For the next week or so we are on the road – heading south for a traditional kiwi Christmas break. A few days with relatives in Nelson and then on to Pohara, a small seaside village nestled at the base of Golden Bay, at the top of the South Island.
There is a whole mix of friends and relatives descending on Pohara – by my rough count 5 rellies, 12 friends, Jean, me and Poppie. That’s 14 adults, 5 children and one dog. Nothing more to do than relax, eat and drink. It should be a great few days.
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One afternoon last week I took a walk along Wellington’s waterfront. It was a glorious day and it seemed like most of Wellington was out to enjoy it. When I say I walked along the waterfront, in actual fact, I … Continue reading
It began as a day like all others as the sun climbed over the Crete hills to the east – except that we were up early enough to enjoy the sunrise and completely confuse our girls when we gave them each a pat on the head and departed for Siena. We were cutting it fine and the mood in the car was sombre. There was none of the usual banter as we headed along the SR2 into Siena.
Thankfully we didn’t get stuck behind any of the local autobuses on the way and as we drove through the Porta Tufi and into the old city to park we had 10 minutes left for the walk to the Campo.
It was Rugby World Cup final day. Half a world away two teams were about to go head to head to determine who were world champions – our might All Blacks or the unpredictable and dynamic French.
We arrived at the bar in time to find a seat amongst the small but growing number of New Zealand fans and the far more numerous French fans. We ordered our usual RWC colazione (breakfast) – cappuccino and tea, followed by white wine and birra. The discipline required to start drinking at 8am was something we had mastered over the preceding 6 weeks as we had watched the pool games, the quarter finals and the semi finals. In fact we were well known in the bar and our order arrived at the table the same time we did.
The game was engrossing. What everyone expected to be an easy All Black victory became an arm wrestle with the French doing what they do best – being unpredictable and playing ten times better than they did in the early rounds of the tournament – and with 15 minutes to go the score was 8-7 to the All Blacks. The remained of the match was agonising with neither team able to get in the killing blow.
The tension in that little bar in Siena was palpable. The Kiwis had gone quiet while the French supporters were vocal as the underdogs refused to roll over.
Victory for the All Blacks, when it came, was more relief than triumph.
After congratulations all round we left the bar and stepped out into the sunlight of the Campo. We headed to our usual bar – Al Mangia – to celebrate with a glass or two of Prosecco.
At Al Mangia the talk was not of rugby but of motorcycling. Motorcycle ace and local hero Marco Simoncelli had died after falling off his bike in the Malaysian MotoGP earlier that morning and the bar patrons were noticeably affected. Simoncelli was just 24 years old.
It was, it turned out, a day of triumph overshadowed by tragedy.
I am a rugby fan. I just want to say that up front. I religiously follow the All Blacks, I tune in to as many Super 15 games as I can and I’ve even managed to watch some ITM Cup games despite them being sprayed, seemingly randomly, across the week. Readers of the blog may also remember the lengths we went to last year when we were living in Siena to find a place to watch the All Black games in the Rugby World Cup – live at eight in the morning. I am a rugby fan.
So last week I was fascinated by the announcement of a new All Black sponsor – AIG Insurance – and more importantly the placing of their logo on the sacred black jersey. On the front of the jersey, in the middle, where no logo has ever gone before.
As a marketing guy by trade I had one of those heart versus head moments. The marketer in me understands the value of this sponsorship, the rationale behind it both financially and strategically and admires the ability of the NZRFU to negotiate what seems to be a great deal (rumoured to be worth up to $20m a year for the period of the sponsorship). But the rugby fan in me sees the black jersey with the new sponsors logo on the front, standing out like a target, and decries the end of a tradition of independence, and the notion that the jersey was worth more in it’s own right than emblazoned with a sponsors logo.
Yes, I know that the jersey already has another All Black sponsor’s logo on the front – Adidas – but it’s discrete and, let’s face it, they have a real stake in the jersey because they make it.
It was interesting listening to the current All Blacks talk about the sponsorship and logo. My impression was that they were also torn between the value of the sponsorship and the price in terms of the jersey changes.
But I’ll leave the last word to Dan Carter who summed things up nicely when he said in an interview – no matter what’s on the front of the jersey, it’s not going to make any difference to the way the team plays. And for this rugby fan, that’s what it’s all about.
In the last few days Wellington has been plagued by an outbreak of humming. Not your run-of-the-mill, can’t remember the words humming but rather humming on a city-wide scale. As our local newspaper put it on Tuesday:
A mysterious low-pitched humming sound has been troubling some Wellington residents for the last few days and it seems no-one has any idea what it might be. The Wellington City Council has had several calls over the past few days with the most recent being about 5am today. Spokesman Richard MacLean said the complaints had been coming in from Mt Victoria, Newtown and Mt Cook residents. “We are interested to hear if this starts to become a constant thing. We are keeping our ear to the ground.”
One Mt Victoria resident said he and his fiancee had noticed the noise on Saturday and it hadn’t stopped since. He likened it to a low to medium pitched humming sound and said it went all day and all night and was “doing his head in”.
Of course the source is a mystery but there have been many suggestions made in the local paper. Some rational and some not so:
“Maybe it is the 50Hz hum that comes from a transformer feeding electricity to the area. If the transformer is overloaded it will hum louder, or maybe something on or near its enclosure is vibrating at 50Hz.”
“The Mothership is preparing [to] leave. Because Mt Victoria is actually an ancient alien spaceship. It would be a bit annoying for the suburb’s residents, though it would make the commute between Te Aro and Hataitai substantially quicker once it left.”
But this comment is my favourite: “Why is Mt Victoria humming? Simply because she doesn’t know the words.”
Last week a sign was erected on the hills above Evans Bay. It has been the result of 2 years of local debate and controversy and has involved everything from a petition from the public through to the involvement of some of Wellington’s finest business and political minds. All to develop a sign to welcome those arriving by plane at Wellington airport.
The sign says – wait for it – Wellington.
This story began when Wellington Airport – which owned the site – decided to pay homage to Wellington’s fabulous film industry – you know, Peter Jackson, The Lord of the Rings, Weta Digital, Stone Street Studios and now the two, sorry, three Hobbit movies – by erecting a copy of the famous “Hollywood” sign on the hill overlooking the harbour which would say “Wellywood”. I’m not sure where this piece of creative genius came from but it’s fair to say everyone, except the airport company, thought it was naff, silly and, lets be honest, a bit “try hard”.
The airport company stuck to their guns, the sign was going up, end of story. But after protests, hours of angry talk-back calls, comment from many distinguished Wellingtonians, and the aforementioned petition, they backed down. A committee of prominent locals was set up to oversee a contest. Anyone who wanted to, could submit a design and the best one would be selected to go up.
It turned out that the best was a “Wellington” sign being blown away. An idea that came from an Auckland advertising agency. Yikes.
That sign with the airport to the right
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Looking back at the photos I took while down south (A South Island road trip) they really didn’t convey the scope of the place. The two panorama shots below seem to do a better job.
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Last week I had the chance to head south. To leave Wellington for a couple of days, fly to Christchurch and take a road trip from Christchurch driving west over Porters and Arthur’s Pass to the West Coast. A work … Continue reading
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July 12 2011 – we were staying in the lovely Villa Greta in Positano on the Amalfi Coast. It was a scorching hot day with the temperature hovering in the low 30’s (celsius) with hardly a breath of wind. The … Continue reading
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Ever since returning to Wellington my cars have sat, in garages, unused. Given their ages, starting them up after a 12 month hiatus isn’t as simple as turning the key and cranking. Just sitting still doing nothing means all manner of … Continue reading
Daisy the dog had a rough night last week. Part of her heart condition means that sometime she can’t pump enough blood around her system and without enough blood to her brain she faints.
This isn’t a pleasant thing and when she faints we always wonder if she will recover and be her old self. So far she has.
Before we moved back into our home she was fainting regularly but the return to familiar surroundings and routines has meant this had become a thing of the past – until last Wednesday night. She fainted twice and we were up until 3am making sure she was comfortable, relaxed, sleeping and, most importantly, still breathing.
And that’s where looking out for each other comes in.
Poppie is Daisy’s partner in crime when barking at the gate or begging for food but not the rest of the time. That changes when Daisy is unwell and then, somehow, Poppie knows.
Like last Thursday morning when Daisy was recovering. Poppie is the one on the right.
To mark the last day of autumn Wellington produced one of those magic mornings that, sadly, we see too infrequently. Crisp, with no wind to speak of and just starting to warm up as the sun rose over the eastern hills.
At 8:15am the view from our front verandah looking south over Evans Bay to Cook Strait (and beyond to Antarctica as there’s not much in the way) was worth a photo.
Southern Cross and Pointers
One of things I remember from our time in Italy was sitting outside in the evenings watching the stars appear overhead. Often it would be in a small local restaurant, but more often on the terrace at our place in Tuscany or overlooking the bay at Positano. I always remember thinking that among all those stars there were nothing I recognised. All the familiar constellations were missing. Being a kiwi, one in particular was sorely missed.
Now we are home, looking up at night has that familiarity that was missing last year. And, as always, there is that pair of bright stars pointing towards our Southern Cross.
Note: Photo was taken using 18-70 zoom lens – 38mm, f4.2, 2 sec, ISO 800.
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Having written about various parts of the world over the last year it’s time to write about our place, Wellington, New Zealand. It’s where I was born and where I have lived since. After every overseas trip or holiday there … Continue reading
It really did feel a little like christmas on Wednesday when we made our first trip to the storage unit we filled prior to heading overseas last year.
This was our chance to bring some of the precious (and not so precious) things we had put away last year, home.
And every box was a new and exciting experience. Our box labeling was a bit haphazard – as you’d expect when things were being packed a week before heading overseas – so boxes marked “books” contained plates and boxes marked “plates” contain pictures and boxes marked “pictures” contained books.
Hence the reason it was a bit like christmas.
The bad news was that even after removing around a dozen boxes, the storage unit still looked full to the ceiling. Yikes.
