Ok, this is the New Zealand post. I wanted to write it during the week, but I've actually been busy at work. What's up with that? Lame. Actually, I could have written it in Thailand (where I was doing site visits Monday and Tuesday), but after walking around for hours in the heat, I was too lazy to write a long blog. And actually this entire week has been very quiet for me socially, but I've just been exhausted. I didn't sleep well last weekend, and not just the weekend, like 5 nights straight. So yeah, I was tired. But slept great after a quiet Friday night, and now I'm ready to tell you about New Zealand.
So, as you know, I went to New Zealand to visit Beth. It was incredible. I had been wanting to go for years. I'd even say it was in my top 5 places to visit. In no small part because of Beth. But every time I would think about going, there was always some reason to wait, cause something might be coming up in the near future. But this time, I just went. And I'm so glad I did. I was there like 12 days, and left already wanting to come back.
I flew into a rainy and windy Wellington (apparently the windy part is pretty normal. It's the windiest city in the world, I'm told). Luckily I wasn't there long (yet), cause the next morning we flew to Queenstown, where the weather was perfect. I went with Beth and her boyfriend and some of their friends to spend 4 days in this house on a mountain, where we basically just ate and drank and during the day would leave the house to go eat and drink and this one time shoot clay pigeons (which I won! Although the instructor did have to put masking tape over one of my eyes so I could focus properly, which looked amazing. Duh. And even if it didn't, I won, so whatever). This was a great way to spend time with these people, because they are basically all foodies and winies (that is now a word) and beeries (also a word) and know what they're talking about, so I was just given many wonderful things. Honestly, I don't know what I brought to the table, other than being Jewish. But that's always good. So yeah, there's not much to say about it other than we ate and drank amazingly and had great weather and it's beautiful.
Then Beth and I got a free camper and drove back to Wellington over 3 days. Apparently these free campers are a thing in Australia and New Zealand. People go and do road trips and leave the campers or cars in a different location, so you can get a free car to return it to where it came from. It's kind of brilliant. So we did that with a camper van that supposedly sleeps 4, but luckily we only put 2 in because it was already a tight fit. The first day we drove up to Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest peak, and took a little hike to see the mountains. Then kept on driving to Tekapo, where we spent the night. Maybe it sounds boring, cause it was mostly just driving, but we did make lots of stops to look at beautiful scenery. And the scenery down there is super beautiful. Stunning. Amazing. Mountains and lakes and snow and big skies and really just incredible. Plus I love a good roadtrip. So for me, it was pretty perfect. We spent the first night by a lake in this place called Tekapo, where Beth somehow managed to make this amazing dinner of salmon, cauliflower mash and asparagus in a tiny little camper van kitchen. There were wine reductions and everything (which did result in a big fire in the pan and I thought would result in the van exploding but did not). It was very impressive. It ended up being this wonderful 4 course meal, ending in chocolate and whiskey. Who would have thought you could do that in a camper??
Day two, we drove up to this place called Punakaiki on the west coast, which involved driving from the middle of the island (where Tekapo is) to the east coast, then doubling back through the mountains in the middle (which are incredible. We spent like 3 hours just driving through the valleys between these massive mountains. It was great), and finally to the west coast. Once you get close to the west coast, it gets almost jungly. According to Beth, it's basically the same flora that would have been around millions of years ago. That's pretty incredible. They actually even still have a dinosaur in New Zealand (It's called a Tuatara, and it's a lizard that existed when the dinosaurs were around, and is still in existence, and is a different genetic line than any lizard or bird because it is actually a dinosaur. Crazy, huh? I saw one. In a nature reserve in Wellington, but still.)! So we finally made it to the coast, just in time for sunset, so we parked on the side of the road, had a beer, and watched the sun set over the coast. It actually reminds me a bit of the Northern/Central California coast, in that it's mountains coming down into the ocean, with these random, rocky outcroppings just off the coast. Pretty spectacular. Especially with a great, New Zealand craft beer. Then we found our camping spot for the night, this time with electricity, showers and wifi (that didn't work). But the best part about it was the shitty pub, where we had a shitty meal surrounded by bikers. Very authentic experience, I'm told. It was one of those experiences where everything is so horrible, but it's exactly how it should be, and so you love it. The pub, not the camping. That was fine.
Then in the morning we woke up and went to see these Pancake rocks, that are pretty awesome. The water has eroded the rocks over the years so that they look like stacks of pancakes, and you just walk around on them, jutting out into the water, and the waves coming in at high tide make water shoot up randomly like geysers through the swiss-cheesy holes in the outcroppings. We were told it would be awesome, and it's the reason we stayed at Punakaiki, and it did not disappoint. The only disappointment was that we had to rush to catch our ferry back to the North Island in the afternoon, so we couldn't spend more than like 30 minutes at the rocks. I would have loved to spend more time. But alas, off we went, driving through more mountains and valleys and rivers and lakes and fields and plains to get to a boat to take us back to the big city, where I spent the next 4 days.
I hadn't really looked up anything to do, so just got a bunch of recs from Beth and her friends of what to do in town. And so I spent most of my time walking around exploring museums (pretty much all of which are free) and one day climbing up to the highest peak in town to take in some views. I also went to Weta Workshop, a film studio and special effects production house which most people know because of Lord of the Rings, but that is pretty much doing everything these days. Actually it'a amazing how many movies are either shot or edited in New Zealand. Kind of awesome. If you want to work in film, you should go to Wellington. And, of course, also drinking good coffee, good beer, and eating lots of good food. That was, as usual, the point of the whole thing. To eat good food. And I sure did. The food was awesome, and it helped having people who work in F&B and know (or own) all the best places taking you around. Best meal was probably at Shepherd, which is owned by Beth's boyfriend Sean. I may be biased, but seriously it was so delicious. There was this amazing chawan-mushi style egg custard with truffle oil and goat's cheese that was probably the best thing I ate on the entire trip. If you go to Wellington, go to Shepherd. And Golding's Free Dive, which is Sean's bar across the road from Shepherd, where I basically spent the late afternoon every day. But also do anything else Beth tells you. Um, yeah, I think that's it. It was wonderful. I want to go back. And I want my sister to move there. I think it's the most "her" place I've ever been. She would love it. Plus then I'd have an excuse to go annually, at least. Anyway, can't wait to go back!
Now for a bit of music, this time from Weaves. They just released their 2nd album, Wide Open, and I'm a fan. It's kind of a more poppy version of Alabama Shakes style rock. Case in point, Walkaway, one of my favorite tracks on the album.
So yeah, I really like this sound and album. I went and listened to their first album, though, and wasn't such a fan. I've actually talked before about this theory of how some bands put out a great first album that makes you fall in love, then they put out a mediocre second album, before coming back with an incredible third one. Another trend I feel like I see a lot is what Weaves did, which is where you put out a mediocre first album (which I'm not a fan of, although there was one really good song), but then an incredible second one. Very often in these cases, the 2nd album will end up being the only one I like. But sometimes, it also signifies a band coming into their own and starting to develop and make music I love. Hopefully that's what we've got with Weaves. But if not, at least we've got a great album in Wide Open. My favorite is probably the closing track, Puddle. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I am. I play it on repeat. It's so good.
So, as you know, I went to New Zealand to visit Beth. It was incredible. I had been wanting to go for years. I'd even say it was in my top 5 places to visit. In no small part because of Beth. But every time I would think about going, there was always some reason to wait, cause something might be coming up in the near future. But this time, I just went. And I'm so glad I did. I was there like 12 days, and left already wanting to come back.
I flew into a rainy and windy Wellington (apparently the windy part is pretty normal. It's the windiest city in the world, I'm told). Luckily I wasn't there long (yet), cause the next morning we flew to Queenstown, where the weather was perfect. I went with Beth and her boyfriend and some of their friends to spend 4 days in this house on a mountain, where we basically just ate and drank and during the day would leave the house to go eat and drink and this one time shoot clay pigeons (which I won! Although the instructor did have to put masking tape over one of my eyes so I could focus properly, which looked amazing. Duh. And even if it didn't, I won, so whatever). This was a great way to spend time with these people, because they are basically all foodies and winies (that is now a word) and beeries (also a word) and know what they're talking about, so I was just given many wonderful things. Honestly, I don't know what I brought to the table, other than being Jewish. But that's always good. So yeah, there's not much to say about it other than we ate and drank amazingly and had great weather and it's beautiful.
Then Beth and I got a free camper and drove back to Wellington over 3 days. Apparently these free campers are a thing in Australia and New Zealand. People go and do road trips and leave the campers or cars in a different location, so you can get a free car to return it to where it came from. It's kind of brilliant. So we did that with a camper van that supposedly sleeps 4, but luckily we only put 2 in because it was already a tight fit. The first day we drove up to Mt. Cook, New Zealand's highest peak, and took a little hike to see the mountains. Then kept on driving to Tekapo, where we spent the night. Maybe it sounds boring, cause it was mostly just driving, but we did make lots of stops to look at beautiful scenery. And the scenery down there is super beautiful. Stunning. Amazing. Mountains and lakes and snow and big skies and really just incredible. Plus I love a good roadtrip. So for me, it was pretty perfect. We spent the first night by a lake in this place called Tekapo, where Beth somehow managed to make this amazing dinner of salmon, cauliflower mash and asparagus in a tiny little camper van kitchen. There were wine reductions and everything (which did result in a big fire in the pan and I thought would result in the van exploding but did not). It was very impressive. It ended up being this wonderful 4 course meal, ending in chocolate and whiskey. Who would have thought you could do that in a camper??
Day two, we drove up to this place called Punakaiki on the west coast, which involved driving from the middle of the island (where Tekapo is) to the east coast, then doubling back through the mountains in the middle (which are incredible. We spent like 3 hours just driving through the valleys between these massive mountains. It was great), and finally to the west coast. Once you get close to the west coast, it gets almost jungly. According to Beth, it's basically the same flora that would have been around millions of years ago. That's pretty incredible. They actually even still have a dinosaur in New Zealand (It's called a Tuatara, and it's a lizard that existed when the dinosaurs were around, and is still in existence, and is a different genetic line than any lizard or bird because it is actually a dinosaur. Crazy, huh? I saw one. In a nature reserve in Wellington, but still.)! So we finally made it to the coast, just in time for sunset, so we parked on the side of the road, had a beer, and watched the sun set over the coast. It actually reminds me a bit of the Northern/Central California coast, in that it's mountains coming down into the ocean, with these random, rocky outcroppings just off the coast. Pretty spectacular. Especially with a great, New Zealand craft beer. Then we found our camping spot for the night, this time with electricity, showers and wifi (that didn't work). But the best part about it was the shitty pub, where we had a shitty meal surrounded by bikers. Very authentic experience, I'm told. It was one of those experiences where everything is so horrible, but it's exactly how it should be, and so you love it. The pub, not the camping. That was fine.
Then in the morning we woke up and went to see these Pancake rocks, that are pretty awesome. The water has eroded the rocks over the years so that they look like stacks of pancakes, and you just walk around on them, jutting out into the water, and the waves coming in at high tide make water shoot up randomly like geysers through the swiss-cheesy holes in the outcroppings. We were told it would be awesome, and it's the reason we stayed at Punakaiki, and it did not disappoint. The only disappointment was that we had to rush to catch our ferry back to the North Island in the afternoon, so we couldn't spend more than like 30 minutes at the rocks. I would have loved to spend more time. But alas, off we went, driving through more mountains and valleys and rivers and lakes and fields and plains to get to a boat to take us back to the big city, where I spent the next 4 days.
I hadn't really looked up anything to do, so just got a bunch of recs from Beth and her friends of what to do in town. And so I spent most of my time walking around exploring museums (pretty much all of which are free) and one day climbing up to the highest peak in town to take in some views. I also went to Weta Workshop, a film studio and special effects production house which most people know because of Lord of the Rings, but that is pretty much doing everything these days. Actually it'a amazing how many movies are either shot or edited in New Zealand. Kind of awesome. If you want to work in film, you should go to Wellington. And, of course, also drinking good coffee, good beer, and eating lots of good food. That was, as usual, the point of the whole thing. To eat good food. And I sure did. The food was awesome, and it helped having people who work in F&B and know (or own) all the best places taking you around. Best meal was probably at Shepherd, which is owned by Beth's boyfriend Sean. I may be biased, but seriously it was so delicious. There was this amazing chawan-mushi style egg custard with truffle oil and goat's cheese that was probably the best thing I ate on the entire trip. If you go to Wellington, go to Shepherd. And Golding's Free Dive, which is Sean's bar across the road from Shepherd, where I basically spent the late afternoon every day. But also do anything else Beth tells you. Um, yeah, I think that's it. It was wonderful. I want to go back. And I want my sister to move there. I think it's the most "her" place I've ever been. She would love it. Plus then I'd have an excuse to go annually, at least. Anyway, can't wait to go back!
Now for a bit of music, this time from Weaves. They just released their 2nd album, Wide Open, and I'm a fan. It's kind of a more poppy version of Alabama Shakes style rock. Case in point, Walkaway, one of my favorite tracks on the album.
So yeah, I really like this sound and album. I went and listened to their first album, though, and wasn't such a fan. I've actually talked before about this theory of how some bands put out a great first album that makes you fall in love, then they put out a mediocre second album, before coming back with an incredible third one. Another trend I feel like I see a lot is what Weaves did, which is where you put out a mediocre first album (which I'm not a fan of, although there was one really good song), but then an incredible second one. Very often in these cases, the 2nd album will end up being the only one I like. But sometimes, it also signifies a band coming into their own and starting to develop and make music I love. Hopefully that's what we've got with Weaves. But if not, at least we've got a great album in Wide Open. My favorite is probably the closing track, Puddle. I wasn't sure about it at first, but now I am. I play it on repeat. It's so good.
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