NDBT

Righty-o! So. My brain is only half working at the moment – my apologies. I think it was fried yesterday. So – the sanctuary (back on Saturday). I had a great afternoon walking around and then I came back in the evening for the night tour. There were about 8 of us, led around by two nice, elderly ladies. The one in charge was a bit in danger of talking so much that we weren’t going to get to see anything, but it was nice to hear a bit more about the history of the sanctuary and the land and the various conservation projects they’re attempting. Plus, she explained that all of the giant wetas (the heaviest insect in the world) had died out for the year, which is why I hadn’t found any earlier in the day. As we were walking around we did see blag shag, pied shag, and native teal, which is the 4th rarest duck in the world. We saw some more bush weta and kaka and tuatara as well. We heard a morepork call, but didn’t see any.

Then, as it got to be very dark out (we just had a sliver past a new moon) we went down by a stream where we were surrounded by fern-covered hillsides, and saw glow-worms!! They were all these tiny little pin-pricks of blue light completely surrounding us. It was the coolest thing. I don’t think I can accurately describe how magical it was. And then!! Just as we were almost back to the start, we heard some scuffling in the bush, and right in a little clearing emerged a Kiwi!!! We had an absolutely perfect view. It snurfled around in the littler for a minute and then ran back up the hillside. It was a little spotted kiwi. I saw a kiwi in the wild! Yay!

Yesterday was an all day marathon to get from Wellington to Auckland. The problem being that our bus didn’t have air-conditioning. Yuck. We drove past one cool part, called the desert road, which was very scrubby and barren (had there not been lots of low-laying clouds, we would’ve been able to see Mount Doom as well, which I’m sure has a real name, and I don’t know it). Anyways, we did drive past the giant volcano that is still pretty active, and lake Taupo, which is dormant, but supposed to become re-active in the next 40 years.

In Auckland; I made things pissy for the driver and refused to stay at one of the giant dorms downtown. I am instead staying at the Brown Kiwi, in Ponsonby. Ponsonby is basically the Castro of Auckland, and I am surrounded by cute cafes, pretty victorian architecture, and bald men driving Z3s. It’s like I’m getting ready to come home. (also – turns out I’m just around the corner from Auldhouse – I should go give Claire a cupcake). Had a yummy tofu shwarma to treat myself last night, and then wandered around for a bit looking for an internet cafe. We’re up on a hill, so we have a nice view of downtown Auckland, which includes the sky tower – the tallest building in the southern hemisphere. It looks like a giant syringe. Really, no one is going to make a tall building cooler than this. They should stop trying.

This morning I slept in, did laundry, went to Cezanne’s cafe, and now I’m taking care of internet stuff. I’ll try to get around to photos today, but we’ll see. There isn’t a lot to do in Auckland – a couple of parks I want to see. So mostly I’ll be hanging around the hostel, reading and watching tv and saving my last few pennies. And turning in my tax form. Oh – and there are a couple of final posts I want to write up on here – so I’ll see if I can get around to those.
This was passed along to me by my mother. It seems to be very pbf kind of humor.

Patrick passed along some information on poverty in Madagascar. It all comes from Wikipedia, though. Still – even if the info isn’t 100% accurate, it is a very poor country, and I’m glad some of my money went to it.

Diablo Cody has a new column at EW. Very cool.

I’m not sure how this weekend will turn out in the box office game, because I just couldn’t bring myself to rank Alvin 2nd, despite most predictions. And the fact that in one weekend it has done better than 2 weeks for the Golden Compass is just oh so sad. National IQ – where have you gone?

Speaking of poor taste (like that segue?) check out suicide food. Particularly the high-noose count categories.

And since I will be finishing up my travel in 4 days (no, it has not sunk in yet), I’ll leave you with this. And this. And this. And this.

And this.

Quick update. Went to the sanctuary today. Splurged and am headed back in about 15 for a night tour. Since I won’t be headed to Waitomo, I figured I should see some glowworms here!

Actually, I already saw some in a cave, but not lit up, obviously (it being daytime). Additionally, I saw Cave weta, tree weta, north island kaka, tui, fantails, robins, scaup, some giant spiderwebs, weka, and THREE tuatara!! Oh, and some California quail with babies. And mallards with ducklings. Not so much native.
The sanctuary itself was really impressive. Great signs (special ones were up detailing various spiders), a live vid cam on a little shag nest, pre-recorded footage of robins hatching, a good tuatara research area, nice trails, some kaka feeders, and special exhibits on nests and birdcalls. Mostly, its just a really lovely area slowly reverting back to wilderness thanks to invasive predator exclusion.

Also, I went to the Golden Compass site. No – I haven’t seen the movie, but the site has a little Q&A that results in determining your very own daemon. Mine is an ermine. Named Photion. Because I am apparently modest, solitary, assertive, competitive, and spontaeous. Well, I think most of that works… except the modest part… The ermine itself is quite cute. I like it.

So – back to the sanctuary. glowworms! more birds! morepork? maybe even… a kiwi? dare I hope?

Also – lots of awards season stuff going on over at the envelope. Particularly golden derby (I don’t think the buzzmeter has been updated to reflect the GG noms. Let’s see Angie inch past Laura Linney, shall we?).  And SAG noms are out on the 20th – fingers crossed everyone!

Ok – I’m just going to post a little bit of mini-spam as an excuse for an entry, because the exciting thing is that while I was sitting here in the hostel typing away (& reading about Mick LaSalle’s disappointment over Jesse James not getting more GG love), and My Lover’s Box (Garbage) came on the radio!! Yay!!! Early garbage.
Also, check out garbage disco box for some possible Shirley debut titles and Metallica covering Only Happy when it Rains.

Links; Dark Knight international poster

First HP6 pic

The Lost in Translation spoiler. I don’t think it’s much of a spoiler – I think it works with the scene. But I can understand why some people would rather keep it a secret. It might not even be right anyways.

More from Cloverfield

A Dalek cookie jar.  I tried to find the rainy day video of dressing up like a dalek that was on c4 here (it makes me laugh every time) but no luck. I also really like the idea of one that would shout EX-TER-MIN-ATE! if you tried to get a cookie.

Off to Karoria.

So – I went to the national museum, Te Papa, today. It was ok. They had some Maori cultural stuff, a good exhibit on NZ invasive species, some stuff on earthquakes, and some cool videos about people talking about their favourite piece of NZ land. The best part was a very cool modern marae with a big gorgeous stained glass window and lots of modern wood sculptures.

Then I stopped by Cool Britannia, got myself some vinegar hula hoops and a smoothie on the way back to the hostel, which was showing HP 4, which I haven’t seen since opening night in NYC. A few notes; a) I’m fine with them needing to change some of the plot to make it all fit into a movie. But first of all the triwizard tournament must be the most boring spectator sport ever – the kids don’t get to see anything.  And – Harry wins the dragon challenge, despite flying around the school, falling off his broom, destroying a bridge, and falling into a chasm. What the hell were the others doing to get a worse time than that?!? b) Dumbledore being super pissed off the entire film was a really interesting direction to take with the character, Mr. Gambone. And c) I need to go reread some m15m now.

HARRY: There was Some Leather Jacket Guy! With some chavvy blonde! They got in a police box and flew away!

AAAAND the big news today; the Golden Globe NOMS!!! Which, incidentally, suck. Which might be the first time I’ve said that. I generally really like who the GGs pick, but this year? Not so much.

Looking at the TV picks.  Analyzing the movie picks. The snubs.

Read the rest of this entry »

So… yesterday we drove up from Kaikoura to Picton where we caught the ferry across to Wellington. The coastline by Kaikoura was really stunning. The ferry took quite a while, but they had tv and a cafe and I read some more of my book (Resurrectionist – its about body snatching in regency England. Whee!) Unfortunately, I judged the bus timetable wrong, so I am in Wellington for 2 full days instead of one. Which means that I don’t think I’ll make it to Waitomo. Which is ok. I knew from the start that it would be hard to get over there and since I went whale watching, I’m pretty broke anyways. And this will give me some time in Auckland instead of just frantically rushing around before my plane leaves. So I’m still pretty happy with the way things have worked out. It can be something to see the next time I’m in the country. Or I could go watch Life in the Undergrowth again.

Last night I went to see Beowulf in 3D (I figured I wouldn’t be getting a chance to see it on IMAX, so this seemed like the next best alternative). Yes, the movie had its flaws, but the visuals more than made up for the price of admission. Plus, I can’t remember the last time a movie actually made me jump in my seat. Oh – and walking down main street, I ran into this guy.

It’s drizzling out today, so I’m going to head to the national museum (after brunch) and do the Karori sanctuary tomorrow. And then watch lots of tv because it is free and I am broke.

Also – speaking of tv. This no Daily Show thing has got to end. It’s like Rupert Murdoch has threatened the AMPTP not to negotiate or else he’ll devour their families. Which he could do.

Alternate title; or better yet, don’t call me, I’ll call you!

2 other things I forgot to mention earlier. A) watched black sheep. Oh so fabulous. and B) I BEAT OUR DRIVER at our Stray bus driving game. (it’s like bug – it involves spotting small orange camper-vans before the driver). Years of practice my friends…

So – I just got back from whale watching in Kaikoura and I am on such an absolute high, it is unbelievable. We saw 2 sperm whales, tons and tons of dusky dolphins, which are the most acrobatic of any dolphin species, common dolphin, white fronted terns, cape petrels, mollymawks albatross (there were 2 species of these… umm…. Salvins and black browed I think were the ones we saw), giant petrel, and westland petrel, I don’t think we saw any shearwaters, and GIBSON’S WANDERING ALBATROSS!!!! The largest bird in the world. I’ve wanted to see one my whole life and we saw about 5. They’re huge! And so, so gorgeous. Yay! 🙂

The sperm whales were very cool. Sperm whales are the 4th largest whale in the world and the largest of the toothed or Odontoceti whales. They’re the ones that get into fights with giant squids. They’re found here because quite close to Kaikoura is the Kaikoura trench. Basically the sea floor goes from 300 ft to 4000 ft deep quite quickly. We saw two; Rua and Big Nick. Lots of spouting, and we watched them both dive, so we could see their tails quite well.

Then we saw a huge pod of dusky dolphins. We saw them doing head slapping, tail slapping, back flips, leaps, upside down leaps. Saw some calves. And I was right on the bow of the boat, and tons of them came up to do bow-riding, so they were about a meter below me – I could practically touch them when they jumped up to breathe. Very pretty, stripey dolphins, although not as colorful as the Hector’s. They were more entertaining, though.

I’ll post photos as soon as I can.  Tomorrow up to Picton, then to Wellington by the inter-island ferry.
Also – I’m reading Dexter in the Dark (finally!!! I’ve been waiting forever) and I am absolutely loving it so far. Three cheers for darkly funny serial killers. “I’m not schizophrenic – we’re both sure of that.”

http://www.amptp.com/

This whole sitemade me laugh out loud. Best bit?; “‘Viva Laughlin’ was written by a writer.”

Aw hell. The problem with the Broadcast Film critic picks is that for the last 5 years, all five best picture oscar nominees have come from this pool of ten, (this year’s;
American Gangster, Atonement, The Diving Bell and the Butterfly, Into the Wild, Juno, The Kite Runner, Michael Clayton, No Country, Sweeney Todd, and There Will Be Blood

which does not include most of what I would pick (although yay for including Sweeny Todd and Juno.) Most importantly, it doesn’t include the Assassination of Jesse James. Boo. Still, any guild that didn’t list Gosford Park in its top 10 can’t be all that smart.

I’m very confused. Mick LaSalle wrote up a whole post on his thoughts about the SF process, and now it seems to be gone.  Anyways, if I remember correctly from last night, he said that one of his colleagues argued for the final decision this way, “No country will go down as being one of the Coen’s best, while the Assassination of Jesse James will go down as one of the best Westerns ever made.” Or something to that effect.
Also – Holy shit.

In Kaikoura now. Going whale watching in a bit. Already seen a bunch of sea birds (no albatross yet) and some fur seals. musica; A single second (live) – AFI, Seven nation army – White stripes, Roll with it – oasis, bullet with butterfly wings – smashing pumpkins, words – Kate Miller-Heidke, When I come around – Green Day, Hanging by a moment – lifehouse

First up and most importantly – I’m ranked 47th out of 2119 in the fall box office challenge!!! I FUCKING ROCK!!!! I got 96th for last weekend. In my defense, I thought Awake was actually Jumper. Stupid one word Hayden Christensen movies. This is what happens when I’m not around US marketing campaigns. Also, I didn’t think Bee movie would drop off so much, or that Fred Claus would jump back up.

Right, so. Since leaving Franz Josef, lots has happened. I’ll do my best to remember it all. We continued down the west coast, which had tons of gorgeous scenery. We stopped at Lake Matheson, which is surrounded by hills, so it gets very little wind, and ends up with a perfect reflection. We also had a great shot of the mountains, including Mt. Cook before the day became overcast. We did a couple of short walks, including out to roaring Billy falls and the blue pools.

Most of the rivers and pools are a really beautiful light blue color because they come from glacial waters. The color comes from rock dust that’s been ground up by the glaciers and reflects the light differently.

That night we stayed at Makarora in Mount Aspiring National Park, which was right on a lake and surrounded by more mountains.

The next day we drove inland through the Southern alps. We passed lake Wanaka, which was gorgeous. Then we stopped at puzzling world in Wanaka. I did the world’s first 2 story maze and completed the whole thing in about 40 minutes!! Most of the group had to use an exit door to make it out in time. Puzzling world also had some tricky perspective rooms, a room with famous faces that seem to follow you, and lots of holographic pictures. It was kind of weird.

Then we stopped in Crawford, known for its fruit and its fruit ice cream. Yummm…. Finally, we stopped at the world’s first commercial bungy site while a few members of our bus tossed themselves off.

Spent the night in Queenstown. Got Fergburgers for dinner, which were very good for hamburgers, but I think I can honestly say I never need to eat another hamburger in my life. I just don’t really like them anymore and I’m happy to be going back to being veggie. Well, pescatarian for a little, then back to veggie.

Left super-early the next morning on a new bus to head to Milford Sound. The drive down to the sound was some of the most gorgeous scenery I’ve ever been through. It was really, really gorgeous. We drove by lake Wakatipu and through the Homer tunnel, which is the steepest tunnel in the southern hemisphere. Then we did a cruise out through Milford sound, which was really amazing. It has one of the tallest sea cliffs in the world. And we saw a bunch of seals and a fjordland penguin! Then we passed Te Anau and drove to tuatapere. There, we visited a local sheep farm where we got to bottle feed lambs, watch sheep dogs at work, watch some shearing, and had dinner.

The next day we drove to Bluff where we caught the ferry to Stewart island. I saw an albatross on the way out. I went to Ulva island by myself in the afternoon, which is a bird sanctuary offshore. There I saw robins, tui, kaka (which are really pretty parrots), 2 species of parakeet, weak (flightless birds), oystercatchers, and a saddleback, which were reintroduced a few years ago after having gone locally extinct. I took about 3 hours walking around the island, which was very gorgeous.

The next day we caught the ferry back and drove through the Caitlin’s wilderness area. It was fairly uninhabited, but unfortunately most of the land had been cleared for sheep and deer grazing and it wasn’t very forested. We did stop at a few places for the local wildlife though, and I saw some seals, an elephant seal, and one yellow-eyed penguin, which is the rarest penguin in the world. Lots of pretty coastline.

We stayed that night in Dunedin, which is a very pretty Scottish town, largely inhabited by students. It had some great architecture. The rest of the day was spent getting back to Queenstown. Then yesterday we went from Queenstown back to Chch. We went over the Lindis Pass through to the MacKenzie country (a local sheep stealer). We also stopped in a little town with a local eccentric. I can’t really say more about that until after Christmas, as it involves a Christmas gift for someone. Then we stopped by Lake Tekapo, and finally back here! I’m staying at Vagabond again, and it’s been a very odd feeling of homecoming.

Today has been really lovely, albeit really hot and muggy. But it’s been great to be back in Chch. I had brunch at yellow rocket, wandered around the arts gallery, got a couple new books at Scorpio (I’ve been unable to start in on Middlemarch since finishing Owls do Cry, and they had 2 murder mysteries I’ve been wanting to read for ages. Ooh – and! The new Sue Grafton is out, but I’m resisting till I get home.) Hmmm… met up with Herdis and May. Wandered around. Got a mocha at the Java café. Uploaded photos! They’re here. Lots of really pretty ones.

That’s about it. I have to go do laundry. Here’s some linkspam I’ve collected over the last week or so;

First up, the SF Critics picks Assassination as best film.  I wonder if my vote influenced them at all?

This is amazing.

Inside the boston film critics vote.  My mom got to see the Diving Bell and the Butterfly presented by Julian Schnabel this week in Boston (jealous!!) Oh my god – the BFCS is having an awards ceremony. I want to go!!!

In Bruges trailer

Oh my god. I don’t want to watch too many film clips (I’d rather have most of the film be a surprise in the theatre) but these are awesome! Yay Johnny!

From Cleolinda;

Morgan and Butler Talk Watchmen.

What Would ‘Potter’ Have Been Like With Tim Roth As Snape?

L.A. Film Critics pick ‘There Will Be Blood’; NYFCO (New York Film Critics Online) Loves Blood; National Board of Review goes with ‘No Country for Old Men’ (Best Director: Tim Burton!); ‘Walk to Beautiful’ Beats ‘Sicko’ at Documentary Awards; Beowulf Eligible For Animation Oscar.

NYFCO’s Top 11 Pictures
1 Atonement (Focus Features)
2 Before the Devil Knows You’re Dead (THINKFilm)
3 The Darjeeling Limited (Fox Searchlight)
4 The Diving Bell and the Butterfly (Miramax)
5 I’m Not There (The Weinstein Company)
6 Juno (Fox Searchlight)
7 Michael Clayton (Warner Bros.)
8 No Country for Old Men (Miramax)
9 Persepolis (Sony Pictures Classics)
10 Sweeney Todd (DreamWorks)
11 There Will Be Blood (Paramount Vantage)

[Ed; Ummm – need to make oscar spreadsheet now, mmmkay?]

NBR:

Best Supporting Actor: Casey Affleck – The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford

Top Ten Films:
(In alphabetical order)
The Assassination of Jesse James by the Coward Robert Ford
Atonement
The Bourne Ultimatum
The Bucket List
Into the Wild
Juno
The Kite Runner
Lars and the Real Girl
Michael Clayton
Sweeney Todd

Top Ten Independent Films:
(In alphabetical order)
Away From Her
Great World of Sound
Honeydripper
In the Valley of Elah
A Mighty Heart
The Namesake
Once
The Savages
Starting Out in the Evening
Waitress

Hybrid Blanchett-Britney Monster Unleashed.

CineLive Debuts New Dark Knight, Iron Man Pics.

Lost Answers Offered. [Ed: Having such a hard time avoiding Heroes spoilers!!!]

musica; miseria cantare/ leaving song pt 2 (live at Hard Rock) – AFI, Do you wanna touch me (live Warped Tour) – Joan Jett, Cherry lips (remix) – Garbage, runaway – iio, concertina – Tori, lightning crashes – live, here’s to the nights – Eve 6, minor thing – RHCP, Pretender – Foo Fighters, oh my god – Mark ronson ft. Lily Allen

Okay – I’ll be doing a full post tomorrow, but for now I need suggestions! I head up to Kaikoura on the 12th. I can;

A) Swim with seals

B) Go whale watching (yes, I’ve done this lots, but this is for SPERM WHALES. As far as I know, this is the only place in the world for a good chance of seeing these)

C) Go on an albatross/ birdwatching trip.

D) Stay on for an extra day and do an extra one of the above. Maybe.

Let me know! I need to book this tomorrow.

Right now my itinerary is as follows

11th – Chch. Tax office, see people, update the blog, do laundry. And get yellow rocket and eat it over by the river.

12th – Kaikoura

13th – up to WGT

14th – WGT – see the Korori wildlife sanctuary

15th – to Taupo, over to Waitomo if I can

16th – Waitomo

17th – back to Taupo

18th – up to Auckland

19th/20th – Auckland

21st – fly home!

(22nd – Dicken’s Faire, 23rd – Davies, 24th – Xmas eve, 25th – Xmas!! Yay!)

musica: Valerie – Mark Ronson ft. Amy Winehouse,  The Reason – Hoobastank, Disarm – Smashing Pumpkins, Bleed Black – AFI, Modern Way – Kaiser Chiefs, I could never be your woman – Whitetown, Prelude 12/21 – AFI
And some SFGC christmas carols, as well as Fairytale of New York.