Wellington - January 2013

Sunny day in Zealandia

It's now March and we haven't blogged about our January - dammit!  Best laid plans and all that. So - January!  A fairly quiet one, aside from our SUPER MEGA AWESOME TRIP TO TONGARIRO. Of which, more later, Liam assures me.

We started the new year off by going to see The Hobbit. It would have been rude not to, the excitement was palpable around Wellington for the première. So. slightly bleary eyed on New Year's Day we toddled off the The Roxy Cinema in Miramar, just down the road from Weta Studios where the film was produced. Cinemas in Wellington (for the most part) ooze glamour and quirkiness, and film-going is a very different experience to the usual corporate, soulless, stale popcorn atmosphere experience that Britain has to offer (with a few obvious exceptions). They all manage to retain a uniqueness feel, despite there being a host of different independent cinemas to choose from. The Roxy has a rather nice Art Deco style bar and restaurant downstairs, and the theatres are plush and retro. Thus in such surroundings we enjoyed (the term being used very loosely) The Hobbit. I've never exactly been a Tolkien fan (and, despite now having been to New Zealand twice, have never actually managed to bring myself to watch any of the Lord of the Rings films all the way through) so perhaps my judgement on the film can be taken with a pinch of salt. My first issue: the 3D. At one point I thought someone had stood up on the row in front to go to the toilet, but it turned out to be a character in the foreground. Some of the sweeping landscape scenes looked absolutely incredible, but in general it felt slightly over the top and distracting. I have to wear glasses at the cinema and let's be honest, glasses on top of glasses is never a good look. Second issue: the whole 'how ever many shots per second' malarkey (the film was shot with double the usual frame-rate . Thank goodness we didn't experience the nausea that some people experienced, but it did make some of the indoor scenes seem like they had been sped up. Third issue: the story.  I'm sorry, what story?! Close to the end as they stood and viewed the final destination from the hilltop I had a sudden "Oh God, despite the films title the journey isn't even complete by the end of the film!" moment.  Half of the 169 mins seems to be spent persuading Bilbo to man up, the rest on showy action scenes fighting myriad monsters. It would surely have worked far better as a televised series, with a different monster every week, sort of Doctor Who style?! Honestly, I can't see the appeal of this kind of movie. I'm guessing there is an element of it being an encore for lots of characters from the trilogy, giving the die-hard fans something get excited about. It wasn't terrible, it just really wasn't that good, and at that length felt rather overindulgent. OK, rant over!

We enjoyed a day of glorious sunshine on one of our days off, so we made good use of it by tramping about the tracks of Zealandia, which we first blogged about here.  We saw wildlife galore, the highlight (correctly identified without looking in the bird book - 3 points to Liam!) being a California Quail who strutted about cockily on the path beside us sporting a rather suave quiff. A bird with true style. Liam was also pleased to come across a group of Saddlebacks, a bird being brought back from extinction by sanctuaries such as this. We also stopped by the Portrait Gallery again to check out a History of Musicians in New Zealand exhibition and a photography exhibition called 37, by Doc Ross. 37 featured 37 artists who had been affected by the Christchurch February Earthquake, which lasted for 37 seconds. Each artists was shot with a 37 second exposure, leading to some pretty interesting photographs, and then used 37 words to describe their individual experience of the event. It was an informative and emotive exhibition, although we wondered whether using a variety of people rather than just the artistic community could have resulted in a more interesting and varied viewpoint.

We had a grand plan of catching the train up the Kapiti one day, to spend the day on the nature reserve of Kapiti Island, and also visiting the Tuatara Brewery which had recently opened up in Paraparaumu not far from the train station. With a picnic lunch packed and alarms set early, we got up and trudged in the drizzle to the railway station, only to ring and confirm our place on the boat and be told it had been cancelled. Drat. We trudged home and ummed and ahhed for a while, then decided to catch the train anyway and check out the brewery.  So we spent the afternoon here, enjoying a tour of the new brewery and a some freebie beers. Despite having done a fair few old brewery tours in our time, it was still interesting to have a pootle around here with a guy who clearly knew his stuff, and friendly staff who are willing to take the time to talk. Thumbs up all round, and worth the trip out there alone!

Rain mucking up our plans in January came to become a bit of a theme. Each year Wellington holds a 'Summer Series' of outdoor concerts in the Botanical Gardens. Wellington's weather in general probably less reliable than back home, and so naturally about half of these concerts were cancelled due to wind or rain, which was a real shame. I do, however, admire the 'gung ho' attitude of just arranging lots of outdoor events for the summer and hoping for the best. We continued our exploration of the Wellington craft beer scene and paid a visit Bebemos in Newtown (a South American themed bar) and a customary trip Zealandia to the Kelburn Village Pub after visiting Zealandia, for a platter of tasty beer snacks (and beer, obviously!). We also played host ourselves, and enjoyed having various people over for dinner in our teeny-tiny studio flat.

So that was about it for January (from what my memory and diary tell me), aside from our long weekend away in Tongariro National Park, more about that on the way!

Summer in Wellington

Christmas in Wellington - December 2012

Another year, another Christmas down-under! The festivities seemed fairly low key over here, even compared to Australia. Most people seemed to be waiting until the week before to put decorations up and do their shopping, so it didn't really begin to feel Christmassy until about the 22nd. Of course the light nights and the non-wintry weather will always feel a bit weird for us around Christmas, although we have to point out that the climate here is a world away from that of Western Australia, it might not be cold but the weather while nice some of the time remains as unpredictable as ever - only a couple of days before Christmas we had some freak low-cloud which blanketed the city for a whole day.

Before Christmas we enjoyed a couple of cinema visits, to see Skyfall (probably my favourite ever Bond film, an enjoyable romp with its tongue firmly in cheek) and The Intouchables (about support work and a reminder of why my job's important!). We also went to watch old school punkers Lagwagon at the San Fransisco Bathhouse and got a rare glimpse of the Wellington punk scene, albeit mostly a nostalgic one (lots of good old days EpiFat t-shirts around!).

It wasn't all passive activities - we finally got around to hiking along the south coast to Red Rocks, which are ancient pillow lava formed 200 million years ago by undersea volcanic eruptions. We had been meaning to make this trip ever since trying the awesome Garage Project Red Rocks, a rich malt and hop bomb with extra caramelised flavours due to it being flash boiled with hot rocks (the original idea was to use the rocks from Red Rocks until they learnt that they explode when heating! There's a pretty cool video on the making of the beer here). The Red Rocks themselves have a slightly film-set feel about them, like if you picked them up they'd be made of polystyrene. But it was certainly unusal to see big rocks on the beach of reddy, pinky, purply hue. There are two Maori legends pertaining to how the rocks got their colour; in the first story, Kupe, a famous Polynesian explorer, bled when a paua (shellfish) clamped his hand, and his blood stained the rocks red. In another legend, the red symbolises the blood of Kupe's daughters, as they slashed themselves in grief over his absence whilst he was away on a long voyage - a little melodramatic. The boring scientific explanation is that small amounts of iron oxides give the rocks their distinctive colouring. From April to October there is also a seal colony at the rocks, mostly males who couldn't find a mate apparently!

Around Christmas we had attended the usual work do's, a meal out for me at a local pub and bowling and Laser Quest for Liam - both enjoyable as far as these things generally go!  I also went to baking class where we made Swiss Zopf Bread - a sweet bread, traditionally eaten on Sundays in Switzerland, which is shaped into a Father Christmas in December and into other shapes at other festivals, such as a bunny at Easter. We shaped pre-made dough first of all to learn the sculpting 'technique', then made our own dough to take home and shape.  By the time I had got my dough home it had grown to fairly gargantuan proportions, and Father Christmas further swelled in the oven, maybe more like a post-Christmas Santa after all those mince pies, but he was very tasty nonetheless! 

The mighty Sea Shepherd had two of their boats docked at the harbour shortly before Christmas, en-route to the Antarctic: The SSS (witty abbreviation for Sea Shepherd Ship!) Bob Barker and Brigitte Bardot (named after the people who funded the ship's purchase, the American game show host and French actress respectively). We did a tour of the Bob Barker and learnt all about their imminent Zero Tolerance voyage to the Antarctic to obstruct the Japanese whaling ships and their "scientific research". Truly inspirational stuff, and we have to be very grateful that these people put their lives on the line to protect the waters down there in absence of any serious international action even though they are hunting in a whale sanctuary (cough cough, governments of Australia and New Zealand, I'm looking at you...). 

And then, as always happens in December, Christmas was suddenly upon us! I was working on Christmas Eve and awoken by an eager knocking at 6:15 on Christmas morning on the office door, as the first of the the residents was keen to open his presents. The others were tickled at the sight of me in pyjamas and a Father Christmas hat when they woke up. At 8am I finished work and walked the 50 minutes home along Evans Bay, stopping to take a quick photo of how ridiculously still the water was - very unusual for Wellington! Arriving home, Liam had laid out all the cards and presents we had received and we had a breakfast of smoked salmon with homemade cream cheese and sourdough before getting stuck into the pressies.  We were lucky to receive some wonderful presents and some lovely cards - thanks all! We had a quick hike to the top of Mt Vic for a squiz at the view before heading back home to Skype my parents. After that we decided it was too nice a day to start eating yet and so hiked over the town belt in order to catch the bus ... to the beach! It was our first beach day in Wellington and we spent it at Island Bay on the South Coast. Our Christmas lunch nourishment consisted of beer and a banana!  Despite the sweltering hot day, the sea was freezing cold (we're no wusses, but there was a reason only people in wet suits were swimming!) so after a quick swim we let the sun thaw us out.

Later in the afternoon we headed back home and began preparations for Christmas dinner (as if a banana wasn't enough!).  Liam realised that the BBQ we had bought needed to be assembled (it isn't Christmas day unless you've drunkenly had to figure out some nonsensical instructions right?).  After a thankfully reasonably straight-forward build we fired it up and BBQ'd the marinated prawns for a starter, followed by Deep South BBQ Pork skewers and corn on the cob rolled in butter, hard goats cheese, chilli and lime juice (this was a total revelation!). Two salads were prepared to add some healthiness to proceedings; potato and radish, and carrot and beetroot.  A rather excellent meal, if we do say so ourselves, and all the better for being washed down with a few glasses of fizz and local craft beer. Later on we grilled the tops Chai Creme Brulees for dessert (sadly not on the BBQ - don't think that'd quite work!) We didn't have room for the second dessert (yes, there were only two of us, those keeping count might note seven dishes so far!) of gin and tonic jelly so we saved that for Boxing Day.  To say we felt smug about the weather on Christmas Day was an understatement... it had been the hottest Christmas Day since 1934 (and writing this in retrospect, the hottest day of the summer) and for Wellington it was an utter miracle given how still it was too. A merry Christmas indeed!

On Boxing Day we went to watch the cricket at the Basin Reserve, a Twenty20 match between Wellington Firebirds and Central Stags (seemingly a collection of districts which don't have their own team, from both the central north and central south island - thanks Wikipedia). Having been slightly anxious about it being very busy and struggling to get in, it became very apparent that Kiwi's don't leave the house in debatable weather and so the Basin seemed very empty!  We hung around for an hour as they delayed the start and ummed and ahhed about whether it was going to rain, which gave Liam the chance to explain the rules to me so I might have an inkling as to what was going on (gleaned from Wikipedia earlier in the day!). The cricket, once under way  was thankfully pretty fast paced. The delay saw the match reduced to 18 overs, in which Wellington Firebirds scored 214 runs, which I'm told is pretty good. We shot off before the end as we were meeting some friends for drinks, but the writing was on the wall for the Stags by that point, and we had been sat in the damp for 3.5 hours by that time! So we spent the rest of the evening with friends in the Hop Garden, sampling the beers and sharing some yummy food (by far the best bar food in Wellington - can't get enough of their chilli-fried squid!).  It was lovely to see them both and Helen had just returned from a short trip back to the UK bringing back with her... some M&S Christmas Cake! That, coupled with lunch of rotisserie chicken from Moore Wilsons (another legendary purveyor of grub in Wellington) for 'Boxing Day leftovers'-style sandwiches with stuffing and redcurrant sauce sandwich, meant that despite a non-tradition Christmas dinner, we still had the best bits covered!

Liam's birthday is the 27th, although he did have to work (from home - so largely in name only!) which is in fact the first time he's ever done so (one of the few benefits of a birthday so close to Christmas!). We didn't miss much of the day as the weather was poor again, so we hung about the house and enjoyed a nice lunch, before wandering down into town for a walk along the waterfront. We visited Bin44, a new restaurant with a craft beer speciality, for a drink before heading to Liam's favourite beer establishment Hashigo Zake for further beers and their legendary beer snack pies. A few interesting beers turned quickly into a late night, and after refuelling at our favourite late night eating haunt (KC Cafe for some greasy Chinese food) we stumbled up into the town belt in what ended up being a very dark and damp hike home! The next morning, I finally got round to baking the cake I had intended to make; Mexican chocolate, cinnamon and chili cake, served with creme fraiche and candied pepitas (pumpkin seeds). Delicious!

New Year was fairly anticlimactic, although we had planned to keep it low-key. The weather on the day had been hit and miss so we hadn't gotten around to doing anything beyond crosswords and a spot of afternoon beer tasting! A nice surprise was our landlord turning up with a bottle of bubbly, definitely a first! We had also been given a bottle on Christmas Day from our neighbours, not bad going! We had debated going to watch some live music at the waterfront, but decided we were too lazy and that it would be full of kids (we're getting on a bit don't you know!). The evening actually turned out to be rather lovely, so we had a couple of Gin & Tonics (Christmas pressie courtesy of Dave and Janet, thanks!) in in our lovely garden before hiking up to the lookout to watch the fireworks at midnight. Later in the evening it transpired that the fireworks had been called off due to (quelle surprise) high winds! So at midnight we climbed to the top of Mt Victoria regardless (only a 5 minute walk from our house), and saw in the new year along with a few drunk teenagers and perplexed looking foreigners waiting for the non-existent fireworks, always a lovely view from up there but hopefully the rest of the year will be slightly more exciting! Happy New Year one and all!

Summer in Wellington

Napier & Hawkes Bay - December 2012

At the beginning of December we took a well-earned break to see a little more of the North Island - we had only left Wellington once since arriving!. We decided to check out the Hawkes Bay area, so hired a car for a few days and hit the road. The drive was pleasant enough (although longer than expected due to the rural nature of most of the roads outside the main towns), starting with the slightly hair-raising drive over the Rimutaka Range before heading north-east, mostly through undulating farmland with occasional settlements and towns along the way.

As luck (ahem) would have it, the Tui brewery (or Tui HQ as they like to call it) was about half way, so we took a break to peruse the small museum and of course sample a few 'special brews' only available at Tui HQ. The  beer wasn't anything to write home about, there's probably a reason they don't bother to market them outside the brewery! But we weren't expecting miracles as Tui is one of the more prolific commodity beers over here; think Carling or Carlsberg only sweeter (as is the NZ way with most things!). Tui are arguably more famous for their advertising than the quality of their beer, hijacking the phrase "yeah right" by proceeding it with various jokes, stereotypes and witty irony. It was interesting seeing some political causes they have got behind, such as 'Rural communities don't need schools. Yeah, right', as well as some overtly sexist adverts that you might imagine most businesses would now be airbrushing from their history, such as 'Her butt walked into my hand, yeah right'. Some of their posters are genuine attempts to encourage healthy debate about important issues, for example 'My missus walked into a door. Yeah, right', and 'I always check both ways for cyclists before pulling out. Yeah right', but could be easily misconstrued as supporting backwards or negative attitudes. That's probably the genius of the campaign, that it can appeal to everyone. You are free to interpret the statement according to your own prejudices and opinions, and if anybody complains it can easily be argued that the complainant lacks a sense of humour, or that the advert was actually intended to imply the opposite. When the bottom line is that they are promoting a product rather than raising awareness for social issues, it does add up to a brilliant advertising campaign. Their other slogan is "Distracting the boys from the task at hand since 1889", seemingly with more than just beer. It certainly had us talking and writing about the brand, so the marketing department has definitely done their job. When we first arrived in New Zealand, we were attracted into buying a carton of the beer due to the cheap price, brightly coloured orange cans, and the promise of the 'East India IPA' contained within. It didn't quite live up to it's tantalising description, you can't argue with that fact that you get what you pay for. I suppose it is an acceptable 'lawn-mower beer', as they say.

Tui - distracting feminists and the easily offended since 1889

Arriving in Napier early evening, we thought we'd make the most of the evening sun and take a dip in the outdoor pools at Ocean Spa. The name itself gives nothing away, and if you're imagining fluffy white robes and underwater fancy lights, think more of a down-to-earth, slightly grubby 1960s-style lido with a few different pools of varying temperatures and sizes. It was, however, overlooking the beach and made for a very pleasant hour. Suitably relaxed and wrinkled, we caught the sunset and looked out over the port from Bluff Hill Lookout before heading back to the motel for an impromptu picnic tea. Having never really stayed in a motel before, we were naive in our expectations of what a 'kitchenette' in the room might involve. We had hoped for a hob, but instead were faced with the prospect of boiling pasta in the microwave. We cut our losses and instead used the smoked salmon and creme fraiche intended for a pasta dish on toasted bagels along with a couple of glasses of crisp white wine, and rather good it was too.

The next day we had a chance to properly explore Napier. The town was pretty much flattened by an earthquake in 1931, the subsequent rebuild throughout the decade means it is a rather unique time capsule of 1930s Art Deco architecture, so in 2007 it was nominated as a UNESCO World Heritage Site (but didn't pass the test, and as the Mayor of Napier herself said, 'there will be no surprises in the conclusion that art deco itself is not of outstanding universal value'). It has some notable architecture such as the National Tobacco Company building, which harks back to an era of eclectic design and bold geometric shapes.  Art Deco symbolises the 1930's Zeitgeist  which embraced the development of science and technology, the overthrow of old conventions and increasing independence of women, and individualism in society.  This led to prolific use of angular patterns and shapes; including symbols of power and speed such as lightning flashes, and symbols of freedom and the dawn of a new age, such as leaping deer and greyhounds, dancing women and the rising sun. An interesting point of difference in Napier is that Maori legends have been worked into the designs, making the architecture even more unique from a global perspective. There were some pleasant sea-front gardens with a huge picturesque fountain, which lent it an air of an Victorian/English seaside town. But zooming out from the fascinating architecture and experiencing the town as a whole, we couldn't help feel it lacked the expected charm, due to the presence of some ugly modern developments, tacky shops and traffic. Further shattering the historical feel were some inexplicably naff Christmas decorations, which seemed at odds with the sophisticated art-deco image touted to tourists. The road noise seemed seemed quite oppressive due to the close proximity of buildings, and a lack of pedestrianised streets (another recurring theme in NZ) didn't lend it a particularly relaxing air despite the glorious weather and enticing street-side cafes. Our final impression was very mixed, and we felt it had fallen short of what it could be, given that it must be one of the biggest concentrations of historically interesting buildings in Australasia outside the major cities. Sadly, we weren't convinced it lived up to the hype as a tourist destination.

After escaping to the peace and quiet of the coast (well, not all that quiet due to some pretty high winds), we enjoyed some delicious fish and chips on the beach (another recurring theme down-under, there is no such thing as bad fish and chips, our only criticism being the lack of mushy peas!). We were on our way south through Hawkes Bay to Cape Kidnappers, to visit a gannet colony. We had originally hoped to walk from the car park (a 5 hour round-trip) but the tide times didn't end up working in our favour, so we took a tour out to the Cape instead. The selling point of the tour was that we would be towed along with about 20 other tourists in an open trailer by an antique American tractor! Bouncing down the beach, it was pretty fascinating having the huge fractures in the rocks pointed out to us, showing how New Zealand is literally being lifted up at one end as one tectonic plate is forced under another, sometimes as much as 9 metres as a time. We enjoyed watching the gannets and learning about their unique behaviour here in New Zealand; they travel to Australia for a few years in their late adolescence, then return home when they decide it's time to start a family. Our guide pointed out that this mirrors a lot of Kiwis' real lives as they set out to Australia for work and play while they are young, before coming home to New Zealand for a more family-friendly lifestyle. The first time they ever flap their wings and fly, they just go for it and end up in Australian waters, feeding out there for a while before returning back to the exact same rock that they were raised on. They are pretty huge birds and completely unfazed by humans, so we were pretty close to them while they went on with their daily business undisturbed. The afternoon drew to a close with a trip back along the beach, and we were glad to get out of the sun and wind and head back to Napier.

On our final day we had an early start thanks to a minor earthquake (it sure beats an alarm clock for ensuring you jump straight out of bed!), and headed to Havelock North for a craft market held at a local cafe and roastery, Hawthorne Coffee. We enjoyed a welcome caffeine hit after perusing the stalls. and there was an air of a school fair as some young girls murdered Christmas carols on string instruments, but it made us feel a little more Christmassy than we had done to date. We buzzed over to the Arataki Aviary, New Zealand's biggest honey producer. We learnt about how honey is made (not sure we'd ever thought about it too hard before) and sampled 10 types of honey (Liam was in heaven!). Apparently Kiwis are the biggest consumers of honey in the world and I had to prevent Liam from purchasing the largest jar of honey I have ever seen, although I eventually regretted doing so, as the one we bought didn't last long! They even offered a 'fill your own' service, probably a good job these don't exist closer to home! Feeling suitably sugared up, we then headed for a lovely farmers market at Black Barn Vineyard, where we stocked up on fresh broad beans and garlic, locally made olive oil, and fig and cardamon compote. Scrummy!

It was almost time to head home but we had one last thing to tick off our to-do list, Te Mata Peak. We parked at the bottom and hiked to the top for some great views of the local area. We thought we were being clever by trying to find an alternative route back down to the car, and promptly got lost in a forest which seemed to have impassable inclines wherever we turned. Thankfully we eventually ended up back at the car and hit the road back to Wellington.

And so, like all holidays, it was over and we were back home before we knew it. But it had been great to get out of the city for a while, not having a car it's something that we don't do as often as we'd like. Already we are planning our next trip, to try and make the most of living in this beautiful country!

Wellington - October & November 2012

Looking back over October and November has been quite a feat so I shall endeavour not to bore you all rigid with long descriptions! First up, my birthday. A very indulgent weekend, beginning with an after work meal at La Boca Loca in Miramar. Due to Weta workshop being in Miramar there are some very good eateries around, and we had had our eye on this Mexican joint for a while. We were blown away by the fresh flavours and also enjoyed some proper Tequila, which completely changed our minds about it only being something you consume a the end of a very boozy night. The night after we went to see 'An Angel at My Table', part of the 'Festival of Madness on Film', a slightly dated but nonetheless classic Kiwi film based on the autobiography of Janet Frame. Janet Frame is a celebrated Kiwi author who won her first literary award the day before she had been due to have a lobotomy to deal with her ongoing mental health issues. Right up my street! My birthday present from Liam (who was working that day) was an afternoon spent at 'Craft Beer College' tasting beers on a 'course' entitled Pathway to Hoppiness. Needless to say it was a very merry afternoon tasting all kinds of hoppy beers from around the world. We rounded off the weekend with fish and chips from Martin Bosleys, a Wellington institution of beautiful food, toning itself down of a Sunday arvo so plebs like us can afford to eat there, watching the sunset over the harbour. Gorgeous.

I jumped at the chance of seeing the National Theatre Live at the cinema again, and this time it was Curious Incident of the Dog in the Night-Time.  Having read the book I was intrigued as to whether they would be able to pull it off, but it was another mind-blowing production! We also watched Looper, The Angel's Share, and Argo, all of which I would recommend, particularly Argo for it's edge-of-your-seat depiction of the 1979 Iranian hostage crisis. At the theatre we watched Tigers of Wrath, a commentary on growing up and selling out which depicted a group of socialist students visiting communist China in the 70s. I attended a play reading of Mike and Virginia by Kathryn Burnnet and Nick Ward, a satirical romantic comedy, which was deservedly well attended. I also went along to Janet and John by Ken Duncum, based on the friendship on Janet Frame (the subject of the previously mentioned film 'An Angel at My Table') and John Money, a sexologist made famous by his royal stuffing up of the John/Joan case. The playwright gave a brief introduction and for some reason told us the ending, which seemed unnecessary, and I'm not entirely sure you would have 'got it' had you had no prior knowledge of who Janet and John were. Nonetheless, I thoroughly enjoyed it. We were part of the studio audience at the filming of Fix TV (Episode 3), which was very entertaining. It was a fun experience to see the workings of a studio television show, and it is hosted by our favourite local muso Adam Page.

Onto the most important bit, the beer! We managed to get to a few beery events; The ones to write home about were the Pacific Beer Expo (lots of yummy beers from Australia, NZ and America) and the Emersons Annual Beer Options (basically a fun pub quiz, where beer was the subject as well as the beverage in your hand). Eventually Liam will hopefully write about these events on his other blog. We also a couple of events at one of our favourite bars in town, the Malthouse for the Old World IPA Challenge and Epic tap takeover. The Old World IPA challenge showcased English style IPAs rather than the hop-tastic modern American style favoured in New Zealand. Honestly, it seemed a little hit and miss to us, some a bit too sweet (as is the Kiwi way with a lot of things) and some chilled and carbonated to an inch of their lives, which doesn't always work with subtler beers.

I was obviously in learning mode and attended classes in Maori, ukelele, cheese-making, and zombie biology(!).  The Maori class was quite interesting but not particularly to my learning style (think 'bloke with a guitar', but I'm definitely more of a visual learner), and the ukelele class made me realise I'm terrible at strumming. I learned to make ricotta, paneer, cream cheese and feta at a lovely community class. I've already showed off my ricotta and cream cheese making skills at home and Santa even got me some little bits and pieces of equipment needed for the others, so hopefully we'll be off to a very cheesy new year! The zombie biology class was quirky and interesting, with the basic premise being that zombies do exist (and they had exhibits on hand tied up who were at times pretty scary!). They examined what might cause zombification, such as disease, genetic mutations, poison etc, and showed real life examples of others species which act like zombies when afflicted by parasites. Cool stuff!

We spent a night away in Martinborough, a wine region north of Wellington celebrated for it's peppery Pinot Noirs. We hired a car for a couple of days and enjoyed the hair-raising drive over the Rimutaka Mountain range, which makes Snake Pass between Manchester and Sheffield look like child's play.  Martinborough itself is very small and relaxed but has some nice delis and cafes and a nice atmosphere about the place. After enjoying coffee and cake in a cute cafe featuring some comedy letters from their chicken suppliers on the wall (endorsing their commitment to serving hygienically prepared fried chicken), we took in a few of the wineries. We had intended on walking but the changeable weather had put us off. We were glad it had as it appeared most of the wineries were actually shut, so it would have been a frustrating walk! We had tasters from Schubert Wines and Te Kairanga Wines, which were both very nice and we were served by very knowedgable and friendly hosts. The former was tiny but very pricey, so it was interesting to try the kind of wines we wouldn't normally buy. Afterwards we had a proper sit-down drink at Margrain Vineyard, overlooking the vines and the twee dutch-style houses in the distance. We stayed in a teeny cabin on a campsite and greatly enjoyed the feeling of 'getting away' that we've found difficult to do from Wellington thus far (on account of not having a car and there not actually being all that much anywhere near Wellington that you can get to on public transport).

Halloween saw us getting frocked up as a Geisha and Jesus (I'll let you guess who was what) for our friend Sarah's party, where we drank 'til the small hours before walking home and getting odd looks from workmen (it took a while for us to realise I still had my geisha makeup on!). Guy Fawkes night saw an impressive firework display on the water front, which we watched while eating homemade treacle toffee and marvelling at the spectacular fireworks, all the while watching the planes come in to land as normal just around the bay, must have been an amazing view from up there!

November, of course, was the premiere of The Hobbit. Finishing work early to head down to the two block long red carpet down Courtenay Place was very exciting, and we managed to catch a glimpse of Peter Jackson, Martin Freeman, James Nesbitt, Cate Blanchett, Elijah Wood and a whole host of other people we didn't recognise make their entrance. We had managed to bag spots out of the front of previously mentioned bar The Malthouse, and stood sipping pints of Yeastie Boys 'Golden Perch', a specially brewed golden ale (the beers namesake is apparently what the dwarves drink in the books), perfect for the spectacularly sunny afternoon. We are looking forward to watching the film itself, despite hearing from a colleague who was at premiere that the new high frame 3D version was extremely visually overwhelming and nausea inducing!

I also went to see a friend's work at the Massey University Exposure Exhibition. She has just finished a Textile Design degree and was displaying her final pieces. She had produced 3 dance outfits, all designed to make different sounds as the wearer moved their body. Very cool stuff indeed, check out her website here. The rest of the time was spent doing the usual; meeting up with friends, Liam getting out and about on his bike, book club, yoga and choir. We hiked to the south coast through the town belt (only a couple of hours from where we live) and were rewarded with some pretty sweet views over the city and out to sea, and finally paid a visit to the pretty seaside suburb of Island Bay.

In other news, we have moved into a new house. It's a teeny studio in the downstairs of a hillside house, overlooking the woodland of the town belt and, if you crane your neck and squint through the trees, the south coast. We are chuffed to bits with it and have settled in nicely, and even befriended the cat that lives upstairs.

Work-wise, I have transferred to a night position at a different house (same company) which I am thrilled about as it means I have way more free-time in the day, and no more early starts! I have also (finally!) applied for the Clinical Psychology PHD course I am hoping to do next year, so that's a weight of my mind. And Christmas, of course, was fabulous, but you'll have to wait for the next installment to read about it ;-)

Well, check us out, publishing not too long after the event!  Hope you have enjoyed getting (almost) bang up-to-date with our goings on!

Love to you all, we misssss yoooooooou xx

Wellington - August & September 2012

August and September marked the end of what felt like a long winter for us. We had seen out the end of an English winter, only to fly out at the beginning of spring in Europe to greet the end of autumn in New Zealand.  Although winter here was very mild compared to home (don't think it ever got close to zero, and only occasional early-morning frost), not having Christmas to break it up meant it seemed to drag on a bit (in hindsight this could have more to do with the random nature of the weather here - pretty hard to define seasons as its so changeable!).  However, the end of September brought a string of glorious days and made us very excited for the spring and summer months ahead (although while editing this on a windy, foggy "summer" evening, maybe our hopes of wall-to-wall sunshine may have been little naive!)

One of the best things about being a Support Worker is that I get to play tourist at places that we probably wouldn't have gotten around to.  I took (a more adequate verb might be 'dragged') the guys along to the Colonial Cottage Museum. It is apparently Wellington's oldest standing cottage, built by William Wallis in 1858.  It still has the original furniture, including an 1875 three-wheeled pram, designed to avoid the road tax that all 4 wheeled vehicles had to pay. Walking through the front door really felt like stepping back in time.  We also visited Wellington Zoo; cute, hilly, green and not far from the town centre. The highlight was undoubtedly a baby chimpanzee doing roly-polies round the enclosure. We managed two visits to Carter Observatory, a dinky observatory with fascinating planetarium shows. One of my clients became very heated about alien existence and tried to persuade the observatory attendant that they should go to parliament to tell John Key what they had found. Liam and I revisited the Museum of City and Sea to check out a temporary knitting exhibition and I contributed to what Liam described as 'the longest and crappiest scarf in the world'.  We attended the Academy of Fine Arts 'World Press Exhibition', an amazing round up of the years best press photography, which is something each year that I mean to catch and never seem to get round to.  'Athfield Architects' at the City Gallery featured the designs and models of Ian Athfield, a celebrated Wellingtonian architect with a very distinctive style featuring lots of levels, curves and pipes, so we can now happily spot his designs all across the city, albeit many of them not exactly being our style!

August is festival time in Wellington, and we had a fab time throughout the Wellington on a Plate festival, and volunteering at Beervana, you can read Liam's related blog post about these here.  As part of the New Zealand International Film Festival we went to see 'Our Newspaper', a documentary about a small Russian village who got so sick of the state run daily newspaper that they started to publish their own.  Beautiful shots of remote snowy Ulyanovsk, and it's at times hilariously frank elderly residents, meant that we were yearning once more to head back to Russia!  

Music-wise, we checked out The Troubles as recommended by a friend from work, who turned out to be very entertaining, and musically very accomplished, playing all kinds of jazzy and Eastern European influenced styles. On the evening of our wedding anniversary we went to watch Wellington Sea Shanty Society, a comedy duo doing both familiar and unfamiliar sea shanties. We enjoyed drinking beer and rum and harmonising to 'What Shall We Do with the Drunken Sailor'. Of course the musical highlight of the month was Wellington Community Choir's (possible biased statement - I am in said choir) concert at the Wellington Opera House!  We had a couple of very enjoyable informal concerts and it was lovely to be accompanied by a professional pianist, double bass and mandolin as well as our usual ukulele group.  I dragged Liam and a couple of friends along, who all thoroughly enjoyed it, or at least, they claimed they did ;-)

My friend Helen from book club hosted a cheese and wine night. Inspired by a cheese and beer tasting at Beervana we took along a Tuatara Hefe wheat beer paired with a lovely goat chevre. I had popped by Regional (our local offie, or bottle shop/liquor store as they might say here) to pick up some beers that afternoon and they were hosting an Emerson's tasting of their new I.P.A, Bird Dog.  The brewer assured me that the right cheese for Bird Dog was a vintage Cheddar, which was the 2nd beer and cheese match we took to the party. Hopefully we did our bit for the cheese and beer enlightenment movement (way more versatile and varied than wine!) We had an awesome night meeting new people and playing Cranium, before bidding an early goodbye as I had work at 7:45 then next morning and the clocks were going forward that night. Way to go daylight savings!

A now regular monthly Saturday afternoon treat for me is attending play readings at Circa Theatre. For $5 there is a performed play reading for which the actors have only had the script for a couple of days.  I'm not entirely sure of the purpose of the readings; whether they are the initially rehearsals for plays that are definitely going to be shown or whether they are simply 'testing the waters' as to whether they would work at Circa.  Whichever way, they are an absolute bargain and a great way of seeing a bit of new theatre.  It seemed bizarre to me that I must have brought the average audience age down at both readings by around 20 years, where are all the theatrical young people of Wellington?!  I saw 'Rogues and Vagabonds' by Elspeth Sandys and 'Jerusalem' by Jez Butterworth Apparently Circa couldn't possibly produce 'Jerusalem, as it's scale would make it economically impossible, so this was simply a teaser of what Wellingtonians are missing out on compared to the West End or Broadway. We also enjoyed going to see two 'proper' performances as it were, 'The Year of Magical Thinking' by Joan Didion, and 'Clybourne Park' by Bruce Norris. 'The Year of Magical Thinking' was an adaptation of Joan's memoir discussing the year she lost her husband and only child within a couple of months of each other.  It was quite a powerful one woman show.  However, the narrator actually managed to gain little sympathy for herself, and we felt she wasn't particularly likeable.  Given the subject matter, quite a feat!  'Clybourne Park', on the other hand, was a commentary on history repeating itself, with Act One being set in 1959 and Act Two in present day, both set in the same house in a US African-American neighbourhood.  Hilariously funny and despairingly depressing at the same time, a very apt play for so many issues at the moment.  We also finally got round to seeing 'Moonrise Kingdom' at the cinema, a Wes Anderson movie, a cute film about a young boy and girl on an island just off New England in to 1960's, who fall in love and run away together. Not schmaltzy, not too cutesy, just a brave and uplifting film about the difficulties of adolescence and dysfunctional families.

Yet again I must assure you that we didn't spend all our time indoors! After enjoying our day trip to Zealandia so much (discussed in the last post), we took a night tour of the sanctuary.  It took around 2.5 hours and we were lucky enough to visit on a dry, clear night. We were issued with red torches that wouldn't put off the wildlife and headed for a tour around the sanctuary. The highlights were a path strewn either side with millions of glow worms, walking through the forest at sunset and listening to the evening bird calls, and getting to see... a Kiwi!  Our guide had told us they were creatures of habit and that at 21:20 the previous night one had been spotted in a particular location.  So at 21:15 we headed for that particular spot and 5 minutes later, lo and behold, a bumbling ball of fur comes hopping along the path!  It was a seriously cute bird and we were able to watch it searching for grubs for around 10 minutes.  Apparently most New Zealanders have never seen a Kiwi in the wild so we felt very honoured.  

We took advantage of some sunny days to do more exploration of the Town Belt, the wooded hill right behind our house that stretches from one coast to the other.  We found a cool rope swing and enjoyed some magnificent views of the city.  We also took the ferry over to Matiu/Somes Island, slap-bang in the middle of the harbour. Matiu/Somes is a scientific and historic reserve, a mammalian-predator free island, with very few visitors on the day we visited.  At various times over the last century it has been used as an animal and human quarantine station, a prison for enemy nationals in the second world war, and has impressive anti aircraft gun emplacement - which have never actually been used. We enjoyed hiking around, spotting various birds, insects and skinks, and picnicked overlooking Wellington. The quarantine station is open to the public to wander around, it feels very creepy and retro and could do well as the set for an 70s zombie movie.  We then hopped back on the ferry to Days Bay for a well earned coffee and a wander along the coastline.  

In other news, we attended a Michael Jackson (no, not that Michael Jackson) inspired Sour Beer Tasting Session at Regional, which Liam will (might) write more about in a dedicated beer blog.  I have been going to Bikram Yoga which, after initially feeling like I was going to faint / throw up (not helped by the stench of sweaty feet emitting from the studio carpet), I am now really enjoying! 

That's all from me for now folks!  Happy spring!

Wellington - June & July 2012

View over Evans Bay from Mt Victoria

We came to the inevitable conclusion that if we wanted to get 'proper' jobs and be able to save a bit of money rather than living day-to-day, a move to the city was in order.  So with heavy hearts we bid a fond farewell to Akaroa and headed back into Christchurch for an overnight stop before our trip up to the North Island.  We stayed at Jailhouse Hostel, a large and quirky hostel converted from, you guessed it, an old jail.  A little cold, a little odd, but pretty cool all the same.  We then caught the fabulous Coastal Pacific train first thing in the morning, enjoying an on-board breakfast and watching the countryside roll by from the open viewing carriage at the back of the train.  We just had time for a coffee in the blazing sunshine on the lovely foreshore of Picton before catching the ferry to across the Cook Strait.  The trip took around 4 hours and started with the ferry sailing through the Tory Channel of the Marlborough and Queen Charlotte Sounds, framed by lush rolling hills.  We used the BlueBridge ferry service (a few dollars cheaper than the more touristy Inter-Islander service) and were treated to a birds eye view of cattle being transported on the lower deck, quite an eye opener and made us (again!) vow to only eat small quantities of locally sourced meat.  By the time we reached Wellington harbour it was dark and drizzly, a bit of a damp 'Welcome to the North Island!' to say the least.

The first few weeks consisted mainly of job interviews, flitting between various hostels, and looking for somewhere longer-term to stay.  Happily, we managed to get jobs within a week or two of arriving; I got a job as a Community Support Worker with adults with severe and enduring mental health problems, and after a few induction shifts at some of the other houses was settled into working at a house in Maupuia, a house up on a hillside with great views over the water.  Liam secured a an out-of-hours position at the Open Polytechnic on the IT Helpdesk.

For the first few weeks we moved between WorldWide, Base and Wellywood backpackers' hostels, making the most of various deals and trying and find a hostel that suited us (ie. wasn't full of 18 year old gap yahs).  Luckily within a few weeks we found a room in a house-share in Mt Victoria.  The guy who lived in one of the rooms was moving out for 4 months to start off his new career in the Police, at a training college further north.  A rather lovely villa-style house, hammock in the garden, large kitchen, fully-furnished room, 10 minutes walk from the centre of town, views over the city from the balcony and friendly flatmates; of course we decided immediately that we wanted it!  We got moved in at the beginning of July (and when I say we, I mean Liam hiked our backpacks up the hill, I was very conveniently at work!) and stuck out the winter in this lovely spot.

In terms of our free time, we enjoyed wandering around the very accessible city centre and exploring our new home town.  Wellington apparently has more food and drink outlets per capita than New York, so needless to say we sampled lots of beer, coffee and culinary delights.  We checked out the colossal giant squid at Te Papa - New Zealand's brilliant National Museum, learned about the city's Maritime history at the Museum of City and Sea, and the Cable Car Museum.  The cable car transports you from the city centre up to the top of the Botanical Gardens in Kelburn, and is a fun yet practical way of getting up the very steep hill.  The Museum also featured a video about Wellington residents who own their own personal cable car in order to access their houses as the landscape is just so damn hilly.  We checked out a few galleries, the highlight probably being an exhibition at the National Portrait Gallery.  'All Woman' was a photograph exhibition of Kiwi Women, from the famous to the unknown, the extraordinary to the plain ordinary, and included a good chunk of fascinating information about each woman featured.

Living in the city means we are treated to lots of live music and theatre, two things we most keenly miss when not available.  It seemed rude to be in Wellington and turn down the opportunity of seeing Flight of the Conchords live, and so had a hilarious evening watching them perform to a 'home crowd'.  A few days before we had seen Jemaine at one of our favourite eateries, and had then nearly hyperventilated when our flatmate informed us he lives diagonally opposite to us (cue plenty of spying from the balcony - and disappointingly only seeing him once).  Wellington seems to be resident to a lot of extremely talented musicians; including Adam Page, an Australian baritone saxophonist who we enjoyed seeing perform at one of our favourite bars in Wellington, Hashigo Zake, as well as perform as part of the Richter City Rebels, a New Orleans style 'second line' band.  They certainly knew how to get the party started, and further inflamed our desire to experience New Orleans (after recently watching the brilliant TV series, Treme)  A further musical highlight of the winter months was a trip to Bodega to check out Hypnotic Brass Ensemble.  They are eight brothers from Chicago, all playing various brass instruments along with drummer.  They play a bombastic mix of jazz and hip-hop, building up layers of groovy brass with occasional vocals.  A fantastic live band, and a brilliant mix of sheer musicianship and rocking party band.  

My first theatrical experience was at Circa Theatre as I went along to see All My Sons one night while Liam was working.  I have always been a huge Miller fan (predictable I know, but the man was a genius), and this production was fabulous, with strong actors and a beautiful set.  Despite being one of the main theatres in Wellington, Circa is still small enough to feel pretty intimate, making the ending seem even more shocking.  We also went to see a production at Bats Theatre called Standstill, by Anders Falsti-Jenson, featuring three actors playing a variety of characters whilst walking on treadmills for an hour.  A clever and quirky commentary on the rat race that is life.  Another time at Bats theatre but this time in the tiny bar area, we also had the pleasure of seeing a few scenes of Puppet Fiction.  Seriously... scenes from Pulp Fiction performed by puppets!  Snortingly hilarious, and well suited to the informal atmosphere.  July also gave us our first experience of National Theatre Live, which my parents had been imploring us to go to for probably over a year.  Anyway, odd timings and astronomical pricing had meant we never quite got round to it in Australia, so we were really excited to have booked tickets to see replays of both Frankenstein and One Man Two Guvnors.  They were both absolutely astounding, fantastic pieces of theatre.  Frankenstein especially was perhaps one of the best things I have ever seen, and I don't make claims like that lightly.  The two productions was flawless and so well executed.  And of course there is something quite incredible about being able to watch a British theatre production on the other side of the planet.  If you haven't caught any yet, you have to!  We also found out that cinemas over here are lovely; comfy, quirky, individual and often independent; quite a different experience to the vast majority of cinemas back home.  

Believe it or not we didn't spend all of our time indoors, and did manage a trip out to Zealandia.  Zealandia is a 225 hectare valley a stone's throw away from the city centre (in fact, just about walkable from the city centre, although the cable car is a far more pleasant way to make your way up the hill to Kelburn) where they are dedicated to recreating the landscape as it would have been before the first human settlers arrived 700 years ago.  Before the arrival of humans, the land was completely devoid of mammalian life (apart from bats), and was a thriving paradise for numerous unique species of birds and reptiles.  In order to attempt to recreate this environment, a huge Jurrasic Park style fence (well not quite, it's not electrified) has been erected surrounding the entire area, and the park has been (as far as possible) purged of mammals, with ongoing efforts to catch the ones that do get in.  Bags are checked on the way in for small rodents, cats, possums, monkeys(!) and other sneaky stowaways.  The day that we visited was fairly drizzly but if anything this added to the atmosphere; it is a fairly large site so it often feels pretty isolated while wandering round the native bushland, listening to the bird song and keeping an eye out for Weta and Kaka.  The landscape has been so vastly altered by the arrival of humans that the project is being carried out on an impressively epic scale and time-frame; they aim to have achieved their goal of a pre-human habitat in 500 years time!  Many native birds were actually on the verge of extinction and Zealandia has played a vital part in the halt of their decline, and it has had the knock-on effect of re-introducing some rare birdlife to the wider Wellington area. A very interesting place indeed!

We quickly settled into life in Wellington, and enjoyed watching the Olympic coverage with our sporty flatmates and had a ping-pong table erected for the occasion.  One of my colleagues hosted an International Food Night (in reflection of the cultural diversity of the employees; Chilean, Polish, Indian, Irish, American, French, Chinese, Indonesian, Samoan and of course Kiwi and British!) which was great fun.  We took along Cornish Pasties (pronounced 'PAY-sties' here weirdly enough, as in "you're looking a bit pasty!") and a Bakewell Tart which went down a treat.  My favourite dish of the night was an Indian curry made with semolina.  Sounds gross but was honestly very tasty!  There was also some good Sushi and South American cheese pastries.  I joined Wellington Community Choir and a book club.  Our first book to review was The Kite Runner, handy seeing as I'd read it before, and it was a great opportunity for meeting new people.

As you can see, we've been keeping ourselves busy, and are getting ourselves into a routine as well as still enjoying exploring and experiencing our temporary home town.  The clocks have now gone forward and summer is finally showing it's face on occasion. Hopefully we'll get a bit more up-to-date on the blog in the comings weeks!

Wellington

Akaroa and the Banks Peninsula - May & June 2012

As we're still way behind on the blog I figured I'd give you all a quick update on where we actually are now and what we're doing! We arrived in Wellington almosts 4 months ago (cripes!) and quite quickly found work in our usual fields. We are living on Mount Victoria overlooking the city, and both enjoy quite picturesque commutes; Liam getting the train around the harbour to the Hutt Valley and Charlotte walking across Evans Bay each day. We are loving everything about Wellington, the accessibility (we have had no need for a car), soaking up culture at various galleries, theatres and music venues and discovering a really thriving and experimental beer scene. We arrived in winter so we are excited that the weather is now picking up, even a 15 degree day here feels pretty hot (thanks to the hole in the ozone layer down here). The wind took a bit of getting used to but otherwise the winter was more like a cold (well, 10 degrees in the day) version of an English summer with lots of rain but regular sunny days. We're looking forward to exploring to getting out and about and exploring the wider Wellington area before hitting the road again in the new year! Now, back to the advertised programming...

Stony Bay Peak

We'd had a recommendation that Akaroa in the Banks Peninsula was a good place to chill for a couple of days, especially since the earthquakes levelled Christchurch.  At this point we were needing to get some work if possible or at least to work for accommodation, and chatted about various possibilities whilst on the bus over to Akaroa.  Our first view of the Banks Peninsula and over to Akaroa was absolutely stunning and complemented by a gloriously sunny day.  We checked into Chez La Mer hostel and found it very welcoming and homely.  We then noticed that they were advertising for a cleaner and a night manager. Kerching!  So within three days of being in the country, we'd managed to bag ourselves some work for accommodation, not bad going!  Charlotte took the cleaning job (2 hours in the morning 6 days a week, stripping and making beds, and general cleaning), and Liam took the night manager job (evening manager would be more appropriate as there were no staff on duty past 9) This basically consisted of checking in late arrivals, keeping the fire fuelled-up (the most important job!) and handing out wi-fi tokens. He was soon 'promoted' to weekend manager, so everything worked out nicely.

Our fellow workers at the hostel when we arrived were a veritable United Nations; Sara (American), Colette (Scottish), Kirsty (Scottish), and Shah (Dutch). They were all chilled out and friendly, and we were later joined by Krista (Canadian), Amanda (Welsh), Urara (Japanese) and Joyce (Taiwanese).  We also had the company of Sampson the dog, a super-sweet 7 month old Labrador, even Charlotte had a soft spot for him.  The hostel owner's dog was often around too, a Bernese Mountain Dog charmingly named Pongo, who Sampson loved to torment.  We learnt some valuable dog owning lessons, such as "dogs can't eat pine cones", and "biting each others faces is just playing".

Charlotte also bagged a part-time bar job at the Grand Hotel.  It's probably fair to say that the 'Grand' title hasn't been applicable for a good while and it was definitely a very local pub full of true Kiwis drinking beer in tiny glasses from a jug, playing fruit machines (under the guise of charitable donations - apparently most school sports clubs get their funding from gambling proceeds!), watching the rugby and betting on the racing.  The shifts were short and sweet and the bar never got too busy, so it was a pretty easy-going job.  There was a kitchen porter who appeared to be struck dumb every time Charlotte spoke to him, as well as a one-armed kitchen hand (ex one-armed welder). Some of the more interesting locals consisted of a possum hunter, tradies/builders who drank double vodkas with Bacardi Breezers and volunteer fire-fighters.  The latter meant the pub almost emptied a couple of evenings when the fire sirens went off along the wharf, one time because someone's chimney had caught fire.  The landlord carefully crafted his 'grumpy old sod' persona but was actually a really nice bloke once he got to know you.

Our free time in Akaroa was aimed at cheap living so we took advantage of the amazing scenery and did a lot of hiking.  There were some great trails leading up from the town so whenever it was a fine afternoon we would set off after the cleaning shift and make the most of the weather.  Liam perfected his 'house-husband' routine by cooking and baking whilst Charlotte was at work, including some memorably giant cinnamon and raisin bagels.  Krista and Charlotte went up to Tree Crop Farm one afternoon for a nosey.  It is a sprawling farm property with a few random quirky huts to stay in, which weren't being used as the owner wasn't paying tax!  So (code-word style) we had to ring up and ask if we could look at the 'library' to be able to go up and have a look around.  Quite bizarre!  Each of the luxurious places to stay were wooden with cozy stoves and opulent decor.  Krista and Charlotte agreed on their favourite, a sleep-out complete with outdoor shower and an outdoor bath over a fire.  There was also a tree house with an amazing balcony overlooking the woodland.  Check out the photos, it was a rather fabulous place.

One week we had the opportunity to head over to Okain's Bay, about 18km over the hillside.  The owners of Double Dutch hostel very kindly offered to come and pick us up, and Sara from Chez La Mer very kindly offered us a lift back, so we were able to grab a blissful two nights away.  Okain's Bay is basically a tiny village with an old shop, garage, museum and school.  We walked down the estuary from the hostel to the sea and had a quick paddle - very quick, as it was ridiculously cold - and enjoyed a hike up the 'Big Hill' for views over to the Kaikoura Mountains (and mobile phone signal!).  The hostel was gorgeous and for well over 24 hours we actually had it to ourselves so it was basically like staying in a self-catered house for cheap as chips.  It was purpose built, very modern and comfortable.  A few glasses of wine, some yummy food, a few games of Slam and a game of Scrabble later, it definitely started to feel like we were on holiday. The picture was completed by breakfast the next morning consisting of Liam's home made bread rolls with boiled eggs from the on-site hens!

Back in Akaroa we enjoyed a boat trip out of the harbour and learnt about the history of the area.  We saw lots of wildlife including Hector dolphins (tiny!) and seals.  It was an absolutely stunning day and hard to believe that June 1st (in a couple of days time) would officially mark the start of winter.  Further history was absorbed in the Akaroa Museum, a pretty comprehensive and interesting little place. We watched a short film about the Maori legends of the area and the original settlers, wandered around some preserved old municipal buildings and looked at lots of photographs of the first European settlers.  It also presented some information on the Treaty Of Waitangi (which the Maori chiefs signed to accept Queen Victoria as a monarch in 1840), and showed the differences between the English version of the text and the Maori version translated back into English. To this day the treaty is disputed and a long legal process is under-way to reinstate some of the land.

As our last week in Akaroa drew to a close it felt quite odd to be moving on after feeling quite at home here.  Charlotte attended a knitting circle for International Knitting Day at the local library with Krista, and got to have a go on her spinning wheel (harder than it looks, but good fun!).  We had a good covering of snow one day and the cleaners got to finish their shift early to go and frolic - fun times!

An honourable mention goes to a few great NZ beers we enjoyed while in the Banks Peninsula.  The pub Charlotte worked at had the usual Kiwi suspects on tap; Steinlager, Tui, Speights, Mangatainoka Dark, Summit, DB Draught and Export Gold.  The Mangatainoka Dark was Charlotte's choice of after work freebie drink, a pretty decent easy-drinking dark lager. They also sold an impressive array of bottles too.  Having been under-whelmed by Monteith's (Lion Breweries 'craft' brand) offerings, we were pleasantly surprised by Monteith's Single Source Lager (even though it was out-of-date and thus being sold off cheap), pretty strong and robust. There is a great article debunking the branding nonsense here - but the beer itself was decent enough.  We also enjoyed Moa Five Hop and Emerson's 1812 Hoppy Pale Ale (the landlord's favourite), both tasty, hoppy and well-balanced ales.  On Bekah's birthday (as a nod to her and the original Wright World of Beer Blog she set up for us - which has now changed as Liam has a dedicated spin-off beer blog!) we tried a Three Boys Oyster Stout.  Oh boy, what a great beer.  Rich, dark, velvety, it certainly packed a punch.  Beautiful!

Christchurch & Akaroa