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Well, this weekend for VNTRbirds was busy, eventful and completely unplanned. Taking the weekend off of snowboarding, TUB replaced it with some more friends from Auckland journeying down to Wellington, Lauren and Katie. Finishing up dinner and waiting for the girls’ plane to come in, there was that infamous knock on the door. Kelley and Jaime left their dirty dishes soaking in the sink and went to investigate; once again the Auckland boys had come down to surprise TEAM WELLY! Ian and Max (with Quentin arriving the next day) were ready to continue the adventures from last visit right then and there. Naturally, these birds were down and ready for anything!
The girls came in a few minutes later and the TEAN crew was reunited. This called for a late night of exploring and it was off to the Botanic Gardens. In the front entrance of the Botanic Gardens there is a large tree with branches reaching up, out and across in a form of a spiral latter. This tree has been dubbed the ‘Trippy Tree’ by the New Zealanders.
Running up and into the tree, everyone climbed to the very top and rested on the sturdy branches, laying back and enjoying the stars. Well, everyone but Kelley and Jaime who were closer to the bottom wondering how everyone spidered up to the top so quickly in the dark. Eventually making it all the way up, the other 7 people were already making their way down to move on, so TUB jumped out of the tree and went to run around the deserted 25 acres of beauty.
The BG has a lot to see, hear and smell. In the daylight one would be entranced by the bizarre calls of the Tui bird, the smells of Lady Rosewood’s Garden or checking out what time it was by being a human sundial. Though, when it’s dark, there was only one destination on the birds’ minds: playground!
NZ playgrounds > USA playgrounds.
With rope swings, zip lines and rotating seesaws, what else could anyone ask for? This was a real treat for TUB also, because they have been eyeing up the play set for a week now, but it is always crawling with children and their parents. After an exhausting hour or so TUB decided it was there time to crash and struggled up all the hills and stairs to their welcoming flat.
The next day, VNTRbirds had to wake up bright and early for their Maori Culture class. The girls filmed a bit walking to class to show a little of the campus, but almost went to the wrong class room in the mean time. Doodling through the 50minute lecture, the birds went home to their nest and waited for their next invitation. Kelley walked down Cuba Street and Courtney Place with the three boys checking out outdoors sports and hiking stores, in which no one purchased anything. Jaime on the other hand was accompanied by a friend to the BG for the third day in a row, seeing parts of the Gardens she hadn’t yet encountered; a duck and koi pond are just a few. Putting fingertips on the surface of the pond, invited the fish to nibble, showing off their brilliantly vibrant colors.
Meeting up later in the afternoon, TUB caught each other up on their activities and started getting ready to go out on the town! San Francisco Bath House was the first stop on the imagined list. SFBH is a bar on Cuba Street that is always featuring a new band each night! On Friday, VNTRbirds were listening to a great, fun and upbeat ragtime band. The brass horns, accompanied by a clarinet and piano, along with some light percussion and guitar sent everyone into a swinging frenzy. Dancing with anyone around (TUB’s favorite being Quentin who is a dance major), the Bath House rocked through the night.
Moving on to Boogey Wonderland, the technicolor dance floor, accenting the five disco balls hanging from the ceiling seemed to be exactly what the TEAN crew was looking for. Dancing around to Queen’s “Don’t Stop Me Now”, Kenny Loggin’s “Footloose”, and melting into more and more of the classics. It was during the dancing when VNTRbirds & company discovered the back door that led to Alice’s.
Alice’s is a very small bar with only two tables, but the decor is all too familiar. About two dozen mirrors of various shapes and sizes are hung around the walls, along with plenty of Alice in Wonderland pictures from the Lewis Carroll’s original story. Here the bartender mixes your cocktails in a teapot and you celebrate your unbirthday by drinking out of teacups. The casual sipping from the white ceramic cups signaled that it was time to head back up the hill of Fairlie Terrace, but it didn’t happen immediately.
Kelley started walking home with Quentin and Ian running along the sideways and chatting with random passerbys. Once the three of them got to the intersection of Courtney Place and Cuba Street, they were staring straight up at 40m high towers of the BUNGY EXTREME. Now Kelley has passed this attraction many times here in Wellington and has only secretly wished to go on it, but with the $40 fee it seemed unnecessary. Though, when the words “I want to pay for all of us” spilled out of Quentin’s mouth, everyone was game. The bungy extreme is a ride where three people are strapped into seats of a round cage. The starter counts down from 3..2..1 and the riders are catapulted 55m (180 ft) into the air at 160 km/h (100mph). The pressures forced a scream followed by laughter from Kelley and the bungy experience after the initial launch left the three weightless.
While all of this was going on, Jaime was trying to catch up to Kelley, but soon they met up again to dance around the local rugby field.
Sleeping in until 2p.m. is a rare occurance for VNTRbirds, but the girls welcomed it gratefully. Lounging around in their pajamas for most of the day and discussing Spring Break plans, the girls finally had a bird bath, dressed and went out to rent movies and grab ingredients to bake, forgetting that they had tickets to see a show later on that evening. Receiving a text from Megan at 6:15 saying ‘meet up at Sumi’s at 7pm’ started a fire under the girls’ feet. They ran up to the New World, rapidly bought their groceries, snagged their memberships and movies at the AroRental and whipped into the flat to fancy themselves up over a meal of grilled cheese with spinach and soup.
Arriving at the St. James Theater, TUB was expecting a small venue, but was far from reality. This theater looked good enough for royalty, with gold and maroon walls, curtains and decorations, a classy bar with all types of wine and a large theater where viewing was good from all angles. SOAP is an acrobatic show that one would see in Vegas. It is thrilling, physically amazing, sexy and funny. All of their scenes and talents were performed in bathtubs along with a trapeze swing and other circus props. Showing their strength by holding unique and bizarre positions, adding in the drama of a wet surface, Kelley and Jaime were in awe the entire show and the 2 hours was up long before they wanted it to end.
New Zealand’s rugby team the All Blacks also happened to be playing South Africa that night while TUB was tucked inside the theater. So, when the girls arrived back out on the street, everyone was pouring in and out of the bars in celebration of the victory. VNTRbirds had to join in on the excitement and finished their night off chatting about SOAP while dancing at JJ Murphey’s and playing some pool at Hotel Bristol.
Finally Sunday came along, which means one thing to the birdies: Sunday Market. Having missed the past two weekend because of snowboarding, Jaime and Kelley stopped at the ATM to grab some cash and trekked down the hill to the produce market on Vivian Street. This time Kelley conquered the vegetables, checking out potatoes, cucumbers, peppers and more while Jaime snagged bananas, a pineapple and mandarin oranges.
Organizing the cupboard and fridge turned into pulling out all of the ingredients needed for baking. Kelley started whipping together flour, sugar and cinnamon starring at her computer with the recipe for ‘Cappuccino Muffins’ on the screen. These muffins ended up being a Cappuccino cake since muffin tins do not exist in TUB’s flat.
The girls were briefly interrupted by ‘teatime’ where a bunch of neighboring flats came over with baked goods to enjoy along with different types of tea. Neither Jaime or Kelley minded the break, because they got to enjoy the pastries without digging into their own. Soon they were back in action rolling up Oatmeal cookies and munching on some of the dough.
Ian came and crashed on Thumbs Up Bird’s couch his final night in Wellington. This called for something fun, but without going out into town. Jaime snagged her camera and tripod and met Kelley and Ian on the balcony with flashlights in hand. Spending the next few hours drawing, trying to write backwards, and stifling laughter, they came out with some great shots (and some not so great).
Now, being Monday, TUB is back to the books and the classroom saying goodbye to the night life. Well, until Wednesday, when the NZ weekend starts!
-VNTRbirds 