Like most years, we didn't make any advanced plans for New Year's eve this (last?) year. In fact, we can't remember most of NYEs over the last 8 years. However, we both agree that the most enjoyable one we've had was 2013/2014 - we spent the evening with Merrin, Darrel, and a couple other friends playing Cards Against Humanity.
Every year I imagine I'd like to do something fancy. Perhaps get all dressed up and eat a fancy dinner with a fabulous live band in the background. There *is* a winery just north of Wellington that puts on a great NYE dinner each year, but the band this year was not one we were interested in. Ah, well. Maybe next (this?) year.
Even though New Zealand is in the first time zone to see the New Year, there is no large organised celebration. That is, none of the 4 major TV networks have a countdown or NYE special - most just play old movies or music videos. I assume Auckland has a fireworks show...it isn't televised. And Wellington promises to do a fireworks show each year, but they are often cancelled due to weather. Yes, despite it being summer, NYE in Wellington is almost always cold, rainy and/or windy! This past one was no exception, although the crap weather stopped just before the scheduled fireworks. I can only assume they happened, because...also not televised.
Darren and I had a relatively quiet evening filled with beer, pizza, video games and the struggle to stay awake until midnight. We made it though, and celebrated with a beer from Garage Project called "Hops on Pointe", which melds a golden lager with champagne yeast. It was...horrible. Truly, absolutely tragic! We plan to lump that into the sucky year that was 2014 instead of as a harbinger of things to come in 2015.
Today, we woke up to gorgeous weather, so we headed out for a walk across Karori to the cemetery. Along the way, we passed the main Karori shops, the smaller shopping area in Marsden Village and an even smaller shopping area just before leaving Karori. Almost everything was closed, which is not unexpected.
The cemetery is gorgeous:
With a bit of history:
The cemetery was quiet and peaceful, as cemeteries are, I guess. Afterwards, we headed back through Karori past the few open stores (a Chinese take-away, a Dairy), picked up a DVD from the video store (yes! we still have video stores!), a couple items from the grocery store and made it home in time for lunch. Later in the afternoon, we streamed the NYE fireworks show from Walt Disney World via their website. Magical!
Happy New Year!
2 comments:
That was a good New Years :)
I watched Disney too :)
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