New Year's Eve

I spent all of the weekend and most of the early part of this week asleep or lying on the couch in an attempt to recover from my Christmas cold. I may also be slightly allergic to Pohutukawa trees (also known as New Zealand Christmas Trees), which are currently in bloom. These are right off the deck of my current accommodation.

I was recovered enough to pop out for a bit on New Year's Eve. I am not now, nor have I ever been, a bar person, so I was glad to find there was an event in Frank Kitts Park by the waterfront. The Wellington Orchestra was playing pieces from movie scores, I arrived in time for a few Bond songs, then they moved on to themes Raiders of the Last Ark and Jaws, Wagner's Ride of Valkyries, one of Ennio Morricone's pieces, then back to John Williams (who I love) for Jurassic Park and Close Encounters of the Third Kind. The countdown was a video, inexplicably recorded by Stephen Fry (who had a few nice words for the city), then at midnight there were fireworks, and the orchestra played Also spracht Zarathustra and the ending suite from Star Wars: A New Hope.

Today was lovely, and I wandered down by the waterfront. I love this statue, though I also love the group of tourists I saw one day who posed as if they were pushing him in.

This was on the wall near where I was sitting last night.

And here's the park in daylight, the stage was almost completely broken down.

Apologies for the sudden explosion of blog posts, but I am now caught up and will endeavor to update on a more regular basis. Happy New Year!