In geography, the antipodes of any place on Earth is its antipodal point; that is, the region on the Earth’s surface which is diametrically opposite to it. Two points which are antipodal to one another are connected by a straight line through the centre of the Earth. Full article at Wikipedia.
Double-click on or move the original map to set a marker on a desired location. The antipode map will automatically show it’s antipodal location.
Exodus Gym – it’s a bit big.
August 20, 2010 by Avalon · Leave a Comment
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
Filed under: Cost of living, General Budgeting, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
One of the big problems I faced when we first arrived in Wellington as new ex-pats was trying to find a gym I felt comfortable in. We had both been members of a lovely health club at Fownhope in the UK – Wye Leisure, which a great gym, 2 pools, 2 saunas and 2 steam rooms. Just as we were leaving, they were renovating and expanding – and on a trip back to the UK – I was left drooling at the additions of another pool, sauna and steam room. One of the things we really loved about the place, was that you could do your workout and then you could have a nice relaxing swim, soothe your muscles in the sauna, and then collapse on the loungers around the pool and order some coffee. It was a good life.
Ideally, we were looking for something similar, because I really did become something of a gym-rat, but what kept me going was that relaxing bit at the end.
The problem was that in Wellington we couldn’t find the kind of Health Club style gym we wanted. We only found 2 gyms with a pool: Habit on Willis Street (but the pool as bit grotty and you sure as hell ain’t gonna relax next to it), and the Freyberg Pool owned by the council – but really didn’t want a huge families pool.
And the gym situation wasn’t that great for us either – the main ones were a chain called Les Mills – of which there are 2 in wellington and more around the country. They were TOO big and noisy. There was a Women Only Gym – but that doesn’t work as we both work out, and none of the smaller gyms grabbed me. Most of all – I was put off by the cost! We were paying £75 a month for a joint membership at Fownhope – New Zealand gyms were wanting about $35 a week. Each. (£120 using 2.5$:£1). And we weren’t getting as much for our money. I kinda objected to that.
So over the years we have collected some extra gym equipment (I already had some) was tried to work out at home – with very limited success.
Now we are living in the city, and the plan was to work out in the apartment’s onsite gym. But as that’s not being maintained – that didn’t really work out. The equipment is old, broken and filthy, and the pool is out of action.
But just up the road – about 5 mins slow walk – is the Exodus Gym. They were building it when we first moved here, but we were moving out to the country. And besides – still no pool. (They did tell me at the time that the problem they had with this was the council wont give planning consent for gyms to have pools cos they want to force you to use theirs!) But needs must when the pounds just keep clobbering you and you need to either deal with it or buy a whole new set of clothes (having got rid of all the “fat clothes” – I refuse to buy another set!) So off we went for a look round.
Which brings me to the headline – it’s a bit big! To be fair – the Les Mill’s Gym on Taranaki street is bigger, but exodus is not bad in terms of size. Theres 2 floors – the lower one being mainly Cardio equipment with a set of weights machines, and the upper floor being mainly the body building floor with a few Cardio machines.
While they do have a Sauna and steam room, they are in the changing rooms, so again, not somewhere I can relax with hubby after a killer workout (and our workouts are deadly!), but then with no pool anyway, we just go in, do the workout, then go home to shower and have a slap up breakfast.
You are still looking at about $35 a week each – there doesn’t seem to be any such thing here as a Joint Membership, but they do have corporate deals – so you may be able to get a cheaper deal depending on who you work for. Telecom for example!
By the way – if anyone is in Wellington and wants to try it out – I have some One-Day free passes which I’m happy to send you. Email me at avalon@avalonsguide.com with your address and I’ll send you one.
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Where do you really live?
Via a friend on Facebook (Fount of a gazillion and one useless time wasting applications that can drive you potty, and occasional source of something wondrous), comes the wonderful Antipodes Map.
It’s really cool.
SO I went to have a play of course.
If I start of in Hereford, which is where I grew up in the UK (and not far from where I emigrated from), then the Antipodal point is in the ocean off the south coast of New Zealand. Which is a bit nippy to be honest.
If I go the other way, and look for the point that corresponds to Carterton, then it gives me a place in Spain called Juarros de Voltoya, which is just a bit North West of the town of Segovia. Oddly enough, Ive been to Segovia – it’s the home of a rather wonderful round Templar Church, castle, and very grim Cathedral.
Have a play: you can waste hours with it.
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Random words from Avalon’s Blog
With a hat tip to Domestic Executive for the idea, here is a fancy Wordcloud from Wordle.
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Balloons over Wairarapa
The Wairarapa is apparently an excellent place for hot air ballooning – because of our weather and good roading to landing spots. Its also pretty stunning countryside to fly over in a peaceful balloon. Last weekend was the Balloon Festival – 3 days of events and fly-bys, dawn assents, splashdowns in the lake at Masterton, Night Glows and the burner parade.
This year we missed the early morning assent, but here are some photos we took last year:
We did manage to catch a view of the balloons from our house this year:
And we got to see the Burner Parade through Carterton Town. It was a bit odd to say the least to see the town full of people at night. It’s normally so quiet and sleepy.
One day I really must take a ride. We actually did go up in a balloon when we first came to New Zealand on our honeymoon, but that was in ChristChurch with Up Up and Away. Highly recommended.
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Still not ready to give up on the comic relief :)
Charlie Brookers Newswipe: the most generic news report in the world. While i find this highly hilarious -- it also does make the serious point that most news is rubbish, and designed to tell you what to think rather than tell you what is going on.
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25,000 guests? – Of course, come right this way.
Martinborough had its twice annual Rotary fair last weekend, and for the first time in a while the Wairarapa delivered decent weather. So rather than donning galoshers and a storm coat, we headed out in shorts, t-shirt & a lather of sun block.
The first time we went was exciting and an early start – a two hour drive from Wellington to get there before many of the crowds, so that we could get a BBQ’d steak sandwich breakfast and not have to park in Featherston.
We have a slightly more relaxed approach to the fair these days. It’s still a special breakfast at home in the morning, but now only a 15 minute drive to our side of town. You can tell there’s something special happening in Martinborough, on account of seeing more than three other vehicles on the road as you drive there.
Still I get the impression the fair is unofficially starting earlier & earlier each year. I was over hearing someone in a café during the week say they intended to be there by 7:00am, and be all done before 8:30am so they could go home and have breakfast. If it gets any earlier, they’ll have to turn it into a Christmas fair. By 2pm some stall holders were packing up. While that’s not a surprise from the food stalls who have run out of stuff to cook or sell, it was a surprise for other stalls. You might have thought they had something more important to get to, like the rugby sevens back in Wellington.
The fair is less crowded of an afternoon. It’s hot, it’s dry, the pub beckons, as does the beach, the wineries, the ice cream stall or anywhere with air conditioning really. So it’s easier wandering around all the stalls in the afternoon. You can tell some of the stall holders are wilting a little though, as you politely cough and they wake up from an afternoon nap in the deckchairs. Which is perfectly fine, since by the time we get home, it’s either time for a nap ourselves, or a dive in the pool to cool off. All told it took about three hours to work our way round everything. I tend to walk around the event in circles (well, squares actually), since the whole town centre is symmetrical and I just can’t get my sense of direction stable. Circles is less confusing.
There’s normally something new to discover, so this years hot tips are;
‘home made’ fudge (looking identical & in identical packaging, so I don’t know whose home it came from!) is out. Only three stalls selling it this year instead of the 50 there seemed to be last year.
Hats are still in – of course. But then I’m of the ‘I have a hat and one head, how many more hats do I need?’ school of thought.
The BNZ bank has really good air conditioning – although they’re only open until lunch time for you to get cash out.
The (small) supermarket doesn’t jack up its prices because it’s fair weekend. Unlike many of the cafés who charge an extra 15% – 20%. Still, given that it was Waitangi day and Bank Holiday surcharges apply I don’t think they won quite so much this year.
We’ll be back next weekend, time to sample some new local wines in the village winery. We’ll park in the square, take all of ten minutes to visit every open shop, and just appreciate how nice it can be to wander round Martinborough on it’s usual tranquil day.
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One Land.
This weekend was the first episode of a TV series on New Zealand TV called One Land. It follows 3 families as they try to live in 1850′s New Zealand.
Its great!
The Pa (Settlement) where the Maori Families live.
I normally have no time at all for NZ TV – as its basically rubbish (which seems to be the consensus from just about everyone). Our personal taste is for Sci Fi, and we are years behind on most things – so the ability to download is pretty essential to avoid going nuts.
In this case – we missed the first episode – but caught it on TVNZ’s On Demand Service. (Hopefully this is viewable from outside New Zealand).
Of the 3 families: one is a Maori Family who are what is know as “Total Immersion” – that is they not only speak fluent Maori, but also live fully in their culture, and while they can speak English – choose not to in their daily lives. The second family has Maori roots, but does not speak Te Reo Maori or have any connection to the Maori culture or history. Both these families live together on a Pa (Settlement).
The third family are “Pakeha” – white settlers – sourced from Christchurch – and have almost no prior contact with the Maori Culture. They will be living on a separate piece of land, in a “house”.
For a start, watching it gave me a pang of homesickness for summers going to Medieval fairs – but that aside – it is a truly interesting show – and I can’t wait for the next episode. The two cultures have to learn to trade with each other and survive.
One thing that really struck me is that 160 years on – some things haven’t changed. There were some classic comments made by both the participants and the historian – which shows me that no matter where in history you are – emigrating throws up some interesting dilemmas:
“Many People came here to make some money, go home and buy land.” (From the Historian narating the show).
(Now – you leave New Zealand to make money, come home and buy land!)
“One of the inducements we used to get settlers to New Zealand, was offering them parcels of land. These were purchased in Britain or Ireland. And when Migrants came out and saw those places for the first time, they found they were very inaccessible or quite different from what they were led to believe they were.”
(Aka, come to New Zealand, the property is cheap, ( you can tell – look at it on the Internet) – and you wont need a decent wage because the cost of living is so cheap!)
And the very best quote:
“That’s not a house – it’s a shack, mate!”
(The call of many a recent immigrants on seeing the state of new Zealand housing!)
There’s also a really good explanation of what the word Pakeha means: Pa (To come upon) Ke (something strange) Ha (a presence), so the word actually means To come upon a strange presence. Hmm – I didn’t know that.
I really hope you can watch this from outside New Zealand – it’s a fascinating look at how this land became what it is today. I know very little New Zealand history – I think this is not a bad way to start.
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Windy Wellington
November 27, 2009 by Hubby · 3 Comments
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
Filed under: Hubby's Views, Life in New Zealand, Things to do
We spotted this at the St James’s theatre the other day;
Which of course should be compared with the wind during Toast Martinborough the other weekend, where honking big tractors were used as anchors for the marques;
Toast Martinborough 2009 – the aftermath.
Bloody hell I ache all over today.
It’s a good ache mind you – it means I had a great time and went dancing – not something you get a lot of chance to do in the back of beyond.
Toast Martinborough is one of the three days a year that the tumbleweed strewn streets of Martinborough become packed with people. In this case, 99% drunken people staggering from vineyard to vineyard in a pretty spectacular “Pub Crawl”. It is a truly brilliant day out, and I think it’s one of the “most do’s” for anyone living in the lower north island.
The Wairarapa is a major wine growing area in New Zealand – and Martinborough is the epicentre (though it has to be said that some of the other wineries in the region are definitely better than some of the Martinborough ones). That being said – it was the town of Martinborough that decided to have the festival – and they do it exceeding well.
11 Wineries this year – we skipped 3 cos the bus drivers went the wrong way or missed stops which was a bit annoying. This year the biggest problem was gale force winds – which made getting around a bit tricky (and was pretty miserable for those not tanked up on masses of alcohol – I was driving). Every time we have been before the biggest issue of the day was getting out of the scorchin sun. Yesterdays issue was finding some space out of the wind.
Elvis at Alana Estate
My favourites of the day:
Best Food:
Salute’s Lamb Croquettes at Palliser winery
Best Band
The Jedi Knights playing at Tirohana, and of course The Beat Girls at Palliser for giving us something to really “boogie-oogie” to (that is NOT my word!)
Best Coffee
Ripe at Martinborough Vineyard – because it was there when I needed defrosting the most.
Most Outrageous food rip-off
The Crayfish at Alana Estate. It is a mark of how sorry hubby felt for me that he (unknown to me) swapped enough Festival Franks for a small piece of seafood to have allowed our group a glass of wine each.
Best Customer Service (in the end).
Ruth Pretty Catering. I ordered a Coq Au Vin pie (had them before – they are delish) and got a steak and kidney. Took it back and they replaced it – with a steak and \Kidney. Took it back again and they finally worked out they had mixed up some trays – so they took a fresh tray our and got me a piping hot Coc Au Vin pie. They were lovely and apologetic and took the time to sort me out even though it was a huge event and they were really busy.
Best Wines (from the general view of the group)
Alana Estate. (Which is up for sale if you have a few million lurking under the sofa cushions).
All in all – as ever it was a great day out. Despite the vast quantities of alcohol consumed – its always a friendly event. No fights, just fun. I do have some tips for people thinking about going though.
- Become a Friend.
Friends get to buy 6 tickets before they go on general release. It’s a must if you really want to go. It costs $120 for the first year, and $75 a year after that. With tickets at about $60 it makes it expensive if there’s only 2 of you, but when you know there’s a group going – it’s worth it.
- Buy Festival Franks in stages.
You cannot get refunds on your Franks. Only franks are taken on the day- you buy them with real cash or EftPOS. Each of the vineyards has “banks” so its best to remember to take out small quantities and then you are not left with unusable money at the end of the day. You can always buy bottles of wine back at the square with any leftover – but why should you?
- End up at Palliser.
This should always be your last stop – its where the Beat Girls play and its the best for a good party atmosphere.
- Don’t be stupid and Drink & Drive.
Drink Driving doesn’t always have the same bad rap here as it does back home – here many people think its acceptable. It’s not. And every road out of town has a breathalyser stop on it. Don’t be an arse. If you are the driver – don’t be tempted just soak up the atmosphere and make notes about the antics of your drunken companions.
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Carterton’s Best Kept Secret Garden.
I actually think its a shame that so many people ignore Carterton as a possible place to move to when they consider living in the Wairarapa. The thinking generally goes like this:
- Ill go to Featherston because the commute to Welly is shorter.
- Ill go to Greytown because its posh.
- Ill go to Masterton because its the only place in the area with a population bigger than 10.
But even though I have unashamedly fallen in love with this place – even after 4 years here – I am still discovering some amazing hidden gems. Carterton’s biggest fault is that it doesn’t really like to show itself off.
Last weekend we went to the Italian Day at Richmond Gardens. This is a private house, that opens its doors once a year to the public (and at other times by appointment.). Once in off the street you would not know you were in New Zealand. And it is at the end of a very normal New Zealand town street. A true secret garden.
You can find contact details here, and they also sell their Topiary Box and bay trees – which I may well buy one of for the herb garden my dad is going to build me real soon.
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