to visit, she had put together a stocking and left it with my flatmate. This was a total, and lovely, surprise. I spoke to my Mum on skype, before she headed off for her Samaritans night shift.


We then headed over to my flatmate Gabby's family home for a Christmas meal. Again, the weather was scorching so we spent the afternoon in the shade in the garden chatting and enjoying a few drinks while the meal was cooking. The meal itself was fantastic, with roast turkey and roast ham, lots of traditional trimmings and some lighter summery additions like artichoke hearts and asparagus.It was so nice to spend my Kiwi Christmas amongst such a welcoming family.

Carving the ham

Yum!!

Lighting the Christmas pudding

Boxing day was a relaxed affair. In the afternoon we went to the cinema to see The Iron Lady. I enjoyed the film a lot, even if it skimmed over much of the politics. As all the reviews have been saying, Meryl Streep gives a fantastic performance.


The 27th was time to say goodbye to Tyra, who flew down to Christchurch before heading home. In the afternoon I then went to a Twenty20 match at the Basin Reserve. My last visit had been to see the Christchurch fundraising match in March. The Wellington Firebirds were playing the Central Stags. Unfortunately the Firebirds kept up the traditional of the Wellington Hurricanes (rugby) and Phoenix (football) and got soundly beaten, by 29 runs. Fortunately, it was still a good afternoon sitting on the grass in the sun and enjoying a few beers.

The next day (28 December) called for a hike to work off a few of the Christmas dinner calories. My friend Carina and I had decided to do a day-long walk in the Belmont National Park. This is a great area that is incredibly close to Wellington, one minute you are driving through suburban housing and then a minute later you're at the start of a forest track where you won't pass another walker. The day was cooler and cloudier than the week had been before, which was actually refreshing and made the walking a lot easier. We didn't manage to follow the exact route we intended. We still managed to take in all the sights we'd planned, including the scattering of old WW2 ammunition stores, the hilltop Trig and the views over the coastline in most directions.

The ammunition stores...and some cows

Made it to the Trig

Luckily when I woke up the next morning my legs weren't sore from the hike, as I had a long drive ahead of me. I was heading all the way up to Gisborne on the east coast to meet up with a group of friends and go to the Rhythm and Vines music festival. I set off pretty early and a mere 540 kilometres later arrived in one piece.

Having travelled across half the North Island, I was ready for a beer, but the first task was to set up my tent. Although the festival has big campsites, we'd scored a much better arrangement as a friend's family has a house just outside Gisborne. So although we were camping in their garden, we had access to bathrooms, a kitchen and a deck. Meaning instead of a diet of mars bars and pot noodles, we were having oven cooked pizza and daily BBQs, including freshly caught fish.

In the garden

I arrived a day after most of my friends, who already had their tents set up. When I started unpacking mine, which I borrowed from a colleague, it quickly became clear that what they'd described as a 'two...or maybe three person' tent was, compared to what my friends had, palatial. I couldn't quite stand up inside!

Mine's on the right

The festival started that night, so after a couple of drinks and BBQ it was time to head in. Buses ran from right outside where we were staying to the festival site. The music kicked off late in the day and with most people drinking before they went, it was always an entertaining ride out to the festival and even more amusing on the ride back.


The site was a local vineyard and was suprisingly hilly, with different stages and bars scattered around and lots of different routes between them. Rhythm and Vines isn't as big as the major UK festivals, but it has about 25-30,000 people attend, which gives it a great atmosphere.

The line-up across the three days was pretty good. There were a bunch of local artists and then the headline acts for the three nights were Pendulum, Calvin Harris and Example ('changed the way you kissed me') on NYE. Without a doubt, my favourite was Pendulum on the first night. As well as being one of my favourite acts, they had an incredible visual show for their set. The entire stage was made up of screens and set over several different levels, so they could move around the graphics.

Pendulum visuals

The weather across New Zealand was pretty atrocious in the few days up to New Year, with storms and flooding in several places. Gisborne was among the least affected, but on New Year's Eve the heavens did open up. That did make it feel completely like a UK festival in one important way...mud! I slipped over a couple of times and it looked like the majority of people did the same. By the end of the night, some people were simply diving into the mud and sliding around.


With the combination of mud and a bit too much to drink, New Year's Day had the potential to start pretty badly. Fortunately, we were staying a few minutes walk from the beach. A dip in the pacific was a fantastic way to start the first morning of the New Year.


We left Gisborne and road-tripped back as far as Napier, which I visited back in March. I stayed the night there to break up the drive (I was not going to try and attempt the same epic distance in one go after three nights of festival mayhem). I met up with Helen and Harry, who were also stopping off for the night there. The next day saw some mini-golf and pottering around the Hawkes Bay before driving back to Wellington.


A lie-in followed by cleaning a tent, a lot of washing and a surf on the 2nd and I was all ready to head back into work on 3 January. Luckily things were pretty quiet at work for the first few days.

World Champions

So, after an incredibly tense game against France the All Blacks won the Rugby World Cup last night.


The last 6 weeks in New Zealand have been absolutely dominated by the Cup. The only other story that's got prolonged attention is the MV Rena container ship running aground on a reef in the Bay of Plenty. Fortunately, the Cup has been happier news here, particularly after last night.


Going back a week, the All Blacks soundly beat Australia 20-6 in the semi-final. I actually went to this game up in Auckland with my flatmate Matt and two other friends. Auckland city was even more lively than when I went up for the England v Scotland game. The atmosphere at the Eden Park Stadium itself was absolutely electric. For reasons I can't quite remember, I didn't take any photos.


France just beating Wales in the first semi-final set up a match between two teams who met in the final in the 1987 World Cup, which was the last time the All Blacks one the Cup. Although no-one wanted to risk saying it, based on form through the tournament the All Blacks were expected to easily win. It turned out much closer, with the All Blacks holding on to a single point lead for most of the second half. That made it an absolutely thrilling game to watch.


I went to a BBQ with a load of friends in the afternoon and then we headed to a bar called The Cambridge to watch the game. The place filled up as kick-off came closer and the tension was only just being held at bay by large amounts of beer.


As soon as the game finished the bar, and the whole of Wellington, erupted in cheers with everyone hugging each other and going wild. They'd obviously put together a playlist in preparation for the win, it would be interesting to know if they had an alternative one just in case, although I have no idea what they'd be able to put on it.


After a couple more drinks we left and headed into town. The central streets were closed off and full of people wandering from bar to bar and partying outside. An incredible atmosphere of celebration and relief as it sunk in for everyone that the trophy belongs to New Zealand for the next four years.


The last six weeks of the tournament have been absolutely brilliant. I was expecting to follow the proceedings, particularly England and the All Blacks. I hadn't expected to get as swept up in it all. Somehow it has seemed like the whole country has been involved in playing host, probably because of the size of the country and huge part that rugby plays in the kiwi identity. It's going to be tough for England to top the welcome that New Zealand has shown the World come 2015!


I've posted a load of pictures from last night on Facebook, here are a of them.

Rugby World Cup travels

Another long hiatus since my last post. The last month has been absolutely full of rugby. The pool stages of the Rugby World Cup have meant games almost every day, as well as pre- and post-game analysis and a myriad of other activity linked to the tournament.


It's also meant a couple of trips over the last two weekends to see England play in pool matches.


The first was to Dunedin, to see England play Romania. I travelled down there with Helen, Harry and Angela. Dunedin is towards the bottom of the South Island and it's the further south in the world I've been (45.9°S).


We arrived Saturday lunchtime and the match was on that evening. After a pretty big night out we had a gentle start on Sunday morning. We headed out of the city to visit Larnach Castle, the only 'castle' in New Zealand, built by a politician in the 19th century. Later in the afternoon, we took a tour round the Speight's Brewery, one of the major breweries in NZ. The tour guide was quite a character and strangely proud of the fact that the brewery had been bought up and was now part of a global conglomerate, it ended on a high note with a self-pouring opportunity to sample the whole range of brews.


We had taken Monday off work, giving us a nice relaxed and extended weekend. In the morning we took another tour, this time of the Cadbury's factory. Helen, Harry and I then had to hit the road as we hadn't flown directly to Dunedin, but instead to a town a few hours away called Timaru. On the way we stopped off to see the Moeraki Boulders, which are a surreal site. They are spherical boulders of different sizes dotted along the shore. I won't try and explain how they formed, wikipedia has an explanation. 


After a short 4-day week I was off again, this time to Auckland. I'd visited Auckland before back in July with Tyra and we hadn't been that excited by the place. The atmosphere was much livelier this time round due to the World Cup. In the morning I met up with an educationalist and Aucklander who I'd been put in touch with, he kindly showed me round a few hidden gems including a great coffee shop and the art gallery. 


Then in the afternoon I met up with Kris, a friend from the Department in England, who I was going to the game with. We were staying at a backpackers hostel in town and in the random way of hostels as we walked in we ran into a couple of Germans and an American who were going to the game and demanded we tell them the British national anthem so they could write it on their hands before the game. 


This time I was flying back on Sunday afternoon. In the morning we did have time to walk down to the waterfront and visit the giant rugby ball. This is a travelling exhibit that has been round the world advertising NZ and the World Cup. Inside a show is projected onto the interior of the ball along with a live presenter, it was really pretty impressive.


Rugby


I've deliberately left any description of the rugby to the end so anyone who isn't interested can skip over it.


Dunedin has a new stadium build for the World Cup. It's got a permanent roof and is really impressive. The seats are banked steeply meaning you feel close to all the action. Because it's enclosed the atmosphere was great during the match.


The Romania game was an easy 67-3 win. In fact it's the only game in the pool stages where England actually looked in control rather than under threat. It was great seeing 10 tries scored. Although they still made too many errors there were a few nice touches to the English game.


The Scotland game in contrast was torture to watch. All England needed to guarantee qualification was to lose by less than 8 points. Seemed like an easy task against a Scottish side that looked dreadful in their first three matches. But oh no, we couldn't make it that easy. Scotland took an early lead and their defence held firm against anything we could throw at them. At every opportunity we gave Johnny the chance to kick for a penalty and his kicking was dire, missing even straightforward kicks. It wasn't until the last 5 minutes, with Toby Flood on, that Chris Ashton broke free and got a try to shift England into the lead, with the final score 16-12. An incredibly close game and hardly a good omen as we go into the knock-out stages.


This weekend is the quarter-finals. England is playing France on Saturday. The other three matches are Wales v Ireland, Australia v South Africa and All Blacks v Argentina. I'm staying in Wellington this weekend. Then next weekend I'm off to Auckland again to watch the semi-final between the winners of the third and fourth quarter-finals - I'm guessing this will be Aus and the All Blacks and it should be an awesome game.


Dunedin photos

England v Romania

Angela, Helen and Harry on the tower of Larnach Castle

Inside the Speight's brewery

A Moeraki boulder

Boulders on the shore

Our flight home

Auckland photos

Red - outside Auckland Art Gallery

England v Scotland

Inside the rugby ball -

Return to Ruapehu

I went snowboarding at Mount Ruapehu again this weekend. This time, I went up for a whole weekend with my friend Angela from work, her flatmate Scotty and their three Irish friends.

We got out of work quite early and were on the road by 4pm. I was driving so was glad to cover quite a lot of the route in daylight and to have the time to stop for food and breaks. We cruised up without too much effort and arrived at our Bach (holiday cottage) about 9 in the evening. It was freezing cold when we arrived, but there was a wood stove in the sitting room that we soon got lit. With that fired up and a cold beer in hand we were pretty sorted for the evening.

Inside our bach

The next morning we got up to beautiful sunshine. After a nice cooked breakfast we set off for the 30 minute drive to the slopes. Well that was the plan, we hit a queue at the start of the 16km road up to the base of the ski resort. because of ice they were getting everyone to put on snow chains, which was taking ages at the one spot to fit them. After a very slow 2 1/2 hours (!) inching along, some very random conversations and a bit of luck we were at the snow chain area. Just as we were fitting our chains they announced the road had improved and we didn't need them. Pretty soon we were parked, kitted up and on the chair lift. Conditions were really good and despite the slopes being busy I had a good afternoon on boarding.

We got down into town at the end of the day and went for some food in a bar restaurant with a big open fire in the middle of it. One of the guys recommended trying the Big Burger. The components I remember are - beef patty, bacon, cheese, lettuce, tomato, beetroot, hash browns and onion rings...oh, and loads of chips. For those in the know, it's knocked the Tocade burger off the top of my list of top-ski-resort-burgers-with-hash-browns list.

Dinner in Ohakune

On Sunday we had a quicker drive to the slopes. We even randomly got waved all the way through to get to park right by the bottom of the chair lift, avoiding a long walk. It was sunny again and conditions were good.

Crazy looking cloud as we drove up to the ski field

I found my snowboarding really clicking as the day went on. I felt really in control and was hitting everything I wanted to including little pop-ups I've never really nailed before.

Happy on the chair lifts

In the afternoon four of us headed right to the top of the slopes and started to explore off-piste. We found some steep drop-ins and great snow and had the most amazing run all the way down to the base camp. The first time down was the most fun I've had since I began snowboarding. We went back up just before the lifts shut and although I was getting knackered it was almost as good the second time round.

View down to the slopes from our off-piste vantage point

This is my first attempt at embedding a video. One of the guys showing how a drop-in should be done...and another showing how it shouldn't! It's Scotty getting up at the bottom after his own wipe out.

We loaded up with big flat whites to help keep me awake for the drive back to Wellington, which took until about 10:30pm. We even christened my car LaFayundai on the journey back. 

This morning I felt pretty tired dragging myself out of bed for work, but it was totally worth it.

Steak, Sport and the Slopes

Had an excellent weekend. It started out quietly with a few drinks on Friday evening with a couple of mates from work.


On Saturday a group of us went to a show called Soap in the afternoon. An impressive range of acrobatics that was a bit like a scaled down version of Cirque du Soleil. At points it was a bit silly and they could have ditched the singer, but overall it was a good show.


After the show we went for a few drinks and some food. I went for a nice big hot stone steak -

Yum!

Helen, Harry and I then went to watch the All Blacks beat the Springboks 40 - 07 in the Tri-Nations. The stadium was nearly full and there was a good atmosphere. 

The Haka - really impressive live

Corey Jane starts his try-scoring break

The springboks looking worried in the first half

Richie Mccaw signing autographs after the match

 As if that wasn't enough excitement for one weekend, on Sunday I went snowboarding with my flatmate Matt and his mates. It was a hideous 5:30am start to drive up from Wellington to Mt Ruapehu. This is the main ski resort in the North Island and sits on the slopes of a giant volcano. Because it's a single peak sticking up from the land it looks totally different to the European resorts I'm used to.


The weather was beautiful and sunny and the snow was good. With the weather and being the last day of school holidays it was busy on the slopes. Still managed to get a good day of 'boarding. Suitably knackered and bruised we loaded back into the car just before 5pm for the journey back to Wellington. 


All in, the day trip was about 16 hours. Totally worth it, but I'm looking forward to making it up for a whole weekend.

Looking down on the North Island from the slopes

Mark launching off a serious kicker