Snow in between spring and summer

Here are a few pics from my couple weeks in the US over Christmas. It was a great time visiting everyone and relaxing in the homeland. Felt a bit different, and full of Americans, but it was still nice to get into the little things that count, like Wheat Thins.

With Boston being super cold, we got some snow. Lots of it, which rocked. Just what I wanted. Looks great, fun to play in, and fits the bill for a stereotypical northern hemisphere Christmas which we didn't have last year in New Zealand.

Highlights include snowshoeing, cross country skiing, making a snowman, a couple Christmas parties with warm drinks and lots of sweets, plus the usual Christmas traditions like cutting down a tree (tried our best, but only shrubs were left so had to buy one) and having a wicked feast of a dinner with the family. Lots of good presents, several good games of darts and lots of static electricity flowing around to shock me.



Snowshoeing with the mom

Playing snow-baseball

Me and Charles Bronsan, my snowman, complete with snow nose and Oreo eyes

Walking the dog with my sister

Lake starting to freeze over it was so cold

Cricket

Cricket, once believed by me to be one of the boriest sports out there, actually isn't half bad. Wednesday night I went with a bunch of couch surfers down to the Basin Reserve, the ancient cricket grounds for a match against Canterbury. What made the game interesting was that it wasn't the long drawn out famous matches of 5 days, but rather 20/20 cricket which means that you have a start to finish and a victor in about 3 hours, with only 120 balls bowled to each team, thus keeping it pretty quick paced.

Having practically no knowledge about the sport before the game other than it's a batsman not a batter as in baseball, it was fairly easy to pick up. Actually wanted to get out there and have a couple of swings myself. Each batsman gets 6 balls in what is called an "over" and there are 20 of these overs in a 20/20 match, therefore 120 balls. In that time frame the team tries to get as many runs as possible, with extra runs given when it rolls out past the fielders over the boundary rope of 4 runs and 6 runs given when hit over the boundary rope. The 6's are the big boys, like home runs and we had a bunch which always gets the crowd going, whether for the home or away team.

Wellington ended up winning, by 7 wickets in fact, pretty damn sweet, not a huge celebration as just a regular season game and the cold wind had been blowing all evening and a bunch of people had already headed to a warmer place. It was defnitely fun and I'd go to another one, preferably in warmer, sunnier weather.

Unicyles, Cricket and Summertime

So I'm back in New Zealand after a couple weeks in the US. Great time up there, cold, but super fun. Got to play in the snow every day, sledding, snowshoeing, snowman etc. Good to hang out with the family and eat some rich tasty Christmas time food.

Now i'ts great to be back in the summer, hot weather and a lot less clothes than in New England. We've got the World Championships of Unicycling in Wellington right now. Pretty funny stuff, city being bombarded with 600 unicyclers all over the place. Watched the freestyle event which was pretty much figure skating routines on one wheeled bikes. Lots of bouncing around, twists and such, which didn't always go to smoothly. Entertaining in it's badness at times and awesome in the creativity at other times. Sadly missed out on the basketball and hockey due to being at work, but hey, just got to check it out some other time.

Going to my first cricket match tomorrow , going to get some of that good old British boring sport action that's world famous. Outside, lots of people in the sun and something random going on in the pitch. Guaranteed to be entertaining.

Santa's coming to town

Who's that?<


So guess who got to decide who's been naughty or nice? Yup, yours truly. Had about 50 kids ages 8 months to 6 years all around me, giddy as hell, waiting for me to call out their name and give them a present. The smiles, the happy faces, the scared faces, the believing faces, it was all good.

I got driven up in a car (wearing a seatbelt of course, must set the good example) waving out the window and ho ho ho-ing. Kids gathering around getting all excited as I got out with my bag of presents. Felt like a celebrity, decked out in a wicked beard and costume, snazzy pillow belly to boot.

Sitting in a throne (what I call it, others might say chair), I was handed presents for each of the kids by my elves (flatmate Hannah and her coworker) and called out their names. Talk about having people's attention, all the parents and kids waiting for the name to be called out, pretty darn cool. Got some compliments on how Santa didn't sound like just a typical Kiwi, but rather international, perhaps from the north pole. At least the northern hemisphere and like he sounds in movies.

All was good, kids were happy, presents were opened and then there was just the one kid right in front of me, super eager the whole time and it turned out he didn't have a present while every other kid did. He was the brother of one of the kids at the school, and all the siblings only got presents if the parents brought one. Turned out they didn't and little Max had a big pout cause he wasn't leaving til Santa gave him a present. Lovely. At that time, Santa was thanked and escorted out leaving the parents (who didn't get him the present in the first place) to deal with the kiddo. More waves and happiness on the exit, a quick change in the car and I was back to being the sex symbol I am.

Good times, good times, giving happiness to one and all. Now I'm packing the bags and getting ready to head up to the northern hemisphere to a little country called the USA for a thing we call a White Christmas. Better get me some snow, none of this cold, cloudy, shite weather. Want the real deal and looking forward to seeing every member of my family that's currently in the US.

Flat roast

Had us a traditional Kiwi roast the other night. Roast pork with roasted veg (sweet potato, carrot, parsnip, potato, garlic and pepper) along with mint peas, gravy and apple sauce. It was a feast and fed all 6 of us. Damn fine stuff cooked up by Laura. Fun stuff to get the flatmates all together for a meal, chatting it up. Good people and been a fun flat so far.
Pic of Laura and Sam cutting up the roast, plus one of the steaming roast on our olive green 70s counter

Roller Derby

Last weekend I went to my first roller derby game. To put it short, it was amazing. One of my workmates is on a team and so as well as supporting her, the fact that women wearing leotards on roller skates bump each other as a sport sounds amazing. Fairly simple rules, the skaters have one person who can score, called the jammer. The jammer scores points by skating past her teammates. The other 4 on the team try to allow her to get by, while the 4 on the other team try to stop her. Simple stuff.

The arena was packed, over a 1000 people there for the championship bout (not a match, or game, but a bout). Signs supporting their favorite players, such as Thigh Voltage, Huttbreaker or Punk Pantha for example. Lots of enthusiasm that just grew with the game as people actually started to understand what was going on. Towards the end, it got close, but my mate's team, Smash Malice won. Big celebration and the crowd loved it.

As Wellington is pretty small, there are only 2 teams so far and they practice with each other, so there's no real animosity. Good natured and yet physical, the girls battled to the finish, with some good time spent in the penalty box for being too rough. I thought it was a great sport, but my mates weren't so sure, with a couple saying one and done, but I'm keen for the bout against Auckland in a few weeks. Here are some pics and videos to check out.

Yesterday hit both the lower and upper parts of society with visits to the mental hospital and a red carpet movie premiere.

One of our most loyal and crazier customers is a local busker named Simon, always in the cafe, from when I get there to at the end of the day at 3am when we close. Quite a character and always with interesting stories and hypotheses. Not exactly everyone's favorite person, but someone you expect to see. Couple days ago we got a call that he was in the mental hospital and wanted to see some friendly faces, so I went with my co-worker, Rebekah, to check him out.

First trip to the land of the crazies was pretty fun. Signing in and then going through 5 long corridors through lots of doors to get to the ward he was in, and then got locked into his ward. Got a big ol' hug and lots new stories, which were still along the same lines as before. He's living large there with free coffee, food and a private room, along with a shrink and the best yet, a basketball court. Fenced in outside, next to the smoking room, we shot a few hoops, watched the short guy try to dunk it over and over to no avail and had Simon demand a tornado to come along with the wind. Hypotheses ranged from the the silent revolution, to how England looks like a man sitting on a pig. He'll be out soon, within the week most likely, as he's not as nuts as the woman who kept talking to herself and pacing the halls the entire time.

In the evening I attended the premiere of the German Film Festival, first annual with the German ambassador, Wellington Mayor and other hot shots, including 2 German film directors. Pretty sweet stuff, being in the largest theatre where they had the Lord of the Rings premiers.

The red carpet led into the foyer where an old Trabi (standard East German car) was chilling. Going on 20 years since the wall fell down, Nov 9th coming up. This festival is to tell the story of Germany and the stuggles around that time, and the film shown did just that. With a reception of free German beer, wine and snacks afterwards, it was quite a nice evening. Saw a bunch of familiar faces from the Goethe Insititute who I'm still in touch with as well as other friends from around town.

Quite a solid day off after a day of beating my squash partner in 3 out of 5 games, damn if feels good to be a gangster.

Ah yeah, sweep of the Cards in the first round. Divisional series coming up. Pretty pumped about it down in New Zealand. Rocking it like they should, a return to the glory days of the late 80s.

Urban Golf

We hit up the streets of Wellington once again for a round of golf in parking lots, alleys and side streets. The fashion was in full effect and there was actually a hole in one, sadly not mine.

For those who don't know, urban golf is the sport of golf played with a tennis ball around the city, finding potholes down alleys to use as holes, going up and down levels, around corners and with many water hazzards (puddles) in the way. It's a blast having people stop and check us out around town, not sure what we're doing, although it's pretty obvious. Golf clubs, golf attire and balls, pretty simple stuff.

Here's some pics for better clarification:

Sad day in island paradise

Super sad news about Samoa. I spent 4 nights in one of the hardest hit places, over 40 dead there. Pretty crazy seeing the Friday paper with before and after pictures of where we stayed on the cover. Just devastaed. I have the same before picture and now it's completely gone. On the news footage I saw an empty cement block where theh dining hall and bar had once stood. Quite different from all the fun times we had there.

Thoughts go out to all the families in Samoa. Tough times. But I'm glad I was able to see the country and enjoy the culture before it was changed.

Samoa!

Living it up on the island of Upolu in Samoa


Location is everything says our beach hut


Mr Peacock and Mr Turtle



Hey everyone! Hope things are good wherever you are, whether it's turning to fall or mid spring already.

I just got back from an amazing holiday out in Samoa, super chill and laid back island culture. I travelled with my flatmate Sam for 8 days, over which I turned 25 years old. We explored both of the main islands spending many an hour upon the beach, both in the water and out. The hair was pretty salty by the end and the mattress was filled with sand every night. We spent the nights in open beach huts called Fales. No locks, no frills, just a mattress, sheet and mosquito net with thatch wall hangings to cover the sides if wanted and just a few steps away from the water.

Got to swim with 8 turtles out in a lagoon. Pretty friendly animals that come right up to you. Fun to swim around with them and get smacked in the back when wasn't looking. They'd often gain up on us, surrounding us and get in a good whack when we weren't looking. Fed them some papaya and they loved it.

Outside of Apia, the capital, we slid down a couple waterfalls which didn't look too safe, but turned out to be just grand. In the city we hit up the food market where you get fresh coconuts, taro, vegetables and fish. Just make sure you buy the fish from the place where they wave a fan around the keep the flies away.

Snorkelling was amazing, with schools of fish all around and bright blue starfish a shallow dive down. One of the places we stayed had a great coral reef just 15 feet out.

I helped cooked a traditional Samoan meal, starting with making fire by hand and using hot stones to cook the food. Using fresh coconuts that a guy climbed a 50 foot tree to get, along with fresh vegetables and fresh fish, we cooked the meal over the stones with lots of leaves on top keeping the heat in. Turned out to be a damn tasty meal along with the freshly cut coconuts which had been cut open for us.

Played some beach volleyball, met lots of cool people, saw several whales, ate lobster and crab caught off the shore and just lived it up. Now I'm back ready to rock in Wellington, NZ. Good to be back with some structure in the life, working at the same cafe and loving it. The visa extension is taking a few turns, but is nearing completion as my current visa runs out. Pretty soon I'll be all set to stay legally and enjoy my time down here in the coming summer, and then start planning a big trip up through Australia and SE Asia when the summer ends in March.

Here are some pics of the latest trip. Enjoy!

http://picasaweb.google.com/JustusPB/Samoa#

Cheers,
Justus

Off to Samoa

Tomorrow my flatmate Sam and I are off to Samoa. We leave Saturday at 10am from Wellington and get into Samoa Friday night at 9pm, so I'll get to have 2 Friday nights. When we come back I lose a Sunday night, a fair trade in my opinion thanks to the international dateline.

It's currently windy and rainy, so a perfect time to take off north to a more tropical south pacific island. Aim to be swimmin with turtles by this time tomorrow, with a volcano in the background.

I had a bout with the flu that kicked my butt and kept me in bed for 5 days, but now I'm back on top of my game, full of attitude and life. Good to be back and rocking, ready for the holiday.

Still working on getting my visa sorted out, luckily I got my passport back so I can leave the country, but it may be a bit tricky upon returning as my current visa ends the 30th of this month, a few days after I get back from Samoa.

I'll be turning 25 on holiday, celebrating by chilling on a beach and snorkeling around. Going to be cruisy.

Hope everyone is rocking and rolling.

Next time, pictures from Samoa and stories of the adventures.

The weather has turned and it's definitely spring with sunny days, and clear cold nights. The allergy season has started for people and we get more and more sunlight. It just gets better and better.

Today I've been out urban golfing with some mates around town. We play different holes around town that we made up, choosing some spot in the distance, around the corner, across a back alley, over stairs etc. which we then hit our tennis balls towards. The slight hills around town make it a challenge, plus parked cars and busy streets, but it's a damn good time. Plus the golf fashion is in full effect.

Every Saturday I've been playing hoops with my mate Steve from work with other people. Getting more and more people and today had our first fullcourt game of 4x4. Good times and new people every week.

In the month of August, the zoo is only $5 on Wednesdays so Rebekah from work and I went to check out the new monkeys, Pgymy Marmosets, smallest in the world and the rest of the animals. The monkeys are about the side of a coke can and walk in slow motion, with quirky head motions, plus they look funky. Check out the pic down below. The best 2 animals at the zoo are the red panda (more of a racoon)and the sun bear (more of a monkey bear). Watched the tiger get fed and fed a giraffe myself.

Got a trip to Samoa coming up in a few weeks for the birthday. Going to get solid summer sun, hike to waterfalls and volcanos, swim to underwater caves and go down natural rock slides on waterfalls as well as chilling at the beach.

Work's going good as always, busy as with the good weather and making some great food. I've got the art of making a basic coffee down as well as rocking the kitchen. Good people there, one big happy family.

Feeding the giraffes at the zoo
Marmoset monkeys at the Wellington zoo, smallest in the world

Morning sunrise from our balcony

Hello! You still out there? Someone has been slacking on the blog front. Life's been busy in Wellington, filled with work, friends, a new flat and some cold weather. It's been 3 months since I got back from my van travels. Time has flown by, but it's good to be in a fun city with a lot going on and busy days.

Midnight Espresso is still as busy as ever, the students are back from their 2 week holiday which did slow things down a bit, but now with the youth and a new pinball machine, the cafe is bumping. I've added some new spicy peanut egg rolls to the counter food as well as continuing to make my vegan and gluten free chocolate nut cupcakes that sell big time. It's fun to try new things out and then to perfect them and make them something that people come back for.

Although I have a full time job, it feels like a holiday for me as it's fun and laid back and I only work 4 days. Still almost 40 hours in 4 days isn't exactly easy on the body with lots of standing up. But it's a good time and I'm still enjoying it. With my days off I've been getting a lot of music from the library as well as books to catch up on everything from ancient numeric systems to trademark logos. Plus on Mondays I can get any movie for $1 at the local video shop so I'm playing catchup with some movies.

I'm in the final stages of extending my visa. Immigration called to check on payment and said all was in order, so it sounds like it passed, but I haven't received the official confirmation yet. With the visa extension, I'll be able to stick around until Sept 2010 if I want to. Just keeping the options open.

Lastly, the flat is still going great. My German flatmate Stefan got the travel bug from our travels around and decided to take off for Indonesia. So he's been gone for a couple weeks now and we have a new guy in his room now. Now I'm the only foreigner here, living with 5 Kiwis. Still a fun place and we're having a good time together, joking around and going out. It's a great flat with an amazing view and good times.

Hope all is well with everyone. Must be warmer up in the northern hemisphere. We average around 10 degrees celcius now which is high 40s in farenheit. Pretty nippy with the wind when it's in full effect, but managable. Can't wait for the summer to come again, plus I'm planning a trip to Samoa in the near future to get some warm island beach experience in.

Cheers,
Justus