Miramar

 Hi there

The weather forecast said it was going to be beautiful sunshine the entire day today.  Wow, I was going out to experience all that sun.  However, there was no sun -

above:  Inner harbour.  Photo taken from Miramar Wharf area. 

 The scenic seaside road leading around the Miramar Peninsula is directly to the right of photo.  It's a sort of loop.  The Chocolate Fish Cafe, an iconic place on the peninsula, is about a five minute ride along this road. 

Ive been told The Chocolate Fish is a Peter Jackson-owned place. And apparently the land beside it could be where he is going to build his new movie museum.  Rumours have been swirling about the whereabouts of the projected museum site for years.  He also owns a huge plot of land at Lyall Bay, opposite The Warehouse store.  Buildings have been  cleared from this site over the past year.

Some of Jackson's collectable memorabilia was lost in a storage fire a few years ago.

Scorch-a-Rama Cafe is on the other side of the peninsula, at Scorching Bay, about 20 minutes car-ride away from the Miramar wharf.   Walking takes over an hour to reach Scorching Bay, and its about another half hour to walk over the hill and back to Miramar.  Or keep walking past Worser Bay to get to Seatoun shops and transport. Take note that on much of the peninsula seaside road, there are no houses..

above:  same area but looking down towards the Airport runway and Cobham Drive.  Cobham Drive is named after a past Governor-General.  It was a time when all governors-general were sent to us from England for a certain number of years.  Now we always have a New Zealand governor-general.  The governor-general is the King's representative.

above  Miramar:   straight ahead is the main road leading out of Miramar, through the Miramar Cutting. On the left is Stone Street.  Stone Street Studios are where the 'Lord of the Rings", "King Kong" (and others)  were filmed.  There is a track leading up the hill above the studios and I traversed the hill whilst "King Kong" was being filmed - the outdoor scene that I saw was set around a fake lake, and obviously on The island.  At about the same  time, I also trekked up a very steep hill from the back of the Massey Memorial at the tip of the Miramar Peninsula and saw the cave set for King Kong.  When I had reached the top of the hill - puffing and panting -  I was immediately ordered back down again by the King Kong security people.

When I got home from today's wander, the sun came out.  I remember that one of the guys at Hataitai Beach used to call Jay and me "The Cloud Twins", because often when we arrived at the beach for a swim, it clouded over.

walking Wellington

Hi there

I love walking around Wellington.  One of my fave walks is from Miramar Wharf to Oriental Bay.  I puff and pant up the Hataitai hill that's behind the cafe at Greta Point, then walk for a while with the sea a long way down on my right.  When I am almost at the end of the peninsular and I can get a glimpse of the sea on my opposite side, I cross the road to go down the lovely green-belt zig zag path to Oriental Bay.  Oriental Bay is named after one of the first ships, the Oriental.

Here's looking down to Oriental Bay and the city from the top of the zig zag .  A dark day -

Halloween in Miramar

Hi there

"Trick or treat!"  Two ghostly kiddiewinks (Dad hovering in the background) hollered at me as I opened my front door.  I rushed my hand to my heart in fright.  An Oscar-winning performance if I do say so myself.

I said, "I don't have any lollies ("candy' If you're American, 'sweeties' if you're British).  "But here's $2 apiece-" .

The kiddies oohhed and aahhed in appreciation. Their dad handed me two notepads emblazoned with the logo of his real estate office.

Ah, sponsorship - it's everywhere.

Miramar Creative Centre

Hi there

There 's a new creative centre in my suburb of Miramar.  I'm not quite sure what a creative centre does, but as the building is almost next door to Park Road Post Production, across the road from some casting offices, around the corner from Weta Workshop, down the street from Stone Street Studios, and amongst a spread of graphic/digital offices, I rather figure that the new Miramar Creative Centre  is to do with acting, directing, editing, computer graphics, and the like.  I'm thinking that portraitists, landscape artists, ballet dancers, jugglers and bagpipe players won't get a look in.  The creative centre is a division of Victoria University.

My Favourite Bus Shelter

Hi there

There is a lot of legal artwork going on around public areas in Wellington.  On walls.  Wellington City Council electricity boxes.  Fences. Bus shelters...

Above is my favourite Wellington bus shelter.  I so love bright colours.  This shelter is on the Miramar No 2 bus route, at the corner of Elizabeth and Brougham Streets.  I so wish I could paint, or draw, or even doodle.  I don't have one art bone in my body but, of course, I have been practising drawing cubes in case I get asked to produce one by those doctors who might one day be assessing me for Shady Pines (see earlier blog). 

Wandering Wellington's Eastern Suburbs

Hi there

I love walking Wellington.  Winter, summer, any season.  So, surely my four readers will have no trouble visualising the anguish I went through for six months this year whilst my knee was healing from that stupid fall when I tripped over a tree-root as I hiked the Eastbourne hills.  It took me five hours to complete the hike and finally reach home.  So much for icing the leg immediately, and elevating the leg immediately, and resting the leg immediately ...

I like walking the Miramar hills.  When I reach the top of that high walkway that takes you down the slope to Scorching Bay, I always stand there and ooh and aah over the view. My heart lifts when I see lovely scenery.

And when I've taken my fill of Scorching Bay from atop the hill, I merrily trip down to cavort on the beach or stop for a break at Scorch-A-Rama, the cafe.  Under the name The Chocolate Fish, this cafe was frequented by many of The Lord of the Rings' stars when they were filming the trilogy here in Wellington. 

above:  Scorch-A-Rama has tables across the road from the cafe.  Waiters wear hi-vis vests and dodge the traffic to feed the customers.

Ghost in the Shell movie filming at Stone Street

Hi there

It's busy, busy, busy for them at Stone Street Studios in Miramar for the movie "Ghost in the Shell".

I can never spell her name right, but the star is Scarlett Johanssen.  Above photo taken today.  To be allowed to  take it, I was almost made to stand down in the South Island.

Me, Biking??

Hi there

I have been a bit of a wimp the last week or two re pushing boundries with my bad knee, but then I suddenly thought, "I walked around Mt Maunganui a couple of weeks ago, i am not an invalid!"  Granted, to walk around The Mount probably takes an uninjured person about 45 minutes and it did take me an hour and a half, and with the aid of my hiking stick.  I did sit down a lot.

So?  So... I went for a bicycle ride yesterday, just to prove that I could do it.

Every time i came to even a slight rise, I had to get off the hired bike and push it because that was when my knee sort of did hurt.  I was kind of embarrassed to let others see me doing this, but the pride of being able to even ride the bike in the first place soon overcame any feelings of embarrassment.

I still can't do breast-stoke or over-arm in the water.  I can only swim on my back which is a bit of a downer but, hey, there's always next week...

Up and at 'em!

Z petrol station, Miramar

Hi there

Well, I think that my bad knee is gradually improving.  I'm walking 95% better, and  it only hurts when I turn quickly.  However, what is completely annoying me is that I can't squat down on my haunches to look under things such as  cabinets, and beds, and sofas.  I'm hopeless trying to vacuum, and if I lie on the deck at Hataitai Beach after a swim  I can't get up again without the aid of my walking stick(no!-no!-no!-hiking stick, hiking stick!).

 But yesterday it was time to pump up my car tyres, a chore that definitely requires getting lowdown and dirty-

"I can't do it," I groaned to my swimming friend J,  just prior to maybe visiting the petrol station. "My knee will explode.  They'll rush me to hospital,  I'll end up an invalid  like Katy in that book "What Katy Did".  Katy grew ever so noble and generous having to stay in bed all those years but I won't be noble and generous, I'll turn into a grumpy old person and-"

"Ask the guy at the petrol station to help you," said my friend breaking in on my hysterical ramblings.

Never.   I was an independent woman.

Well, I got to the petrol station and parked alongside the air pump.  I tottered  out of my car and turned back again to reach inside for my hiking stick.  Every time I got down on my hands and knees to pump up a tyre, I would have to use the stick to get up again-

"Is there anything I can do?"

Huh?

The forecourt attendant had come over to see me. 

What?  He had ESP?

And this lovely guy pumped up my four tyres.  Heaven!!!

Thank you petrol station "Z" in Miramar.  Love you....... 

Spring has definitely Sprung

Hi there

I do so love colours and nature.  Today (Sunday, NZ time), I walked up Park Road in my suburb of Miramar.  On the corner of Byron Street was the most wonderful pink blossom display.  Then further along the same road, was a native Kowhai tree, positively bursting out in yellow.  The birds were singing, the sun was out, I'd got in 7 swims for October....

below:  kowhai tree outside "r.d." building (next to Park Road Post)

below:  Park Road Post Production.  The hub of Wellington's movie empire.

Pohutakawa tree. And tui birds

Hi there

Yesterday, I was walking in front of the Miramar Christian School  (across the road from Weta Cave) when I heard a bird warble that sounded like a tui, one of our native birds.  I looked up into the branches of a pohutakawa tree (our national tree) and, sure enough, there was a beautiful tui bird.  They are a dark shiny blue/black colour with a white tuft at the throat.  At a quick glance, they could be mistaken for a common and garden blackbird.  You don't often see or hear them in the city.

 My cup runneth over because not only was I looking up at a tui but the pohutakawa tree was in bloom. 

In bloom?  At the beginning of October?

Legend has it that if the tree flowers before Christmas then New Zealand is going to have a great summer.  In Wellington, we sort of do cartwheels if the pohutakawa tree flowers in early December.  And here it was flowering already!  I was thrilled.

Sorry, the sun was shining through the tree, it didn't make for a very good picture.  I went back today to look at the tree, and two tuis were there.

Waste Water in Miramar

Hi there

I was walking over the Awa Street hill to Worser Bay the other day, and I found an interesting drain.

An interesting drain??   I really do need to (in the immortal words of William Shatner/Captain Kirk) ... get a life.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Rqb4V9GxaBo

Now, the drain is in the road halfway up the hill.  So ... does the waste water snake up the hill, then down the hill, and into Worser Bay?   Or does it, indeed, gurgle down the hill, across the Miramar flatland straight into the sea at Miramar Wharf ... and  cross the waters to Hatiatai Beach where I swim?

Porirua folk, up the line, have been ordered by their council not to wash their cars in their driveways.  It has to be on lawn so as waste water from the cleaning products gets absorbed by grass.

This all makes me wonder, what exactly is travelling down the Awa Street drain?

**
I was so scared that I would be run over by a car when I stepped into the street to quickly snap the photo, I didn't realise my shadow was overlapping the drain.  Whoops ...

Miramar Murals and art

Hi there

I like looking at the art work that seems to be cropping up around the suburbs.  On my walks around Miramar, there are several that I love.  There are a few on fences but I adore the murals that are on the front of those big electrical box thingees. 

Here's the latest electrical-box-thingee mural.  It's still being painted, and is on Miramar's main street (on the way to Weta Workshop).

And here it is again, from another angle.  You can easily see the door in it:

Here's a dinosaur in front of Worser Bay School which is at the top of the hill that leads down to the bay.   This school, over the years, has taught the children of various celebrities living in Miramar:

This dog and bone mural is at the bottom of the Worser Bay hill:

Miramar Wanderings

Hi there

I was power-walking through Miramar last week and approached the goods entrance for Weta Workshop.  Standing in the gateway was a guy in a fluorescent vest with some sort of two-way radio in his hand.  We were probably about a metre or so apart.

He said into his radio, and looking right at me, "There's a big truck here now-"

"I hope you're not referring to me," I said.  "I know I've put on weight but ..."

As I walked away, he was apologising profusely, explaining that he wasn't talking about me; there was a truck coming up the road to the back of me.

It's so sad that people nowadays are so scared of being politically incorrect that they don't register a joke when they hear it.

above:  Weta Workshop goods entrance.  The building immediately behind is the Weta office block.  I haven't been in there for a few years but in their conference room they had their Oscars on display.
***

Today: I power-walked the same route this morning.  As I turned a corner away from Weta, I came upon something being filmed from across the road.   It's for tv apparently.

Stone Street Studios, Miramar

Hi there

I was rambling past the Stone Street Studios in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand today and it got me wondering when Peter Jackson was going to actually start "The Dam Busters".  I know a heck of a lot of back-room activity has gone on with it already.  I think the actual filming was due to start some time back but then, because of Hollywood machinations,  Jackson had to step in to direct "The Hobbit".

I was talking to a Weta Cave guy a few years' back and he said that Peter Jackson was waiting for the dam busters book to be re-edited .  Apparently, with the lift of a declaration of secrecy time limit rule, there is  now new information that can be incorporated into the book, followed by the movie.

Of course, all the Avatar stuff is being done, too.  And I see that director James Cameron has bought more land in the Wairarapa.  He and his family are staying there indefinitely.

Here's the Stone Street Studio.  You can see the green screen.  I took the photo today, looking into the sun.  Sorry it looks hazy.

I was also intrigued by the parking notices in Stone Street that are on the studio wall -

One notice says 'public parking at all times' with one half of the arrow going to the right.
The next notice - just about 15 parking spaces away as the tourist trudges in a straight line - has an arrow going to the left and says 'private parking only'.  So, who's actually allowed to park in those spaces between the arrows?   Private studio people?  The public?  A mix of both?  Obviously Orcs can park anywhere.

It's me who's first-time effort it was with the  red blobbing out in the pic above.  I'm sure the studio would have done it more elegantly.

PS:  J and I got in our second swim for July today at Hataitai Beach.

vampires in Wellington, New Zealand

Hi there

I was so impressed with the New Zealand vampire mockumentary "What we Do in The Shadows' that I thought I'd google vampires, see if there were any others living in Wellington.

There's an Amazon Kindle e-book with free computer sampling called "Kiwi Vampire".  The vamp in question actually does live in Wellington.  There are a lot of places to  recognise.  You can google 'Amazon Kindle Kiwi Vampire' to read the first few chapters of  the the book free on your computer.  The actual book is, I think, a dollar.  There's a free Kindle computer app if you want to get the whole book.



I went for  a lovely walk in the sun yesterday.  Halfway up the Maupuia hill (behind Miramar) I had to take my jacket off because it was so warm.  T-shirted walkers that I passed were grinning, full of the joys of life and happily shouting "hello" to strangers.  Fine weather does this to people.

Here are a couple of pictures that I took from the hill suburb of Maupuia,  looking down on Miramar.  If you 'hit' the top picture you can see more clearly over to the far right what looks like a huge water tank and a square block building behind it - this is Peter Jackson's film studio.

everybody has a headcold

Hi there

I'm tired of being sick.  I am now right-slap-bang in the middle of another headcold, my second one in three weeks.  Grrrhhhhh!!  I can't even expect to be spoiled for being ill because all my friends, my neighbours, strangers, have headcolds, too!   It seems there are no healthy folk left in the whole of New Zealand to look after the sick.   Curse you, winter!

J and I did manage to get in a swim, so that's officially one for June.  Goodness knows when we will get any more in as a duo.  Part of me thinks the swim was responsible for my second headcold because I was so freezing after the swim that I shivered for hours afterwards.   J has since got in one swim by herself, at my insistance.  Oh, I feel so ....down  (where's a tissue, my nose is runny again?).

I sent J an email on my new Kindle Fire.  It included the line, "I've come down with a sudden awful headcold".  But predictive text beat me to the last word and the sentence instead read:  "I've come down with a sudden awful grandchild"!  Later, this had J in hysterics.  She wondered how I'd suddenly acquired one.

Here's a pic of the main road in Miramar where I live.... Peter Jackson territory.

Bermuda Triangle off-shoot in Miramar?

Hi there

Okay, I don't have actual proof that a branch of The Bermuda Triangle is here in Miramar, Wellington, New Zealand, but there is so much circumstancial evidence that I'd say it was a pretty clear case.  Either The Bermuda Triangle or a temporary rift in the time and space continuum.

There are two things that I lose all the time:  pens and combs.  Oh, yes, naturally I lose socks, but socks are so high up the what-the-whole-world-loses chart that I just take the losing of them as natural phenomena.  Yesterday, I was determined to keep control of my socks prior to putting them in the washing machine.

I took two identical pair of socks from the laundry basket.  Black with thin white stripes, and only a month old.  I counted them:  4-four- four socks in total. 

When I went to hang my socks on the clothes line to dry I could only find:   1-one-one sock!   How did that happen?    I wrote a play once for the New Zealand School Journal entitled "Gremlin in the Computer".  I reckon when Fisher & Paykel sell us their washing machines they instal their very own sock-eating gremlin.  It's the only explanation.

Anyway, back to pens and combs.  Over the years I must have bought hundreds, thousands of pens and combs.  I lose them around the house all the time and have to run out and buy more.  Every six months or so when I give the house a good clean (make that a barely passable clean), I locate a dozen or so of each.  But within a few more weeks, all the pens and combs are gone and the cycle starts again.

****

Swimming at Hataitai Beach All Year Round:

My friend J and I got in our second swim for the month yesterday (our first was the day before).  Because of a set of circumstances over both our heads we haven't been able to get in our minimum four swims for the month of May at Hataitai Beach.  It isn't even true winter yet- it's late Autumn here in NZ -  and we are getting a bit biting-our-nails-worried.  Please, my five readers, cross your fingers and toes that we can get our allocated number of dips in the water for this month, otherwise the whole year's swimming allocation ahead could be ruined.  I figured, that the winter months of June, July, and August would be the challenge.  I just wish I hadn't caught The Black Death earlier in the month because it laid me up for a time.

Getting lost

Hi there

As my five readers may remember, I have a friend called Lorraine (no, you're not confused;  my friend has the same name as me).  Lorraine is the 'mother' to Coco, my little Wednesday dog.

Earlier this week, I was invited to Lorraine's new place for lunch.  Lorraine's house is in Seatoun Heights.  It looks down over Worser Bay.

Lorraine and I live no more than 2 kms apart, but it still took me 55 minutes to get from my place to hers.  Goodness, I could have got to Levin, up the line, in the time it took me to drive over the hill.  I got completely lost.

I am so ashamed.  And embarrassed.

I finally arrived at Lorraine's in tears, collapsing on the shoulder of - wait for it! - yet another Lorraine, and this is the trouble when all your friends and yourself are born in the same decade.  Mothers-to-be hear this well -  never give a popular name of the time to your child!

  I was hot, sweaty-wet, emotional, and stressed out.  I'm telling you all, those winding, curvy streets on Seatoun Heights hill, with up to three signs on a single signpost and most of them pointing in the same direction ..... stink!

I'd love to say that it wasn't me, but - and here's a secret - it is me.  Last week, I was supposed to pick up a friend from her house.   I was coming from Porirua and had no idea how to get to her from there, so I put the address into my satellite navigation thingamebob. 

As I was approaching Wellington, I dropped the device on the floor.  It seemed to work again so I followed directions.  I went three times around the suburb of Brooklyn in a big circle, then that annoying lady in the SatNav told me to go through the Hataitai Tunnel.  It was only then that I realised she was sending me home.  In the end, I looked at a paper map, and only got lost twice following that.  I think my friend read "Gone with the Wind" from start to finish, whilst she was waiting for me to arrive.

Here's a pic that I took in Lorraine's house, of Coco, my Wednesday dog. 

I

Miramar filmdom.

Hi there

I was looking at some old photos and thought you might like to see the following. I was wandering around the Miramar area several years ago, and, outside a panel-beaters, I chanced upon a host of vintage cars. On second look, the vehicles didn't look quite vintage to me. They looked as if they'd been built and painted in a slapdash way. Turned out they were vehicles from the Peter Jackson movie "King Kong". I went back over several days to check on progress. I guess I can now show the pictures.

And during all the "Lord of the Rings"/King Kong business, there was a boat parked in the Stone Street Studios yard. I think you can probably see the name on the aft if you click on the picture.

Below is a rowboat used in "King Kong". I got told off for taking photo.  I just chanced upon the activity as I was walking along Stone Street where the studios are.