Hobbits, dwarves and wizards..... oh my!

First off, I feel as though I should apologize for taking such along time to write the second installment of the wellington adventure, but it is for good reason. But we'll get to that, be patient (yes Kim, that means you as well!).

Where did we leave off..... oh yes..... day two in wellington. Well, a lot has happened since then. Once I arrived in Wellington it was a perfect day. The sun was shinin, people were out on their bikes, walkin their dogs, havin coffee outside of one of many cafes you will find. In fact, I believe that there is one within a 3 minute walk no matter where you are in the city.Now we aren't talking percolator or even Starbucks, we are talkin GREAT coffee. Hand packed free-trade espresso with steamed milk and just the right amount of natural sugar. In fact, they actually have 3 different kinds of sugar: white (processed), raw, and coffee sugar (which is actually meant specifically for coffee because it dissipates quickly and evenly throughout your cup, stirring may not even be necessary and you don't end up with that really sweet final bit). Anyway, it was a beautiful day.

Jeanne was still workin, so I spent a bit of time checkin out the city. I gotta give the kiwi's credit, I have lived in quite a few cities, and this one really is laid out quite well and gives you that small town feel within a city of skyscrapers and 195,549 other people of which 46% of them are working for businesses with at least 100 people. Since we are on facts (since i know dad will be curious): 4.45% steady increase in population since 2006; 33% of citizens have a bachelor'sdegree; 55.9% of the general populous is 18-49; their coffee is amazing; they receive approximately 2025 hours of sunshine per year; it is the capitol city but was not the original

(Okiato in Maori, a.k.a. Russel, in the Bay of Islands, was the original and also was considered to be the "Hell Hole of the Pacific "); Largest recorded earthquake was recorded at 8.2 and had more than 200 aftershocks in an 11 hour period in 1855. It completely changed the landscape by raising the earth enough to connect where we live now with the actual downtown. And downtown is where, due to the earthquake, only poor Baron von Alzdorff lost his life when a chimney collapsed; there are 68,901 dwellings in the city (all within a three minute walk of a cafe with outstanding coffee); their most famous citizen of all time is actually a dog named "Paddy"; and they have pretty decent coffee.

Anywho, as I was toot-aling around town I saw the beehive, which is their capitol building, and the other usual tall buildings mixed with an intermingling of men in business suits, sidewalk artists, mopeds....... what you would expect. Grabbed a coffee and a french crepe and decided to head down to the wharf. Spent a bit of time walkin the boardwalk and there, right in the middle of things is a shrine commissioned by the city to a dog named "paddy the wanderer", which acts as an eternal water bowl.

The story is that paddy was the faithful companion of a sailor's daughter until she died from pneumonia at age 11. Paddy ran away and was eventually found down at the wharf waiting for the sailor to return. Not to long after his daughter's death, the sailor himself had perished at sea, but paddy continued to wait for him at the wharf. As time passed, the other sailors, delivery drivers, and especially the Wharfsman, began to take a liking to him and took turns paying his city license so that the city wouldn't pick him up. Taxi drivers were known to stop off at the wharf on their lunch breaks and take paddy for a ride, free of charge, of course. And after awhile, he began taking ocean voyages with his new friends and travelled the world. He crossed Tasman Sea more times than can be accurately calculated, he once made the round-trip voyage by boat to San Fransisco and back, and one gentleman (whom I can't seem to recall his name) took paddy along with him in his Gypsy Moth airplane as he was attempting to break some sort of aviation feat (as it was the space travel of the day). As paddy got on in years, he gave up travelling but could always be found watching the boats or nestled in the Wharf Master's station. Paddy gave up the ghost on 17 July 1939. Almost the entire population of wellington turned out for his funeral procession, which consisted of a parade of wellingtonians lead by 12 taxi cabs and a police escort. It shut down the city.

The wharf has always been the real center of the city since it's establishment. Although the major flurry of the massive export/import traffic of the early years has been spread out to other areas, it is still bustling with museum after museum.

I apologize for not taking a lot of pictures, but I was truly enjoying myself. However, I did snap a pic of the Maori recital hall in the Te Papa museum for ya cuz I find it stunning with all the color and contrast, and the crazy metal rocks constructed along the boardwalk!

Towards the evening I hooked up with Jeanne and moved into our temporary room in a 4 bedroom flat with a continual population of at least 6, up to tons, on any given day. We had a great time with our new flatmates.

From "food on a stick night" to casual sittin and chattin, it was pretty cool, but it wasn't our home. However, over the next week or so, while JD was workin, I spent my time either lookin for a flat or fishin. Eventually, after a massive amount of researching and site visits our home was discovered:

"It is a reasonably priced 1 bedroom on the end of a pedestrian access road atop a serious set of stairs that has an amazing, neigh I say outstanding view of Evans Bay.

Whew! After 27 trips up that serious staircase, I had all of our belongings moved. Course, once it was all set up there was something missing..... oh a fridge, dehumidifier, or anything that even closely resembled furniture besides the bed. We focused on fridge first, and on her day off managed to drag this sucker up that serious staircase and into the kitchen where it remains full of beer, fresh fish, and a few left overs. As time progresses we have picked up a nice couch set and a low profile Chinese cabinet built around the 1880's - 90's. So, it is really startin to feel like a home.

Enter middle earth! Our plan from the beginning of this adventure was for Jeanne to come over here before me in order to get us established and try and build some contacts that would eventually lead to work on the hobbit. All the while I stayed in Los Angeles and closed up shop. This plan is working great! She landed a job as a lighting rigger and works with a great group of guys. I, on the other hand, work in the art side of things and had been trying to make the right connections to get in with their art crew. Well, her boss seemed to take a liking to me and personally gave my resume, along with some encouragement, to both the art director and the production designer. Nothing has come of it so far, except for a meet and greet, but while I was waiting, the guys decided to offer me a job as well. So, now we are both working as lighting riggers on "The Hobbit." It was originally a two-week offer, but I have been having a ball working 6 days a week (and this week it's lookin like twelve days in a row) and they keep encouraging me to stay, so........ we'll see how that goes.

Now I know you would love for me to spill the beans on the behind the scenes of the most expensive movie ever attempted, at a whopping 500 million dollar budget, and maybe a picture or to....... but I'm sorry I can't. All I can tell ya is that if ya liked lord of the rings and this turns out to be even close to as cool as the stuff i get to see everyday......... It's gonna be AWESOME!!!

And to all my new york friends....... look what I found at the local record store in wellington. That's right Jeremy, I found a used copy of the ex-boyfriends. How cool is that!

So with that, here is the justification for my lack of blogging! Goodnight all, gotta hit the sack.