s e v e n i s a j o u r n e y

I’ve just returned from my lunchtime meander and can say that Wellington right now is, indeed, a mad, marvelous carnival.

The weather is absolutely perfect – near 70 degrees, perfectly sunny, with a light northerly to keep the sun from getting too intense. My primary goal this midday – apart from admiring the crowds lined up along the parade route – was some vitamin E in gel caps for the worst of our sunburned bits. I managed to scoot across Willis Street to the pharmacy just ahead of the truck full of workers setting out the barricades. It’s still pretty clear up at this end of the route, apart from the generally elevated numbers of people, but down at Courtenay Place it’s an absolute zoo. They’ve got the grandstands up and the carpet out, and the barricades are lined with fans five-deep. The street in front of our old apartment is lined with media trucks, and all the little parklets and courtyards are full of crowds and buskers.

Someone somewhere is making a killing on plastic elf-ears – even some of the security teams in their yellow safety vests are wearing them. There are plenty of “WE (heart) YOU ORLANDO!” banners, interspersed occasionally with similar sentiments for the other actors/characters. Most disturbing, perhaps, were the “Gollum 4EVAH” banners, including such gems as “Marry Me Gollum” painted in Dwarven runes (why, exactly ?), and “Smeagol I’m Pregnant”. (brrr)

Ran into Emily again, dutifully maintaining her position at the barricade. My coworkers are planning to head out to Willis to watch the parade, so there may be another report later.

So we’ve survived the Folklore Festival, only a little sunburned, and ready to hunker down and do nothing at all (except unpack) for a while. The crowd loved Pirate Camp & we all had a blast kidnapping dancers, singing, fighting off trolls and getting our photos taken with small children and Asian teens. Stephen was in fine form, offering passing children the choice between joining the pirates and being eaten by them (Stephen was “Scurvy”, the ship’s Cook, complete with bloody apron, carrots and garlic hanging from his belt, and three days worth of unshaven scruff). There will be pictures eventually — we supposedly have DSL at the new place, but haven’t managed to set up a computer yet.

BONUS: We found Emily ! We knew she’d moved here a few years ago, but never managed to dig up her address — and there she came through the gate of the Faire, just as I happened to be walking by. (The shrieks of delighted recognition no-doubt amused and bewildered the rest of the crowd.) Turns out she’s living in Auckland, and came down with some friends for the Return of the King Premier. This being Emily, after a quick catch-up, she scurried back to her hotel to return to the Faire in garb — so we roped her to a chair and tried to auction her off to passers-by. Then some trolls came and carried her off. Anyway, good fun ! We may be getting together with her tonight, depending on how the Rings hoo-hah goes today.

Speaking of Rings hoo-hah, Wellington is positively berserk. I took photos of some of the decor earlier this week — will get those up as well. But of course now all the stars are here (several of whom were spotted at the Faire), and there are people (possibly including Emily) all camped out along the parade route. The place is *stuffed* with tourists — or as the Kiwis say, “chocka”. Since we were pretty much confined to the park all weekend, I’ll have to wander out at lunch today and see for myself how nuts things are. Part of me wants to dive in along with everybody else, but part of me is also just as happy that we got out of the apartment when we did (it being pretty much next door to the theater) and can avoid it all.

It’s really amazing up the valley — so… rural. Yesterday evening as we were unloading the truck, it was no nice to just stand there, watching the sunset on the hills and listening to the birds and the distant bleating of sheep. Speaking of which, Stephen tells me we have another addition to the gallop paddock: one of the neighbor’s calves has found its way through the fence somehow. So that’s one horse, five ponies, two sheep, and a calf. None of which actually belong to us. Hee.