Black Sand and the Weta Cave

So, the reason I didn’t put this entry in last night is because the place where I stayed didn’t have wireless internet, but I’ll get to that towards the end. First, I want to start from the beginning.

I got up in the Tamara Lodge in Wanganui around 7:30am. I let myself snooze a little bit because there wasn’t a lot on my plate. Despite all the wonderful things that the proprietor of the hostel had mentioned the night before about Wanganui, like it being an art town specializing in glass and also the third oldest city in New Zealand, I was really only interested in it being a stopover point on my way to Wellington. Plus, I wanted to be able to touch the Tasman Sea.

Wanganui is a seaside town that is perched at the mouth of the Whanganui River. Yes, I type that correctly. The river has an “h” and the town doesn’t. Just by looking at it you can’t really tell that it’s a port since everything seems to focus on the wide, slow flowing waters of the river. Apparently, it even has steam boats that chug up and down it. I didn’t see any but I believe that they would fit right in. There, I now feel like I’ve properly informed you a little about the town.
I, on the other hand, after packing up my car, head directly to the west to make my way to Kai Iwi beach. I got some gas and groceries on the way. The latter was because I wasn’t planning on stopping for breakfast or lunch. I got a fresh hot cross bun and date scone from the bakery. Mmm, good!

Anyway, back to the beach… or at least trying to find the beach. It took me a good half hour, or maybe more, to actually find it. I almost gave up but I can be stubborn about these things, so I stopped an asked for directions at a gas station (how original, eh?). Apparently, I had just missed it. The attendant couldn’t understand how I didn’t find it because he thought it was clearly marked. Well, I guess I’m pretty spoiled after living in the US because clearly marked over there means something totally different. That’s one thing I’ve noticed about NZ. The street signs aren’t the best, though, it’s alright. Just a little frustrating at times. Clearly marked meant it was at least marked. Though, the sign was the exact same as all the other street signs, so maybe you can see how I’d miss it in between 4 blue signs stacked on top of each other.

I didn’t spend a lot of time at the beach. I simply wanted to photograph it and dip my toes in the water. I have a weird thing about wanting to see bodies of water I haven’t visited before. Since I was in NZ, I felt I should see the Tasman. I haven’t seen that many seas and oceans (Atlantic, Pacific, Mediterranean, North and Caribbean) but now I can add the Tasman to that.

The beach certainly reminded me of what I would consider to be a “northern” beach. It was situated between buff coloured cliffs with waves crashing up on them. The black sands were strewn with driftwood and the dark blue waters were rough and powerful. There wasn’t anything I considered gentle about it, except for the fine softness of the sand.

After I photographed to my heart’s content, I hopped back into the car and headed south on the 3 towards Wellington. I wanted to make sure to get there early enough in the afternoon to make enough time to explore the WETA Cave. Yes, the WETA studio’s mini museum and gift shop. That’s basically all you can see of it but at least there’s that much. I didn’t stop much on the drive down there because I just wanted to be in Wellington, so it went by pretty quickly. Plus, it was a really straight forward, meaning minimal on the curves and speed changes.

I got into Wellington around a little after 1pm. However, after being in so many small towns, I already forgot how chaotic cities can be, especially not being used to driving in one on the left side of the road. Not really thinking about it before hand, it took me awhile until I could find a place to pull over so I could pull out my laptop with the directions I had mapped out the night before. When I say awhile, it was like 20 mins. Wellington quickly showed me that it wasn’t my kind of place. Might have been the overcast weather, but I found it to be gray, hectic and difficult to maneuver. Kind of like Seattle, the streets make little sense. Strangely enough, I was able to use enough innate direction sense (what little I have) to get myself moving east, toward the Miramar section of town, because looking at the map wasn’t all that helpful. I made it to the WETA Cave a little after 1:30pm.

WETA studios are basically a bunch of warehouses in the middle of a mostly residential area. At least there was plenty of street parking to spare. It always amazes me how unassuming studios can really be. They are, after all, a place of business, but that doesn’t mean there isn’t magic within their walls. The only part the public is allowed to see if the Cave. I went to grad school with someone that now works there but we didn’t exactly ever get along so I didn’t feel like I could call upon him or anything. I’ve found out that he’s published two books recently, though. That’s impressive.

The WETA Cave isn’t terribly big but it has a wonderful collection of items that can be purchased, plus some various swords, armour, maquettes and miniatures in the mini museum. The first thing I did when I got there was watch a 20 min move about all the different departments within the company (there are 11) and all the movies they’ve worked on. Kind of like Amazon.com, WETA started as an extremely small husband and wife team that worked out of their apartment. They slept in the same room as all that items they created. I can only imagine all the fumes!
After the film, I basically took a picture of everything in the shop. I wonder if the shop keepers ever get annoyed with all of that. Though, they are incredibly friendly and helpful, so maybe they don’t. I spent a good 2 hours in there and left with my bank account considerably lighter. I should not have spend at much as I did, but how could I pass up signed copies of two book by John Howe, the lead concept artist, or a book of all the film locations in New Zealand. The latter is a New Zealand book, so I thought it might be harder to get that in the States. Plus, shipping and tax, might as well just there it there, right? I also got an awesome pair of black arm warmers (fingerless gloves that go up to the elbow), with the WETA cricket logo embroidered on them. At this rate, I’m going to have quite a collection of fingerless gloves by next winter. My hands will never be cold at work again. Anyway, these items are my birthday present to me for next month.
It was hard for me to leave WETA. If you’ve ever had a dream company you’ve wanted to work for, you’ll understand that. WETA’s mine. It was neat seeing people walk around outside wearing Avatar jackets and hoodies but hard not having the courage to talk to them. How can you without sounding like a total fan girl? My stomach was in knots but I’ve formulated a very distinct plan about what I want to do within the next year and that eased my nerves.

I sat in the car for while looking up a hostel I wanted to stay in and then drive back into Wellington to try to find it. That was easier said than done, since parking is non-existent and it ended up taking me over a half hour to finally find out that the owners weren’t there and weren’t going to be back for another 2 hours. I didn’t want to wait around so I picked another place in the Thorndon area of Wellington, the Shepard Arms Hotel. A single room was going to cost me only slightly more and there was a bathroom en suite. I almost didn’t stay there when I found out they didn’t have wireless internet. I called a few other places in the immediate area and they didn’t have wireless either so, I said “Screw it” and stayed where I was. Though, when I tried to park the car, I popped off of the hub caps on the high sidewalk and now I can’t get it back on. At least I still have it.

The hotel room was definitely pleasant with crisp, white sheets. It was the nicest I’ve been in so far. The only problem was that it vibrated because it was right above this massive heater. The owner assured me that he’d turn it off at 9pm. So, I settled in with some TV for awhile and then went downstairs because the place also had a pub, and had a cider and a meat pie while I read in my book. After dinner I settled in with some more TV but didn’t feel like writing, so I didn’t. I watched Lost instead.

PS. I won't be adding today's post tonight because the internet here has been a ripoff. I've paid for an hour but definitely haven't used an hour and it's almost up. They must round up in increments when you sign on and off. Annoyed.