The Artist

Circa Theatre has reopened, and their first show is a short season (four nights) of a one-man show that was interrupted by the covids, called The Artist. It features Thom Monckton as the eponymous…er…eponym. We took our first opportunity to get some actual culture under our belts, and headed out on Thursday night.

The show was at 6:30pm, so we decided to have dinner later, and therefore parked up the Cuba Street end of town in order to be able to make a quick getaway after dinner. The show has been moved into the main theatre, but was sold as General Admission, so it was a bit of a scramble to get the good seats. However, we found places about halfway back, with good sight of the stage (there aren’t any *bad* seats, but some of them are a bit sideways-on). 

At 6:30 the lights dimmed, and The Artist, who had been on stage whilst people came in, showed us what he’d been working on as we took our seats – which brought the first laugh of the evening. Yes, this is comedy, physical comedy and sight gags mixed up with mime. There’s no actual words apart from some mutterings about “banana, banana”, “nyet banana” when the apple and pear try to get into the banana nightclub. I know, it makes no sense. You had to be there. During the course of the show, some paintings are painted, some are assembled, and one is completed (spoiler alert!) by a member of the audience. At the end of the show he assembled all the various paintings on stage, and took a final drink of wine and a bow. It was all good fun, with some laugh-out-loud moments.

Afterwards, we headed up Cuba Street to dine at Loggy B’s, as we call it. We haven’t been there in a while, but have been cooking their Logan Brown At Yours meals, delivered by Steve Logan, during the lockdown. Steve was on hand to greet people as we entered the restaurant so we were able to have a quick chat, tell him how much we’d enjoyed LBAY, before settling down to dinner. The format here has changed slightly as they get back into the swing of things, with the menu offering a three-course meal for a fixed price of $70. We started off with a cocktail – French martini for me – then had pāua ravioli (their signature dish), cured salmon, gnocchi, venison, and finished up with panna cotta and chocolate cremeux. Yup, they’re still the best.

That was our first “proper” night out…more to follow!

Covid-Free Since 8th June

Today’s announcement of the current Covid-19 numbers reached a new milestone today. For the last 17 days there have been no new cases. Today, the final person showing symptoms has officially recovered, so there are no active cases of Covid-19 in New Zealand. Woohoo!

Shortly after 3pm, the prime minister Saint Jacinda acknowledged this, and said that New Zealand would move to Covid-19 alert Level 1 with effect from midnight tonight. There is no requirement to give 48 hours’ notice, as there had been under previous changes to the alert level, as there were no preparations which needed to be put in place to go to Level 1.

What does Level 1 look like? The borders are still effectively closed, with only specific movements of people in and out, and 14-day quarantines remaining in place for people entering the country. The recent arrival of film workers to start the Avatar sequels project are an example of this, and still need to stay in quarantine a further week before they can begin. Otherwise, businesses can open up as normal, and city centre workers are being encouraged to return to offices, in an effort to support those other businesses – hospitality and retail, for example – that rely on office workers being at their desks. People are still encouraged to maintain good hygiene, coughing etiquette, stay home if they feel ill, and record their movements in the event of a further outbreak – the government’s Covid-19 tracer app and Wellington’s Rippl are both still available for use.

We went back to pub quiz last week under level 2 for the first time, but this week we’ll be able to actually order at the bar, and mingle with other teams and our host, Andy.

Over the coming weeks we should hear more about extending our national “bubble”, both across the Tasman to Australia, and into the Pacific, when it is prudent to do so. It will probably be some time before we can return to normal travel to the rest of the world, though. For the time being it looks like we will be holidaying in New Zealand,  and we will of course be doing our bit to support local businesses and tourism.