Wellington

Moving from my lovely WWOOF family, I then went to stay with Bhagee and Vithiya – the other kiwi friends I’d made in India.

A huge thank you to them for their incredible generosity.

It was so cool to be able to catch up, and I got fed! (I’m so shallow) I alllso was introduced to the best coffee in town by Bhagee’s housemate. The intel was as great as the coffee. And what good coffee it was, nutty and fruity. I had the perfect flat white. Saying that, the entirety of wellington had really good coffee. I looked up the independent coffee houses and did myself a tour, and it was fabulous. I think Wellington was up there with Melbourne in terms of coffee, but Wellington was a little more relaxed and a lot smaller.

I have mentioned previously that the interior design of coffee shops makes me incredibly happy. The effort is always made to make it that much more unique appeals to me on a fundamental level. I think it’s because I am nosey as all hell. It’s like that feeling when you are going round your friends house or room for the first time, unashamedly staring at  everything. Band poster you didn’t know they liked? Awesome. That book you had been meaning to read? Borrowed. Pictures of them as a child? Jackpot.

Digressing here, above is a picture of one of my favourite cafes from Wellington. Pretty cool, huh?

Looking back on Wellington it seems I was very focused on drinking, coffee yes, lots of it. But also craft beer. Oh the craft beer. This was quite a big thing for me as I am not usually a beer drinker. But Bhagee took me to The Garage Project, a craft beer mecca where we very happily got tipsy on tasters, I chatted with the lady behind the bar for ages and Bhagee got me the best chips in Wellington to munch on. It was good times, I discovered a love for stout, my favourite being one with a coffee flavour (don’t look so surprised) and a really nice fruity one which was so light and refreshing. Definitely another interest to take home with me.

Millennium Falcon at a Craft Beer bar…

The view form Mount Victoria

I spent a lot of time just exploring Wellington on foot, I got to know it pretty well. I visited the botanical gardens, museum, walked up Mount Victoria and took the cable car up as it seemed like thing to do.

I meant a wonderful elderly gentleman at the top of Mount Victoria, he was retired ex-ambassador army background who hikes all the way the Wellington coast every Sunday. He was a sweet heart and we had a strange if lovely conversation about ghosts.

Speaking of coastal walks, Bhagee and Viddi took on me on a gorgeous one. The featured image of this post is from the walk and is of the long white cloud over the South Island we could just about see from the hills. Aotearoa being the name of New Zealand and it’s most common definition being the ‘land of the long white cloud’. It was a pretty perfect day.

WETA Studios

I am a Tolkien fan – it’s kind of hard not to be actually. He was one of the absolute forefathers of high fantasy. He made the template which today is still recognisable throughout the fantasy genre. I think it was he that helped spark my respect, even fascination, with world building (before my love for Terry Pratchett took hold, before I read any David Eddings). No matter what the subject – if there’s good and detailed, coherent and consistent world building, I am with you until the end.

So when I watched the high fantasy movies derived form such a world and completed with such superb attention to detail…I was blown away. I got a little bit nerdy. I started to learn everything I could about the making of the movie; all the trivia, puppetry, the design and processes involved.

Now moving on to New Zealand where those epics were filmed! And you might see where this is going, I had already visited Hobbiton (the village created for the movie – a now permanent feature for tourist purposes), I had seen Mount Ngaurhoe (mount doom for the purpose of the movies) and now I was at Weta Studios. This being the visual effects workshop that did so much to capture and hold my imagination.

It was always going to be a really cool place and I did not leave disappointed. Only perhaps in myself for not buying the make your own chainmail key chain kit ( I may make my own anyway as I now know how to make it from plastic washers..) I wandered around the shop and admired the figures on display, resisted the urge (just) to swing around some replica Andúril (Aragorn’s sword) and took pictures of the trolls outside.

The most fun was to be had on the tour however, we had a lovely guy brandishing a katana prop and describing his plans for the zombie apocalypse. We walked past their 3D printer, got shown props from a ton of movies I actually didn’t know weta had been involved in and talked to a guy modelling themed guinea pigs dressed up as darth vader, Jack Sparrow..

I was incredibly sad to leave as the place was utterly charming.

 

Turangi and Palmy North

 

I consider the start of my solo travelling as from when I got to Chennai, India. I was not with a group of volunteers, I had flown myself to a new country with no real plans to meet anyone. I stayed in a fancy hotel for the first two nights and then moved into the opposite of fancy in the heart of Chennai. This is where I met Ben, a David Bowie (RIP) look alike with a fantastic spirit of learning and enthusiasm. Ben then introduced me to his travelling buddies, Bhagee and Viddie – also from Kiwiland. I had an awesome time wandering round the country with them, and was sad to part ways when we continued separately. Fast forward 4(ish) months and I arrive at Lake Taupo and indulge in one of my favourite past times – meeting up with travel buddies!

Taupo is the town on the northernmost point of Lake Taupo (the famous lake which is north of Mount Doom for the LoTR fans) and it’s where Ben picked me up from!

He put me up for a fair few days and I really enjoyed chilling, catching up and watching some absurd tv. Another first for me – glow worm hunting! It wasn’t the best time for it as there was a pretty full moon out but nevertheless we found some. It was pretty extraordinary anyway  exploring at night. I love the stars, they’ve always been an anchor for me when I’m far from home, and New Zealand at night is rightly known as a great place to see them.

Hello everyone, my name is Fiona and I am a WWOOFer. Sounds like a opening from a self-help group, doesn’t it? For those unfamiliar with the term (and whose imaginations are running wild with scenarios of dress up dogs and/or a Guild of Realistic Animal Calls (GRAC for short)) WWOOF stands for World Wide Opportunities on Organic Farms, it is a volunteer organisation and a wonderful idea. You trade work for accommodation and food, it’s particularly popular in New Zealand and an awesome way to travel on a budget and really get to know people and the countryside. My first experience was an amazing one, and I have my host Joan to thank for that. She lives near Palmerston North with 4 dogs, 2 goats, a couple of long horns, various chickens and more. For the sake of accuracy my disclaimer is that any numbers here do change (rarely going down) and I think she’s also currently mum to a magpie, but sadly now missing a cat which I haven’t listed.

On the farm I was with two other WWOOFers whom I shared daily tasks with. I did such jobs as gardening for her, helped repair the goat fence, cleaned out the chicken shed (which was eggcellent) and cleaned the house. All whilst being followed round by 4 dogs who ‘helped’. They were so cute! Staying near me and tussling when I wasn’t being interesting – all ears and following when I moved around the place. They were Rosie, Shadow, Bella and Abbie and the sweetest animals in the ‘verse. 🙂

A large part of the appeal of this place, apart from of course the animals, was the food. Joan is a superb cook and after a longish day of farm labour, a huge home-cooked meal and wine is the ticket. I’m so sorry I don’t have any pictures to show you, the food disappeared too fast to really even consider photography. You’ll just have to take my word for it as I stare dreamily into the mid distance.

After a few days the time came to leave, we were 1 too many WWOOFers for a small farm and I wanted to be getting on to Wellington. Where Joan hooked me up with some of her WWOOFing friends! I arrived at a beautiful house on the hills above the city. I’m not sure how to properly describe the place. But it was like a holiday home for WWOOFers, I did minimal gardening and cleaning. But what I was encouraged to do.. Was bake. Oh, no! How terrible, how on earth did I survive? 😀 I made cakes, brownies, and at one point I was structural advisor to a rice krispy phallus. I choose not to elaborate further.