Foolishly loading up on starters. Bwa hahahaha!

Back in the kitchen, everything was humming along nicely including a terrifying amount of food. Everyone brought either massive starters, sides or desserts, and food was piling up everywhere. It was time to eat. The turducken carved-up like a solid loaf of delicious bone-free brick. So nice. For those of you who weren’t there to hurt yourself by over-eating, the best I can do is share the pictures.

All in all, it was excellent getting to spend a nice warm night with the great friends we’ve been lucky enough to make during our brief time in New Zealand. Though we will be leaving in less than 3 months, it’s so good to know that we’ve come across such great people whose friendships we’ll savour forever. Thanks to everyone for making it out. Sorry if all the gluttony did permanent internal damage.

On that note, here’s the Turduckenssan in all it’s carved glory:

And pies!

But the piece de resistance is the fabled Turducken. This mythical beast feast entails deboning a turkey, duck and chicken, then stuffing them into each other with a layer of stuffing between each bird. At the end, you tie it all together and you’re left with a turkey-shaped boulder of solid bird carcass. It’s truly a sight to behold. I made a slight addition, throwing a Pouissan into the center just because I could. It’s name is Maurice, and he’s currently baking away in the oven. People arrive in about 7 hours. I hope they’re ready for their minds to be blown away with flavour!

When pouissans attack!

The fabled Turduckenssan.

Can you believe they don’t do pumpkin pies in NZ? MADNESS! It’s time for an education.

Notable highlights: “The King of Kong” was by far my favourite and involved the true story of good versus evil in the eternal battle for the high score on Donkey Kong. Yes it sounds like the epitome of geekdom, but the story transcends the nitty-gritty of competitive video gaming and really gets into the people behind the chase. I think it’s way better than (insert name of your favourite movie here)! Honestly!

“The Visitor” was the other stand-out for me. It’s made by the same director who did “The Station Agent” a few years back and follows a similar path of a loner who’s life is changed by a chance encounter with people who’s lives are eye-openingly different from his. A quality feel-good movie with ample scenes of real NYC, perfect for those of us who’ve since left it behind.

We also saw “Time Crimes” which was sort of “Memento” mixed with “Back to the Future 2.” Pretty good, but not great. There was “Sukiyaki Western Django” which seemed like it should have been great (spaghetti western starring hipster Japanese Yakuza-types and a Tarantino cameo), but ended up sounding better than it was. Visually great though. And watching the trailer again is giving me second thoughts, but no, it was about a 5 or 6. Oh well. Lastly, there was a NZ documentary named “Rain of the Children” about a Maori woman and her son whose pasts intertwined with major Maori events. The movie wasn’t bad, but the most moving part was when the Maoris in the audience did a chant afterwards that you could literally feel in your chest. Awesome.

Well the opportunity to bathe in the cinematic glow of that song LIVE visited us here in Auckland as Sir Elton John sparkled his way into town for a one-night engagement. We were quite reluctant initially with tickets starting at $260 each and going up past $400. Knight or not, that’s a lot of money just to see Tiny Dancer.

Apparently New Zealand agreed. As the show approached, there were still heaps of unsold tickets, pretty rare for a country that never gets big names, so they usually go quickly. Day of the concert, prices dropped. We broke down and snagged them. Still expensive, but we justified it by thinking of how rare it is to see such a big name performer. He’s the gay, bespectacled, bedazzled Elvis of, well, Elvis’ time! And he proved it. You forget how many songs of his you know and love until you hear them all. Plus, it’s always better live. So when you normally think Crocodile Rock is a bit cheesy, when heard live, it becomes a group bonding sing-along stadium rocker. Funny that.

He played all the favourites. Including Tiny Dancer, just for Angela. I tried to capture some of the show via my camera. Not the best job, but enough to get the point. If you’d like to see him cover The Who’s ‘Pinball Wizard’, here’s my clip. For other songs like Tiny Dancer, here are the ones so far on youtube with better sound quality and angles than I could get. Those suckers paid over $450 for their tickets, you might as well enjoy their footage!

For those who can’t be bothered, here he is with his old-school band mates. He’s the short blue one on the left.