Feestpaleis/Wellington blog

Willemijn and my dad both packed their bags tonight; I’ll drop them off at the airport tomorrow morning. Dad’s heading back home and Willemijn is going to Dunedin for a few days, to exchange ideas with her fellow researchers. My dad asked me if he could “borrow” this blog for a moment, to share a story with you. Here he is:

I’m writing this post on my last day here in New Zealand. I really had a wonderful time here with my rellies - yes, I’ve even picked up some of that weird kiwi lingo. New Zealand is a beautiful and very interesting country in many different ways, and its nature and wildlife are stunning. Two days ago, I visited Karori Wildlife Sanctuary in daylight, after a guided tour during the night a few days ago. There’s an old goldmine there that I wanted to visit, because they told me I could spot giant wētā there.

I’ve seen many strange and wonderful things here in New Zealand, but nothing as weird as this! This country never ceases to amaze me. New Zealand, and the many friendly people I’ve met, will have a special place in my heart for ever. Bye Bye New Zealand, till next time!

link to this post

We visited the first edition of the annual Wairarapa Wines Harvest Festival yesterday. After an hour-long train ride to Carterton, a small town in the Wairarapa, one of New Zealand’s great wine areas, a shuttle bus dropped us off at the festival, a small paddock somewhere in the vineyards between Carterton and Gladstone. What do you on on a food and wine festival? Sit around and drink local wines and eat local foods, all day! And listen to local entertainment:

It was a very small festival with a really friendly atmosphere, and the food and wines were excellent. There were about 15 local vineyards showcasing their products and everyone was just sitting around enjoying all of it, chatting and dancing.

My dad, who likes good food and wine as much as we do, was amazed by the laid back and friendly attitude and the small-town feel of it all. He couldn’t get over the fact that after travelling for about two hours to the wop wops, we walked onto the paddock and straight into someone we knew - this happened twice, in fact… Well, what can I say, this is New Zealand eh

Another thing happened, something typical of this country and the incredible kiwi hospitality. Soon after we sat down at a table to enjoy our pistachio/kumara falafel wraps and a wild rabbit stew, we started chatting with two people who - like they all do, for obvious reasons - asked where we were from. We told them (our standard reply) we’re dutch but live and work in Wellington.

Most conversations with new kiwis we meet follow a standard pattern. First, they ask where we’re from and if we’re travelling or living here. Then they ask what we do, and they’re very pleased when they hear we both have proper jobs and not just slacking about here. Then they ask if we like it here and our enthousiastic reply invariably brings a smile to their faces.

Anyways, after the initial introduction, Leigh and Michelle, our new kiwi friends, say “hey we’ve got friends who live in Island Bay”. Turns out they live right below us, so we’re practically neighbours. Leigh and Michelle say we should knock on their door and meet them next time we walk past. But what number do they live on? Much to my dad’s surprise and our amusement, Leigh grabs his mobile and calls Jeff, the Island Bay friend. - “Hey Jeff, I’m sitting at this festival with a dutch couple who live on the hill right above you. What number are you on mate? We said they’ll have to come over and meet you. Ah, right thanks, see you later!”. “Right guys, Jeff says you’re welcome anytime, they love to meet new people!”. And that settled it! Leigh and Michelle also said we should go tramping in the hills near where they live, and we’re welcome to stay at their place. “If you call us a few weeks in advance, we can arrange a babysitter for the kids”. Isn’t that just wonderful!?

link to this post

We’ve had nothing but fantastic weather since early February, but a deep low pressure system caused power outages, roofs blown off houses in Wellington’s northern suburbs, and chilly(-er) weather in general. Apparently, this was only a small disturbance in The Force, Metservice promises fine weather until the end of March. Anyways, we’ve seen the first snow on the Southern Alps. This photo was made yesterday, today half the snow is gone again.

link to this post

Following up on the discussion about cool native New Zealand insects, here’s the picture of the Wellington tree wētā I found in our garbage bin a while back:

link to this post

Yesterday, our little timer on the blog reached “26 weeks”. Six months in New Zealand! Does it seem longer/shorter? Dunno…

link to this post

Update: Dr Steve Trewick, of Massey University, kindly mentioned that our stick insect was in fact an Acanthoxyla instead of Argosarchus Horridus. Thanks Steve! I hope we’ll get a chance to see an actual Argosarchus Horridus one day.

“Argosarchus Horridus” That’s the latin name for a Spiny Stick Insect. They can be found anywhere in New Zealand, for instance, on our bedroom wall. They can grow up to 13cm long, so this one was a biggie!

They look very cool, and they have the funniest wobbly walk. They’re quite strong and sturdy, I noted as I grabbed our friendly little stick figure to put it outside. As soon as I released it in our garden, it wobbled off to blend in with the abundance of real sticks, branches and twigs.

link to this post

Pfew we had an action packed day today…

First up: The surf was going to be good, so we got up at a quarter past six and paddled out in Lyall Bay at around seven. The ocean was clean, glassy and about shoulder high. Even though it was closing out a bit, we had some nice rides, and Willemijn even scored her best (and longest) ride ever.

But the best thing of all was when we noticed a group of dolphins swimming a little farther out in the bay! They hung around for quite a while and we’d see them jumping out of the water every now and then.

After our surf session we headed to reefside to drop off my board. I had an unfortunate collision with someone dropping in on me yesterday - someone with a tough plastic rented board - resulting in a ding on my rail… I’ll get it back next week I hope.

Next, we headed to the Newton Festival, where Kate was performing with her choir. Everyone in the choir wore their most colourful outfit, with Kate looking fantastic in her Ghanese dress.

The festival was big, sunny and very festive, with exotic food stalls and live music covering a large area of this colourful suburb - it reminds us of the suburb called Lombok in Utrecht with all the indian, asian and south american cafes and shops.

We had a few nice beers and a great lunch in Kate’s garden before we headed home.

The sun’s still burning brightly and the cicades are still making an incredible noise, we’re about to enjoy home-made pizza that Willemijn’s prepared and we’re looking forward to another fantastic sunset this evening that will form a dramatic finale to the fun-packed weekend. Tomorrow will be just another manic Monday (whooo-hoo-whoo)…

link to this post

That’s kiwi for relatives. I mention this because my dad’s visiting! Always, after we sent photos and stories of our trips or places we’d visited, he would meticulously retrace our steps using Google Earth. The first thing he said when he walked out of the airplane was “Wow, I feel like I’ve landed in Google Earth!”. The second thing was “Hmm, the hills look a lot higher and steeper than you can see on the pictures”.

So far, we’ve shown him our surf spot - we were really keen to catch some waves as the surf was beautiful this morning. After that, we went up to see the fabulous views from the wind turbine (the picture at the top of this blog is taken from there). Finally, we toured around Wellington’s coastline and a nice stop at the Chocolate Fish cafe - they serve a milkshake called Hokey Pokey Surpreme Gourmet Milkshake!!! It’s basically sucking pure sugar through a straw, awesome!!!!

link to this post

one… two… testing…..

Is this thing on? [tap tap tap]

Good evening ladies and gentlemen!
After three months of living in digital darkness, I am very pleased to announce that as of now, the Feestpaleis is once again - digitally speaking - firmly, gleefully and umbilically attached to its much-loved mother, The Internet.

iChat AV, Adium and Skype are already running, and the iSight camera is plugged in. Joy!

link to this post