Beer o'clock

On Friday's, 6pm at Weta is known as "beer o'clock". Not unlike any other animation/vfx studio in our industry. Ice chests full of different beers, wines, and some non-alcoholic drinks, plus an assortment of chips and dips.

This Friday however, "Creatures" (my department) had "margarita and guacamole o'clock", in addition to beer o'clock downstairs. Andrea makes a mean guacamole. Picture a large salad bowl you'd use at a dinner party, and fill it with guacamole...two bags of tortillas later and it was all gone.

Then like every Friday in "Canadiana" (my office), Lance fires up his Maim server and it's either a Track and Field or Street Fighter tournament...or both. Twin Cobra, Robotron, Defender...whatever really. Boys and their toys :)

(L to R) John, Eric (the other half of Canadiana), Lance and Shannon.

More Treats

And the treats just keep on comin'. Today yet another surprise from the runners...cheese'n'crackers, sliced pears, and chocolate! oh yeah, and the stuff I'm allergic to...pesto...yum. Apparently the runners will be making these treats a weekly event!


Continuing my new fruit adventures, today I tried a Thai Mango. Funky shape like the letter "S". Pretty much like a normal mango, but the seed is much thinner. Sweeter than a Bombay and kinda creamy.

Tongariro Crossing

This weekend I did my first REAL day hike at Tongariro National Park, about 4.5 hours north of Wellington. It was the fourth national park established in the world and has 3 active volcanic mountains within it's grounds. The hike is 17kms long, starts at an elevation of around 800m, rises to 1900m, and then descends back down around 600m. The suggested hike time is 7-9 hours. I went up with Lance (my juggling officemate), his wife Erika (a food scientist who developed the Clif Bar), and Shannon (another colleague and also their housemate). We finished the hike in 7 hours flat...and my legs are still sore 2 days later!

The hike starts out "relatively" flat, covering dirt and gravel trails as well as a small section of boardwalk over damp soil. After an hour or so, you've walked 400m higher. Ground cover is lichen or moss and with the morning sun reflecting off it, looks kind of like snow...or cinnamon powder?


While on this easier flat section, you get a glimpse of the impending doom. Mt. Ngauruhoe in the distance. It peaks at 2287m and is an additional 3 hour return hike if you want extra punishment.


Fun's over...welcome "The Devil's Staircase". Climbing from around 1200m up to 1600, it is the first of two steep and more difficult sections. Imagine your worst Stairmaster session at the gym, and instead of pedals, you're climbing on or around volcanic boulders. The 'way up' is always designated by wooden posts with little orange markers, but the actual route you take is up to you. Lance and Shannon pause to throw on an extra layer somewhere on the Devil's Staircase. You really fee the change in temperature as you climb higher.

Mt. Ngauruhoe draws nearer. A couple of other hikers take a breather on the volcanic rocks. Not really that comfortable, but some have little cushions of grass growing on them.








While you're catching your breath on the Staircase, if it's a clear day you can turn around and see Mt. Taranaki in the distance, I'm guessing about 150kms away on the edge of the West Coast. You can see it here from the top of the Staircase where you enter into the South Crater, a short flat section before the second difficult section.

This second difficult section takes you the rest of the way up about 300m to the peak of the hike at the Red Crater, 1900m above sea level. The trail gets narrow in sections and follows the exposed ridge face of the volcano, meaning it can be a bit windy. Trail sections are "scree" or loose gravel and rocks, and dirt...or mud in some areas where icy patches have melted in the sun. Here's a tighter little section of the trail along the ridge..."don't look down...don't look down".


Once you get to the top the prize view is revealed, the Red Crater. I'm not actually sure why it's red. I would guess something to do with minerals. It's cold and windy up there. For an idea of scale, you can see tiny people crossing the ridge on the left side of the picture. The wispy stuff is steam venting out of the ground...hmmm...I guess I really am standing on an active volcano.

A little closer look as Lance and Shannon make their way through the steam, on the verge of the descent! The steam makes for a good hand warmer, and if you put your hand directly on the soil, it's pretty hot to the touch. Hot enough that you can't leave your hands there too long.



Finally! No more climbing...sort of. The descent starts down a steep face of loose gravel and "scoria" (kind of like pumice, basically ejected volcanic magma). About 300m straight down are the Emerald Lakes, coloured so by the minerals leaching from the surrounding area. Not to forget lots of smelly sulphur from all the steam vents.

Lance, Erika and Shannon taking in the view. I guess maybe I should've photoshopped myself into this picture :(






Leaving the Emerald Lakes is a short descent into the Central Crater, a HUGE flat section covered in thick dirt. It collects on the soles of your shoes making them heavy as bricks. The dark ground on the right side of the picture is an old lava flow from the Red Crater, seen in the background.


A short climb after the flat section leads up to the Blue Lake, an acidic lake that is considered sacred by the indigenous Maori people. Eating along the shores is forbidden as such, so we stopped further back around the edge to have a quick lunch. Two sandwiches, two bananas, an apple and some water.

So you'd think the rest of the way would be easy street since it's all downhill. Not really. By this time my legs were completely exhausted and I had to stop every once in a while to stretch my quads to keep them from cramping up. A constant downhill slope puts a lot of stress on your knees and a constant burn on your leg muscles. It was a zig zag trail, downhill on a narrow dirt and boulder path, cut deep into the hillside, with long grasses about chest height at times. In sections it was a gravel path compacted on sheets of honeycombed plastic (to keep the surface from blowing away), with short sections of wood and rock steps built in for the steeper sections...with the drop on the last step being a good 2 or 3 feet sometimes. When your legs feel like jello, jumping off the last step isn't that reassuring. Then the very last section wound it's way through the forest for an hour or so, along side a stream, and then all of a sudden it spits you out into the parking lot at the end...where our car was waiting parked for us. We had dropped it off at the end and taken a shuttle to the start of the trail. That way we wouldn't have to wait hours for the scheduled shuttles that bring you back to your car at the start, or the place you were staying in town.

When we got back into Wellington later that evening, we stopped off for Lebanese food (lamb kebab...mmmmmm), and as a reward for 4 tired hikers, a little gelato at Kaffee Eis...THE BEST gelato in town. My usual, a single cup with hazelnut on one side, and lemon on the other. The alternating sweet and sour combo makes each flavour that much better :)

And a couple last snaps for the day. Lance, Shannon and Erika.

Smoothie Surprise

Today the runners gave us all a surprise and made smoothies for everyone! :) Bananas, passion fruit, honey, a little ice cream or sorbet, and I think blackberries? ...oh yeah, and crushed Malteasers on top.

Runners are basically like assistants that support each office. They take care of any kind of chore or errand someone in the building may need. They bring in our fresh fruits and produce each morning. Need something brought to another building, or picked up? Need someone to run into town and buy film, pick up a DVD for reference material? Need a lift to dailies in another building? Need someone to order lunches or dinners for staff? Runners will do it for you.

Today the runners made smoothies for EVERYONE in their own building. That's a lot of bananas.

New Fruits

Every morning Weta supplies us with fresh fruit to eat. The usual suspects...apples, bananas, oranges, pears, peaches, nectarines, cantaloupe, honeydew, pineapple and sometimes mango. They also have a variety of more 'exotic' fruits. I'm going to make it my duty to try each weird looking fruit at least once.

Today I tried a Feijoa, native to Brazil and Uraguay and grows on a plant. The variety I tried was a little bit sweet with a slight tang to it. Not sure if it reminds me of sour sop or not...probably because I can't remember what sour sop tastes like. :)



I also tried a Tamarillo, also known as a Tree Tomato. Thought to be South American in origin, New Zealand grows it for commercial export. The coolest thing about this Red variety is that when you cut it in half, it has a Chinese design! Not sure I liked this one though. It's got a very unique taste and a definite tang to it.

Random Pics

I haven't been sending out any pics from NZ lately, so I'll just post a bunch of random images I've taken in the past 5 months.

Twilight at French Bay, Akaroa. Part of the Banks Penninsula just south of Christchurch. Akaroa is a historic French settlement.



Just me playing around with some rocks. Somewhere in the Tasman Glacier Valley.






During summer the warm weather brings out the fire jugglers every Tuesday night. Frank Kitts Park along the waterfront, downtown Wellington. Using kerosene they light up and practice juggling flaming batons, spinning staffs and some crazy flaming balls on chains.







This is Lance, he sits across from me in the office. From Mississippi originally, but coming from 6 years at Pixar. He's an honourary Canadian as he's always asking us about Canadian culture...and he's got a Vancouver BC tshirt! Also a pretty talented juggler...balls, pins, torches...says he can do sharp pointy and generally dangerous items too.





Just some guy.












James Jacobs, a.k.a. "Hacky"...as in hacky sack. Leftover skills from his mispent days working at Dreamworks in San Francisco. He's actually quite good. He's got a sweet little kick move and can pass it front to back over his shoulder and some under the leg tricks to boot. Seen here on one of our daily "Corner Store Runs". Fellow Canadian, actually from Toronto and knows many of the same people as I do. What a small industry we work in.

Scopa Man. It's the sign for the men's room at Scopa. Italian cafe and restaurant. Supposedly they have good hot chocolate, but I wouldn't know, I only drink Thomas Haas hot chocolate :)

The symbol is actually lit from inside the tiles.


Lady Norwood Rose Garden, Wellington Botanical Gardens. Just a lazy Sunday afternoon, out exploring with a friend's 100mm macro lens. Floral pictures are always taken with my mom in mind.





Kaitoke Regional Park, about 45 minutes north east of Wellington. My first hike in New Zealand...short, it was a 1 hour return hike.













Part of the Creatures Department on a "run". Destination corner store in the background.






Setting sun over downtown Wellington. Taken from Oriental Parade looking South West towards the core. Being on a hilly island, we're treated to some pretty amazing sunsets just about every other day....




...much like this one. Taken from the walkway that surrounds my apartment building, looking West.






One of the nice things about a small city is the lack of atmospheric glow at night, meaning you get to see the stars from almost anywhere at night. The only time you can do that in Toronto is when there's an Eastern Coast blackout.

From Mt. Victoria Lookout, looking Southeast towards the airport and Lyall Bay.




Ok...I don't want to bore you here with repetitive images, but just a couple of different looks of the city at twilight and at night. Also taken from Mt. Victoria Lookout, facing West overlooking downtown and part of the harbour.












Playing with Jogle's 100mm macro again. Fun with a saucer of water and a spoon.







Late afternoon shadows on the Wellington Public Library, downtown Wellington. Across the street is a facade of arches. I'm not quite sure what it is or was. If i find out, I'll let you know.




And again.












Sculling oars from the Boat Shed. Waterfront downtown Wellington.






Now a few fun pics from around town. I checked out the Vodafone X-Air competition back in February. Basically the same thing as the X-Games back in the US. This was part of the FMX freestyle jumping taking place at Waitangi Park along the waterfront area of downtown. Back flip 360.

Also at the same venue was the BMX freestyle dirt jumping. This guy was good...I think he was an Aussie? Front flip.




Another FMX rider pulling a "Rock Solid". Look ma...no hands.






Superman Seatgrab.







360 Tailwhip.





Wellington Rugby Sevens at Westpac Stadium. It's an international rugby tournament with several tourneys around the world. I believe it originated in Hong Kong. Expats wanting to play rugby but without the time for a full game, modified the rules to play 7 on 7 instead of 14 or 15, with two 7 minute halves.

Part of the festivities with this tournament, also originating in Hong Kong, is for spectators to go all out and show up in costumes.