Te Kopahou Reserve

I took the car for a spin today and drove along the south coast (Island Bay, Owhiro Bay) till I reached the end of the road (and the world). It appeared that I had gotten to the entrance of Te Kopahou Reserve, it felt like a portal to a different universe. The sight was just spectacular, just a massive and bare rock formation all the way to the horizon. Their presence gave me a strong sense of "don't mess with us". Just another moment that I was touched by the New Zealand scenery. It was a bit late to go for a stroll along the ocean side but that is definitely something that I would like to do at another time. There are walking trails and there were quite a few people out there (considering the number of cars in the parking lot).

On the way back I visited a colleague of mine who lives in a converted warehouse on the water front in the city. Very high ceilings, looked like a loft with an extra floor in the middle. Very nicely done, very different than the many old and drafty old houses in Wellington.

Yesterday I took my car back to the garage because the clutch had a wee bit play. Since it is under warranty it was better to take it back to the place where I bought it which is about 18 km north west of Wellington. Once lesson to be learned from my car buying adventure is that next time it might be better to buy the vehicle locally. Anyway the owner was happy to look at it and to fix it. Once he was done he asked me to test drive the car, just to make sure that everything was fine. Well that was an interesting experience, it was like being back at the driving school. "You should take your foot off the clutch, I see that you keep your foot on the clutch between the first and second gear, your foot should not be on the clutch at all, keeping your foot on the cluth will wear out the clutch much quicker than usual and (and here is the key part) it will affect the warranty". Well Cliff, I hardly put any pressure on the clutch, I just keep my foot in position for the next gear shift... Yes but any tiny touch of the clutch will wear out the clutch and the clutch may need to be replaced much sooner than expected... Cliff I don't apply any pressure on the clutch... by the way it is pretty cold and wet today, I take it that you have very few customers today... not really... you have to let go of the clutch between shifting gears... yes but I DON'T apply any pressure on that pedal Cliff. Needless to say that I was relieved that my driving lesson was over. Perhaps his tactics is to put me off for a next warranty issue... well Cliff don't count on that too quickly mate, I may take you up on that :-)

Greytown and Rita Anges

This was quite a weekend. Yesterday I took the car for a spin to Greytown (about 75 km from Wellington) and today I went to see the Rita Anges exhibition in the 'Te Papa' museum here in Wellington. The word 'quite' refers to 'I liked it, it was inspiring, it was beautiful, I rediscovered the joy of exploring new places, I met nice people'. So where is Greytown, well it is slightly north east of Wellington. First it is a 4 lane motor way but then at some point it becomes a 2 lane road that goes up and up and up (and to top it up there are lots of curves as well). But basically one has to go over a mountain pass and the view along the way is just terrific. It had started to snow by the time I reached the summit. Here are some pictures. My little new Subaru was doing a good job but for the locals I went obviously too slow (mainly because I did not use the 2 wheels only trick in a 35 km recommended curve). Fortunately there were road stretches where they could over take me, I guess when you do that road day in day out one knows every curve as the back of your hand (but not me, besides I am not in a hurry to replace my car tires any time soon). Anyway when I arrived in Greytown it was just passed lunch time hence a good excuse to look for a place to eat. The town is really small (about 2000 people) and it has one long main road with various tiny shops along side it. But it seems an upcoming community, a few trendy interior stores and cafes and even art galleries. There was even a tiny art supply store, the owner was sitting very close to her heater and turned out to be from Surrey, England who got married to a Kiwi. Before I could ask her whether she would stay in NZ for ever her friends arrived and the conversation came to an end. But I also got to talk to Johanna in the Rivereast gallery and to Lisa in the Harvest Gallery, obviously as gallery gate keepers they get lots of people who just enter the gallery, walk around and leave without exchanging a single word... but not me at least not yesterday. I finally had my lunch in the local French Bakery and thought of having a second home in the area. It is a wine growing region and Lisa gave me a map of the Wairarapa Wine Trail along a dozen or more wineries where one can even stay the night. So I may do that the next time, sounds simply too good to be true. Anyway Greytown gave me a sense of calmness and artistic serenity which is always good for the human nerves in particularly when they are exposed to a regular dose of frenzy movie making stress. Needless to say that on the way back the cars behind me behaved in the same manner as earlier in the day. Even though my Subaru is a 4 wheel drive that sticks pretty well to the road surface I did not get tempted to do silly things with those crazy mountain curves. So I arrived back in Wellington in one piece and with a satisfied feeling of having done a successful NZ expedition.

So then there is today (Sunday)... I needed to return some books to the public library in down town Wellington and thought about seeing the new exhibition in the 'Te Papa' museum of Rita Anges. But I got to the museum $3.60 lighter since the library charged me for late return fees (no mercy from them). But hey the museum was totally free (which seems to be common in this country). I went to the fourth floor and I was totally blown away by this Rita Anges exhibit. She was a NZ artist who lived from 1908 till 1970 and her water colors and oils are just beautiful. This is a link to a more detailed description of her. And here are a few of her paintings, the one I really like is "Island Bay" which is a great composition of boats off the coast of Wellington. I wanted to buy an 'Island Bay' post card in the museum store but unfortunately they were sold out. But the lady behind the counter suggested that I leave my number so she could contact me when the next batch would arrive. So I left my number, collected my library books from the cloak room and started my walk back to my car (which was parked about 20 minutes away). In less than 10 minutes my phone rings, the museum store on the line, they had found another batch in the far corner of museum (at least it sounded like that), would I be interested in picking them up... oh and by the way 'how many would you like to have'. I felt I could not simply say 'one' since it sounded as if they had turned the museum upside down just to gratify my needs. 'uhh four perhaps'. On my return to the museum store the same lady decided to give me a discount anyway (honestly I did not ask), maybe she felt a bit guilty that she had not mentioned the price of $5.99 each. Anyway she even gave me a big paper bag for my library books since they looked heavy she said. Where in the world do you still get such service, welcome to New Zealand. To finish the day (and the weekend) I had a meal at an Indian restaurant and went home realizing that I had barely thought of work during the last 2 days.