Island Bay Marine Education Centre

The Island Bay Marine Education Centre is a small education centre in Island Bay's historic bait house. Previously on the site that the new coastal ecology lab has been built on, and with much controversy over future sites, the bait house is a snug, temporary home for the lab. They have an open day each month, where entry is by donation and some staff are on hand to explain various things about the sea animals in each tank. We popped in yesterday.

Kids would probably enjoy visiting the centre in its current form, especially the touch tank (left), where you get to gently pick up starfish, anemones, and other crustaceons. Other tanks around the room hosted different guests; we thought these turtles (right) were cute as they occasionally popped up for air.

Some larger, tall tanks held a few crayfish (left), which makes me look forward to my Christmas holidays on the Chatham Islands this year. There were also a couple of octopuses (octopi?). This one was snuggled up against a wall and looked to us like he would reach around occasionally and poke a tentacle into his eye. Surely that's not comfortable?

Several years ago, I brought a class of 9-10 year old students to the old marine lab site for a visit. We spent a whole morning looking through all the tanks, containing sea creatures caught locally. They are studied for a while (up to a year) then released back into their natural environment. We got to feed their resident octopus at the time and learned about how clever these creatures are; given time, they would be able to work out how to unscrew a jar, or open their tank if it weren't for the external locks on the outside. When it came to catching a large crab from another tank to feed to the octopus, it all became a bit much for one boy in the class; before we knew it, one of my girls had climbed up the ladder, caught the crab, and was waving the net around asking where to put it ... I don't think the octopus had ever been fed so quickly!

Just by the door, there was this little fellow. He is an axolotl, otherwise known as a Mexican walking fish. I used to have these in my classroom and the kids were fascinated by them. I raised two baby black ones from when they were the size of my little finger, and also had a fully-grown white one (freaky looking!) for a while ... until she decided to go for a little walk across my classroom floor during the Easter break. My school caretaker almost had a heart attack when he went to pick up what he thought was a rubber toy only to find that it was alive (barely) and wriggling. He had no idea what to do with it; he looked around my classroom and saw an empty fish tank with a display above it including lots of facts about axolotls and wondered if maybe that's what he had in his hand. Upon plunging her back into the tank, she died shortly afterwards once I got back after the weekend; having external gills means that they can survive for a short time while breathing air, but effectively drown once they are returned to the water after a sustained period. Every time I jokingly tormented my poor caretaker by suggesting I get another axolotl for the classroom, he let me know in uncertain terms what he thought of my idea!

Newtown Festival

Yesterday was another pearler of a day in Wellington. As we head into autumn, there are still plenty of events and festivals going on in and around the city. I missed the Jackson Street Fiesta on Saturday night as we had a girls' night out instead.

After a short sleep-in, I started the day by checking out the new coastal ecology lab opened by Victoria University of Wellington. Island Bay is an ecologically unique part of the world, with numerous indigenous species of marine life. (I forget the stats.) The new marine lab is a stunning building, complete with diving facilities, wet labs, and research spaces. The open day gave us a sneak peak before the official opening is this Thursday 12 March.

The Newtown Fair was also happening yesterday. Part of the Newtown Festival, it's estimated that about 70,000 people packed the streets on this beautiful sunny day. I stopped by the main stage to see a friend of mine was dancing in one of the salsa performances, where the group tried to teach the crowd a simple salsa routine. I'm not sure how successful they were!

Afterwards, we wandered up the busy street to the Wellington Hospital open day. The hospital was officially opened on Friday after many years of planning and construction. Anyone who has ever had the misfortune of being part of the public health system and ending up at the old Wellington Hospital will know how overdue these new buildings are. The main corridors are adorned with a photographic history of all the hospital sites in Wellington, dating back to the original hospital in 1847. It makes for fascinating reading and is almost quite scary to realise just how piecemeal developments in the public hospital system have been during this past century and a half. We got to go inside the new ICU, operating theatres, recovery room, and radiology unit; it's not so scary without all the sick people. These sparkling new facilities can only be an improvement on the buildings they have replaced.

King of the castle

It's my sweetie's birthday on Monday, so he got to be king of the castle yesterday. We stayed at The Keep, a little castle nestled between Houghton Bay and Island Bay. I'd stayed at The Lighthouse in Island Bay a long time ago and had driven past The Keep for several years, so it was great to be able to stay over at this other local attraction. He had no idea where we were going, despite repeated attempts to get it out of me these past few weeks, so I'm glad I could surprise him with somewhere he'd never heard of but I knew he'd like.

A fully-equipped B&B, The Keep is gorgeous; warm and cosy, with a lovely spa bath (unfortunately without enough hot water to heat all of it, but we made do with a lukewarm bath and a boiling jug :-P), and directly opposite the waves rushing in around Wellington's south coast. It pretty much had everything you'd need for a secluded night away from it all, except for a crossbow and a dungeon (or so my sweetie reckons).

Here's the view of Houghton Bay from the roof:
An awesome way to spend Anzac Day. :-)

Eurythmics

I changed the CDs in my car stereo this week. The Hollies are now back on my iPod, and Eurythmics have taken their place. This Greatest Hits album is from 1991, and one I'm glad to give a whirl again for a while.

Strangely nostalgic, even though I was too young to truly appreciate them in the 80s, I feel I have a connection with Eurythmics (note: not The Eurythmics) after they wandered into a friend's fish and chip shop in Island Bay when I was growing up ... and her parents served them without knowing who they were. Ambiguous, I know, but we got a huge buzz from it at the time. Sadly, their shop wasn't known for making good fish and chips, and we were surprised and almost embarrassed that out of the 5-6 others they could have chosen from in Island Bay, that's where they went.

Songs I've always loved:
Thorn In My Side: the ultimate in cool, especially the hugely pumped reverb on the drumss during the vocal break.
Sweet Dreams Are Made Of This: the long version. Chilling backing vocals and an unmistakable synthesised intro.
There Must Be An Angel (Playing With My Heart): such a feel-good song and not a trace of cheese in sight. Love the piano rundown before the magical Stevie Wonder harmonica solo.
Missionary Man: such a kick-ass song, even though it was many years before I understood any of it. Have played the line "if I had a dollar bill for all the things I've done ..." repeatedly to crack that syncopated rhythm.
Love Is A Stranger: love the tension building up to that "zombie" line.

Songs I quite like:
When Tomorrow Comes: probably more for nostalgic reasons. One of my bands used to play this song years ago, although it never really went down well with a crowd.
It's Alright (Baby's Coming Back): great matching between the two vocals.
Who's That Girl?: really precise rhythm work going on with some very 80s instrumentation.
Here Comes The Rain Again: as above.

Songs I never really saw the attraction with:
Sisters Are Doin' It For Themselves: yay for girl power and all that, but this song is hugely overrated.
Angel: yawn.

Sunset on the coast

Tonight is one of those picture-perfect evenings. The sky is clear, the air is calm, it's warm, the rock pools are still, and the sunset across the South Island is amazing. Here are some pics from my walk around the coastline of Island Bay this evening. Beautiful!

McCormack Studio Gallery

Michael McCormack is an Irish artist (from Cork) who paints and exhibits his art works at The McCormack Studio Gallery in Island Bay, Wellington. Although Michael has only lived in Wellington since 2000, I’ve been long amazed at how he has managed to capture the true spirit of the landscapes he paints. You’d think he was a local (that’s a compliment!) with the feeling and passion he manages to portray in his paintings, and I’ve long been a fan of his work.

Tonight, Michael opened his new exhibit, Coastline, featuring paintings of Wellington’s coast. Born and bred in Island Bay (and remembering when his gallery used to be a fruit shop), I’ve always said that when I had enough money and enough walls to put them on, I’d buy a piece of Michael’s artwork. Tonight I found the perfect piece. It’s a morning scene of Island Bay, looking across the bay with the island to the left, past the bait shed, and across the rock pools. I was totally blown away by it. Michael, just let me work on my budget, and I’ll do my best to come back and buy it! (Might take a while before I have $3900 to spare, but let me dream …)

So I instead settled on buying two of his amazing calendars on behalf of a friend and a diary for my sister-in-law, who is new to Wellington. (Yay – it means that I’ve started my Christmas shopping!) I’ll give it to her on Christmas Day with a promise to take her to all of the sites featured in his paintings.

Images © 2007 Michael McCormack

La Vie En Rose

Today I saw La Vie En Rose (2007), a French movie (with subtitles) about the life of singer Edith Piaf which had been highly recommended from various friends. Be prepared: this movie is good, but very long (2:30) and certainly feels it. (I could have chopped out about half an hour quite comfortably.)

Also known as La Môme (2007), the movie documents the life of Edith Piaf, born on the streets of Paris in 1915, and her rise (and fall) from fame through her singing career. This 'little sparrow' (a tiny 4'8" woman) started out living on the streets with her mother before her father picked her up and dropped her off to live with her grandmother, a brothel madam. Edith was loved and cared for by Titine, a brothel worker, before her father returned and took her away to a life in the circus, where he was an acrobat/contortionist. Life goes on for poor, sickly Edith, who follows in her mother's footsteps and becomes a singer herself. The tale of her tragic career and personal life unfolds through a series of flashbacks and flashforwards - sometimes a bit confusing to follow, but generally very well portrayed.

A bit about the Empire Cinema in Island Bay ... I grew up knowing this building to be a hardware store, but heard my grandmother talking about the 'picture shows' she would see there as a little girl growing up in the bay. In 2005, it was restored and transformed into a gorgeous Lighthouse-style cinema with three boutique theatres and luxurious couches to recline on as you enjoy your cinema experience. If your movie starts before 6pm on a weekday, it only costs $10. They make great gelato and have heaps of free parking. (They're also literally two minutes down the road from me - really handy.) To top it off, I managed to get the whole cinema to myself today. Go, the Empire! :-)