By the numbers
1 K-pop band
15.55 kms
19,580 steps
I kind of slept in and I was basically waiting for the time that the cafe said it would be open even though the website said something different. I walk out of the room, look outside and walk back as I thought it looked cold out there as people were wearing jumpers. I had my bag too as I was going to leave right from the time I ate something. I was heading to a tour at the Auckland version of Weta studios and I was looking forward to doing so. On the way to Sky tower, I ended up with another coffee as I needed something to wake me up. I had to laugh at the size the coffee shop gave to their coffees. There was WTF for large and Lol for the small. I stood outside of Weta to have a drink before going inside expecting it to be closed still. The shop was open and there was so many things there that I could buy, but I had no space for anything of the figurine sizes. One guy liked my shirt and I spoke the name, Babymetal. Another guy walks in and instantly knows who the band is.
The tour took us through three different types of movies from horror, fantasy to sci fi and showed what they had done like the animatronics, props and how they went about creating everything for the films. One of them looked like the Weta film Black Sheep with a weresheep instead of a werewolf. Right on our heels were a group of kids from another tour. We were made interns and to get us to ‘work’ there, we had to count boxes, not that I did, but there was a door behind one of the props. I liked the fantasy set as it was all about dinosaurs that had evolved into groups and had battles and everything else. It is interesting what they use to make the props and the makeup as they have to do casts of your face so that can design everything to fit you. There are even story boards that tell you when they want the design and how long it should take to make, including mention of a certain movie with a Hobbit. I am not sure if those movies would actually be made or not. There are plenty of differences between Weta in Wellington and these guys, but they seem to be able to work anywhere. They do have some of the props from Weta in Wellington that are now in Auckland like Ghost in the shell. At the end I was let loose in the gift shop, but none of the shirts were in my size and none out the back. I might be able to order online, but we shall see what happens there. One I was replacing as it is now getting old, so needs a replacement.
It wasn’t too late as it was just after 12pm and I wanted to head to Parnell, where I get to see the heritage roses. I havnt been out that way for a very long time and that was always something I get to checkout. I ended up going there via a comic book shop cafe as I had found it the night before and wanted a look. It was a good rest stop and to browse books before moving on, and I had coffee of course. From there I ended up near the stadium and knew where I was especially when the road became busy near the port. That port was really busy and it was like the cranes never stopped moving. I wasn’t the only one at the heritage garden and when I sat down it started getting chilly as there was cloud cover. I had my jumper around my waist and needed the sit down especially when you walk up a hill and cooling down, though not sweaty hot. I wasn’t the only one who had ideas about visiting the roses and I could see there were workers there keeping them tidy, which was good. I also wanted to see Judges Bay as St Stephens cemetery. This was an early cemetery, but also because the constitution for the Anglican church was signed here. Not sure if its for the global church or just New Zealand. First burials started in 1844 and they no longer have burials there.
Instead of walking all the way back to the city, I was going to catch the train, but had to walk to Parnell station in the little suburb. This meant for some of the walk, I was going up hill and it was steep in parts, but I wasn’t too puffed luckily. The biggest problem I found was I had to turn around and walk the long way round as I didn’t have access to the other platform. I had to walk to an underpass that would have taken me to Auckland Domain and the museum. It was a different type of long way round journey, but as soon as I walked in, I was basically boarding a train to Britomart. My plan was to go get something to eat as I had to pack since I was leaving the next day for my next destination. Upon leaving the station, I came across a guy on stilts walking around and what looked to be someone making music videos, unless they were doing stunts for social media. I googled one of the songs and found they were a bunch of girls from Korea, also known as Kpop, which is a brand of music. I wasn’t stalking much, only watching them. Writing that just makes things much worse. I actually found their CD when I walked into JBHIFI and the website got confused over which country it was in. The city seemed to be a touch busy in the afternoon and I was trying to make my way to get something to eat and that place was something I wanted to see what they were like and that was Denny’s a 24 hour restaurant, although I have no idea how that even works, but I managed to find a little steak that came with chips and a salad, so I was happy for that one. It was across from the bus station and two streets away from where I am staying, so that was a good thing. Once I returned, I would sort out my gear and hope it would all fit in my bag as I need some scales to check, as I think I am close to the limit.
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