The Little Mermaid

It’s Christmas! Well, almost. So far I have avoided #Whamageddon, but last night we went out for that traditional Christmas entertainment, The Panto.

The show starts at 6:30pm as it does attract an audience of small people as well as grown-ups, so we booked an early table at Field & Green. Unfortunately we didn’t have time for ice-cream, so had main courses only, of duck breast and snapper (not together). Field & Green never fails to deliver, and everything was as tasty as usual.

Then across the street to Circa Theatre, where there was a queue outside as people were scanning their vaccination passports. They do really need to find a more efficient way to do this than just having someone with a phone or tablet scanning each one each time you enter a venue.

The panto follows the usual format of a fairy tale, with topical political references and smutty innuendo for the grown-ups. This year's story is The Little Mermaid. The story is set in Wellington Heights, the only part of Wellington still above water in the year 3021. King Lando played by Simon Leary is at war with the Merpeople who live under the sea, led by Neptuna. The cast is led by Circa stalwart Gavin Rutherford as Shelly Bay, and her son Lyall. Coral (the actual mermaid) is played by Natasha McAllister. There’s plenty of songs, from Sweet Child Of Mine to Baby One More Time and Walking On Broken Glass, and lots of “he’s behind you!” and “Oh, no I didn’t!” -ing going on, as well as booing the villain, Bermuda (Neptuna’s sister).

All a jolly good romp, and it played to a packed full house, which is great to see.

Traffic Lights

It’s quiet…too quiet. Yes, whilst the rest of the world has been getting on with life, New Zealand has continued in lockdown, at Level 2 for most of the country (maximum gathering size 100, so no festivals, concerts, gigs, sports crowds, or anything generally fun), and Auckland remaining in Level 3 – even worse, but they’ve recently introduced some easing of restrictions so you can get a haircut and a take-away. Just as a reminder, we went into a “3-day lockdown” on August 18^th, and have now been under the current restrictions for 106 days. That’s in addition to three shorter periods earlier in the year, bringing the total number of days under some kind of restriction to 123 days so far this year.

On Friday, though, that all changes, as the government does away with the old Level 1 - Level 4 system, and introduces the new Traffic Lights. Most of the country will move to Orange, whilst Auckland and surounding areas, and some parts of Northland, will remain at Red. No-one will get Green. The difference between the new and old systems is the level of freedom which will be afforded to vaccinated compared to the unvaxxed, and also how businesses will trade depending on whether they adopt the Government’s new app allowing them to capture the vaccination status of their customers. As vaccination rates in New Zealand top 90%, the dwindling number of deniers will find themselves unable to access any venues which demand a vaccination passport.

What does this mean for us? Cricket matches at The Basin – with crowds! There’s the Super Smash T20 competition coming up, and a lot of test matches, so that’s good. Gigs – Ladyhawke is still rearranging hers, but we have tix to see You Am I and Midnight Oil next year. Theatre – we can go to Circa, although they have remained open in Level 2, with just a restriction on numbers. Cinemas no longer need to block off alternate rows of seats. Pub quiz – we no longer have to remain seated at our tables, and the pub can undo the spacing of tables and allow – whisper it! – standing! Bar service! As far as Zealandia goes, tour groups can return to full size, so hopefully we’ll start seeing a pick-up in tour visitors over the Christmas and New Year period.

We’re still waiting for the abolition of MIQ in its entirety, but travel is now allowed into New Zealand in a phased programme, starting with fully-vaxxed returning New Zealanders and eligible Australians, from Australia: 17 January; fully-vaxxed New Zealanders from “non-high risk” countries (currently 9 Southern African countries plus Papua New Guinea) from 14 February; and foreign nationals from “non-high risk” countries from 1 May. Travellers not going into MIQ must test negative pre-departure and on arrival, self-isolate for 7 days, and get a final negative test before “entering the community”. This isn’t really going to work for the tourist industry, is it? “Hey, come to New Zealand and spend your first week self-isolating!”

Further details are “to follow” on this, but at least it looks like our trip to the Northern hemisphere next year will now be feasible.

Live Through This

Circa Theatre is back in a limited way whilst we’re still (STILL!) in Covid Alert level 2. Why are we in Level 2? Because the stupid government can’t sort itself out. They’re only now thinking about saliva tests and Covid passports…why weren’t they planning ahead and thinking of this 6 months ago? Idiots. Anyway, that's why I haven't blogged much recently...there's not been much happening.

As always, dinner first. We were on a bit of a tight schedule so we headed for old faves Field & Green, as they’re conveniently close to Circa. As it was, we ended with loads of time to spare as Nicola’s last job of the afternoon didn’t take very long. We parked Hollywood-fashion and were there in plenty of time, to have kingfish and salmon dishes, followed by F&G’s home-made ice cream, which is one of the reasons we go there!

Then across the road in the rain, and into Circa. Tonight’s show, Live Through This, is in fact two separate one-person shows, not really interlinked, offering two different personal points of view of life in Wellington. The first, performed by Jonny Potts, is entitled The Best Show In Town Is At Your Place Every Night. Phew! No wonder they included it in a much shorter-titled duet. Jonny appears, dancing to Ben Lee’s Hard Drive, and then As Time Goes By, before starting off on his monologue/travelogue, in which he remembers the days of the video store on every high street. As the programme notes mention, the video store came and went in one generation…it was both preceded and outlived by its closest relatives, the book store and the record store. He takes us on a tour of Wellington’s suburbs, and describes the nature and character of the video stores to be found in each…except Hataitai. There’s no video store in Hataitai, because they’re all too busy having sex. Whilst some suburbs boast a 24-hour video store, Hataitai has a 24-hour bakery, for all those hungry shaggers. During his journey, he references an unnamed partner, and they end up sharing a cask of wine in a park in Newtown. Ultimately, it’s a wistful, nostalgic look at his mis-spent youth.

The next look at someone’s past is somewhat darker. After the interval, the set has changed from Video Store: Interior to Astrology Shop. The second monologue is a personal history of death: how Jean Sergent, the protagonist, suffered the loss of both her flatmate and cousin, followed by her younger brother, in the same year, when she was in her early twenties; and the effect that these two deaths had on her. In it she provides us with Top Tips For Losing Your Brother, consults various New Age therapists, reads her tarot, and ultimately delivers her own eulogy.

Both of these performances had been at BATS Theatre, as standalone shows, during last year’s Fringe Festival. Does bringing them together add anything to the whole? Possibly, as one may be seen as too lightweight without the counterweight of the darker second half, which would also seem too brooding and downbeat without the preceding half. Get me, practising for Pseud’s Corner here!

The Sister Of Smokey

Once again my Burger Wellington mission was thwarted in my quest for a beef burger. This time, I’d taken a fancy to Little Beer Quarter’s Eat Y’Self Fitter. Sadly, LBQ have decided not to open at lunchtime whilst we’re still at Covid Alert level 2. Bugger. Around the corner from LBQ, however, is perennial favourites Burger Liquor. They’re an establishment that sells both burger and liquor, hence the name (as many full-time burger joints only sell fizzy drinks and shakes).

It’s another chicken burger, entitled The Sister Of Smokey. The Smokey, of course, is one of their standard burgers, and very tasty it is too. The Sister is a chicken alternative to the beef of smokey, but otherwise seems to emulate it in most other details. It’s described like this: Buttermilk fried chicken with prosciutto, pink onion strings, triple cheese sauce and Alabama white sauce in an Arobake sage bun. The Garage Project beer match is Raspberry Cabaret, which is a sour beer. I’m not a big fan of sour beers, so I switched out to BL’s house lager.

It looks like this:

This was a good burger, The chicken thigh was quite thick, so took a bit of biting through, but the burger maintained its integrity despite this, and the crispy onions were tasty too. There could have been more prosciutto – another slice would’ve really given the burger more of an alternate flavour. As it was, it was barely discernible. The main letdown was the fries – shoestring chips that should have been crispy, but turned out to be a bit droopy. I scored this another 7/10.

Boozy Bird

A visit to Zealandia is always a good time to stop off in town and try a burger. On this occasion, I headed to one of my favourite burger haunts in non-WOAP times, Choice Bros. Their wagyu burger is a staple and one of the best burgers generally available in Wellington. They’ve gone with chicken for Burger Wellington.

The Boozy Bird is described thus: IPA-brined fried chicken with housemade bacon jalapeño and yellow cardi jam, pickled radicchio leaf and pickled daikon in a Zaida's black and white sesame seed Turkish bun with thick-cut fries. As Choice Bros is a microbrewery, it would be invidious to ask them to supply a Garage Project beer to match it…instead, one of their own brews, Starman, is the order of the day.

It looks like this:

The chicken breast had been hammered flat and fried. I didn’t detect any particular IPA-ness to the flavour, but it was certainly brined and juicy. One of the issues with using a schnitzel-style chicken as your patty is the burger-to-meat ratio; this was solved by supplying two pieces of chicken, so it was a satisfyingly thick burger. The bun held together well, and the pickled daikon added a bit of crunch and zinginess to the burger. The fries were also good. Overall, a good burger, I scored this a 7/10.

Deli Classic

We’d been up to the Botanic Gardens for a walk and to admire the tulips. They’re only just beginning, so had mercifully escaped the ravages of the storms of the last few days, and a lot of them have yet to bloom. Some years they get absolutely ripped to shreds in the Wellington wind, but so far this year they seem to be OK.

Heading through town, we called Pickle & Pie to see if they had availability under the current 50 person maximum (now thankfully relaxed back to 100 people, which is what the old Covid Level 2 maximum was), and yes! They could. At the oddly-specific time of 1240. We arrive in time and were seated, then both went for the Deli Classic.

Pickle & Pie normally specialise in…anyone?...anyone? Yes, pies, served with pickles. We’ve been there in the past and always been pleased with their fare, each time resolving to go there more often. But with Wellington City Council’s war on cars we hardly ever go into the CBD these days, depriving them (and other venues) of our custom. Ah well. When the CBD is a deserted wasteland I’m sure the council will be happy. Pickle & Pie's burger is what I call a "meat sandwich": Pepper-crusted beef with truffle cheese sauce, mushroom, capsicum and onions in a Dough Bakery brewers grain bun, with gravy, dill pickles and fries. The Garage Project beer match is once again Arvo XPA. I had that, and Nicola had a glass of rosé.

It looks like this: 

This was quite a dry meat sandwich, and easily pickup-able…so I did. There wasn’t much hint of the pepper crust in mine, so it was a little bland. Also the cheese sauce had been sparingly applied – I felt it could have done with more. The pickle was super vinegary, and I didn’t finish it. The chips were good, and the gravy (more of a jus, really) was tasty. It was a very acceptable meat sandwich, but not really anything out of the ordinary. I scored it a 7/10.

Big Yen

Iron Horse, formerly known as Gasworks, has been a Miramar institution for a number of years now. Not noted for fine dining, but they can produce decent pub grub. We’d tried to get there earlier in the week only to find them closed (even though all their media said they were open), so took the precaution of phoning and booking in advance this time. This was also due to trying, and failing once more, to get into Café Polo, who couldn’t accommodate us until 1:30pm because of the 50-person maximum rule currently in force. As Nicola was working this wasn’t feasible.

Iron Horse was practically deserted. There was one other table, and that was it. Still, we ploughed on, and ordered a burger. The Big Yen (did they mean Big Yin?) is described thus: PrimeStar prime Angus beef patty with fried haggis, Whittaker's 72% chocolate and chipotle mole, smoked tomatillo salsa, pickled onions and baconnaise in a Brezelmania bun, with hash bites. The Garage Project beer match is Cereal Milk Stout – not a style of beer I usually go for, but I gave it a try anyway.

It looked like this:

 The unique feature of this burger is the haggis component. Now, haggis is normally quite soft and squishy, but this one had been formed into a patty and then fried to within an inch of its life. The chocolate and chipotle mole was superfluous as it was completely overwhelmed by the salsa. The baconnaise appeared to be simply mayo with bits of bacon in it, rather than a proper mayo made with bacon. Given the chewiness of the haggis and the large quantity of salsa, I didn’t even attempt to pick this burger up, as this would have been a recipe for instant burger collapse. The hash bites were crisp and salty, so a good accompaniment. I felt that although this burger had some good components, they’re tried too hard to stuff everything into it, and the ingredients were unbalanced – way too much salsa, and the haggis overcooked. Not the best, and I scored it a 6/10.

Brekkie For Dinner

…Always A Winner! We drove round the coast to Seatoun at lunchtime, to sample Arcimboldi’s Burger Wellington offering. Arcimboldi is the latest iteration on this site and has been for a number of years, but it has previously hosted Lambanjo and Zico's before that.

See if you can guess what’s in this burger…that’s right! Breakfast ingredients! Yes, there’s a beef patty, but there’s also: Houseground beef patty with Cameron Harrison black pudding steak, bacon, a fried egg, aioli and Shooting Star's Eggplant Relish in a Zaida's challah bun, with handcut fries and BBQ plum sauce. The Garage Project beer match is again Arvo XPA.

It looks like this:

And boy, was it tasty! I thought the egg might defeat the pick-up-ability of the burger but, despite losing a significant quantity of the yolk initially, it held together until the end. The black pudding was a bit friable and had to be contained, but otherwise, this was a very good candidate, and certainly the best I’ve had so far this Burger Wellington. I’m going to score it 9/10. Why not 10? Well, the chips were OK-ish, but lacked crispness and crunch. Everything’s got to be perfect to get a 10.

Under The Sea

What is it with people not being open? Today, we wanted to go to Iron Horse, the pub formerly known as Gasworks, to try their burger for lunch. Better check they’re open, though, so I looked on their website, on Google, and on their facebook page. All said they were open…so, they’d be open, right?

Wrong. They’re shut. Now, the reason we’d selected them is that many of our local Miramar eateries do shut on a Monday, and open up on Tuesday (or Wednesday). But Iron Horse is a 7 days a week venue. Except today. Our choices were limited, so we took a look at what Park Kitchen were offering. It looked OK, so we went round there, and, thankfully, they were open.

My best-laid plan to get back to beef had seriously gone up the spout though, as their burger is a fish-based one. You probably guessed that from the name? The Under The Sea is described thusly: Smoked fish and coconut patty with cucumber, seaweed and ginger salad and wasabi dashi mayonnaise in a Brezelmania coconut bun, with prawn crackers. The Garage Project beer match is Arvo XPA.

It looks like this:

 And it tastes…fishy. Not noticeably smoky, though, and also you wouldn’t know the bun was a coconut one if you hadn’t been told. Nor was there much wasabi in the wasabi mayo. In fact, although it was a nice enough burger, I felt it lacked oomph. None of the promised flavours were big and bold, but rather muted. The most notable things about it were the chewy seaweed, and the prawn crackers. It did the job, but it failed to deliver on its promise. I’m scoring this a 5/10, and I’ll probably continue to avoid PK for the future, as I have been doing so successfully for the last few years – although this has previously been down to their lackadaisical attitude to actually providing a service.

Mr Miyagi's Karaage

On Sunday we were heading back through town, and decided to stop off for a burger. My first choice was once again thwarted by not being open, so we rounded the corner to Chow on Tory Street. Chow has been around forever, and used to have a branch on The Terrace which has since closed, but, amazingly, I’ve never been in the Tory Street one. It’s up a flight of stairs and has a connecting door to The Library as well. We hadn’t booked, but they were able to accommodate us as long as we were out by 1 o’clock, as they had bookings which would hit the 50 person maximum at that time. No problem.

The Mr Miyagi's Karaage is, as you’d expect, a burger with an oriental flavour. Nicola decided to forego it and have dumplings instead. The burger is described like this: Toasted rice and panko crumbed katsu chicken cutlet with sesame, lime and radish slaw, housemade pickles, sweet and tangy Apostle Hot Sauce sauce and tonkatsu mayonnaise in a Zaida's turmeric bun, with fries and katsu curry sauce. The Garage Project beer match is, once more, Transit of Venus.

It looked like this:

And boy, was it tasty! A generous double layer of crumbed katsu chicken, nice and crunchy, and tasty sauces and accompaniments. Good chips too, with curry sauce – a combination not usually seen in New Zealand (I know, you UKians, that curry sauce with chips is a thing). The turmeric bun was a bit crumbly but maintained integrity to the end. This was also a drier burger than many of the ones I’ve tried so far, so there was less mess and general stickiness. I awarded this another 8/10.

Tomorrow, back to beef.

Flamingonaut

Our best-laid plan this Saturday was to check out Capitol Restaurant’s burger offering. That plan went aglay like nobody’s business, as they're taking advantage of the lockdown by doing some reno's; so I looked on the Burger Wellington website to try and find something to replace it. I liked the look of Bin 44’s burger, but their website said no availability until 2:00pm – it’s that dratted 50 people maximum that’s hampering hospitality businesses up and down the country. No matter, let’s try Flamingo Joe’s. We’ve not been there for a while, and they’re doing what appears to be a tasty combo. And they were able to accommodate us.

Their burger is called Flamingonaut, and is described like this: Grassfed beef patty with onion rings, smoked cheddar, coloured poppadom, basil aioli and housemade Jack Daniels sauce in a Brezelmania silver potato bun, with curly fries and burger rings. The Garage Project beer match is Transit of Venus, a cloudy IPA with tropical flavours with which I am already familiar.

It looked like this: 

Silver potato bun actually means black, it would appear. Either that or it’s badly tarnished. Taking the lid off revealed two onion rings and a blue-painted poppadom. As you can see, this was going to make eating a difficult proposition, so I ate the onion rings and poppadom, then reassembled the burger into something that could actually be eaten.

The trend these days is for messy burgers, and for sauce and cheese to dribble down your fingers. This one was no exception. Pace the description, it actually contained two burger patties. Despite this, and the slipperiness of the sauce, the burger maintained its stability and integrity to the end. The curly fries were served with aioli and some burger rings scattered on top. This is a good burger, and better than any of the others I’ve tried so far this competition, so I’m scoring it an 8/10. Tomorrow, I’ll go off-piste and try a non-beef burger.

Smash ’em Bro

One of the best places to eat burgers in Wellington is Grill Meats Beer. Unfortunately, they’re usually only open at lunchtimes on Friday, Saturday and Sunday, so I didn’t consider them yesterday as a likely burger venue. When I got home, however, I found a Facebook post advertising their Burger Wellington entry, and disclosing the fact that they’d be open from Wednesday…information which would have been useful to me an hour earlier.

Oh well. Thursday was a bright sunny day, and I decided to take myself off to Zealandia for a walk and to see what I could see, not having been able to visit for three weeks. And after a refreshing walk around the sanctuary, what better way to relieve one’s appetite than with a burger? I took a detour on the way home and stopped off in Cuba Street to try their wares.

Grill Meats Beer’s burger offering this year is called Smash ’em Bro – a clear reference to the segment on sports comedy show The Crowd Goes Wild called “Smashed ‘Em, Bro”, where they summarise the best smashings – hard tackles where the tacklee is smashed – of the week. These are mostly garnered from rugby (both Loig and Union), but also sometimes include unintentional smashings from other sports, like netball. But I digress…the burger is described like this: Houseground beef patty with Swiss cheese, cheddar, pickles, red onion, lettuce and Epic Burger Sauce Vol 3 in a Brezelmania milk bun. The Garage Project beer match is Beer, so I had one. It looks like this: 

Again, a messy burger. Cutlery is provided, but I decided to forgo it. Also, this is another one without a side of chips and again, no offer from the waiter…which is a shame, as Grill Meats Beer do make tasty chips. Despite the mess, bun integrity was good, and the bun had been toasted. Overall, not a bad burger, but it was a bit…meh. This is GMB, folks! You’re supposed to be good at this stuff! Frankly, their normal burger is better than this, so I don’t know exactly what they’re trying to achieve. Again, a score of 7/10 from me.

Cheesy Louisey

After the hiatus caused by the Level 4 and 3 weeks, Burger Wellington is back with a rescheduled bang! Now running from 8^th September until 3^rd October, lockdowns permitting, so I’ll be trying some of those tasty burgers over the coming weeks.

First up, I went local. After my adventures on the first day at Level 2, I decided to reward myself with a burger from local joint, Gorilla Burger. Their offering is called the Cheesy Louisey, and is described thus: Juicy Lucy gouda-filled patty with Swiss cheese, smoked brisket, pink pickled onions, bacon jam and cheddar mayo in a Brezelmania cheese milk bun. There’s no Garage Project beer match as Gorilla have a tie-in with rival local brewers Double Vision. The waiter offered me a taste of their cream ale, currently on tap, but I didn’t like it – it tasted of cream soda. So I had a tin of Fortune Favours Adventurer instead. It looked like this: 

How was it? Well, messy would be a good way to describe it. They don’t offer you cutlery at Gorilla Burger. You’ll also note an absence of fries. Now, some burgers come with fries, or other accompaniments, as part of the deal, and some don’t. Where they don’t however, the waiter should ask whether you want fries with that. In this case they didn’t so I went without. Flavour-wise, it held up, although half of the cheddar mayo deposited itself outside the bun on the first bite. Despite this, the bun maintained integrity to the end. This despite the bun being cold - not even room temperature - and had clearly not been toasted in the required fashion. The smoked brisket, however, was surprisingly good: the right amount of smokiness, and well-cooked to fall apart – sometimes it remains chewy, and this is not what you want in a burger. Even so, it’s not a brilliant burger. I rated it 7/10.

Level 2 Again

After a further week at Covid Level 4 with takeaways, aka Level 3, we are now back to alert Level 2. Of course, they’ve changed the rules (again) so this is the Delta variant of level 2. It involves more compulsory mask-wearing (with no-one to compel you, obvs), and restrictions on the number of people who can be in the same place, reduced to 50 from 100 last time. How long these restrictions will remain in place remains to be seen, but at least we can go out now and start to do some normal things. Today, I went to the dentist and got a haircut (not at the same time). Nicola has got some Driving Miss Daisy work so she is also able to do that. 

Other things that are starting up will be volunteering at Zealandia, from next week onwards; training the new volunteers, which is still to be arranged; my photography course (so I’d better get on and finish (start) my homework); and, hopefully, pub quiz in an actual pub again. Toastmasters have decided that at level 2 they’re still doing virtual meetings via Zoom…I’m not quite sure why, but I’m sure they have their reasons.

Auckland, of course, is still in hard lockdown Level 4, whilst they deal with the 800+ cases of the outbreak there. How long that remains the case is still anyone’s guess. The next review of levels is on Monday 13^th September, but I’m not optimistic that anything will change then.

Down One Level

As of 11:59pm last night, all of New Zealand apart from Auckland and Northland went down to Covid Alert Level 3. Auckland and Northland remain at Level 4 whilst the current Delta variant outbreak is contained, as they are still reporting new cases daily. This is largely as a result of the delay in testing and getting results. Unfortunately, the instruction to “self-isolate at home” if you have the disease is impractical in many households where multigenerational families all live in cramped conditions, so once one person gets it, the chances are the whole household will eventually become infected.

 

Level 3 allows the opening of take-away food for contactless delivery and pick-up. I had high hopes of being able to get back into our Loggy B’s ordering for LB At Yours, but could find no mention of it on their website…so I emailed them, and they replied that they’re not doing it this time. Their logic is, presumably, that we’re expecting Level 3 to only last a week before being reduced to Level 2, at which point they’ll be able to open up with distanced tables. This is in marked contrast to last time, when we didn’t know how long Level 3 would last (it turned out to 16 days). The review for this time around is on 6^th September, and with no new cases reported in Wellington since the weekend, and the expectation of no new cases in the community, it seems likely that we’ll go to Level 2 at that time. All the Wellington cases reported so far have been linked to the Auckland outbreak, and subsequently travelled to Wellington, and infected family members here.

I also took a look at The Larder’s offerings on their website, but when I looked in the morning they only had coffees. Since then they’ve updated their website, but I’d already put in my order for Gorilla Burger. We’ll give The Larder a try tomorrow – they’ve got quite a wide selection.

Other than that, Level 3 looks much the same as level 4. We can, theoretically, go swimming, surfing or paddleboarding, but I don’t think we’ll be doing any of those just yet. Quiz will continue to be online for at least one more week, but maybe by mid-September we’ll be back at the Old Bailey.

 

 

Vaccination Destination

New Zealand’s Covid-19 vaccination rollout is picking up pace, with those over 30 now eligible to book a jab. I booked mine when the over-50’s age group first opened up, what seems like an age ago before the latest Level 4 lockdown. Was it really only 9^th August that I booked it? And did we really only go to Level 4 on 18^th? It would appear so. Since then, the government have been boasting about record numbers of people being vaccinated at new drive-through centres. It would be interesting to know how many of those are people who’ve already booked, though. 

Our little local centre is at a church hall in Miramar, so there was a bit more of a wait between booking and jab. Nevertheless, it rolled around today, and I duly turned up 10 minutes early, got checked in, checked and vaccinated with no fuss, no mess (and, fortunately, no piping hot casserole). After the jab, I was told to sit for 15 minutes to make sure I didn’t go into anaphylactic shock, and after that time was up, was happily sent on my way. I popped into New World on the way back to pick up some fresh veg, and now I’m back home.

Next appointment is in three weeks’ time.

Late To The Party

As with nearly everything, New Zealand comes late to the party. But the Delta Variant has finally arrived! Unfortunately, this is not cause for celebration, and with the detection of one case of unknown origin outside MIQ, the doors have slammed shut, and we are back to lockdown – Covid Alert Level 4 with (almost) immediate effect: from midnight on Wednesday, the whole country is back to level 4 restrictions for three days initially (seven days for Auckland and Coromandel), whilst they do DNA testing and attempt to trace the source. My guess is that the days will be extended to at least 14, and possibly longer, before we’re able to relax a little. Even then, we’ll probably only relax to Alert Level 3.

Bugger.

This response has been informed by the events in New South Wales and Fiji, who are now locked down after dithering for a number of weeks as case numbers and deaths multiplied. New Zealand’s strategy is to try to nip it in the bud straight away and break the chain of transmission quickly. Whether that will be possible will be borne out by events, but as the original (Case A) has possibly been infectious since last Thursday, and travelled to Coromandel in that time, there’s an awful lot of people who may have come into contact with him. There are currently 15 locations of interest on the MOH website. As of this morning, there are now four more cases, all connected to Case A.

It’s a good job we managed to get our Rarotonga holiday in as, naturally, that door has slammed shut again. Other than that, there’s (fortunately) not much else going on at this time of year. Our burger journey will likely be curtailed after just one tasting. Toastmasters, quiz and my photography course which I’ve just started will all be cancelled, rescheduled, or done via Zoom. Nicola is still an essential worker so may still be called on to do some Driving Miss Daisy work, but most of those journeys (apart from medical appointments) have been cancelled, too. Vaccinations have been cancelled as well, so my scheduled date at the end of this month is under threat…we’ll have to see how that pans out.

Here we go again... 

The Buffalo

And they’re off! Yes, the Burger Wellington section of Wellington On A Plate is back, and, with all the speed of a snail on valium, we’ve dived into the party, four days late. Why so sluggish? Well, not being employed in the CBD these days means we don’t have a lot of eateries on our doorstep for lunchtime burgeration, so we waited until this week, and the offering from The Larder…which is closed on Mondays. On Tuesday, therefore, we headed down the hill at midday, to find the place chock-a-block with customers. The Larder are also running their Vietnamese Larder offering throughout August, so there’s other Vietnamese delicacies on offer. We put ourselves on the wait list for a table, and settled down with the crossword. After about 15 minutes we were seated and ordering burgers.

The Larder’s offering this year is The Buffalo, described thus: Grilled water buffalo patty with Vietnamese mint, pickled vegetables, roasted rice powder and lucky sauce in a housemade bun, with fried rice paper crisps and nuoc cham mayonnaise. The Garage Project beer match is Transit of Venus, a hazy IPA made with lemongrass, lime and grapefruit. I’d ordered a side of chunky chips to accompany, so the whole shebang looks like this:

This is a tasty burger. Can you tell that it’s buffalo and not beef? I don’t know…maybe the meat is a little stronger in flavour. The Vietnamese mint gives a tangy flavour to the burger, and the pickled vegetables are good too. I didn’t use the mayo, as I had aioli with my chips anyway. Also, the rice powder didn’t really add much other than to make eating it a bit messy. The beer is, of course, up to the usual high standard you expect from Garage Project – tangy and hazy and IPA-ey.

Overall, a good burger to start our Burger Wellington adventure. I score it a 7/10.

Now for the bad news…

 

Rarotonga Tours

On Monday morning, our first order of business was to make ourselves legal. This was something that should have been done when we landed, but we either misunderstood, or the cabin crew failed to inform us correctly (much more likely) about getting a Covid card. The system in Cook Islands is much like that in New Zealand – you’re supposed to check in everywhere you go. Unlike New Zealand, however, YOU have the QR code and the establishments – shops, restaurants etc. – have the scanner, usually a mobile phone. We didn’t have QR codes, so first thing we went to the tourist information office, filled out a few details, and became legal. Phew! That said, the system doesn’t seem to be used at quite the same level as in New Zealand. In fact, the only people we ever saw checking in was…us. Some places didn’t even seem to have anywhere to check in with. Hey ho, we did our bit.

We then headed back to Muri to join Captain Tama’s Lagoon Cruise. This is a half-day trip which we did last time we were in Raro, and enjoyed immensely then. It involves getting aboard one of three glass-bottomed boats, then sailing out to an area where the GTs – giant trevally – hang out in the lagoon. The water’s a bit deeper here, and there’s coral as well. The GTs are considered inedible due to their diet, which is probably why they’re so abundant inside the lagoon. We were soon snorkelling with them, and the crew feed them bits of fish, which they race to find. Anyone who gets between a trevally and its lunch soon knows about it! They’re extremely fast swimmers, and they know to hang out there for food, so there’s plenty to see. There were other, smaller, reef fish about in plenty, including a pair of moray eels. We didn’t see any turtles, unfortunately.

After an hour’s snorkelling, we made our way ashore for lunch and the show. Lunch was cooked for us by two of the boat’s captains, and was traditional island barbecue of fish with various salads – potato, pawpaw, coleslaw etc. Afterwards, Captain Fabulous (our boat’s captain) and his band entertained us with songs old and new, gave a demonstration of how to tie a sarong for both women and men, and finally told us about the coconut tree, the “tree of life” of the islands. He told us how every part of the tree is used, showed us how to open a coconut, and Captain Smack Sparrow climbed a coconut tree for our benefit. He is the two-time winner of the Islands coconut competition, which involves climbing, collecting and opening coconuts in the fastest time, so he was in fact slowing it down for our demonstration. Afterwards we went for another swim off the beach, before sailing back to their mooring.

Captain Fabulous demonstrating his coconuts

On the beach

In the evening we set out to find a bar on the other side of the island to watch the sun set. After a bit of a false start, we found the place – Shipwreck Hut – and had cocktails as the sun went down. We drove back to town for dinner at Trader Jack’s – we shared a plate of sashimi, and Fijian fish curry. This is a non-spicy curry, but they handily provide you with some chopped chilis to add so you can make it to your own spiciness. I made the schoolboy error of adding the lot, and after a short while fishing half of them out again – they were pretty fiery chilis! But tasty.

I love to watch the sun go down

On Tuesday, we’d booked a reef cruise for the afternoon, so in the morning we headed into town to do some shopping. For me, this was centred on the T-Shirt Factory, who, despite their name, sell all manner of clothing. I picked up another “been to Rarotonga” t-shirt, and a couple of floral shirts. We then headed into a black pearl emporium where Nicola acquired some bling. We got some lunch at The Beachcomber café, then drove around to the main port, from where our cruise was leaving. The vessel is a semi-submersible, with glass panels in the keel, so you can see the underwater world without getting wet. We went past the wreck of the RMS Matai, which sank on the reef in 1916, then further out to see more giant trevally, as well as other reef fish and coral outside the main reef. Again, no sharks or turtles made their presence known to us.We were able to observe from the glass-bottomed part of the boat, but none of my photos through the thick glass came out in any acceptable way.

Giant trevally

Wreck of the RMS Marai

In the evening we planned to go to Charlie’s pub, but when we got there, (a) it looked too busy, and (b) the staff were hurriedly updating a whiteboard with an ever-growing list of dishes that were no longer available. We did a quick volte-face and went to Rickshaw Thai restaurant instead, which was pretty much as it was the last time we went there five years ago, with the exception that they no longer serve Matutu beer. The brewery has sadly closed.

The next day the weather forecast wasn’t looking too flash, so we decided it would be a good day to take the inland safari tour. We were picked up from our bach and joined the rest of the group in two Land Rovers, and toured around the island, mostly on the inner ring-road system with the occasional break onto the main road. As we went our guides informed us about local flora and crops, as well as the history of the island. We got out at the Garden of Seven Stones, which celebrates the seven vaka (canoes) that left Rarotonga and made it to New Zealand. Our main guide told us the story of how the islands were first discovered by Europeans and the events that transpired, which included eating the captain’s girlfriend alive. Fun times!

Explaining history at the marae

We also visited Rarotonga’s only waterfall, which has changed substantially since we were last here: it is now the site of a water purification plant for the whole island, thus cleaning and regulating the water for everyone, making it drinkable and the supply more reliable. Rarotonga is entirely dependent on rainfall for water, and this system, jointly funded by New Zealand and China, has had huge benefits for the island. If only they could come and do the same for Wellington!

Papua (Wigmore's) Waterfall

Rarotonga Take Two

Dedicated readers of this blog (I fantasise that such people exist) will remember that we tried, and failed, to get to Rarotonga for a holiday at the end of June. Our best-laid plans went aglay when the Sydney tourist came to Wellington, causing another Level Two alert, and preventing us from flying. I say prevented, but there was no actual notification given. Another traveller from Wellington was refused boarding at the last minute – that would have been us if we’d not cancelled at the night before.

We rebooked and once more filled out our forms – they now give you 72 hours in advance rather than 24, presumably to prevent a repeat of last month’s debacle. As we’d changed our arrangements slightly, we were now departing on Sunday, leaving Wellington at a more civilised time of 8:45am. Our flights were uneventful, and we touched down in Rarotonga dead on time at 5:00pm on Saturday. We picked up our rental car, and drove to our accommodation – Avaro Cottage in Matavera – and found the key under mat as promised. It was small but clean with basic equipment – not that we need much to keep us happy. We made a quick trip across the road to Super Brown’s to get some basic supplies – tomorrow being Sunday, most places would be closed so we needed to ensure we had breakfast supplies and, importantly, wine, as the sale of alcohol is prohibited on Sundays.

After sorting ourselves out we went for dinner at Tamarind Restaurant, where I had the Cook Island’s signature dish, ika mata – raw fish cured in lime juice and coconut milk. We then retired to plan our adventures over the next few days.

On Sunday we went out for breakfast, eventually finding somewhere open to serve us at one of the resorts. There wasn’t much else open so we lollygagged, swam in the pool, and generally did very little. We’re on holiday! In the evening we drove round to Muri Night Market, which is generally food retailers, with a band playing island music for accompaniment. We checked out all the stalls before deciding on some noodles, and listened to the band play. Wherever you go in Raro, there’s music playing – they’re a very musical island, like most of the Pacific Islands, with a strong tradition of singing from a very young age.

That concluded the lollygagging stage of the holiday – we had activities booked every day for the rest of our stay.

Elling

Circa Theatre is back in full swing with its winter season. One of the main productions is Elling, a play based on a book by Ingvar Ambjørnsen. It’s set in Oslo, and is about the lives of two middle-aged men in a loony bin. It stars some of the usual stalwarts of Circa, including Gavin Rutherford and Bronwyn Turei. 

But first, as always, dinner. Field & Green is a regular pre-theatre haunt, being within easy walking distance of Circa and convenient for parking. We arrived at 5:00pm for an early dinner of fish goujons and confit duck (me), and soufflé and gnocchi (Nicola). All delicious. We both finished with their excellent ice creams, and left with plenty of time to reach Circa. Whilst waiting, and as is almost inevitable in Wellington, we bumped into people we know – one from Zealandia, and our ex-next-door neighbours from our time in Ira Street. New Zealand only has two degrees of separation.

The play starts off with the two protagonists in the asylum, but pretty soon it transpires that they are being turned out into the real world, or at least into a flat in Oslo, provided for them by the Norwegian government. They are visited by a fairly odd social worker, who threatens and cajoles them into trying to live an ordinary life. Challenges such as buying groceries and sitting in a café are faced and overcome.

It’s all an uplifting life-affirming comedy as these two characters cope with the day-to-day problems in their own unique ways. They end up making friends, and having relationships, and are finally given the all-clear by the authorities: they are now considered “normal”.

We left, feeling duly uplifted and affirmed.

The Delta Strain

Once more unto the breach, dear friends…

New Zealand recently opened up travel bubbles with Australia and Cook Islands, allowing two-way quarantine-free travel between these countries. Unfortunately, Australia is not quite as Covid-free as we’d like to think, and last weekend a traveller from Sydney arrived in Wellington, had a helluva good time, and then departed back home on Monday; he started to feel ill, and subsequently tested positive for Covid. This has led to Wellington being moved up to Alert Level 2 from Wednesday until Sunday, with a review on Sunday to assess the situation. Sydney, meanwhile, is in a lockdown due to an exploding cluster of the highly-contagious Delta variant, which has now increased to over 100 cases. New Zealand has temporarily suspended travel with New South Wales.

 

How to have a good time in Wellington

We were due to fly to Rarotonga in the Cook Islands on Thursday; but with the announcement at lunchtime on Wednesday, it seemed less than 100% certain that we would be able to go, especially as we’d visited the Te Papa Surrealist Art exhibition on Tuesday, one of the “Places of Interest” that the infected person had also visited; even though we’d gone three days later. I checked with our local testing centre and they said we didn’t need to get tested (Nicola is vaccinated anyway).

As part of the travel arrangement with Cook Islands, you have to fill in a contact form with details of where you’ll be staying, etc. It also asks if you’ve been to any Places of Interest. We duly completed this, listing that we’d been to Te Papa and the advice we’d been given about testing by Wellington DHB.

At this stage, there was no suggestion, or indication, that we couldn’t go. I’d also spoken to Air New Zealand, who’d given no hint that they wouldn’t carry us. However, through an abundance of caution on our part, and the fact that we’d had no contact from Cook Island Ministry of Health, we decided to postpone our travel plans. Fortunately our accommodation refunded us, and we have flight credits with Air New Zealand.

The following morning, 13 people who’d travelled from Wellington were removed from the Cook Islands flight NZ940 – the flight we would’ve been on – because they’d been in Wellington. So it looks like we made the right decision.

But I was fuming. Why did they wait until PEOPLE WERE BOARDING THE PLANE before taking action? The organisation is a complete shambles. In response to a story in Stuff, I wrote an email detailing this. The Stuff reporter contacted me the next day and asked whether I was still planning to travel, to which I said “yes”. But this wasn’t the story she wanted to write, so I didn’t get quoted. Instead she wrote about how people had no confidence in the travel bubble. People from Wellington have since been permitted to travel to Rarotonga if they haven’t listed any Places of Interest…so why were these 13 denied travel? In response to being badgered, Air New Zealand have finally refunded their airfares from Wellington and contributed to their accommodation costs overnight in Auckland. But if they knew this already, why didn't they act sooner? What a shitshow.

It now appears that the Sydney traveller wasn’t infectious, as no cases have subsequently been detected in Wellington over the last four days, despite extensive testing. We’ll be able to rebook to travel, but have now missed the crucial “kids are still in school” window that we’d been hoping for. Ah well. I'll check out accommodation and flight options again tomorrow.

Surrealist Art

Te Papa are holding an exhibition of Surrealist art at the moment. This is likely to be very popular, so we decided that a Tuesday morning would be a good time to go along as it wouldn’t be as crowded as at the weekend. Our best-laid plan included breakfast at The Larder, then we headed into town and parked at Te Papa. 

As expected, there weren’t many people there, and we were able to make our way through the exhibition, spending as much time as we wanted. The exhibition documents the Surrealist movement, how it grew out of the Dadaist movement, which itself was a response to the horrors of trench warfare in World War One. They had many significant paintings and other works on loan from around the world, including several by Salvador Dali, the best-known proponent of Surrealism. There were also some sculptures, books and films, and a display which recreates the painting Not To Be Reproduced by Rene Magritte:

 

There was also this famous sofa: 

So if you want some serious art, go see this exhibition.