Heading Back to the U.S.A.

On Thursday of this week I will be heading back to the States to spend some time with Kell at Cape Cod.  Mallory will be staying here in Wellington. Perhaps we might see some dueling blog posts.  I will try to remember to post some pictures of Kell and I having fun.

The Petone Winter Carnival

Yesterday, Mallory and I headed north of the city to attend the Petone (Pa-toni) Winter Carnival.  We did not know exactly what to expect from the day of events, but we thought it might be geared towards families with kids which it was.  We did however get to brush up on a few New Zealand to American translations, they are as follows:

Candy Floss = Cotton Candy

Hot Chips = French Fries

Fire show = Fireworks 

The Carnival was on the water which was really beautiful, as always.  The real reason why we went, besides looking for something to do, was that of the fire sculptures!  Here is their advertisement said:

"Quickly becoming a landmark for the Carnival, the Fire Sculptures return but bigger and better than before! Watch local amateurs and nationally renowned sculptors create fantastic pieces of art during the day, and then see the creations burn spectacularly at night."

The gist of it is that they build things of wood and dried seaweed and then set them ablaze 

- very cool!

Not wanting to stick around to see the fireworks we headed into center Pentone to warm up in a local pub and to watch the rugby.  (Here you watch "the rugby" and go to "hospital". ) The bus ride back to Wellington was a noisy one with a full bus and a bunch of people just beginning their night out - it was like a moving party.

Home Decorating

We have been pretty slow to add things to the flat as of late.  Without me having a job and wanting to travel rather than decorate we have kept or money in the bank. That is until Saturday when we purchased this huge wall map!  I picked it up today and we hung it up when Mallory got home.  We figured if we were going to buy something to hang on the walls we ought to make it big. 

Before                                                     After

The map is from National Geographic and it has a lot of interesting thing on it including population density (bottom right).  Also note how the world is centered..........not what we are used to.

More Life Without Television

Below please note completed puzzle number two; although this is actually the third puzzle we have tried to build.  The second one was just too difficult so we gave up trying.  This puzzle, as well as the uncompleted one, were purchased from the local Salvation Army Store.  They were cheap but please note the three missing puzzle pieces.

I can not say we know all that much about building puzzles and how one gets better at it , are there strategies to improve one's performance?  We always wonder when building these things if there are competitions or conventions for puzzle builders - I would guess there are.  What would be the rules for a puzzle building contest any way? Not that Mallory and I are in any way ready for professional competition. 

 

 

New Zealand Film Festival Review

Today was the last day for the New Zealand International Film Festival.  Mallory and I ended up seeing five films: "I Killed My Mother", "A Town Called Panic", "The Double Hour", "The Killer Inside Me", "In the Attic".  Hands down the worst film was the U.S. made "The Killer Inside Me" against the other films it was a real disappointment.  Mallory and I have different favorites, she liked "A Town Called Panic" best and I really liked "I Killed My Mother"  but it is really hard to say because all of the films were so different and excellent for their genre. 

I you should get a chance to see them for yourself you should check them out. Two thumbs up.

It's raining

Another day of wind and rain here in Wellington. Nothing unusual for this time of year, but I think we're both getting a little tired of double winter. We've just returned from our final film choice at the NZ International Film Festival - "In the Attic - Who Has a Birthday Today". Anyone with kids should definitely catch this if they can! We were not the only adult couple there, but it was certainly aimed at the younger crowd. The animation however, was impeccably done and the story very heartfelt.

I think Jamie's posted our other film selections, and hopefully some advice on not wasting your time/money on the plot-less, bloody, talent void mess that was The Killer Inside Me (likely to be out in the US at some point).

Well, hope you readers are enjoying Jamie's wonderful photography and his ambition to post updates (obviously) more frequently than I.

Ta for now!

The New Zealand Art Show

Thanks to ours friends Carrie and Rhys, Mallory and I attended the New Zealand Art Show today. It is a three day art exhibit and sales event that takes place each year.  You just pick things off the wall and buy them - very cool.  The work was flying off the walls which was fun to watch.  Most of the pieces were priced  around the $500 range which is a good deal, however out of all the things that were there, many of which were pretty good to excellent, there was nothing that stood out enough for us to make a purchase.  Here are a few photos of the day.

Here is Mallory checking out some art - one of our favorite pieces is on the wall to the left - Sprinkle Jesus.  It is Jesus on the cross figure made up entirely out of  rainbow ice cream sprinkles - yum!

We Would Like To Hear From You!

I just realized that I had the comment button on the blog turned off, so even if you wanted to you could not leave a comment on our site.  It has been an unfortunate one way conversation until now.  Please join in the fun by leaving comments and/or messages.  We would love to hear from you and get a feel of what you like about the blog - that way we can do more of it!

Butter

Butter in New Zealand comes in these very large blocks.  It is good butter but it will surprise you at how quickly you can go through them.

Instead of eating it, one day I decided to make them into art - or at least a house.

Perhaps there is a future in this type of thing? 

Life Without Television

Our life as summer vacation continues as we try to find fun things that do not cost a lot of money.  This week we turned to the fine art of puzzle building.  Our first attempt was a cheap Impressionist type puzzle of a cottage but it was too hard.  We opted instead for a Where's Wally puzzle - that's right Waldo apparently goes by the name Wally here in New Zealand.

  Mallory happily working on the first puzzle....
Nice hat Mal...

 Where is Who? Wally? Waldo?

The finished product! 1,000 pieces!

New Zealand 2010 International Film Festival

We are headed out to the film festival these next two weeks.  We are going to try to see a few films but the choices are overwhelming.  What we did is each grab a catalog and individually select what we were interested in seeing.  Then page by page we went through our picks together to see if we had any matches. Surprisingly, we had enough for a pretty full schedule.  Here is what we have to see:

In The Attic

The Misfortunates

The Killer Inside Me

The Double Hour

Four Lions

I Killed My Mother

Winter's Bones

NZ Quirky Stories - Short Films

Candyman

A Town Called Panic

If you have seen any of these films and have opinions on them please let us know.

We purchased a set of tickets yesterday to three of the films.  We'll let you know what we thought.

Wellington Zoo

Mallory and I went to the Wellington Zoo today which was very nice and we had a beautiful day to walk around and see the animals.  But I have to say what we enjoyed most was the great signs they had posted throughout the place.   Here are a few of them:

I would not want to go to the Zoo with this kid!!

Here is Mallory reading the signs,

and below what it is like to live here.