Pre-Christmas Adventures

Cuba Street is several blocks of awesome in the middle of the city, vintage shops, trendy boutiques, bookstores, coffee places (I cannot stress enough how serious and awesome the coffee culture is here), and fabulous restaurants. It's the more bohemian section of the city. Christmas lights and decorations are not really a thing here, because it's light for so long it isn't really useful. I did love this little display, though, on Cuba Street.

I went to go see the final Hobbit movie at the Embassy Theatre, which was a fantastic experience. The theatre itself is absolutely gorgeous (originally built in the 1920s, and beautifully restored before the premiere of The Fellowship of the Ring). There are also a fair number of costumes from the Hobbit movies on display throughout Wellington. Bombur, Bifur, and Bofur are on display at the Embassy. (pardon the glass case glare) I enjoyed one last trip through Middle-earth, but ultimately, I think my heart belongs more to the Lord of the Rings trilogy.

I had one more proper summer day before heading down to Dunedin for Christmas, and I spent that day at Oriental Bay, a sheltered corner of Wellington Harbour (Te Whanganui-a-Tara, as the Maori call it). Admittedly, I say proper summer, but it was really more in the upper 60s to mid 70s temperature, which is PERFECT. Any hotter, and it would be quite, quite uncomfortable. The sun, she does not mess around here. SPF 60 has become a big part of my daily routine here, given that the ozone is a bit thinner here, and I still have tan lines from a sunburn I acquired when I was in Auckland. ...last January.

I still can't get over how clear the water is here.

BATS Theatre (http://bats.co.nz/) is a local performance venue. They don't have a resident company, but rent space to local performance troupes. I, sadly, have no frame of reference for their original space, which was the first floor of a grand old building, rented from The Royal Antediluvian Order of Buffaloes (yes, really). When the Order finally decided to sell the building, BATS was in no position to buy it and was scrambling to find a new home. Peter Jackson and Fran Walsh then stepped in, buying the building, giving the whole thing to BATS, and starting a two-year renovation project (with many more other donors). The result is now a STUNNING three-story space, with three separate performance spaces, a proscenium main stage that can accommodate a two story set (this where I saw Watch, a fantastic original play from My Accomplice), a flex space in the old ballroom where the Buffaloes used to meet (apparently, when they'd stomp around as a part of their rituals, it would rattle the performance space before), a small studio space on the top floor, and a fantastic lobby bar. Apparently, the renovations were extreme, as the building needed extensive shoring to make it earthquake compliant. At one point, you could stand in the basement and look all the way up through the roof.

I learned about BATS when I was here last January, when it was recommended by theatre professors in Dunedin. I saw a fantastic show in their off-site space on Cuba Street (another new piece by a NZ playwright). I donated a small amount to the restoration campaign, so I was invited to an open house to tour the space. For some reason, I only took two pictures. But I want to play here. Very, very much.

This is the ceiling of the flex space. The glass is original, it was shipped over from England in the 1920s.

This is the view if you stand on the staircase and look up.