I wish I could go into length about the town’s charms, plus a few wacky stories about the out-there locals, but this wasn’t that kind of trip. We relaxed in a beach bungalow, walked along the beach when it wasn’t too cold, and snapped heaps of photos (of which I’m quite proud of). Here are a few peeks at what we saw…

By the way, Angela had the quote of the trip in regards to ever-present yet distant surfers: “Looks like the sea ants are still at it.”

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.

Yes, I only uploaded the most extreme photos. It’s really not that bad, and most of NZ doesn’t seem to be freaking out at all. Honestly, it’s just a perfect excuse to stay indoors and catch up on internetting.

Kaimai School Possum and Bunny Shoot

Kaimai School Possum and Bunny Shoot, Bay of Plenty, 20 July 2008

Please come and support Kaimai School, and help to raise funds to buy some more IT equipment, at this truly rural event. . . . a Possum Hunt.Get your family and friends together to form teams of up to 6 people at a cost of $10 per person and collect as many possums, bunnies (and other vermin if you desire) to win some amazing prizes donated by our wonderful sponsors.

Weigh in of fur will begin at 10.00am on Sunday 20 July 2008 at our school, followed by prize giving where refreshments will be available.

Entries available from Tauranga Hunting and Fishing, Wrightsons Ltd, Farmlands or please visit the school website www.kaimai.school.nz

Team entries must be in by Sunday 13 July.

For any enquiries please phone Bruce Coster on (07) 5430024 or (027) 480 7272.

So! Please come along and have some fun in the country.

When: Sunday, 20 July 2008

Time: 10:00am - 10:00am

Where: Kaimai School, State Highway 29, Bay of Plenty

Cost: Adult $10.00

Blah.
We did the math and we paid $8.72 a gallon today. $74 to fill up an 8.25 gallon tank. If only we had an Air Force here, we could do our part for cheap petrol.

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Fresh water was seeping out of the sand, and while we were exploring the source, my left leg found it.

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For the first 4-5 days, we stayed in an open Beach hut (called “fale”) with nothing but one lightbulb, a mosquito net, and some walls made out of palm leaves. Luckily we had the entire beach to ourselves for the first three nights.

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Dorks.

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A crevasse in a massive coral wall. It was amazing how large and colourful this formation was. Plus, there were fish everywhere, sadly they don’t sit too still for pictures.

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For about 3 minutes, the entire world looked like it was on fire.

]]> http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/07/08/samoa-yes-samoas-no/feed/ http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/21/431/ http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/21/431/#comments Sat, 21 Jun 2008 06:36:23 +0000 urs Work Stuff http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/21/431/ This week in Cannes, France the annual Cannes Advertising Festival, the most coveted awards competition in the industry, took place. Our agency pulled a decent chunk of hardware back. Although nothing I worked on made the cut (There’s always next year), I still had my minor moment in the spotlight. One of our agency’s campaigns was for Powerhorse Energy Drink. They needed some extras to star in the Jail ad. I can be seen looking menacing in the bottom left corner (prisoner 7840). I feel that my performance helped the campaign win Silver. Though some serious Photoshop skills helped too, as I’m actually in the ad about 5 times.

Enjoy the other two ads:

]]> http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/21/431/feed/ http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/16/countdown-to-samoa/ http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/16/countdown-to-samoa/#comments Mon, 16 Jun 2008 12:50:03 +0000 urs Traveling http://promisetovisit.com/blog/2008/06/16/countdown-to-samoa/ 5 days to go!

We’re off to Sunny Samoa for a week of zero electricity, zero cooking, zero work, zero private space, and we can’t wait. We’ve reserved a beach Fale, which is literally a thatched hut on the beach where the walls roll up like blinds. The bed is on the floor and there are two chairs on the deck, which is funny because the entire Fale is pretty much a deck. Oh man, it’s going to be excellent.

Plus the place takes care of breakfast and dinner, which is great because the nearest market is 3 hours away by public bus. I’d ask if anyone wanted us to bring something back for them, but I don’t think there’s really much to get there. Sorry!

Where’s Samoa, you ask? Sort of near the middle of nowhere…

And don’t let the generous oval fool you. It’s slightly smaller than Rhode Island.

For those who have taken a bite of the Apple and own a MacBook or MacBook Pro, you can download it at www.toyotascreensaver.com.

Have fun, and try not to destroy your computer.

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.