Wellington

If this sounds really crap its because im am writing this whilst in Coffs harbour (2 weeks later) 

We arrived in 'Welly' an the afternoon and caught a bus to our hostel. The busses were really cool. A lot of them were connected to overhead rails just like trams. I dont konw why but i found this really exciting. I think it was the thought that they were a bit like trains on the road. (im mad i know).

We arrived at the Central YHA which is a massive hostel ( a major phobia of ours) which is ment to be one of the best. It was rewally claen and had lovely seating area etc. We aws had our friend Polly staying here so we could meet up with her too!! We were putting our stuff away in the kitchen and i thought it would be a good idea to have a mmoch through all the cubby holes and find Pollys stuff. Lo and behold we came across some carrs cracker and decioded to leave a note on a cup for her. (she is used to finding notes in her cubby hole so we thought it would be nice to continue the tradition).

We then went out to investigate the capital. Not many people know it but Welly is the capitol and not Auckland ( thank god cause it wouldnt say much for the country). The city itself is the nicest city i have ever seen. Ive not seen may tho but it really is nice. There are so many lovely old and interesting looking bulidings and narrow streets, sculptures and art, museums etc. It is also a very windy city ( yes and mighty pretty) but that was just fine as it was quite warm and i had my new hoodie. We mooched and looked at over priced sunglasses, Emma had a bagel, i never got served my tea and we mooched on. There was this fantastic bronze or summat sculpture of a guy and his leeping dog in a narrow side street. I cant rember what it was about but he was some guy who did summat for the town. We then walked on to a shopping arcade which was stunning. It was full of oldey world shops, with ornate ceilings, carved wood, tiles floors and beautiful luxurious xmas daycor. Unfortuneatley the shops were shuting but this was prob best elce we would ahve been there all evening. It turned out that it was an old bank, complete with vaults. This place seems to have a nice bit of history. As we wondered on we found out that there is a old ship wreck buried under the floor in the arcade. That is something for us to see next time. We left and ventured on to starbucks for tea and cake. Oh the life of leisure!

Back at the YHA we had tea and met Polly who was with a crasy Alaskan woman and three germans. We decided to go out for a drink (all except one german) to Mac's Brewery by the harbour. We love macs beer. It is the NZ drink in my opinion. So we all had a lovely chat... The Alaskan being excentric( she was just gr8, our kind of person) and the germans being sooo weird. Thank god they left soon as the girl didnt really want to go out but she obviously didnt trust her partner..he was a nut job anyway. They we really had a laught, slagging off men etc for the whole evening. It only takes afew drinks to get me drunk anyway. We left with smiles on our faces after the Alaskans crasy tales of childhhod, language barriers and naughty exchange students.

Mount Victoria

The next morn we ventured up Mount Vic which gave us an amazing view over the city and beyond. The climb up was trecherous. At the bottom was a sign telling those on mountain bikes not to skid! I tell you, there was no way would could avoid skidding down there. What the hell are you suppoded to do?? fly????!!! Anyway, eneough of that. Once at the top Emma got excited about the air port and couldnt understand how the runway was so short then over the sea. We both sat there admiring the view saying "we are going to Sydney tomorrow". We do this every now and again just to try and remid ourselves of where we are. We often forget you see. We then headed back down the mount, photographing a fellow odd traveller on the way.

One in town we popped back tot he hostel to re fuel and then split up. I went and printed photos off for me sketch book, and vistied an Art exhibition. Choose who to tour with our just do both...

Sam Taylor-Wood Photography Exibition at City Gallery (with sam)

This woman artist is good mates with Tracy Emin and has been featured in the Turner prize so i thought it was wortha look if only to say the above. I was prepared to be disturbed and shocked. I paid $5 to get in which was a bargain. First i was some massive, larger than life photos of people falling with various backgrounds. Very nice. Then there was a bizzare Photo of the Artist posing with a stuffed rabbit streched towards the ceiling, wearing a suit and trainers. It makes you think why would you want to portray yourself like that? It was a bit Dali-ish. It was like she was in a Alices in Wonderland scene but a bit wierd.  The there were films in dark rooms; one of a ballet guy in pants suspended over a 5 peice orchestra with music and the other a suited man with a dove on his head, tap dancing on a box which looked as if he was dancing on a dead/sleeping  suited guys chest. I really liked the latter but for what reason i could say. The tap dancing was kind of relaxing and also a it funny. the guys face was really spaced out, but also concentrating. I appologise for waffaling but i am also writing this so i can remeber stuff too!!

The really good bit for me was seeing the video of David Beckham asleep. Need i explain more..  Then it got better. The image that brought me to see the exhibiton was of Hayden Christensen crying, and here was a room of about 25-30 picturs of famous actors crying. I had a quick mooch and think, then darted into a side room to see another video. Called 'Brontosorous' it is basically 1.a guy dancing in the nude with his willy flopping around and 2. the biggest pile of crap ever seen. Ive seen it before in Tate St Ives (remember jp) and seem to have followed me across the globe.

Thank god there was time left to see the crying men exhibition properly. Looking at all of them it was so interesting to see how they all acted towards the camera. Most of them had to support thier heads, as if they were burdened wiht the weight of the world. Some hid faces, most looked past the camera or hid their faces. It was am experiecne to see so intimatley such well know people. Its different than seeing on screen. It kind of more special. You have stopped time and you see this one person as they were for a split second. I wondered how long she had been with each person? Ther were photos of Jude Law and My fave Daniel Craig ( my new bond) Were they acting? Did they tell her about thie lives? What made them cry? What made them sad?

There was one that was amazing. It was a big black guy (cant remeber his name, who cares) in a fur coat. It was a close up of his face and shoulders and massive. He was placed in front of a window so it was like bright halo against his dark head. He looked straight at the camera as if he was proud if his tears, and there were two bright white reflection where his tears ran town his cheeks. I cant reaaly descibe it any better but it was so good. Im fact i am thinking of buying it with the many milloins it with have earned by the time i return. not. But i sat there and soaked it all up and found tears welling up in my eyes. I dont know what came over me. It was a bit embarrising to be honest and now i am telling you. But ive decided that was what it was all about. It was ment to provoke a reaction, so i went with it, and really enjoyed it. I suppose you have to take what you can from art and come to your own conclusions. It was supposed to shock and repulse according to the artist, but i guess im not one of the majority.  

After this twaddle you can now go on a trip with emms who is much more normal than me.      

Te Papa Museum (with Em)

I met up with polly to see the museum. Well a little of it anyway as it was massive and like a maze, you'd prob need a couple days in there so lucky we're coming back. For reasons unbeknown to me i started on the 3rd floor where polly met me (she had already done other floors). It was named ocean, earth and fire( i think), it was all about Maori and European settlers and there affect on the land including deforrestation and sheep farming. Also there was alot about the introdution of non-native species it seems like the majority of there wildlife is not native, not surprising really that they mow down possums at every opportunity. It was all really interesting and informative; made easier to remember and fun for big kids ( ie me) by having lots of interactive exhibits.

Next stop the terrace top sculptures we both agreed it sounded interesting...we were technically right it did sound interesting but the reality was different. It was basically a boat and and a camper on top of the roof....woop de doo!!!! Maybe i'm being cynical but it just didn't appeal. Though the vw camper just as a camper was pretty darn cool!!! Up on the top floor(six) there was also a display of silverware and jewellery. It was all very pretty and intricate and included some beatiful Maori jade(greenstone) jewellery. This stone seems to be very popular over here probably due to the availabilty, but it also seems a very sacred stone to them.   

Floor five was the arty floor so i'm probably not gonna do this justice as Sam would. There were many beautiful pieces and very meaningful. One i particularly liked was a very abstract piece depicting everything kiwi, it had lots of texture and bright colours and included ferns and other leaves. Polly and i also agreed that there was a lot of pretentious s**t aswell. She had been spoiled with the galleries in London and New York, so it wasn't that impressive, but i personally enjoyed a lot of it.

Time was running out so i quickly went down to the floor with the earthquake simulatar that Melanie the Alaskan lady had told us about. There was also lots more about earthquakes and the likes but that would have to be kept for when we return. Me n polly jumped in the small simulater mocked up like a room in a house, it was a little scary with lots of noises and peoples voices shouting though i expected it to be a little more shaky (apparently compared to a real one it was toned down a lot so you could easily imagine just how bad it would be). If i thought about it too much it is a little scary being on the north island as there is a fault line running right through it....and you just never know when it might go!!!

Over all it is a very impressive musuem and i'm looking forward to finishing it when we come back after oz...till then ...   

Thank god we are coming back here for a few days when return as ther is so much to see here. 

 After our exhusting day we had to get an early nite for the fight in the morn. We had about 4 1/2 hours sleep that night and got up at 4:30 for the taxi to the airport. It wasnt long before we were on flight to Brisbane. We didnt realise untill the dat before that we had to take two flights to Sydney. We are such planks. On the way up we saw the south island whith was so mountainous and green, and a lovely little island in the middle of nowhere with a beautiful beach. We got through customs at Brisbane after a full bag search ( me mortified as i had my dirty laundy on the top) and arrived in  AUZ!!!! It was so hot and lovely. We ate quiche (em ) and hot pizza roll (me ) for breakfast in the platform whist waiting for our 2 min train to take us to the domestic airport. Back on the plane we had a hours flight to Sydney where we arrived in one peice, no, sorry two peices, me , and emms.. YE HA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! NEW YEAR HERE WE COME!!!!