I've heard a rumour.....

the Good, the Bad and the Changing

The Big Day Out rocked!!! The bands were awesome, the atmosphere was great, the weather was quite nice - a little cloud, a little sun. I managed to escape the dreaded sunburn, Nic was not so lucky.. My favourite picks of the day would have to be Little Birdy, The Killers, Muse and (of course) Tool! We missed John Butler (coincided with Tool's set), Eskimo Joe (got there too late) and the Violent Femmes (too tired), but we did manage to hear "Blister in the Sun" playing somewhere in the distance as we left the stadium. It was a shame that The Butterfly Effect are only doing the Aussie BDOs, would have been great to see them. The only downside was that were too many people - this year it sold out 2 weeks in advance (the quickest selling Auckland BDO to date) with an attendance of around 44,000. I had not a sip of a single alcoholic beverage simply because the beer tent lines were too long, not to mention the requirement that you stay within a designated, fenced-off area whilst consuming the alcohol. Even so, it was still such a great day.. And now Nic can proudly say she is no longer a BDO- or Tool-virgin!!
So I hear Sydney BDO-goers ended up draping themselves in the Aussie flag.. Who didn't see that coming? Good on 'em though for getting on with it and just enjoying the music! A law to protect the flag? Bah-Humbug.
One week to go for our Adelaide viewers!

On a completely different note: I made a point recently of saying that my plans are always changing and tend to not come to fruition exactly as I would have thought. Here is another example. Nic will be moving out next Sunday, going up to Auckland to live with a bunch of friends she met in Australia a year ago... Now not even I saw that one coming, or maybe I did. I do wish them all the best and hope they have a ball, but where does that leave me now I hear you think? Well, I hope to complete the remainder of my contract with the Polytech, until the end of March, and then we'll just have to see what happens from then............

One thing I do know is that after having spent such a long time in each other's company virtually 24/7, it will be very difficult to see her go.

Photos:
1. Auckland city from the Sky Tower
2. The Sky Tower with an interesting sculpture in foreground
3. The Big Line Up
4. Rockin' out!
5. The patented Blue and Orange BDO stages
6. TOOL!!!

BDO coming soon!!!

In less than a week, Nic and I will be at the BDO in Auckland, rockin' it out with the best of them. We've taken the Thursday (18th) off work too for the long ≈8 hour drive up. And turns out the Monday afterwards is actually the Wellington Anniversary Holiday (each of the 12 regions of NZ has a public holiday celebrating its conception - although, these "regions" actually relate to the former provinces of 19th century New Zealand and are not related to districts or regions of the present day), so we get to relax, and get paid for doing so, after the drive back on Sunday - awesome!

Apart from that, not much new to report on.. More work, more attempting to save money..

Pics have been uploaded for the last post. Also, in case you didn't notice, there's now a map (inspired by Adam and Eva's) of places I've been in NZ. Of course it isn't everywhere I've been, but the main places (in chronological order) so you can see my general route. Some of the tags, for some reason, are nowhere near the places they are supposed to represent.. Interesting.. You'll probably want to click on the map and zoom in on NZ to be able to make out the places.

Again, if you're reading this, feel free to drop me a comment.. Just click on the "# people have had something to say." link below.

Photos:
1. Our temporary humble abode
2. The burbs
3. Bungy in the middle of the city - cnr Taranaki St and Courtenay Pl

Happy 2007!

First and foremost, I hope that everyone had an amazing Christmas and NYE, wherever you were celebrating! It was really nice hearing from everyone! We have had a great time here in NZ. Leading up to xmas was a bit hectic with trying to organise food, presents, what we were actually going to do, etc. But the actual day turned out to be quite nice. We had a champagne breakfast with croissants in the morning, then packed up all the food we had prepared earlier (well to be fair, Nic organised most of the food - including a few of her traditional xmas treats like stuffing balls and "pigs in blankets" [sausages wrapped in bacon.. mmmm the cholesterol] for lunch and treacle, sponge and custard for dessert - and delicious it all was...) and drove out to Rimutaki Forest Park on the eastern side of Wellington harbour for a picnic lunch. Cloudy was the forecast, but no rain - we did even get a few rays of sunlight through so we were happy about that! It was a great day and xmas spirits were made higher with our wearing of our authentic(ally purchased) santa hats. I made Glühwein (a German drink we were introduced to in Munich, similar to mulled wine) a little later on and we sat down to watch some xmas DVDs for the rest of the night.
The intermedial Christmas-NY week was pretty relaxed but we did manage to visit Te Papa Museum (6 floors!) and the Wellington Zoo which is celebrating its 50th year this year. We've watched plenty of DVDs and also quite a few movies at the cinemas, The Queen and The Holiday being the stand-outs so far.
For New Years we decided to drive almost the length of the North Island to a place called Mount Maunganui (or simply the Mount to the locals) on the northern shore, south-east of Auckland. This is where we heard that most of the youngins tend to go NYE - and boy were they youngins, most were still in their early teens.. On the drive up we again experienced 4 seasons in one day from roasting to freezing, sun to rain, even hail.. It was chilly at the Mount but it didn't rain too much which was good. The beach was where it was all happening and they had set up a little mini bar/club out there which is where we spent most of our time drinking. With about half and hour to go we stumbled down to the stage that was set up on the shoreline ready to count down to 2007.. Fun times.. Since we didn't decide to spend NYE at the Mount until the day before, all the accommodation was booked out so after all the celebrating was done we had to sleep in my car! I did bring my sleeping bag along, but I fell asleep before I got it out of the boot so I froze my tits off! Brrrrrr... Still a great night though.
So I'm back in Welly now and back at work today. No rest for the ugly as they say. Last night we went bowling in Wellington's only (very classy) bowling alley. I, of course, kicked arse again with strikes throughout and a perfect score of 300 - yeah right! Haven't been bowling in what feels like years so it was good fun.
I really have to tighten my buckle for the rest of the time here in Welly so I can save enough to fund the rest of my trip (and so my pants don't fall down). Xmas and NY cost a lot more than expected, so from now on no more spending.. The exception being the not-to-be-missed BDO in Auckland on the 19th. Tool are going to be there - Yeeeeehawwwww!

Well, that's my life up until this point → •

Pictures soon

Photos:
1. Pulling a traditional xmas cracker in front of the tree - I think this one had a beer-bottle opener inside!
2. That's the spirit!
3. A very festive house in Lower Hutt
4. Little guy at the zoo.. I just like the photo..
5. A Māori display inside Te Papa Museum
6. I doubt even beer goggles can help this poor fellow - Mt. Maunganui
7. Gettin' smashed...
8. HAPPY NEW YEAR!!!
9. Fireworks on the beach
10. Cool, calm and collected at the bowling alley - see the computer says I got a strike.. is that my lane??