Travel Report: Wellington

It’s been pretty busy on my end: Had my trip, but as soon as I got back to Japan, I had to start getting ready for the first few weeks of my teaching semester (which I am knee-deep in as we speak!). But let me share a bit of my time in New Zealand this past summer as I take a break from work.

Main Story: New Zealand

I visited New Zealand last year, and that’s when Halee and I did the touring: Rotorua, Wellington, Queenstown, Piopiotahi, Auckland, and Hobbiton. We made notes on what we liked, where we’d want to spend more time in the future, and treats unique to the islands. We both agreed that Wellington was where it’s at, so when we had time and money to go back, we knew the capital was where we’d be staying.

A bit of travel philosophy: I like to spend time in places and live there as much as I can during a vacation. I’m not a huge fan of 1-2 day trips where I skim the surface. I’d much prefer to stay a couple of weeks, make some of my own meals, and walks the streets many times to learn a bit more about a place. Can’t always due that, what with time and money always a scarce resources, but that’s the general vibe I like to go with when traveling.

We spent three weeks in Wellington, staying in an apartment hotel in the CBD of Wellington. We would go out for different meals, go on a copious number of walks in the city and along the harbor, and try to visit as many trivia nights as we could in the local bars. Our favorite was the trivia night at Choice Brothers on Ghuznee street. The teams were good, the host was great, and the venue was just lovely.

Halee found some activities for us to do as well: We saw two plays while there, one being the musical Urine Town as performed by the Victoria University of Wellington theater department, the other being a play by a local theater about social unrest in Wellington as seen through a community. Both were loads of fun— I had seen Urinetown put on by the theater department at my own university, University of Tampa, nearly 18 years ago— and gave us a good excuse to get a cool blast of the nighttime air.

The activity that stuck with me the most, however, was the Maori weaving, Raranga, that we did. It was in a small community center building attached to the entrance of a smaller national park. It was shining like the sun had its widest grin on, with a small pleasant breeze from the peaks of the mountains. We used harakeke, a type of flax indigenous to New Zealand, and did all weaving by hand. A nice older Maori gentleman helped lead the group, with a couple of white European women assisting. We started with a bit of a prayer for thanks and closed with a similar chant: our instructor stressed the importance of keeping the ceremony as part of the practice for the craft to truly be living.

Halee and I ended up making bouquets of flowers, standard weaving for beginners. We made roses, poppies, and braided ropes from the harakeke. We first learned how to cut it into workable strips, then soften it using the sharp edge of scissors, and then how to weave the patterns and shapes. The smell of the fresh flax was lovely: It smelled like an old cottage where you put beautiful flowers and plants to dry. We kept our bouquets, even though it is tradition to give away your first weaving (our instructor said it was OK if we chose to keep it, since we came from such a far away place).

Now, they have faded from the luscious greens and yellows to more subdued off-whites and browns, the drying process firming them into shape. It’s one of those memories I’ll keep with me and smile at so long as we have those bouquets. I’m so thankful that we are fortunate enough to travel and participate in such activities when we do.

Good Thing: Goose-Neck Kettle

Halee bought me a goose-neck kettle a while ago, but it’s taken me a while to muster up the courage to unplug my old, cheap, hot-pink kettle and give this new one a go. The new one has lots of fancy bells and whistles: You can set the temperature of the kettle to get the water at just the right temperature for optimal hot drinks.

For the nerds out there, the temperature you extract flavor from tea and coffee can alter the flavor profile, drawing out specific flavors when you use a lower temperature versus a higher temperature. The higher the temperature, the more bitter compounds you’ll pull out of your beans. This is why dumb kettles and boiling water can make coffee bitter: 212 degree Fahrenheit (100 Celsius) is pretty high, and most home brewers and chains will boil water and then put it directly onto the grounds to make the coffee.

The National Coffee Association recommends temperatures between 195 and 205 Fahrenheit (90 to 93 Celsius) for coffee, but there is always wiggle room. I’ve read in forums that people swear by 80 to 90 Celsius, especially for lighter roasts that have more complex flavors available. My kettle, since it’s Japanese, works in Celsius, so I’ll be using that unit of measurement going forward.

I decided to go with 80 to see what I got with a temperature lower than what I’m used to. I used some beans I got from New Zealand and I must say, the difference between what I made with the temperature-controlled water and my old kettle is night and day. I get such a lovely rich flavor from my beans with the 80 degree water! I also tried 85— this has a higher temperature so the overall drink is warmer and a bit more satisfying, and I can taste the increase in the bitterness, which is so wild to me! I think I enjoy the lower temperature’s flavor profile, but the warmth of the drink makes it oh-so cozy. Quite the pickle! So, yeah, if your coffee is too bitter, take your water off the heat just before it boils or let it set for five minutes to bring down the temperature before you brew. Yummy! ☕

Miscellaneous Media

After seeing the online presentation and seeing the eye-watering $700 (118,000 yen!) price tag of the PS5 Pro, Halee and I decided to just get a PS5 Slim. Yes, it’s not as powerful of a machine, but it’s also close to half as much now. The PS5 is a bit of an odd duck: Game studios are still making games for the PS4, so it makes the PS5 feel like just a slight upgrade not really worth getting. Unless, of course, you want to play Baldur’s Gate or Dragon Age (or, for me, Another Crab’s Treasure), which we both do, so we finally bit the bullet after waffling about it for months. I’m trying to play through my PS4 games that don’t have a PS5 version first so we can shelf the PS4 console and not take up hard drive space on the PS5.

On the flight to New Zealand, I didn’t watch too many movies, just one! I usually take the flight time to watch 2-3 movies I might be on the fence about since I don’t have much else to do in the sky. The one movie I watched was Wonka. And to my surprise, it was actually pretty good! I know being high in the sky messes with the body, so that may be to blame for this, but I found it very engaging, whimsical, and fun. There were even a few jokes that got a laugh out of me! I also really liked the context in which Wonka sings “If You Want to View Paradise” at the end of the movie; it felt really full-circle for the plot. Very pleasant surprise, give it a view if you’ve got some time to spare.

Thank you all again for reading to the end! If you ever just want to say “Hey” or want to respond to these, please feel free to! It’s just my first and last name, so spaces or dots, at Gmail. I’d love to hear from you all!