20 May 2013 by Kim

Queenstown, New Zealand

What a beautiful part of the country!

It’s unusual flying into Queenstown for the first time. Growing up I constantly saw images of our epic landscapes; snow capped mountains with streams running between them and not a person in sight. Exposure to these images increased in the years following New Zealand’s transformation into Middle Earth. But now, making the sharp right turn toward Queenstown’s airport, those images are very real and present.
So real I heard that pilots flying into Queenstown have to be good enough to ignore warnings coming from the safety systems telling them they’re going to crash into a mountain. (Nervous collar pull.)

I always expected that these sorts of landscapes could only be accessed with a lot of money, a helicopter ride, or a two day trek in the snow. Not the mere act of standing on solid ground with Lake Wakatipu on one side and Queenstown’s low profile city centre on the other side.

A large number of Queenstown’s population is transient, travelers there for a few months, a few weeks, a few days. It’s easy to become a local, just stay put for a couple of years. I wonder if everyone is so nice because they know they’ll be gone soon…or you’ll be gone soon.

We ate some incredible food in our four days. The coffee wasn’t half bad either.
If you can afford it then Amisfield Winery is well worth the visit. We loved Kappa for more affordable Japanese food. I was impressed with the coffee I tried at Vudu in Queenstown, Espresso Love & Cafe Mondo in Arrowtown, and Kai Whakapai in Wanaka.
All of the rumours about Fergburger (and Fergbaker) are true: huge cheap delicious burgers and fast friendly service. And if you’re a sweet tooth like me go try some of the many fudge varieties at one of the Remarkable Sweet Shops.

See all of my Queenstown, Arrowtown, and Cromwell photos on Flickr.

In the end it all comes back to the view. Wander around the gardens at the lake (try not to get hit by frisbees on the frolf course), take a trip up the Skyline gondola, and if you’re as lucky as I am get your friends to take you over the Crown Range and eventually on to Cromwell for a classic Southland Cheese Roll next to Lake Dunstan.

Amisfield Winery: We tasted some wines at their cellar door and then sat in the sun to share a charcuterie board with wild rabbit rillette & apricots, dried venison sausage, chicken liver mousse with pistachio crust, pickled vegetables, and sourdough; huge slices of pork belly with barley and blood orange; and a spiced kumara tart with caramel walnuts and vanilla ice cream for dessert. I loved the noble sauvignon blanc so much I had to bring a bottle home with me.
We got out just in time to cross the road and catch the bus into Arrowtown.

Amisfield Winery food

Our first night in town was a bit cold, but still fine enough to eat our burgers down by the lake. For the most part though we were totally over prepared, the sun shone and we found ourselves having to strip off coats and thermal layers.

Queenstown Gardens and Lake Wakatipu

Skyline Gondola

Lake Wanaka

Arrowtown and the Millenium Walk

See more of my Queenstown, Arrowtown, and Cromwell photos on Flickr.

25 November 2011 by Kim

11.50 pm

It’s illegal to try and persuade someone to vote for a particular party on election day. Or something?

But it’s not quite election day.

Don’t forget to vote tomorrow. Vote Green. Vote Labour. Vote for people that care for more than themselves.

What I was wearing to vote 3 years ago.

9 November 2011 by Kim

26 in 26: Visit Mum [by train]

On Saturday I took my very first trip on the Overlander, the train that runs from Wellington to Auckland. Mum is in Hamilton so our journey wasn’t quite as far as Auckland, but still a good 10 hours.

Thankfully I’d had a bit of train practice in Asia. In Asia we bought cheap tickets and ended up with a) seats with no leg room, b) hard sleepers, which are planks of wood with thin covers and bed bugs, or c) plastic chairs. There was none of that in the Overlander. Lots of leg room, some bigger couches in a lounge at the back of the coach and clean enough toilets. Though in typical train fashion the door to the toilet was extremely awkward to get through I’m not sure that anyone much bigger than me would have been able to manage it.

Our carriage did come with the requisite “conspiracy theorists” though. Grow From Here on twitter was kind enough to explain to me how odd people are assigned on public transport: “they are allocated by the travel people – sometimes you get screaming kid instead- or paper rustling snarler”. Pleased to say I only had to deal with a guy explaining to me how an Egyptian prince and a Jewish Princess were married way back to broke a deal between feuding families (etc etc on and off for 10 hours). Cool story bro.

But thankfully no screaming children.

Views from the North Island to the South Island

Waiting for 7am to check in // My favourite stretch of highway with views to Kapiti // You can see the South Island in good weather, that faint shape in the distance // Ohakune for a pie and coffee break (shit coffee good pie) // Art in Ohakune // Crossing one of the tall viaducts // The windows were annoyingly reflective // What NZ does well – farms

15 August 2011 by Kim

But apparently it does now

15 August 2011 by Kim

It’s not supposed to snow in Wellington!

But there’s no such thing as climate change right?

1 March 2011 by Kim

Keep Calm and Carry On

12.51pm NZ time marks a week since another destructive earthquake ripped through Christchurch. Although it measured only 6.3 compared to the 7.1 September 4 quake, it was centered much closer to the city, much shallower, and at a much higher acceleration.

154 is the official death toll at this moment. 50 people are still listed as missing. Hundreds of homes have been red stickered – these will most likely need demolishing. And many more have been yellow stickered – unihabitable until they can be looked at further. It’s been reported that a third of the city may need to be demolished.

Walking around Wellington now I can’t help but wonder which of the buildings around me would crumble. It is, after all, Wellington that has been expecting the “big one” for years. The big one that not many took seriously until a week ago. I think we’re all a bit worried now. Worried for ourselves, sure, but mostly worried for our Christchurch friends. Hoping they’ll get through ok, that the pain of lost lives and livelihoods won’t be too much to bear.

The way New Zealand has banded together is heartening though. I feel more patriotic than ever before.

If you would like to donate money to help Christchurch I recommend the Red Cross.

28 October 2009 by Kim

Afternoon Raj

While you could call me biased – I know a few of these guys personally and have been a big fan since I first heard them – there’s really no need to doubt my word though.

Afternoon Raj is a five piece band that mixes prog rock with reggae, dub, and ska influences. I love to skank so I have a huge amount of fun dancing to these guys! The Raj’s ringleader James Mason draws the crowd in with a huge smile and a genuine love for what he’s doing. Bede, Matt, Andrej, and Nick impress with guitar solos and great beats.

The crowd grows every time I see them play and more than a handful of us have learnt the words to their older songs. They know it and use it to their advantage! Their show on Saturday, at Wellington’s cool kid venue Mighty Mighty, kicked off with number one crowd favourite Lickity Split, a song that creeps up and kind of explodes. After a few originals guitarist Bede Eagle stole the mic to sing ~~a cover~~ (turns out it was another original!), I’m not sure what song it was but Brandon Boyd (of Incubus fame) could easily have been the one singing it. And then the short set concluded with a few newer originals.

Quite frankly I was relieved when the set finished, I was about to pass out from heat exhaustion. In a matter of 30 minutes I managed to go from tipsy and excited for the music, to AHH WOoo *dance* *dance*, to omg I think I’m going to drown in my own sweat, to I need fresh air and a chair or I’m going to throw up. It was awesome.

Afternoon Raj is the sound of Hawkes Bay in the big city, it’s the sound of summer, and it’s for dub and rock fans alike. These boys may work in offices by day but they’re drunk musical hippies at heart, singing at concerts bringing awareness to global warming and generally trying to save the world.
They’re yet to record an album, an album I’m looking forward to having on repeat, and I’m nervous about how they’ll capture their perfect live sound. They’re smart guys though, I’m sure they’ll figure it out.

Check out Afternoon Raj on Facebook and MySpace. (Don’t take the recordings on MySpace as an indicator of their talent, just an indicator of the style.)

Hear them in real life on the 6th of November at Watusi for a gig I am sadly going to be out of town for. :[

Photo credits to James Schollum

24 September 2009 by Kim

What Makes a Trend?

I raised this question yesterday on Twitter because I don’t have the answer. Whether that’s because I’m clueless when it comes to defining fashion or because it can’t be defined is unknown to me. No one else seemed to know either.

At 4.5 million people New Zealand doesn’t have a big enough market to give shoppers a lot of choice. Unless you know how to make or customise your clothes you’re mostly at the mercy of the chain stores. In New Zealand we’re also in the wrong hemisphere to get fashions first hand.

Six months after new season fashion heads into shops in America -already watered down versions of catwalk fashions, created in every conceivable colour and quality- we finally get the left overs. I’ve never worked in retail so I don’t know how the buying process works. But I imagine that after a few months of celebrities and high school kids picking what’s hot for the season that’s what we get stuck with. We don’t get the multitude of variations here. Consumers don’t get to decide what suits them, they don’t get to choose the shirt with one ruffle over the shirt with two. We usually get one choice. A choice that is sold in one, sometimes two colours, and then the buttons are changed and the same top is sold in the shop next door.

The point of this rant is this: This seasons clothing trends are determined by the people buying for shops. Most people can only afford chain store clothing, and therefore whatever is in the chain store is what they’ll wear.

What about trends that are so simple you don’t need to go anywhere near a mall to participate.

Apparently a simple ribbon tied around a wrist is going to be the next trend. It’s trickling along and could go either way. What most of you should know is that people have been doing this for years! It’s so simple, wrap yourself up like a gift to the world and you’ve got jewellery for less than 20cents. So why is it the next trend?

Does a picture of Dakota Fanning wearing a ribbon launch a thousand girls into their grandmothers haberdashery drawers? Does it take two celebrities? Does it take a fashion blogger or two sporting the look for women to see how pretty a ribbon is? I’d like to believe that people don’t follow just because something’s announced as the next big thing, but ugly It bags and 80s comebacks are trying to prove me wrong.

Maybe you’ve got the answer. What do you think starts a trend?

12 August 2009 by Kim

WordCamp NZ – 8th and 9th of August 2009

After spending the weekend at the Mt Victoria Bowling Club attending the first New Zealand WordCamp I feel a bit anxious about all the things I could be doing to this site that I haven’t done yet. I should have a store! I should have better menus! I should be pitching to the media! But I’m a terribly lazy girl and I probably wont do anything to improve until I feel like it’s worth my while.

Being away from my computer for two days while surrounded by geeks and technology gave me some withdrawals and I don’t know how to feel about them. I always consider myself a bit of a fraud when I claim to be a geek, I don’t know how to program or put a computer together, I just like the internet a lot and can follow instructions. If this weekend was anything to go by I’ve got nothing to be ashamed about, sure there were plenty of uber geeks running businesses dealing primarily with code but there were many like me as well. I felt welcome and comfortable.

I went in to WordCamp unsure how much I would get out of it. I was keen to hear more about the WP e-commerce plugin, and listening to Matt Mullenweg (one of the founders of WordPress) talk was bound to be good, but apart from that I had no expectations. I got more than I could have hoped for. For a taste of WordCamp I suggest you watch Matt’s Q&A session where he talks about the future of WordPress, his thoughts on opensource, and how he got to where he is now. It’s great, there is a reference to bunnies on crack.

Hearing everyone speak in such an organised yet informal setting confirmed I was in the right place. Not once did I feel like an unworthy imposter, almost all of the talks were relevant and interesting, with the exception of WordPress for iPhone and one or two others purely because I’m not interested in hardware and I don’t have an iPhone. Talks on keeping out of trouble with the law, being a media darling, and doing business were interesting to me as a blogger and business owner (it sounds so fancy saying I’m a business owner, I feel like a fraud again!).

The bonus came when my name was drawn out of a bag by Matt to win a 250Gb shock resistant hard drive. It came with NTI shadow backup software so I can backup my files automatically! Now I can be quite secure in the knowledge my photos and music are backed up in approximately 4 hard drives, all of them in the same room.
The best thing is that it doesn’t need an external power source. The Boy and I recently bought a one terabyte HD deciding to choose quantity over quality we got one that needs an external power source. I’m very stoked by this win. Look how tiny it is!

The two days were filled with geeky learning, sheep jokes, sunny weather, and free (sponsored) coffee (hot chocolates for me and Chickie Little). I would attend again in a heartbeat. And I encourage anyone trying to decide on a platform for their site to choose WordPress. Both the .com and .org options are fabulous and can handle amazing sites of all kinds, it’s not just a blogging tool.

If you get a chance to attend a WordCamp I suggest you do it. And for those of you still on blogger, make the move already!

5 August 2009 by Kim

21 Grams

Before I start I want you to know that if this site does ever attract sponsors I will never endorse a product or brand I have no interest in. OK so now you’re wondering what the fuck I’m on about…

Staying up late on a Friday night twittering like a true anti-socialite with a preggo for a best friend I saw 21 Grams tweet to ask who likes free stuff and why you deserve to win free stuff. With the promise of blog love I was told I was ahead of the rest, but the “competition” turned into a who can sign up to our website and email me the fastest kind of affair. I didn’t win, but my promise of blog love endeared me enough that Andrew decided to send me a free tee anyway! Woohoo.

So now I’m living up to my end of the bargain writing this while sitting in a comfy grey tee with 20 ONE G emblazoned on the front. It’s currently the only girls t shirt available, but the sizes run true and are long enough for my tallish frame, two things I’m always concerned about when ordering tees online.

I can’t wait till summer so The Boy can take photos of me in real light!

Pretty stoked that my first freebie as a result of the blog is a t shirt from a NZ label!

21Grams is a urban streetwear label based in New Zealand, this interesting tidbit is the story behind their name.

In 1907 a Doctor in Massachusetts conducted a number of experiments on dying patients to determine the weight of the human soul. The Doctor found that the patients lost small amounts of weight in the three hours leading up to their death as they lost moisture. At the exact point of their death the patients lost 21 grams, giving the human soul the weight of 21 grams.

Whisky and Wry

Tag Archives: New Zealand