Wellington - Part 1

It's been a while since I've updated the blog, a little over 3 months in fact. As I explained in the last post, my travels came to a bit of a halt in Wellington where I decided to stop and save up money before continuing on. In those 3 months I reached my goal of about $1500+NZ saved, but more importantly, I became more immersed in the Kiwi culture than ever before as I worked with, and became close friends with a handful of wonderful Wellitonians.

The whole point of stopping in Wellington was to make money. So, what did I do? I specialized as a full time Aquatic Ceramics Engineer. Those who fail to appreciate the intracacies and complexities of the postition might also know it as 'Dish Washing'. Alright, despite my best efforts, I don't think it's possible to portray kitchen hand work as glamorous or exciting. But, because of the raunchy, over the top humor everyone at Capitol shared, I actually enjoyed being in the kitchen most days.

My day to day life in the kitchen was filled with characters like 18 year old Tim. He was a constant source of laughter. Sometimes he would quote a great line from 'Family Guy' or 'Anchor Man', but more often he would unintentionally make you laugh by doing something stupid(like dropping a liter of the expensive orange zest), or getting caught in a rediculous lie (like saying "No, I didn't eat any of the chocolate!" when he clearly had it melted all over his teeth and lips). One day, as he was upstairs using the rotating blade when I heard a thump downstairs behind me. "Hey Scott, can you hand me that thing" he mumbled, pointing somewhere near the rubbish bin, obviously trying to be discreet about what he was saying so that the other chef, Amy, wouldn't hear him. "What thing, Tim? There's like 20 dishes, a bunch of boxes and other junk down here, what is it that you want?", I responded. "Uh, just that thing, it's right behind the rubbish bin," he said, still not stating what it was that he dropped. But I took a look anyways, and started cracking up to find an entire raw lamb rump sitting on the filthy floor behind the rubbish bin. I knew he'd get in trouble for it, but after dropping this expensive piece of meat and then being too lazy to pick it up on his own I couldn't resist the chance of making the situation more awkward. So I said plenty loud enough for Amy to hear, "Ohh, this lambs rump resting on the floor, is this what you wanted me to hand to you Tim?". Before he could respond, Amy was on him, "Seriously Tim, how did that meat even manage to get there? That's got to be at least 10 meters and down a flight of stairs from where you are. Are you just throwing the product now?"

Some other highlights in the kitchen would include 20 year old half Kiwi, half American, Ryan's sex stories. It was a common sight to see him demonstating one of his favorite positions, like 'The Spiderman' on the kitchen floor in his chef uniform. Or there were the shocking words out of the mouth of 33 year old Australian lesbian, Carla. It was common place to hear her commenting on the female clientelle, saying things like "I'd love to stick my face in those jugs and just shake my head like this" (then shaking her head vigorously). Or walking in from the bathroom, "Ouch, my poo poo felt like acid", and one time giving me an innocent smile before saying "You're so cute, if I weren't a lesbian I would have given you a blowjob by now." Then there was the hilarity of seeing mild mannered 32 year old Kiwi chef, Amy, respond to Carla's "I can't wait to fuck my girlfriend when I get back to Aus," with a sweet, almost motherly, "Oh, that's nice." Then there was head chef and part owner of Capitol, Tom, with his corny jokes and constant sexual innuendos. You might find him responding to someone saying "It's hot in here", with an "Oh, I'm sorry, I can step out of room if you like." Or simply throwing in Ned Flander-esque "diddly-oo's" at the end of his sentences. I'm convinced he would make a sensational host for some sort of childrens programming.

Without Phil the van, I had to find a place to live. For the first 2 weeks while I was in Wellington, I stayed in 'Downtown Backpackers'. I had a bunk bed in a 20 person room, the largest dorm room I've stayed in yet. The building, one of the oldest in the city (I believe built in the 20's), was originally a high end hotel in its hay-day. It really felt like stepping back in time as all the architecture and much of the paint is the same as the original. During these first couple weeks I had no money as I was getting few hours at the restaurant, and still waiting for the weeks pay to take effect. At my low point, I was negative $200US in my American account, negative $20 in my Kiwi account, and the hostel was completely booked for a night, forcing me to sneak a restless night of sleep on a couch in the TV / Lounge room before working a double shift the following day.

But, from there, living conditions could only improve. One day after work, Tom proposed renting out the lower half of his newly purchased home to me for a discounted rate while he fixed the place up. After shopping around a bit, I decided that Tom's offer of a 1 bedroom flat with a private kitchen, living room and bath couldn't be beat for $110NZ a week. On top of that, it was located in the highly sought after community of Hataitai and within easy walking distance of the city center and work. Originally, my friend Steve (18, Half Kiwi, half Canadian that grew up in Hong Kong), whom I met in the hostel moved in with me to cut costs and keep some company. Our set up was pretty basic, almost primal. A couple blow up mattresses, a rocking chair, and a cable-less TV on the floor comprised our furniture. However, neither of us really cared that much since it was just a place to sleep and watch movies on the laptop. With the rest of our time off, we were swimming down at the beach or cruising the waterfront strip in the last days of the southern hemisphere's summer.

While Auckland and Christchurch might have bigger party scenes than Wellington, the fact that the entire party-going population of Wellington is basically condensed to one street makes it seem as lively as Vegas on a Friday night. "Getting on the piss", or as we more simply know it, "drinking" is a staple to the Kiwi weekend life. Right up there with Fish and Chips takeaways. While I didn't partake every weekend, (in order to save money, and sometimes I simply had to work the next morning) there are plenty of great nights to look back on.

The Cuba Street festival might be one of my favorites. This festival only takes place once every 2 years and goes on over the course of 2 days. On the final evening of the festival I went out with Olivia, a waitress from work, as well as her sister and a couple of their friends. During the festival, all of Courtney Place (that single street I mentioned earlier) was closed down to accomodate the swarms of people and multiple live stages that were erected in the place of traffic and parked cars. In that single night, we participated in a Guinness Book of World Records attempt at the 'largest organized dance routine', drank free all night at a gin and tonic promotional booth in the middle of the street, watched a few of the top live bands of New Zealand, checked out a parade including bumping music, massive floats, and nude people in full body paint, and finally some well proportioned chick standing on the edge of a second story balcony as she danced and stripped to nothing but a pair of high heels.

Part 2 to come soon...