Am I coming back?
Nelson
I arrived on Saturday morning and caught a shuttle to my hostel. The weather was overcast with a slight northerly and I was worried that my weekend in the sunshine capital of New Zealand wasn't going to meet my expectations but thankfully the sun made an appearance later in the morning and it stayed lovely and warm for the rest of the day. I spent most of Saturday walking around town. Went to visit the goldsmith that designed and made the rings for the LOTR but they were closed. Found some put-of-print poetry books in two second-hand bookstores.
The Flying Fives were held at the State Cinema from 6pm. My film was well-received but sadly I didn't take home an award. After the screening I got Japanese takeaways and went back to the hostel where I ate and had an early night as I hardly slept the night before. My Mum called and woke me at 11:30pm and was shocked to hear I'd been in bed so early.
Woke up early to check out on Sunday morning and had a big breakfast and one of the local bar/cafes. Very tasty. I killed some time before getting picked up by Bay Tours for my wine tour at 12:25. There were ten of us on the tour: two German girls, an English woman, and the rest were Americans, four of whom had been studying in Hamilton for the last three months. I had an interesting conversation with them about kiwi slang and the 'indefinite metaphor', in particular 'sweet as' and 'keen as'. We visited four vineyards over five hours; just a fancy pub crawl when you think about it. The two that stood out for me were Te Mania/Richmond and Brightwater so I'll be keeping a look out for their wines the next time I'm in a bottle store. The guide said that we'd be drinking the equivalent of a bottle of wine each during the day. As you can tell from the following photo I was warmly toasted from the alcohol:
Had a quick dinner at a cafe before my flight where Reb Fountain and her band were sitting up for a gig. I looked up and who should be setting up his keyboard but an old schoolmate of mine with whom I used to sing in choir. Random! We had a quick catch-up before I had to head back to the hostel to be picked up by my shuttle. The flight home was a little challenging thanks to the afternoon's alcohol intake.
And that was my weekend.
I arrived on Saturday morning and caught a shuttle to my hostel. The weather was overcast with a slight northerly and I was worried that my weekend in the sunshine capital of New Zealand wasn't going to meet my expectations but thankfully the sun made an appearance later in the morning and it stayed lovely and warm for the rest of the day. I spent most of Saturday walking around town. Went to visit the goldsmith that designed and made the rings for the LOTR but they were closed. Found some put-of-print poetry books in two second-hand bookstores.
The Flying Fives were held at the State Cinema from 6pm. My film was well-received but sadly I didn't take home an award. After the screening I got Japanese takeaways and went back to the hostel where I ate and had an early night as I hardly slept the night before. My Mum called and woke me at 11:30pm and was shocked to hear I'd been in bed so early.
Woke up early to check out on Sunday morning and had a big breakfast and one of the local bar/cafes. Very tasty. I killed some time before getting picked up by Bay Tours for my wine tour at 12:25. There were ten of us on the tour: two German girls, an English woman, and the rest were Americans, four of whom had been studying in Hamilton for the last three months. I had an interesting conversation with them about kiwi slang and the 'indefinite metaphor', in particular 'sweet as' and 'keen as'. We visited four vineyards over five hours; just a fancy pub crawl when you think about it. The two that stood out for me were Te Mania/Richmond and Brightwater so I'll be keeping a look out for their wines the next time I'm in a bottle store. The guide said that we'd be drinking the equivalent of a bottle of wine each during the day. As you can tell from the following photo I was warmly toasted from the alcohol:
Had a quick dinner at a cafe before my flight where Reb Fountain and her band were sitting up for a gig. I looked up and who should be setting up his keyboard but an old schoolmate of mine with whom I used to sing in choir. Random! We had a quick catch-up before I had to head back to the hostel to be picked up by my shuttle. The flight home was a little challenging thanks to the afternoon's alcohol intake.
And that was my weekend.