Another Weekend of Wonder - Wellington Style!

Hello Everyone!
After a quite amazing weekend up in centre of the North Island last weekend, I was not expecting to have another spectacular weekend one week later - Wellington Style!

FRIDAY: No time to rest after work, as I was meeting the other volunteer basketball coaches for a pre meal drink in the city. The reason for a night out, other than to have some social time all together, was to support some of our athletes who were trying to fundraise for their own hip-hop dance group. The fundraiser was in 'Dragon' a chinese restaurant on Tory St, and we were treated to a performance from the group before dinner!

Our hip-hop crew athletes!

B-Ball crew

Following a greeting from the group, we were soon enjoying the food, (around five different courses of pork, chicken, dumplings rice etc...) Ryan was still waiting for the vegetarian option for most of the evening though... 

B-Ball group

The performers were supported by friends, family, and many of the other athletes from the 'special olympics' family, which gave the night a very social feel, and allowed everyone to mix and mingle between the 21 sold out tables of 10! The more time I spend with this group, both through the basketball sessions, tournaments and social events, the more I'm inspired by our athletes who face barriers every day that many people would struggle to accept and cope with. I've only ever been met with smiles, laughter (usually at my B-ball shooting ability) and total acceptance for everyone involved in the organisation. It's a truly inspiring group of people involved in this organisation, and just as the SV group was in Manchester, - it's always the highlight of my week!

Hip-Hop Crew

 The fundraiser event ended, but the night just started with a rather random trip to the Irish Social Club, and pub quiz, which we didn't enter until Round 5 of 9! Still, we gave it a go and definitely got at east 3 answers right! The cheap drinks and 'good crac' was worth the detour - Thank you Emma Hayes!

At the irish social cub with Ryan, Emma & Jules

 SATURDAY - Well to be honest, it was relatively restful after the previous night's outing and the odd drink! With a beautiful sunny day outside I was keen to do some kind of exercise, so I eventually got ready and cycled out to Island Bay to see a pretty amazing sunset, and take on a head wind around the coast to Lyall Bay before cycling up a never-ending hill on the way home. I didn't have my camera with me unfortunately, but this was the perfect way to dust off the cobwebs before getting ready for a cultured evening at the theatre to see the ballet - Swan Lake with my flat mate Tibo. 

Tibo @ Swan Lake

 The St James Theatre is a pretty nice venue, with decent leg room too! I've been lucky to watch a fair few ballet's whilst working in theatres over the years, and I have to say this production was pretty amazing, and well worth the quite expensive admission cost!

St James Theatre - Swan Lake

An extra bonus to the evening was bumping into my workmate, Belinda after the show and heading to one of my favourite bars (The Library) for some drinks, and post show banter! 

Drinks with Belinda

SUNDAY - Another beautiful day in Wellington, and after a home made bacon sandwich, I was off on my bike to the Kilbirnie Sports arena to learn how to play 'Korf ball'. - A game somewhere between basketball and netball, with 8 players, (4 men & 4 woman) and a very tall pole with a basket on the top of it. An hour and a half later, I (and a group of random people from Adventure Wellington meet up group) had got the basics of the game and enjoyed a fairly social game, enough to work up a good sweat. I have to say, I'm far better at sports with the ball at my feet than in my hands, but getting better.

The rest of day was spent in the company of my friend Soo-Yin, as we headed up to Porirua to an arts & crafts fair, (where I was able to buy a few early xmas presents), before continuing up to Kapiti coast - which is becoming my all time favourite drive around Wellington. As it's the West coast it's a totally unspoilt view of the sun dropping into the ocean, and we enjoyed some spectacular views on an almost deserted beach...

Kapiti Coast

Kapiti Sunsets

As the sun was setting it was time to get some fun photos, which now include the great 'jumping shot'. Soo-Yin is getting well practiced at this shot and I think you'll agree it's another good shot!

Jumping Shots

 I can't resist a good pose now and then, and have to say that this photo shows the beauty of the Kapiti coast pretty well... beautiful nothingness, total piece and unspoilt  nature! This is one thing aspect of life here I will never be bored of, and it's all just 20 minute drive away! (Or train ride).

Kapiti Poses!

Kapiti Sunsets

Kapiti Sunsets

 I attempted to get a little arty with the next shots, including the use of my sunglasses to show a polarized view of the coast line, though I think the Soo-Yin silhouette photo was the my favorite shot of the day.

Kapiti Sunsets through sunglasses...

A Soo-Yin sillhouette 

The drive back to Wellington was spent deciding where we could go for dinner, with a steak house being the preferred option! After a good steak and some ice cream, we ended the night with a late movie - The World's End!  I have to say that after 30 min of the film I was wishing for the world to end, because it was rubbish! I mean, absolutely awful, not funny and too silly to even be considered amusing. Despite the movie, I returned home ready for bed and in high spirits ready to take on the week ahead, which would include the arrival of a friend 'Bez' who is moving over here from the UK! 

Regards from New Zealand!

Dan

A weekend to remember - earthquakes, volcanoes, and free spirits mean anything is possible!

SPECTACULAR, SCARY, FUN, DANGEROUS & BREATHTAKING - all the words that described Friday 19th - Sunday 21st July 2013 - read on!

EARTHQUAKES! 3 Big ones in 3 days! I could talk about that quite easily... the city survived the big one (6.9 magnitude) which shook the top of the South Island and Lower north Island on Sunday evening. Yes there was mild damage to the city, but no serious injuries! To be honest the series of aftershocks have been more disturbing to me and the 'planning' that the media and the city had undertaken is pretty extensive. On Friday morning about 09:00 whilst sat in front of the computer at work in the office, I felt a little rumble under my feet, then felt the building move in a way that buildings should not be moving (sideways)! I went deadly quiet, (thought about diving under the nearest table as I have been taught to do by a multitude of school children on tv adverts), and looked out of the window to see the workmen holding onto the scaffolding of a newly constructed building across the street. Everyone else in the office seemed calm, and no one jumped under the desk, despite saying it was one of the biggest quakes felt in Wellington for some time... 

Part of the reason I think I'm not feeling too panicked is because I missed the entire big event on Sunday! After feeling Friday's warm-up shake whilst at work, I was quickly out of Wellington and driving up North for one of the most incredible trips I have had since I arrived here - up a volcano at Mt Ruapehu at the time of the Earthquake!

The weekend itself was pretty mesmorising from start to finish! Moving from the city of Wellington, to remote farm land Friday Night, then to the thermal geysers of Rotorua, and Lake Taupo on Saturday, before the splender of Mount Ruapehu and return to Wellington on Sunday! All this was with two wonderfully spirited new friends, who both originate from Brazil and provided non-stop entertainment from start to finish! I'm tired just reading that sentence! I could talk all day about many aspects of this adventure, but I'll try and stick to the main points so: go put the kettle on, get a cup of tea and a biscuit and sit down to enjoy the story! 

FRIDAY NIGHT:

Filled with quite a bit of excitement at the weekend ahead, and a long drive of 3 hours, I finished work early, (@ 3:30pm) picked up my hire car. (Another free upgrade - I should keep asking for 'manuals', because every time I do, they never have any and give me a free upgraded automatic). I had ALL my CD's, and set about singing my way (along with the cast of Glee, and the odd musical) 2 hours north to Palmerston North, to pick up Sonia, - a friend of my friend Dayanne. Sonia and Dayanne are both Brazilian by birth but have been over here in NZ longer than I have. Me and Sonia drove for another hour up to Takapau, to Dayanne's farm house - in the middle of absolutely nowhere! No noise, no neighbours and a clear star filled sky! After a home cooked lasagna (yummy indeed), it was a relatively early night before waking up at 0530 the next morning - solely at Dayanne's insistence so we could get to the Lady Knox Geyser by 10:00 just outside of Rotorua. I thought I was being tortured to be made to get up so early on a weekend, but I will publicly admit that it was the right thing to do as the video and pictures below show the wonder of the Geyser demonstration, which is actually brought about by adding soap powder to it! There is 26000 litres of water suppressed underneath!

starting to go...

It might be early, but we're happy campers!

The Geyser was impressive enough, but was nothing compared to the wonders of the WAI-O-TAPU 'Thermal Wonderland' just down the road from the geyser. These thermal wonderlands offer bubbling mud pools, both small and large coloured pools of water, coloured differently by the different minerals that sit in the pools. The only problem was the sulphur smell (rotten eggs) that followed us around the park... or was that actually the remains of last night's lasagna?????

Large Thermal pools... & smelly too!

So excited, Dayanne jumps for joy!

'Fantail bird'

Cheesy Pictures!

Stunning Thermal pools...

Thermal pools...

Wonderful colors...

HUKA FALLS - The next stop on Saturday was Huka falls just outside of Taupo, which is a little gorge where an awful lots of water passes through as fairly high speeds, making it a nice little stop and tourist attraction, with a 'jet boat' and viewing platforms, I'll let the pictures do the talking here...

Huka Falls, Taupo

powerful falls...

TAUPO Saturday evening was going to be a night out in Taupo, (home of the seriously beautiful and huge Lake Taupo). We thought it was a good idea to do a touch of shopping, and me and Dayanne even tried to fit in a tandem bungy jump, but arrived too late to jump that evening. Sonia wasn't very keen on for me and Dayanne to go jumping off a platform tied to only elastic, and she found her own way to cope with her anxiety! (see picture below)

Coping with the idea of a bungy watching us bungy jump

On arriving at our hotel we were all looking forward to jumping into the free thermal spa pools, but I got distracted by the sunset (yes I know I always get distracted by sunsets - thank you Helen Clark!) Check these sunsets out at Lake Taupo...

Taupo Sunsets

Lake Taupo Sunsets

Lake Taupo Sunset

That was pretty much the last thing I saw (outdoors), as after a good soak in the spa, and a few tasty ciders later, the early morning start had caught up with us all! Whilst me and Dayanne sat watching the movie 'my big fat greek wedding' on tv, whilst waiting for the longest ever pizza delivery, Sonia was in the land of sleep and adding some funny noises to the movie soundtrack!

DAY 2 - SUNDAY: TONGARIRO NATIONAL PARK & RUAPEHU

Having woken up, to some sunny skies, and cold pizza, Dayanne was bouncing round the room (like tigger from 'Winnie the pooh') because there was sunshine hovering over the Tongariro National Park and over the volcanic Mt Ruapehu. One quick stop at the bakery was made before driving out to the national park and first stop was the drive up to Whakapapa village and the now famous Mt Doom! Take a look at this!

Mt Doom

Mt Ruapehu from Whakapapa Village

We may not have been skiing, but there was plenty of life on the volcano with families all over the place making snowmen and sledging on the way up to the ski-fields. I wasn't really sure what to expect as the snow didn't look too heavy, but once we managed the long long walk up to the chair lift (because it was so busy you just couldn't park anywhere close) the adventure began.

The views just got better and better as we got higher, and the mountain had poked it's head though the surrounding cloud, to leave an almost perfect circle of blue sky surrounding us. I could easily try describing the views, but I couldn't possibly do it justice, so enjoy the photos... 

The ladies chatting away...

Looking over at Mt Doom from Ruapehu

Busy ski-field

Chair lift to heaven!

Two very happy ladies!

More chair lift views...

Thumbs up for this experience!

Snow covered mountains...

A very long drive home followed the time up the mountain, with some funny conversations in the car about what superpowers would you chose to have if you could pick any 3 powers. Sonia seemed to want to use any power for numerous forms of world domination, which we pointed out was not allowed in the rules of the game! Time passed relatively quickly in the car, and we soon arrived at Palmerston North to drop Sonia home, and make a mad dash to use the toilet - not lasagna related!
I returned to Dayanne's farm to pick up my car and prepare for the 3 hour drive back to Wellington (which unbeknown was still reeling from the earthquake). I couldn't leave without a final piece of lasagna, to see my through my drive home, and finally arrived home just before midnight.

When these kind of spontaneous events happen, with near strangers, I do wonder if there is a higher meaning in these connections. Just over one week before this weekend I had never met these two ladies, and would never have imagined having spent a totally spectacular weekend in their wonderful company. So thank you Dayanne and Sonia for a weekend filled with fun, laughter, wonder, laughter, some weirdness, more laughter, a little alcohol, a bit more laughter, and plenty of lasagna!

Hope you've enjoyed the blog (if you made it this far)...
Regards from New Zealand
Dan 

Winter Wellington, - theatre, sports, walking, storms, meet ups and new friends...

Winter Wellington, from the apartment...

Hey everybody, well it's been a little while since the last post, but there's been a few events and some people that have inspired me, and helped me to remember the benefits of blogging. It's been quite a few weeks since my visitors came, and I've been making a concerted effort to get back into a more regular fitness regime (especially since the weather this winter has turned to an English downpour). So whilst I have been spending lots of time both in and out doors playing both traditional sports like (football & basketball), I've also been trying a few alternatives (turbo touch & gaelic football). I've also been adding a bit of culture to my life... so let me share a story or two.

Phantom of the Opera... my first trip to the most traditional Wellington Theatre (St James Theatre), was never going to be a disappointment as myself and my work mate Jen, took our seats for the showing of the Phantom, which was pretty good, considering the stage wasn't the biggest. It was nice to be back watching big show, sand with 'Wicked' coming up in Auckland in October, I'm getting my musical hit! 

 Basketball Tournament with Special Olympics Wellington... a trip up to a town called Palmerston North (known as Palmy, and the place people seem to make fun of). The reason for going was for a basketball tournament with the fantastic athletes that I volunteer with on a Thursday night. The tournament was a weekend and started out with a very early start 06:40 start. 

Players & Coaches...

Both teams (Wildcats & Tornadoes) played some great Basketball, and more importantly, enjoyed the competition and spending time away together. Basketball is still pretty new to me, but I'm learning to appreciate it more week by week, and I have to say that the athletes help me out much more than I help them. The spirit in our Wellington group is outstanding, with a total acceptance and respect, and it's usually the highlight of my week going to the training. Here's a few pictures from the tournament...

Treasuring the medals!

I got really good at shouting 'defense defense' and 'hands up' whilst patrolling the side line. I think the athletes even listen to me sometimes too!  

Loving the defense!

SPORTS... through one of my fellow volunteer coaches at basketball, (Emma) I've finally been able to find a 'social' football team that I can get a regular game with. So on Tuesday nights I get to play 5-a-side footy in a mixed team, with some odd rules! 

1) You can use the side walls, but not put your hand on the rail side wall (rail).

2) If a girl scores, it's worth 2 apparently... ( a pretty sexist rule in my book).

How can a goal be anything other than a goal? Should it matter who scores?

The girls scoring double points is not limited to football, in a game I have now played twice called 'Turbo touch' (5 team members on a gym court, in a game that mixes rugby, handball and netball), girls 'score' double too. The kiwi's seem to turn any activity into a game/sport of some description, with ultimate frisbee and 'frisbee golf' being just as visible in the sports arena as football, netball and basketball. It certainly keeps people active and keeps me out of the gym. I even attempted a  gaelic football training session, where I didn't embarrass myself too much. Actually, I think I picked the basics up quite well, though as tiredness crept in, my kicking direction went out the window.

As far as watching sports go, we're still in Rugby season, so I've been watching the not so mighty 'Hurricanes' who at their final home game played out a 44-49 loss. I do have tickets to the All Blacks vs Australia game on August 24th which will be amazing!

Meet ups... I'm constantly talking with people, locals, visitors, travelers and clients the amazing variety of 'meet-up' groups around Wellington, and I've been making the most of them recently with the following events: the rugby, Theatre Sports - an improvisation competition, roller derby, Korean meal & Karaoke, outdoor team fitness and a few more to come! Adding to the list of other stuff I've done like an adventure weekend away, gorging, white water rafting and abseiling, sailing, rock climbing, kayaking, outdoor movies, concerts, walks and socials. Anyone coming to visit me, definitely check it out and with it being free to join these groups you could end up doing some amazing things here in the 'coolest little capital in the world'.

WEEKEND WONDERS... This past weekend has been pretty hectic, involving Korean dinner & Karaoke, the visit of new friend, walks with workmates, first time watching roller derby, flight shopping, and the gym to boot! I'm ready for bed!

The korean meal and karaoke was fun, with my usual repertoire of songs, which was followed by a fun night out with a recently made friend - Dayanne, who came to Wellington for a change of scenery as she lives out in the countryside! A late night out with my flatmate Tibo, was followed by a very early morning walk up Mount Kaukau with my work mates Jen, Bob, John & Jen's son and dog. Me & Dayanne were a little worse for wear, but managed the walk, for some pretty spectacular views of Wellington! (See below)...

Jen & Bob on the walk.

Views of Wellington from Mt Kaukau

John enjoying the fresh air! 

Buster (the dog), Me, Dayanne, Bob & John having a picnic!

I was joined by a couple of other workmates for Saturday night's visit to the Roller Derby match between the Wellington team, and an Aussie team from Melbourne. It took a while to work out the rules, which were something like, the scorer (jammer) had to skate past the opposing team, though the opposition can basically try to stop the jammer by blocking with their bodies. All this on roller skates! A series of 2 minute rounds within two 30 minute periods make the match last about 2 hours. Watch the video below to try and make sense of it! 

So that's a pretty sketchy review of the past few weeks, and hopefully gives a quick summary of life in Wellington during my second winter here. 

Congrats to Andy Murray for Wimbledon, and hopefully to the England cricket team, who are one wicket from victory in the 1st test, though Australia are fighting back brilliantly! 

Regards from Wellington,

Dan