Auckland vs. Wellington
A different long weekend away provides another opportunity to reexamine the age-old battle. After our first chapter, Secret Agent Robyn came down from Auckland to check out our city. This is her report…
Getting there: The airport bus runs past my place every 20 minutes. I waited for 30 minutes, but there was no sign of the bus. I started to panic and called a taxi. $50 later I was at the airport, but too late for check-in. Oh no! But fate smiled upon me — due to ‘weather’ in Wellington, the plane was late, so they could check me in after all. In Wellington, the taxi to my hotel was cheap, but slow in a way that proves the bypass was a dumb idea. Wellington wins this one for delaying my flight.
2007 AWAs Photos
Yeah, that’s our boy Hadyn hangin’ with Giovanni Ribisi at last week’s AWAs held at the mighty Mighty Mighty. Flight of the Conchord‘s Bret was there as well, to accept the Wellingtonian of the Year award, and Blam Blam Blam played and were awesome.
Oh yes, the Trendy Urban Class* were out in force to celebrate all that is good (and a little bad) about our fair city at last week’s Annual Wellingtonista Awards.
For more photos, head over here, where official photographer Mike has uploaded his pix from the evening.
* © Dominion Post.
Wellington vs. Auckland
A long weekend away provides the perfect opportunity to re-examine the age-old battle. In our first chapter, our agent goes to Auckland. In our next chapter, an enemy agent will come here…
Airport access: Getting to Wellington Airport, from Thorndon via a quick stop in Hataitai to pick up my suitcase took less than half an hour, and the only cost was some grovelling to my mother. Getting to the CBD of Auckland via a shuttle took an hour and cost $26 – that’s 15 minutes longer than the actual flight, and only $13 less than the ticket. Wellington 1, Auckland 0.
Airports: Wellington airport has only one terminal, which is blissfully fast food chain-free and it’s a sexy big space. You can get Fuel coffee, and Wishbone food (which caters to a wide range of dietary requirements) but it’s loud and bustly, and the stools they have at counters are shiny metal and you slip off them. Meanwhile, Auckland Airport may have Burger King and MacDonalds, but they also have a juice bar with those posh award-winning recoverable design style chairs. A tie.
Awards results…
- Best Drink in Town: Negroni at Hawthorn Lounge with mandarin-infused gin
- Best Late-Night Venue: Mighty Mighty
- Best Cheap Eats: Satay Kingdom
- Best un-Cheap Eats: Matterhorn
- Best Suburban Venue: Karori Wildlife Sanctuary – Karori
- Best Breakfast: Epic
- Best Local Coffee Beans: Mojo
- Best Non-Drinking Venue: Wellington waterfront on a sunny week day
- Best Apparel Store: Madame Fancy Pants
- Best Shop: Unity Books
- Best Building: Wellington Central Library
- Best Cultural Venue: Film Archive
- Best Public Space: The Botanic Gardens
- Best Public Art: The installations along the way to the Airport
- Most Needed: Light rail to the airport
- Hottest Hospo of the Year: The staff at Mighty Mighty
- Wellington Supervillain of the Year: Kerry Prenderghastly
- Best 2007 Wellington-based Event: Cuba St Carnival
- Best Dub Dub Dubber: “Cracker” – Damian Christie
- Wellingtonian of the Year: Jemaine and Bret aka. Flight of the Conchords
Hearty congratulations to all our winners
See The Darjeeling Limited for FREE
MySpace Black Curtain is holding a special screening of The Darjeeling Limited in Wellington at the Paramount Theatre on Tuesday 18th December at 8pm.
Come along to the screening and be in to win a pack of 5 DVDs including Rushmore and The Royal Tenenbaums, plus a Darjeeling Limited soundtrack and official movie poster!
The screening is FREE! Your MySpace profile is your ticket. It’s a first-come first- served basis so turn up early to avoid disappointment.
www.myspace.com/blackcurtainnz
An emotional comedy about three brothers who have not spoken to each other in a year who set off on a train voyage across India with a plan to find themselves and bond with each other. Their “spiritual quest”, however, veers rapidly off-course (due to events involving over-the-counter pain killers, Indian cough syrup, and pepper spray), and they eventually find themselves stranded alone in the middle of the desert with eleven suitcases, a printer, and a laminating machine. At this moment, a new, unplanned journey suddenly begins.
Directed by Wes Anderson (Rushmore, The Royal Tenenbaums) and starring Owen Wilson, Jason Schwartzman and Adrien Brody.
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
First up, I think my normally meticulous research went astray last time and I missed that Shane Meadows’ new film This is England was opening at the Rialto. So, not only did I fail to mention it in this space last week but it didn’t get a review at Funerals & Snakes or the Capital Times and it was such a slow week too… This is England has instant appeal to me as it’s about my manor and my generation: Thatcher’s proto-fascist England and the disaffected, aimless youth running wild on the ground. Meadows is one of the UK’s finest young filmmaking talents (TwentyFourSeven and A Room for Romeo Brass are the best) but he lost his way for a while. Rialto exclusive.
Sky City Cinemas really don’t know how to programme the Embassy: blockbuster then art-house then bollywood, etc. Now they’re trying a bit of both with ultra-violent video-game adaptation Hitman and nature documentary The White Planet. What a double-feature that will be. Hitman is also playing at Readings and Regent-on-Manners. The White Planet is in the same mode as the huge hit March of the Penguins: this time the focus is on polar bears and the narrator is Queen Latifah (sorry, wrong Arctic movie). Also screening at the Paramount and the Penthouse.
UPDATE: Sky City don’t even know how to promote their Embassy sessions either! Missing from their corporate web site on Wednesday was any mention of the daily screenings of This Is New Zealand, the sensational wide-screen epic that showcased New Zealand to the world at the Osaka Expo in Japan in 1970. Not to be missed. Session times can be found at the old Deluxe site which I thought had died.
The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump…
Jealous Girls and Bad Kids
I keep meaning to post about all the fantastic international gigs that are about to happen in Wellington as summer kicks in, but what with the 2AWA and Blams fever, the launch of CHOICE magazine, the golden weather and the party season, I’ve been a bit slack.
So it is with some urgency that I draw your attention to two shows coming up in the next week:
Galesburg presents The Gossip and Palomino presents Black Lips
The Gossip play this Saturday night (8th) at the San Fran Bathhouse with locals Cortina, and Black Lips at the same venue next Tuesday the 11th with Knife Fight.
Tickets available from Slowboat Records, Cuba St.
Read more after the jump about both bands and supports…
Who’s going to drive you home tonight?
So by now, you’ve voted (you have right? Voting closes today!) and picked out what you’re going to wear to the awards (and if you wear a magenta dress too, I might just have to cut you), so have you settled upon your public transport options as to how you’re going to get home afterwards? If you’re going to be drinking, you of course can’t drive. And we’re not recommending you leave before midnight, so that means the buses are out. Unless you’re planning on walking (which we advise you to do in pairs, naturally), you’re probably going to get a taxi. How about you try out a Green Cab? Their all-Prius fleet and commitment to planting trees to offset their carbon, along with their “‘ethics first business second” mantra sits happily with the dirty lefty hippies of the Wellingtonista. Plus, their cabs stand out, so if you take one home in a less than awake state, you’ll know who to call in the morning if you leave something in the cab, and their police-checked drivers should mean you’ll get safely home.
Disclaimer: I’ve never actually riden in a Green Cab. Yet. But I like the idea. And they have a free number to call – 0508 4 47336 (0508 4 GREEN), which is great for those who are creditly challenged!
Cinephilia: Opening This Week
If you are at all interested in the future of cinema technology, the energetic retelling of dark age Norse Anglosaxon Anglo-Saxon legends or theme park rides then Beowulf 3D is the thing for you this weekend. The 3D version only screens at Readings and I understand from Roadshow, the distributor, that only two cinemas in New Zealand are equipped to screen it: Readings at Courtenay Central and Hoyts Sylvia Park in Auckland.
The digital equipment required to screen Beowulf in 3D cost upwards of $100k and is only in Cinema 5 (i.e. not one of the big ones). That cost puts it out of reach of all Wellington cinemas apart from Readings (and possibly Sky City at Queensgate) until the economic drivers to replace 35mm film become overwhelming. Check the listings carefully as the 3D version is definitely the one to see. The flat version can also be found at Regent-on-Manners and Sky City Queensgate.
The rest of this week’s new releases after the jump…
Basin Goings On
The “Finance Company Implosion†has seen several name changes for our beloved Basin Reserve over the past few months. It is now known officially as the Allied Nationwide Finance Basin Reserve and the ground improvements continue at good pace. Between the end of the the rugby season and Labour Weekend the wicket block and practice areas were re-laid and improved drainage technology installed. The R. A. Vance Stand is having a new viewing platform built at the back for the media and, I’m guessing, to also improve television camera angles from the Northern (Or J. R. Reid Gate) end of the ground.
Meanwhile, a new edifice is being erected beside the venerable old (actually crap) scoreboard at the Southern End. Any ideas what this will be? It looks like a new replacement or additional scoreboard or a big screen (or some combination).
I walk through the Basin every day and it is looking a picture – the relocation last year of the war memorial to the top of the bank was a splendid move. This summer we have a visit from Bangladesh (recommendation: don’t buy a five-day-pass) for a Test Match from January 12 and England (hence all the media improvements) from March 13.