Wellington's City Gallery: Demented Architecture

The City Gallery as an interactive exhibit going on right now featuring architecture and its relationship to contemporary art. The diverse theme also has different video installations and sculptures that relate to architecture and the architect. 

Giant LEGO city

Aaron adding to the city

Street view

The architect

Susan Te Kahurangi King: From the One I Call My Own

Looking out of the gallery

Jasmina Cibic

Entrance from Civic Square

July then Goodbye

View from Polhill Reserve near Aro Valley, Wellington

The beginning of July marks the final month of living in Wellington. We've called this city home for almost a year now and traveled the North Island a couple times. We saw waterfalls, volcanoes, deserts, beaches, glowworms and the year 2015 first.

August, the last month before our visas run out,  will be devoted to seeing the South Island. This last leg of the year is going to be a bit of an experiment. We're going to do it as cheap as possible and show our experiences along the way. Cost will be cut completely for land travel and lodging... or as much as possible. 

Friends back home often tell me they have no money to travel. I want to show that you can still see a lot with little money. Yes flights end up being the biggest cost, but many times cheap domestic ones are easy to find. Aaron and I are flying to Christchurch on $29 tickets each. 

As for land travel and accommodation, we're going to hitchhike and couchsurf. New Zealand is known for safe hitchhiking and I have met many people here who have done it and loved it. There are even "thumbs-up" signs off the road for good pick up spots. After all, the roads are full of other backpackers so odds are you will be riding with a fellow traveler.

Here's to the last month of living and working in the beautiful city of Wellington. 

Best Beer Bars: The Malthouse

The Malthouse is Wellington's original craft beer bar. Serving local brews since 1993, it has gained a large following of beer advocates old and new. They also have a very committed staff that are as awesome at their job as they are to hang out with.

The bar has a massive selection of tap and bottled beer from almost every craft brewery in New Zealand. There is a style for every taste. This video is from their annual event, Darkest Days, which features stouts, porters, and dark robust beers.

The Malthouse is on the popular strip of Courtenay Place. Anyone coming to Wellington has to check it out, it is a staple for the craft beer capital. 

Friday Night Markets

On Left Bank right off Cuba Street

Music and international food

Plenty of options for eating

The night market is all about food

Dumplings

Alley into the Market

Best Beer Bars: LBQ

The Wellington Jazz Festival was here this weekend and had gigs scattered all around town. I popped into LBQ to see what they were featuring. LBQ, or Little Beer Quarter, is a cozy back alley bar in the middle of Wellington. With a dozen taps and endless bottles, the selection is diverse and always featuring some of New Zealand's best craft beers. I would highly recommend anyone visiting Wellington to check it out. Here is a little video of the busy night they had during the Jazz Festival.

Flooding in Wellington

This week Wellington saw a lot of rain, so much rain in fact, that part of Wellington experienced some serious flooding. Apparently, around this time of the year right after summer the region gets a few big first rainfalls. The amount of rain that fell on Thursday, however, was a once in 100 year event. The Lower Hutt got hit pretty bad including Petone and Porirua. Around 1pm there were already cars completely submerged.

A lot of people that work in central Wellington live in the Hutt area including a few people I work with at Fork & Brewer. They either depend on the train or the motorway to get home - the flooding blocked both of these. There were also minor landslides that blocked even more roads. The Fork & Brewer ended up being pretty busy because of all the people stuck in the city. 

There was one fatality, an 80 year old man that was found in the water near his car. The worst flood to hit Wellington happened in 1976 and caused $30 million in damage. Fortunately, there wasn't a large loss of life and happened to be only one fatality in that one too. 

I happened to be working so I snagged these images from the Dominion Post.

All the photos from the Wellington flooding at stuff.co.nz

MATT DUNCAN/Dominion Post

DAVID MORRISON

ANDREA MALTHOUSE

Sunday Markets

Wellington has a couple nice farmers' markets on Sundays. There is one off Victoria and Vivian, and then there is one in a big lot on the waterfront right next to Te Papa. These markets are great for getting a lot of fruits and vegetables for a low cost. Around ten bucks gets us a week's worth.

The market by the waterfront has other vendors besides fruits and vegetables. Here you can get homemade almond butter, crepes, german sausages, and wood fired pizza. There is also usually live music and various other performers. Aaron and I decided to head here today to get our weekly produce. We also met our friend Elliot who was getting ingredients for chilli he's preparing for his flat dinner.

Aaron and Elliot conducting the ripeness test

A very popular fruit in NZ

Ghostly looking pumpkins

Gettin' them chillis

Part of the marina next to the market

Elliot having a bratwurst from Fritz's Weiners

Cool wood fired pizza oven on wheels

ANZAC Day

ANZAC day is observed on April 25th to commemorate all Australians and New Zealanders "who served and died in all wars." The Day was originally to honour the members of the Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZAC) who fought at Gallipoli against the Ottoman Empire during World War I. This year marks the 100th anniversary of that first conflict. A service was held at dawn and went throughout the day at the Pukeahu National Memorial Park here in Wellington.

The New Zealand Chamber Choir sings throughout the service

The National War Memorial

New Zealand's PM John Key talks about the Gallipoli campaign:
"The communities they came from had counted the cost in the lengthy casualty lists that appeared in their newspapers. The sacrifice seemed to have been in vain, for the under-resourced a poorly- conducted campaign did not have any significant influence on the outcome of the war."

The newly finished Australian memorial at the Pukeahu National War Memorial Park.

The columns are surrounded by gum trees which will grow to about 10 meters high. This memorial is a counterpart to the New Zealand Memorial on the Anzac Parade in Canberra. 

Laying of the wreaths

"After Gallipoli , New Zealand had greater confidence in its distinct identity, and a greater pride in the international contribution it could make. The mutual respect earned during fighting formed the basis of the close ties with Australia that continue today."

B&D in NZ Part 5: Home

The last part of the trip brings us back to Wellington, where Bob and Dan stay with us for a few days. Dan wastes no time in assembling his bike and finding the skate park. We walk around Wellington taking pictures and having beer. One night we met up with our friend Ian who is also from Milwaukee but has been living here for a couple years. We showed Bob and Dan a few awesome places to get a beer including Fork & Brewer, The Malthouse, and Basque. Even made a random stop at Boogie Wonderland on their last night where we danced absurdly on the empty light up floor. It was a lot of fun having Bob and Dan visit, especially showing them around the city we've been living in. 

B&D in NZ Part 4: Bay of Plenty

The fourth part of our trip takes us from Waitomo to the Bay of Plenty. We decided to camp in a small town called Matata about halfway between Tauranga and Whakatane. During the day we swam and relaxed on the beach. 

The night sky in this area was amazing. Unfortunately, for some reason I didn't take any photos of it. The clouds kept rolling in and on the last night we found ourselves waking up in a very wet tent. There was a chance between the downpour to quickly get our camp packed up and back on the road. 

Rain continued for pretty much the rest of the trip. We made a brief stop in Rotorua to see some geothermal activity. I would have liked to see more but the weather wasn't cooperating. New Zealand is going into it's rainy season so at least it was expected.

B&D in NZ Part 3: Waitomo

Our next stop was in Waitomo, best known for its caves and glowworms. We signed up for a tour that took us through one of the glowworm caves which was discovered in the late 1800s. Looking at the cave ceiling was interesting, like looking into the sky on a clear night. However, the large multiple tour groups, cramped boat, and tiled floors distracted from the natural spectacle of the cave. Too touristy for my taste.

We sought after some other caves I read about by taking a hike down the Waitomo Walkway. My sources seemed off though, because we mostly found ourselves walking through cow pastures. No caves, but all turned out fine in the end. Bob made some new cow pals and also found some cool places to do yoga. We also spotted some native birds including the New Zealand fantail and the wood pigeon or kererū. Plus the sun was finally out! What more could we ask for?

B&D in NZ Part 2: Tongariro

The first adventure on our road trip was the Tongariro Alpine Crossing. We arrived at the carpark too late the night before to make the short hike to the hut. Also, it had been raining heavily all day and night. The hike to the Hut would have been 40 minutes and the total crossing was estimated at six hours. 

We ended up staying in our car for the night and planned to start the hike early the next morning. The weather was still acting up the next day and made the crossing too dangerous to do. For one, shuttle service between opposite ends of the crossing were cancelled. Secondly, there was a chance to get stuck in a hail storm on top of an active volcano with no visibility. Instead, we did the first leg of the hike and then made our way, soaking wet, back to the car. 

B&D in NZ Part 1: Rainy Start

After a crazy week in Melbourne, It took us a day in Wellington to get our bearings and prepare for the road trip. The weather forecast wasn't looking too great so we knew that some of our plans might not work 100 percent. After some breakfast we finally hit the road with our first destination set at the Tongariro National Park. We only stopped along the way for some coffee and to take some pictures.

A Week in Melbourne, Australia

Aaron's sister Bob is a pretty awesome competitor when it comes to bike racing. She won the Riverwest 24 (a 24 hour bike race in Milwaukee) three times in a row and a number of other races. The Cycle World Messenger Championships was in Melbourne this year, and Bob decided to sign up for it since Aaron and I are so close. One week in Melbourne and a week and a half in New Zealand.

Bob unpacking in their "granny flat" in Melbourne.
A granny flat is a detached section of accommodation
from the house. 

Dan wasting no time in putting his bike together.

Watch after some pets for a free place to stay? Absolutely.

We found an amazing person to let us stay in her apartment for our week in Melbourne. She offered when she saw our request on Couchsurfing. Seems she needed someone to look after her pets so it worked out perfectly.

Very noisy budgies

The first night out we met up with our friend of a friend Jaimie. She showed us some awesome places around St. Kilda, a beach side artsy suburb of Melbourne.

Great meal at Claypots in St. Kilda. Jaimie used to work here.

Jaimie and Aaron outside Claypots

CMWC registration night at the Grub Food Van in Fitzroy

A couple members of the Tokyo team. The guy on the right is Tak.
He took a lot of pride in being the most "crazy Japanese man."

Walking to the velodrome

The Brunswick velodrome in Melbourne

The CMWC was a week long competition with
many small competitions each day

Bob's new Melbourne messenger hat

A Russian Orthodox Cathedral on the trail to the Velodrome

Big external light up baby (Brunswick St. in Fitzroy)

Southern Cross Railway Station in Melbourne

Walking along Brighton Beach

Sunset with freight ships on the horizon

The beach huts of Brighton Beach

View of Melbourne from Brighton Beach

Moon rising above the huts.
Tomorrow there will be a total lunar eclipse

Heading back to the city

The Docklands, start and finish point for the race 

The starting point

Bob talking to our new Australian friend Josh

Tak and Bob ended up doing their start at the same time.
Tak is yelling, "I am crazy Japanese man!"

Bob at one of the checkpoints.  

Shortly after this checkpoint her pedal fell off which led to her disqualification from the race. She said it was a hard race and a very confusing course. Each competitor had a manifest which they had to complete in under 90 minutes. Both Tak and Josh did not make the time frame. The main race is held the next day for all the people that finished in time. 

Having a beer after the race

Bob is ready to party

Dan at the finish

Some guy doing a mural at the race start/finish point

Met some BMX guys from all over the world

The crazy race after party in a warehouse.
At some point in the night, everyone piled on a
small roof to watch the lunar eclipse.

Walking around Chinatown

Federation Square in Melbourne

This great museum in Federation Square

Inside ACMI

A display of bats in Federation Square

The cool alleyways near Federation Square

Layers and layers of street art

Hosier Lane

Just having a lovely chat with her mum

Having a beer on our last night in Melbourne at Misty.
My Australian friend Lou in New Zealand used to work here and recommended it.