Mmmm, it does go well with the Chicken...

I know. It's been a long time. More than a month, even. I don't need to hear it. I get it. "I never call anymore." "What happened to us?" Blah, blah, blah.

Save it. I've been busy. Busy doing things that I can write about in the blog and show you pictures of. But the harsh irony is that the more busy I am doing blog-worthy things, the less time I have to actually blogisize them. That's right, I said blogisize. It's a word. Shut up.

On to the blogisizing. So then came March. Yet another whirlwind of activity. It started off with a little weekender up north. A group of 9 of us drove up to the Tongariro National Park on Friday afternoon. We stayed the night in a local Backpackers lodge (actually a pretty classy joint for your average backpacker accommodation). Bright and early the next morning we set off on a 17 km hike that we were allotted 8 and a half hours to complete. The reason the time limit is even a consideration is, not only because it's good to have a schedule seeing as the sun setting while one is hiking in the wilderness is not exactly awesome, but because the hike begins and ends in a different location. You are dropped of by a shuttle at the beginning, and are told to be at the end in 8.5 hours, or find another ride home. The trick is, there is no other ride home. And cell phones don't work. And you are in the middle of nowhere. Point being, you get there in time.

The hike, known as the Tongariro Crossing, is labeled as the greatest one day hike in New Zealand. The word greatest can be interpreted many ways: best, biggest, most beautiful. But after having done the Crossing, i think what they were going for was most memorable, or most impressive. The hike is just plain tough. Some parts are flat out painful. But the sense of accomplishment on every single leg of it are greater than I have had with any other hike I've done.

But to our surprise, the toil of the hike took us by surprise, and we soon realized it was going to be very close making our time limit. And one hiker in our group had a knee problem that flared up within the first half of the hike, making the rugged terrain rather difficult. So in a decision that at the time seemed like the best idea to a few of us, but in hind-sight seems as if it was a rather cold choice, 3 of us trudged on ahead to try and catch the shuttle as the other 6 stayed back and worked through the hike at a slower pace, helping out the injured hiker. Our thinking had been to get to the shuttle so they at least knew what was happening with our group, and perhaps could arrange transport for the rest of the group. In the end, everything worked out, and the rest of the group hopped on with a shuttle a few hours later. But let's just say the 3 of us who took the lead were not looked upon as shining heroes by the rest.

On our drive home the next day, since we were in the area, we stopped y one of the locations from The Two Towers. It was the stream in which Sam and Frodo are walking while Gollum is flailing through the water chasing a fish. Location just so happens to be at the very edge of an extremely high waterfall. Very cool to see (if you are a dork like me). So naturally all of us dorks took turns reenacting Gollum's part in the stream. Sometimes you just have to let the dork within take over.

The following weekend, My flatmate Mark and I had our house warming party (finally). We had a pretty good turnout. And what had been planned as a typical gathering turned into an as to be expected trampoline extravaganza. And there are lots of pictures to prove it. No surprises there. And while on this new trampoline kick, a friend of ours came up with a brilliant idea the following weekend. On a lazy Saturday, Tom showed up at our place with a skateboard deck and a bicycle inner tube. What ensued was hours of fun (well, hours is a figure of speech, because jumping on the trampoline can only be done in at most 2-3 minute stints, before one must take a good 10 minutes to catch their breath). I like to call it Skate Tramp. But it's the closest thing to being good at snowboarding and skateboarding without actually being good at it. Choice!


Next up was a visit from an old friend from high school. Julie Hurst came to Wellington from San Diego for a week and we kicked things off the Saturday she arrived with a feast at our place. About 20 friends came over for what has been dubbed "Iron Chef NZ" in which everyone who can brings their favorite dish. What we ended up with was a smorgasbord of good food that dwarfed most Thanksgiving meals. We decided right then and there to make it a regular occurrence. It was a good time and hopefully as nice introduction for Julie to some of the many Weta folks. The following day a group of 8 of us headed up for some wine tasting in Martinborough, the local wine country just an hour outside of Wellington. Fortunately Julie had found a package deal that included train up and back, a shuttle to 4 wineries, and lunch, because you don't want to have to drive when you are going wine tasting. And 8 bottles of wine later (not including the tastings), we had proven to ourselves and to others around us precisely why foreigners can't stand Americans on vacation. I wouldn't have had it any other way. During the work week, which coincidentally turned out to be my busiest since I have been here, Julie pretty much fended for herself, headed down to the South Island for a few days, saw downtown Welly, etc. And then after a brief birthday party on Friday night, she was off back to the States.

Then came Spookers. What's Spookers, you ask? Well, it's one of New Zealand's versions of a haunted house. Why in mid March? Because they don't do Halloween here, and it's getting to be Fall, so I guess that means time to get scared. Plus it's a haunted house, or rather a haunted corn field, that Weta Workshop assisted in creating. And there so go. On Saturday evening someone from Weta Workshop organized a bus for a group of about 40 of us to head up north to a corn field about 3 hours outside of Wellington. After watching "The Descent" on the way up in the bus (my contribution), we were good and ready to be spooked, I guess. After a brief introduction and then a starter 3D haunted maze, we were ready for the main event: a nearly 1 hour maze through a cornfield with no lights (which is why we were told to each bring a "torch", or a flashlight to the non-Kiwis). And the entire time people are jumping out of the corn stalks with knives, axes, chainsaws, the works. It was a pretty fun time if you let yourself get caught up in it, which I am pretty sure most of us did. Here are some pics courtesy of Derrick. He even has links to some video, seeing as he recorded the entire thing. Some of it is entertaining, but you have to dig through a lot of girl screams, none of which were produced from the vocal chords of a female (I certainly contributed my fair share).

This last weekend brought about what might, or might not, become a new standard. To celebrate the release of Guitar Hero II on Xbox, we held the aptly named Beer-O-Rock at our house on Friday night, immediately following the event that it borrowed most if it's name from, Beer-O-Clock. Everyone seemed to have a good time, and just about everybody took a couple turns at the guitar. And naturally the people who really took a liking to the game stayed with us till the wee hours of the morning jamming out to some serious face-melters. And as we might have expected, we received a lovely Easter note from the neighbors, asking us to kindly keep our "Nintendo" volume down. Oops.

And to top it all off, Lori held the second installment of Iron Chef NZ on Easter Sunday. This feast completely put our first one to shame, due to the fact that Lori is one of the most kick-ass hosts, and an ever kick-asser cook, plus everyone's dishes and desserts were so far above and beyond what one might come to expect at a typical "potluck" style gathering. And combined with loads of wine and candy, how can you possibly go wrong Needless to say, it was a pretty sweet-as Easter feast. And this combined with Beer-O-Rock on Friday made for a pretty eventful weekend, punctuated by the fact that Kiwi's really take their Easter and Good Friday seriously, as everything was shut down on Friday, Sunday, and Monday. Never seen a place so hard core about Easter weekend, but I think it comes from the desire to just have anther excuse to go on vacation, and not from strong religious convictions.

So that's that. If you made it this far, you care waaaay to much about what I'm up to. I think I even put myself to sleep.

They Found Captain Winkey

Black's Beach, San Diego, CA

I have a new found respect for surfers. I've been out 3 times this week, and progressively catching less waves, due in part to them getting bigger, me having trouble finding just where to sit to catch them, but mostly because my arms are so friggin' tired, that I've got nothing left when it comes time to paddle into the wave.

So props to the surfers who have the time and energy to go out all the time. Maybe some day I'll be in that kind of shape.

F'uary was F'in Ph'nominal

Man. Man-oh-man. For a short month I definitely crammed a lot into it. And it all got started on the 1st, no less.

I caught myself one of them jet aero-planes back to the US and A. 24 hours straight into Salt Lake City, Utah. There I met up with the entire Psyop clan, which has grown substantially since I left. I had begun the planning of this company retreat back in October, with a total of 35-40 staff members on board, and by the end of January, the number was up to 62. So two giant bus loads later, the whole crew had arrived. Despite having the worst snow conditions I have ever experienced in all my trips to Utah (35 inch base in Feb, when last year they had 130), it was really cool to get out on the mountains and enjoy the scarce snow. The conditions were pathetic enough that we took a day off of riding to go snowmobiling, which after the fact I would intentionally set aside a day for in almost any conditions. It turned out to be the most fun we had, save for the few people who took their chances with some unintentional acrobatics. But I wasn't safe either. I managed to pop my shoulder out of it's socket....while opening a door. I know, I know. Waaaay to hard core for you.

Anyways, 4 Days in Utah were followed by 5 days in NYC. Returning to New York, seeing all the familiar places, meeting up with friends, sure made me miss the place a lot more than I had anticipated. And coming home to what already feels like "good ol" park ave with Haej was really nice. It may have been 10 degrees with a wind chill of -10 at times, but being there felt as cozy as any home could feel. But enough sappiness, there's no time for that here. We are only one week into Feb!

So on to a plane again, after spending the morning watch Haej and Eben direct their Caress shoot. And then 24 hours later, I'm am landing back in Wellington - minus 2 bags of course. Those were to arrive a few days later. But in the meantime, I had to begin Scuba Certification classes - beginning the night I returned from New York. No rest for Team Zissou. And then 4 hours of class time, 10 hours of pool time, and 12 hours of open water dives later, I was a certified scuba diver. And all this crammed into 6 days, while working. I would daydream at work about what it was like to sleep. And I managed to pop my shoulder out again, during one of the pool sessions. But now I'm certified to dive to 18 meters. I have yet to go that deep, but this weekend we are doing a dive, and we'll see what kind of pressure these ears can take.

Next up was a more leisurely tour of the Weta Workshop. Basically this is the place where all the cool stuff gets made for the movies. All the physical elements, weapons, character busts, costumes, statues, toys. If its geeky and cool, it's here. And they are so high security there that in order for other Weta employees to take the tour we have to know somebody who knows somebody who can get us clearance. Even met and talked with Richard Taylor, who is the man behind all of these physical props and one of the 4 founders of Weta.

Then the weekend rolled around again, and it was off to my first Rugby Match. Game. Spar. Whatever they call them. I mean they call a goal a "try", so go figure. Positives are that its a quick game - it's over in an hour and a half, they sell fries, not chips (unless served with fish), and a 4 pack of beer (yes 1 person can buy 4 beers) is less than 20 NZD (roughly 14 USD). Unfortunately it was freezing cold and off and on raining. But enough Tui and fries, and you forget about all that. And to top it all off, the NZ team won with literally seconds left in the game.

The following day was the Cuba Street Carnival. But before any of that, being summer and all, and needing to live up to my upbringing, I finally went out surfing. I borrowed my flat-mate Mark's Fun Board and Short Board (both derrick and I went) and met up at Tom and Greg's place for a little Saturday morning session. Nothing like walking out someones back porch onto the beach. The 4 of us were out for an hour and a half, with some pretty weak waves, or as Tom calls them - "Mushburgers". I actually caught 6 waves, believe it or not. And I have this tiny little bug inside of me now, similar to that one that grew into the gargantuan obsession that is snowboarding for me. I find myself actually checking surf reports now. Uh-oh. I'm turning into Scoot.

On to the Carnival that evening. We ended up at a friend's place that was smack dab in the middle on the festival, with a concert right out his front window and the parade passing by his front door. No need to get lost in the crowd, we just hung up there all night, watching and enjoying the festivities. Oh, and I think there might have been a little bit of drinking. Choice.

And finally, the capper of them all to the month. With all of this diving and Team Zissouing, it's about time something came of it. I mean, I get the joy of being in the water and seeing all the amazing sea life here literally in my backyard, but I wanted a souvenir, dammit! So on Monday, it was another one of those days that are so gorgeous, it makes you think "this could be the last one like this, I better enjoy it." Difficult to do while you are at work, behind a computer. But luckily enough Victor, the guy who has gotten all of us into spearfishing, mentioned he was going at lunch for a dive. Nobody else seemed interested, but I decided last minute that I'd join him. Never having used the actual spear gun before (I have only used the Hawaiian Sling, which is incredibly ineffective), I needed a quick rundown from him on how to use it. Then geared up and ready, we were out in the water, hunting. He happened to know a spot that had a decent amount of fish, and after approaching a few fish here and there, and hesitating due to their size, I finally saw it. Biggest fish I'd seen in my 4 or 5 dives. I missed my first shot, and figured, well that's it, no other chances. But just a few minutes later after reloading, I saw him again along the bottom. I dove, aimed, and fired. It was then that I realized how big he was. He started swimming around frantically, actually managing to pull me a bit. I was able to surface and called Vic over. Being the seasoned pro, he knew what to do. I pulled the fish up towards me, he loaded his gun, aimed it at this fish, who was swimming around like mad, tracked him for a good 30 seconds, and then fired a shot, literally right between his eyes. There was definitely no more squirming after that. And with that I got my first fish. Vic said it's the biggest Kahawai he's seen in the water. So I guess I can retire now, no?

Do all the interns get Glocks?

I found out today that people read my blog! 2 whole people! Wow, what a feeling. Makes me want to change my name to Bloggy Mcbloggs-a-lot. But I won't. It just makes me feel like doing it. So in celebration of said discovery, I'm going to post to my Blog. Well, if you have gotten this far, technically I already have posted to my Blog, but that's just a technicality.

There always seem to be enough worthy events about which I could post, but I'm trying to limit myself to only those of which I have photographic evidence to support any outlandish claims I may make, as to avoid any questions of authenticity (you know, such as the time I invented the question mark, or that I spend summers in Rangoon doing luge lessons). So first up is the topic of current obsessions. Outside of the typical fare, such as Excite Truck on the Wii and rolling around naked in piles of money, I have finally started getting into the water. Hesitant at first, I spent a month or 2 waiting for the damn stuff to get warmer. But alas, it doesn't get that warm, neither land, air, nor sea here in Wellington. So I've learned you just wait for the calm and hopefully sunny days to enjoy the water (now don't mistake the word "sunny" with the idea of "warmth". This is a common misconception of people who live everywhere else in the world). And the other misconception that has been brought to my attention is the idea that living next to the ocean means that there are waves in the water, and therefore things that can be surfed upon. Wrong again. Those apparently only come in the winter or when the southerly Antarctic (yes, that means from Antarctica) winds come in. So this Southern California Boy is working his way up to that. Which brings me to the first water obsession that is keeping me occupied for the time being - Spear Fishing. A friend at work is really into spear fishing, and he has in turn gotten a decent group of us hooked on it - about 7 of us total. We have all bought our proper gear (masks, fins, gloves, hoods) and he has enough guns to arm a small underwater military coup. So suited up and armed, we try to get in the water at least once or twice a week. I have to admit, it's thrilling. I love just being in the water, but i was surprised how much adding the element of the hunt can make it that much more intriguing. It's not like you are out there lighting the sea floor up with spears, its a very methodical, careful sport. You are lucky to come out with even one fish after a 2 hour dive. But every time I do it, I want to go back for more. Perhaps there is something to just gearing up and feeling like Team Zissou. If only we had earphones mounted in our hoods.....

Here are some pics of our latest dive.

And here are a few videos that our friend who got us into this has put together from some dives here in Wellington, in a few of the spots we usually dive at. He has a pretty sweet HD camera with a water housing, and he's a pretty good shot with one hand on his gun and one hand on the camera, as you will see (not duplicate videos, just looks that way)





This one's a little disturbing, so don't watch if you don't like to see your food "prepared".

Plop-plop, fizz-fizz, oh what a relief it is

I've done a lot in the last month. So much so, that I don't have time to write about it. I will later, I promise. But for now, instead of words, I'll fill your yearning hearts with visuals that will temporarily subside that burning desire to feast on my trials and adventures. (Believe me, it's bliss to live in a naive fantasy world in which people actually read this schmutz)

The following sets of pictures comprise the adventures of when Haejin was visiting for the Holiday. The adventures included hiking, abseiling, spelunking, Zorbing, kayaking, Christmas and New Years, and of course moving in to my place finally! Enjoy.

Moving In to New House

NZ X-Mas

NZ Roadtrip

I am a Sad Bastard

So here is the story. The other day I arrived at work and a small group of co-workers were huddled up in the parking lot standing in the wind. I was quickly informed there was a "big plane" about to take off, and that it would be worth watching. You see in Wellington, big planes taking off is exciting, not only because its a small town and entertainment is hard to find, but the runway in Wellington is notoriously short and the winds are notoriously strong, so a big plane managing the runway IS actually very exciting. So we hunkered behind a van that someone had there to block the wind and waited. Shortly other people, not from Weta, began to arrive, apparently having spotted us on the hill where our parking lot is located (which is also conveniently just across the street from the airport runway). These few people were "Plane Spotters". One guy, who had brought his entire family, was so excited to see so many other "Plane Spotters" that he couldn't resist making himself feel less pathetic by proving that there were more people like him in the world, so he filmed us. We all felt bad, because we weren't plane spotters, we were just trying to delay the inevitable work day, so we just played along. But long story short, I just received the email at work that he published his video on Youtube. So without further adieu, here I am in all my glory. If you can't spot me, I'm in the brown hoody and white hat. You can hear me talking to my friend as the plane begins to roll down the runway: "Oh look at that." "Building up a nice head of steam" and "How nervous is the pilot right now?"
Sad Bastard

Conjugal Visits

Yet another week of wind, rain, wind, clouds, wind, wind, and a bit of wind has gone by. It also rained a lot. Then the weekend arrived and Saturday had some choice weather. In a short 12 hours, it managed to go back and forth from rain, to sunshine, to rain again about 10 times. And each bit of rain or sunshine lasted for no longer than 5 - 10 minutes at a time. Of course to keep us sane, the wind is always a constant, which is what I have realized is the reason the weather can change so abruptly and so often here. With perpetual 25+ mph winds blowing, no cloud can stick around long enough to dump more than a few drops. But the same goes for the sun. It can't shine long enough to even find out if this "hole in the ozone layer" thing is the truth or just a big hoax.

That aside, I did accomplish a lot this last week/weekend. I signed the lease for my new house, which I cannot move into yet, but I can admire from afar. On Saturday I picked up my new car (new is relative, it's a 95, but its new to me). It's a 1995 Subaru Legacy Grand Wagon. And I'm proud to say my first 4WD vehicle. I managed to pick this beauty up for less than $3,000 USD. And yes, it works. It even passed the "Warrant of Fitness" check that every car in NZ has to take every 6 months. And this sort of cheap vehicle find is only possible because of New Zealand's seemingly insatiable desire to swap out their cars constantly. I could be way off in this observation, but after bearing witness to the thrice weekly car auctions they hold here, in which they sell off 100 used cars, rapid auction style, in a matter of an hour, I get the feeling there is a very quick turn around time for cars in this area. And every few days when they hold one of these auctions, they have another full fleet of 100 cars to sell, and almost all of them sell. Maybe I've been out of the car purchasing universe too long and this is actually a common thing in the States, but I found it pretty amazing. But enough babbling, here's some lovely pictures of my new darling. She's gonna be my savior for the surf and snow season.

In other big news, I have finished my 2 week stay at the lovely Duxton Hotel. I sadly never took any pictures of the suite I was in, but it was pretty ridiculous (and by that I mean awesome). 2 room suite with a hallway and 2 bathrooms. What was I going to do with 2 bathrooms? I even met another new guy at Weta who couldn't get a regular suite, because they were all booked up with other new Weta employees, so he had to settle for the Presidential Suite, complete with a 10 person dining room table. Just hilarious. Anyways, today, Sunday, was my move out day, and in turn my move in day to my temporary home. I am taking the 3rd bedroom in the condo of 2 fellow animators Jalil and Scott. It's a nice clean place, but it gets rather cold at night, and in comparison to the types of places and locations that a lot of our other friends have gotten, the location they have certainly leaves a lot to be desired. Although the 42in plasma screen and xbox 360 that Jalil is renting certainly comes close to making up for the negatives. Regardless, they have found another place they want to move into downtown, and this transition will most likely be happening in the next few weeks. So i will be moving yet again, with them, to finish out my freeloading in a downtown apartment. And to give an example of the other types of places people have gotten, I am enclosing, along with a few photos of Jalil and Soctt's place, some lovely photos of our friends Tom and Greg's place on the beach in Lyall Bay. I can't say enough about their deck.

Temporary Home

Tom and Greg's House

And then that brings us to today, in which out of nowhere, the clouds parted, the winds stopped, and it actually became warm. I wore a t-shirt around all day. It gives us all hope for the summer. So in recognition of the weather, we took a little drive down the southern coast and stumbled across a little hiking trail where the road comes to an end. Granted, at about 6:00 the gloomy clouds came rushing back in from the south, but while it lasted, the sunshine can actually make you forget about what the weather is like the other 80% of the time. So in closing, here are some pictures of that little trail, which we plan to go back to the next time the clouds part and grant us a few nice hours of sun.

Holy Crap

So now I get it. Remember that bitchy, whiny post I made a few days ago? Well, the sun came out for a few days, I drove around the coast of the city, and ended up finding a house. My outlook has gotten a bit more sunny. So to compliment my new attitude on things, I will give some pictures to show what has convereted me. First the southern coast, which is three quarters on the way to paradise (on a sunny day). Looks kinda like Hawaii and Hobbiton had a love child. That's a good thing. Here are some pics:

And secondly the house. Found it yesterday. I had wanted to live alone, but when I found this place, I said screw it, I'll pair up for this one. Not sure of square footage (or metres for that matter), but its on the water, with a little stretch of grass and sand between the front porch and the water. Front deck surrounded by a little shrubbery. Long driveway to get to it, so its not even touching a street. Huge downstairs area with 2 living areas, a dining area and a center kitchen. downstairs has one master bedroom, one guest bdrm, one bathroom. Upstairs has another master bedroom, overlooking the water (my room ;-), another guest bdrm, and another bathroom. Enclosed backyard with Lawn, Deck, BBQ, and a friggin built in trampoline. Lots of storage in the backyard for surfboards/snowboards/dead bodies. 2 car garage, and a huge secluded concrete car park area with a basket ball hoop, and big enough for a half court and a quarter-pipe (if I want to build one). Alright, enough words, here are some pics:

Unfortunately, I can't move in till Dec 23rd, but it's perfect timing, because Haej will be able to lift all my haevy stuff for me.

Whistle While you Work

First impressions. None to say of the workplace because work for me has not officially begun, although some mild training and acclimating to the new operating system and all the proprietary Weta-tools has certainly commenced. That said, the initial impressions of the city, which are most likely unfair due to only 72 hours worth of impression-making, are a bit iffy. To be fair, Wellington is a beautiful, peaceful place filled with genuinely friendly people. But my experience thus far has been more or less cold, rain, clouds, and wind. Oh the wind. Nothing makes mildly unpleasant weather become any more unbearable than adding in some gusty wind. And "Windy Welly", as they call it, saves its gusty wind for the nice days, or so I hear. The rest of the time, which is most of the time, the winds stay at a constant "the hurricane is on its way" level. Granted the hurricane never comes, but at times I wish it would, because maybe then the wind would stop, at least for a little while.

Just some quick thoughts as I fight the jetlag. I'm sure by next week I'll have a fully different impression, because thus far its changing day to day, I just can't write about it every day. Hopefully by then I'll have some photos worth posting as well.

What's the deal with Grape Nuts?

I may have mis- represented the whole of local Korean cuisine in my previous post. I know I certainly didn't misrepresent that particular dish one bit, but in all fairness I should convey what the rest of the food was like. Delightfully it was nothing like my squirming friends in the video. I was fortunate enough to have a guide who knows and appreciates her food very much, and was able to take me to the best version of each type of dish we had the time to consume. I won't begin to list them both due to may inability to remember them all, and more so do to the likelihood that I will slay each dishes name by trying to spell it out phonetically. But I'll say this much - the experiences I got covered every type of establishment you would expect to visit when getting the Real Deal introduction to a local cuisine. There were the down and dirty holes-in-the-wall, comparable in ambiance to my favorite Mexican joints in San Diego (Bertos, Sergios, Charro). There were the original places that ONLY the locals go - and then this guy comes strutting in. And there were even the up-scale joints, some with fancy private rooms that I was surprised to find didn't kick out a guy in jeans and a t-shirt. In all I'd say the food is the most vivid, and certainly one of the most fun memories that I'll take with me from Korea, seeing as much of what we did revolved around where to eat, what to eat, and whom to eat with. And receiving a plate of wriggling severed sausages from the sea is just part of the fun.

And one more thing - I kick ASS with chopsticks. I was told so. Just look at the pictures.