I should have known to bring my camera today, even to go to the grocery. I walked with Taylor to work, and then was going along the Waterfront to get to the store when I saw a Little Blue Penguin right below me. He was swimming on his side cleaning his feathers. And he really was blue. It looked like someone put blue hair dye on his back.
Anyway, I didn’t get a picture. But you can see what one looks like here:
http://www.pbase.com/peterbray/image/87480945
Now I’ll be looking for one every time I take my camera into the city, just like the Gold Finches. If I get a a picture I’ll post it.
: )
The weather in Wellington has been wonderful for our three-day birthday weekend. Saturday we went to Dixon Street Deli for breakfast. This deli has the best gluten free food. The roast vegetable sandwich and the roasted pumpkin are delicious. And they play good music too. . .Massive Attack, and Iron & Wine.
We found some good things at the library, and spent the day just hanging out in town. Then on sunday we went down to the Waterfront, where all of Wellington was spending the day. ( That actually isn’t very many people; the city is like a ghost town on the weekends. ) It was beautiful near the water though. People were playing with their dogs in the water, skateboarding and bicycling. . . There are these contraptions you can rent to peddle your whole family around. Very good people watching.
Then Monday was the best. My birthday is also Bastille Day in France, and this was the first time I was actually able to wish a real Frenchman happy Bastille Day. We went to Crepes a Go Go, on Manners Mall, for the first time. The new owner was there. He immigrated from France just a week ago. It was cool to talk to him. And the crepes were delicious, of course, and gluten free. Yay!
After that we went to Karori Wildlife Sanctuary. I’ve been wanting to go there for years, and it was even better than I expected. We saw so many more birds than I thought. We saw lots of Tui pairs doing display calls, two Stichbird pairs, two Bellbirds, three North Island Robins, a pair of Saddlebacks, a group of Kaka, and lots of little Blackbirds and bright colored mushrooms. I took some pictures and posted them on my Flickr.
Then, we saved the best for last, and went to the Matterhorn for dinner. That was the fanciest dinner I’ve ever had, and it was excellent. It’s a beautiful restaurant, with beautiful food. . . I hope we will be able to go back there to celebrate other things in the future.
Then on Tuesday I had the added bonus of going up to Petone to talk to my publisher about the projects they have for me. I ended up spending the whole day in Paramata with Joy, who is the most amazing person. I can’t wait to work with her. I’m feeling very lucky indeed on this birthday. : )
1. Taylor has 3 days off work.
2. A publisher (ask any author/illustrator, this is like winning the lottery).
3. A copy of PhotoShop CS3
4. A library card (unlimited access to the good stuff).
So the three day birthday celebration is about to commence, and I’m already having a week that is like a dream come true.
We’ve been getting comfortable in our apartment, which involves cooking some of our favorite foods that we can’t find here. I made a bunch of good Shepherd’s Pie for dinner last night. This morning we made guacamole, and this recipe is perfect. We made a ton of it for breakfast and stuffed ourselves. It was pure avocado debauchery. I very much recommend it.
Wellington is starting to show it’s colors as we get more familiar with it. We’ve found a lot of places near the apartment that we really enjoy. That, with all the good things happening for Taylor at work, mean that things are really looking up here. I think we might go exploring in Karori Sanctuary and up in Porirua this weekend. Pictures forthcoming.
So I made this little picture of Taylor to experiment with my new Photoshop. I don’t know how to use it yet, but the brush tools are fun. Fans of Taylor, enjoy. . .
We had an amazing weekend.
Taylor got to see the Tri-nations Rugby season begin with the All Blacks playing against the World Champion South African Springboks. She just went to work on Saturday (8th day in a row) and they were like “would you like to go to the game?”, and she was like “hell yeah!”. And ten minutes later she was walking over there. She had nice, covered seats. ( A good thing to have when an Antarctic wind storm is bearing down on Wellington, as it was that night.) And the game was pretty much mind blowing. The All Blacks won; I watched it on TV. There’s nothing like it in the US; it’s incredible.
And she had Sunday off. We found an alley called Chews Lane with good restaurants really near our apartment. It’s a great shortcut to the library and Te Papa. We ate at Gotham, which is awesome. Then we hung out at the library and Te Papa a little bit. In the afternoon we went to see Hancock at a really nice cinema on Courtenay Place. So we’re doing a bit better. Taylor even has the weekend off this week. So that’ll probably be when we do my birthday.
This morning we woke up to the sound of trucks honking all over the city. Today the Truckies protested the new higher road usage charges. Trucks from all over New Zealand caravaned into the major cities to gridlock them. It actually wasn’t that bad. Most people stayed home from work, or used public transit to avoid the trucks. I walked down to the end of our street to take pictures of the trucks in front of Parliament.
Then, later I walked down to WestPac Stadium to drop off the artworks that were accepted into the Affordable Arts Show going on this August. And this afternoon I met with a publisher. I love this publisher. This is the second meeting I’ve had with them, and they are so nice. I can’t wait to start working on some of the projects they have planned for me.
Anyway, that’s fantastic news. . . and Taylor’s restaurant has a big weekend coming up. Tomorrow the All Blacks rugby team is playing the world champion South African Springboks at WestPac stadium, and then I think they’ll all be stampeding Taylor’s new restaurant. Hopefully she’ll enjoy having the place packed full like Home Slice. I can’t wait to hear about it.
Today we went to take a look at Te Papa, the Museum of New Zealand. (”Papa” can mean Mother Earth, Father, or to touch/to effect in Maori) I’ve been dying to see this place for a long time, but intended to just see what the price of entry was. It turned out to be free, so we just got sucked in. It was incredible!
We spent half the day there, and still have so much to see. The architecture of the building is fantastic, and the exhibits are amazing. The art collection is better even than the Denver Museum of Contemporary art, but in a natural history context. It had modern art galleries, educational exhibits, and a Maori Marae that was one of the most intricate and beautiful pieces of art I’ve ever seen:
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/TePapa/English/WhatsOn/LongTermExhibitions/TheMarae.htm
I can see we’ll be spending lots of time here. I definitely recommend it. It would be, all by itself, an excellent reason to visit Wellington.
Pictures of Wellington, by Te Papa’s photographers:
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/images/image_thumbs.asp?categoryname=Location%20Wellington&narrative=579
Pictures of the Te Papa, the museum:
http://www.tepapa.govt.nz/images/image_thumbs.asp?categoryname=Te%20Papa%20Views&narrative=581
Sorry I haven’t been able to write, but we thought we would have internet when we got here. . . then we thought we’d have it Tuesday Night. . . then we thought we’d have it Wednesday Night. Suzie has been wrangling the service provider for days, and they must be like Qwest in US because it turns out we wont have it for a few more days.
At least, for the past four days the sun has been shining.
The city is beautiful, “brilliant” as the locals call it. The foreign food is fantastic, although we have some trouble deciphering the names of the local foods. A buttie is an open faced breakfast sandwich; a wedgie is a meal of sliced potatoes; a long black is the closest thing to a drip coffee; a flat white is the closest thing to a coffee with cream. Although the coffee is great, even black. 
If you avoid things labeled “Mexican” you would find it delicious, I think. Maybe we’ll find some good Mexican if we look harder.
People have been incredibly helpful in our travels. Every time we’ve run afoul of a policy, or rule that might have prevented us from doing something, or cost us money, someone has stepped in and exempted us from it. And Suzie, who we are living with, has answered a lot of questions for us, and showered us with maps, bus routes, and advice.
The suburb we live in is called Miramar, and it’s lovely. The beach is a five minute walk down the hill to the east. We walk there as often as we get then chance. Down the hill to west is the bus stop and some nice little shops. We got some unlimited bus passes that have made it possible for us to get really familiar with Wellington in just four days. It’s so compact, you can walk everywhere. The waterfront piers and public buildings are sunny and full of interesting public art and the amazing views around the harbour.
I will be reposting larger versions of these pictures, and many others of our trip here, on the Flickr account as soon as we have internet at home. : )
I actually wrote this about six days ago, but haven’t had much access to the internet.
Day 1 starts
We just got into Auckland this morning. . . it’s not even noon yet, and things have happened so fast. Our plane got into San Francisco a little bit late so we were on the plane to Auckland before we knew it. Security to get into the international concourse was crazy. We didn’t even have a chance to get a bottle of water. It was just after sunset when we took off, and we followed the night around the Pacific to arrive in Auckland well before dawn.
There were definitely some rough spots going through customs, and even getting all that luggage onto the plane. People here have already been so nice to us, and helped us easily get through some things that could have caused a LOT of trouble for us. The only sketchy person we’ve been subjected to is the bus driver who brought us from the airport into Auckland. I think he was definitely mentally ill. It was like he was playing a video game, yelling at the cars, tailgating people, and getting up to walk around at stop lights. Wild. But we got to the hotel safely, and it is NICE. I guess that’s what happens when you come in the off season. The hotel is the Mercure, and we would certainly recommend it.
They advised us to enjoy the free breakfast buffet on the top floor. It was delicious. We stuffed ourselves. We hadn’t had much to eat in a day or two. The restaurant itself had a wonderful 360 degree view of Auckland. And it looks down onto the piers in the bay.
Last night my friend Angie, who I met working at Ren Fest 12 years ago, invited us to join the Confluence Park drum circle at sunset. We brought my sister Chelsea, because she plays a Didgeridoo, like Angie. Angie uses hers for healing. They were the only two with a didge, but there was a flute player, many excellent drummers, and a few tambourines and rattles. I was surprised to see several fantastic firedancers perform. One woman danced with a flaming hula hoop, and she was amazing.
The park was beautiful. I’ve been to so many businesses in that area that I love, but never to the actual park. It’s at the confluence of the river Platte, and Cherry Creek. I saw lots of bats eating moths, and I’ve never seen bats in Denver. It was really cool; we all loved it; and I’m so glad Angie invited us. It reminded me of when Angie used to take me to see Crash Worship. . . but that’s another story. : )
In preparation for our New Zealand move my Mom bought us the camera I’ve been wanting. It’s a Panasonic Lumix DMC- FZ18, and it takes fantastic pictures. It’s definitely our new favorite toy. We love it. To celebrate we started using a new Flickr account:
http://www.flickr.com/photos/ravenslore/
Check it out… often. 
It’s already got me some shots I know I’ll love forever.
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