Robyn and Terry made it safely home. A good time was had – we certainly enjoyed it. We visited a few of our favourite places (which stretches a little beyond Moore Wilson’s and the West Wind wind farm), cooked some nice food, drank some good wine and beer. It was really lovely having them to stay. And the garden has never looked better.
Now, for the first time that we moved in, we have no visitors. No sooner had Leigh’s parents stepped out of the door, then the spare room suddenly became a laundry / storage overflow … it was terrifying how quickly it happened.
An obligatory weather update – our summer has deteriorated a bit of late. What with Cyclone Gita’s death throws and some really weird, muggy grey foggy days and some just insanely hot sunny weather … it’s become a bit of a mixed bag. Never a dull moment (hard to dress for … you need shorts, jeans, jumper, t-shirt, cap and a waterproof with you at all times).
Oh and New Zealand Festival (so far)!
The first event we saw was the opening ceremony – a bold mix of traditional Samoan boats and a huge choir and an even bigger Haka. The event, held on the harbour, didn’t fill the space in quite the way it could have done. There’s also a bit of a pattern with events in Wellington … in that it’s not always entirely clear where you should be gathering and where things are going to happen and by the time we realised … there wasn’t a good seat left in the house.
This was exacerbated by three times the expected number of people turning up (due in no small part to it being frankly amazing weather). We bailed mid-way through, went home, ordered take-away pizza and watched the live stream from the couch. Back of the net …
Then last night we saw The Barbershop Chronicles – a National Theatre production bought over from London to Wellington for the festival. It was pretty astoundingly good theatre; wordy, sometimes challenging but the staging and performances were just ridiculously good. We left the theatre feeling that we’d seen something brilliant (even if I didn’t fully understand some of the nuances – but that’s true of most things I see).
The Obligatory Blog 