Napier - art deco weekend

Napier is a town that was more or less leveled during an earthquake about 75 years ago.

Because nearly all of the downtown area was rebuilt at the same time, it is a time capsule of art deco architecture. In the summer, they put on a huge festival to celebrate the 20's and 30's complete with live music, costumes, and classic cars.


We went up primarily for the dancing, which was really great. There were free concerts and dancing every night at the sound shell




and also live music in the pedestrian mall.


I particularly loved this image of this lady staking her claim for the car parade.. tapping her toes and waving her fingers along with the music until the cars drove by.


There were tons of acts on stage through the afternoons Between performances, music was often played and I loved watching the kids dance to the music. Here are some of my favorite shots.
 


There were classic cars everywhere.

Not only were they part of the very long parade on Saturday


but they also were the only cars allowed to park on the main road and on the beach.




All day long steam tractors pulled wagons of people around.



They also had a mini museum of working steam farm machines on display. They were running all day and late into the night.

More than half the people were in costume. I kept saying to myself “you'd never see this many men in America dressing up” but then again after the sevens I shouldn't be so surprised. Here are some photos from around town as well as the costume competition.











On top of all this there were many airplane displays. Each day there was a mini airshow or two over the town or water. On Sunday everyone gathered for picnics and watched the planes go over head.

My pot collection

I finally have a set of pots that I am really excited about. Years of cooking on random pots coupled with my lots of smart built in features makes my new collection of pots very exciting to me.

Here is my entire stockpile of pots.



First of the lovely steamer my friend Laura gave me. What is brillant about this is that she also commissioned pottery plates that fit neatly inside so that I can steam fish in it easy. Judi Z tuaght me this lovely trick of supporting fish while it steams and then serve that fish on the same deep sided plate



Then my new skillet. I never had a stainless steel one before and I am a new convert. It is supper easy to clean, and I have no worries about bits of teflon entering my diet.

And the most amazing of all is my new sauce pot because it has a built in strainer. The lid of the pot is extra deep with holes along the lip. This way you can just tilt the pot to pour out water. Its way easier to use and clean than a strainer! And the pot was exactly the price of buying a standard pot and a separate collender. Plus its a very nice heavy based pot with flutes to help with pouring. It doubles as our tea kettle at the moment.


Oh.. and here many fridges have a "conditioner" which is a mini heater to soften your butter!


That is all from the wacky land of Shannon – we're off to Napier to experience the Art Deco extravaganza there this weekend.

 

Valentine's Day..

Valentine's day this year will be remembered for several things...

1. sleeping on the floor next to my charming lover

2. winning bids on my first set of furniture that, although used, is not from the street.  I get to pick up most of it tomorrow.
 




3. a lovely dinner on our new table

4. being trapped in an elevator, alone, for an hour at work today ... sorry no picture, didn't really plan for this event. I did mentally redesign the elevator's emergency phone interface so that you don't have to push and HOLD the entire time you are trying to talk to the dispatcher. I kept accidentally hanging up on her by breathing and letting my thumb's firm pressure on the call button slip too much... grrr.  Oh well, got some situps and randomn push ups out of it.

 

Sevens

I have learned that the 'sevens' is not the name of a rugby team here, but a type of rugby played with 7 men a side. The world series of the sevens was played in Wellington last week. It is a time where adults can dress up – great since there is no real Halloween here I'm told. And unlike America where Halloween is about being have the most unique costume, dressing for the Sevens is a team-based competition where you try to get a many mates together to dress as crazily and as identically as possible:  flikr photos

This semi-disturbing example is for my brother and his friends enjoyment...
wellingtonista 

The sevens is also why I was entertained by live music and Rio dancer...

..as viewed from my office window.

Each team, country-by-country, was dropped off by a flat bed truck to 'parade' to the small civic square across the road from my work. I guess there was even an American team – I had no idea that anyone in America played Rugby let alone Sevens!

Then just after the festivities were wrapping up, there was a fire drill. My boss and I decided to walk over to check these out. We caught the tail end of this lively performance.


If you look closely you can spot the stock market sign in the background

 

Harbour stroll

There are often things to see and do down at the harbour. Here are some of the more permanent ones

Starting from Te Papa...

This is the national museum – and admission is free, well its give what you see fit, which is perfect because sometimes you just have 20 minutes and its nice to pop in and not feel like you have to get your full $20's worth of museum experiences.

Macs –

This is a popular a pub/restaurant with great out door seating. We think the food and drink are okay, but its really all about hanging out on the patio. In case you are curious, that is the NZ stock exchange next to it. Its a bit smaller than Wall Street and they don't seem to mind you have a beer at their front door.

A random water fountain sculpture


An interesting sculpture...


And this is something I call the wobble wand...

It is a metal pole that sprays wanter out holes along its length. While the water is squirting out, the pole sways, wobbles, spins, undulates and all sorts of other motions that don't have a clear verb attached to it. These kayakers were also rather intrigued by the wobble wand

Shipping...

For those of you who have eliminated frequent moving from your lifestyle, I have to say that you probably are wise - and you probably have a lot more stuff in your house and your bank account than us. We've been more or less 'moving' since last May in the sense that we've been packing, moving, or living out of boxes during that time. We are very close to be done with all that – at least for the rest of this year - and that makes me very happy.  I love many parts of moving, and unpacking/setting up is one of them.

A huge reason for my relief is that our stuff has arrived. I dropped off all our boxes at a warehouse in Portland, with some greatly appreciated help from Erin and David, and then have been waiting ever since to learn if I had been ever so clever or just another idiot for choosing to ship the way we did.

I don't really know what the journey was like for my stuff, but it was most likely on a boat like this.

It arrived in Auckland less than 3 weeks after leaving Los Angeles, which makes the Pacific seem a bit smaller to me. Then it took a train down to Wellington.

After some faxing, lots of phone calls, port fees, a stop at customs and a visit to MAF (ministry that deals with keeping bugs out of the country amoung other things), we were set to pick up our goods. I got to drive my first disel super van that was way too long for it ability to turn corners. The rental place pointed out the dents on each side where people had hit poles turning corners and then gave me the keys. They very much assume that everyone here can drive a stick shift – thank goodness I can now!

The men at the next warehouse were really lovely. They even loaded our stuff into the van for us. That saved a ton of work.




We then drove up to Porirua to pick up my first trademe purchase – our new table and 6 matching chairs. It was the strangest transaction... the woman emailed me her bank details. I deposited the money straight into that. She left the table in her shed and told me where the key was. I drove up, let myself in, and added the table to all my boxes. The top is banged up, but I really like how it fits in with our new flat.... and I certainly have never had matching chairs.  They even sort of match the color of our kitchen zone.



Hopefully by the end of the week we'll have more than just a table! For now I'm thrilled to have access to things that I packed last spring in Boston. Nothing was broken, and while I wish I had brought a tad more (like more than 1 towel to go with the 3 sets of sheets I brought - what was I thinking!, we have enough to make do.