Northern Walkway

Myself and my better half decided to celebrate our national holiday by tackling the Northern Walkway here in Wellington.

And wow what a walk. We got the train out to Johnsonville (thankfully it was the first day it was running after a month and a bit of upgrading), and began the 16km trek. I imagined that climbing Mt Kaukau at the start would be the most difficult part of the walk. However, it was relatively simple and by the time we got to the top we were able to soak up the 360 degree vistas of Wellington. The scenery is truly breathtaking, we not only got to see Wellington in all its glory from the highest point, we also got views of the South Island. (Unless you are a master walker I would suggest going the way we did, its basically a climb straight up from Khandallah if you go from that side.)

We naively thought that this would be the hardest part of the walk. We were wrong. We descended straight down Mt Kaukau into Khandallah and down into the Nagio Gorge. This lead onto what was most definately the hardest part, clmbing from the bottom of the Nagio Gorge up to the top of Wadestown and the Tinakori hill. It's fair to say that by the time we got to the top we were fairly spent. Having said that there are some beautiful houses in Wadestown. Dreams are for free, the houses certainly are not.

Once we got to the Tionakori hill we had a closer view of the city of Wellington, and the near full stadium, complete with a crowd sung rendition of Wonderwall (England must have been playing). From there it was straight down into Thorndon and back home. All in all a beautiful walk and if you have a spare half day I definitely recommend it. The town belt walks around the city is one of the reasons I love Wellington so much. The fact that you don't even have to walk 45 mins and be right in amongst nature makes living here truly worthwhile.

Hopefully the memories of the views will far outweigh the sore legs we had the next day.

Get of the bandwagon, put down the anvil

Well I have been slack but very busy.

Anywho, a few weeks ago now I ventured to the Town Hall to see the Arctic Monkeys. Now of course the Arctic Monkey's have a hell of a lot of hype behind them. Their debut album was the fastest selling debut of all time. Not to mention some massive hype generated by that giant musical tabloid known as the NME.

Despite the hype they have managed to release two cracking albums, with the second, Favorite Worst Nightmare, managing to break the second album curse and actually be slightly better than their debut.

I was therefore pretty interested to see how they would shape up live. I had seen reviews saying they are known for blowing through a set without barely a word to the crowd, or indeed a breath. Lets just say I didn't leave disappointed. The gig was at the Wellington Town Hall, which is a beautiful venue and is usually really good for sound. That night however, the sound was slightly below par. I could have been where I was standing, but despite this I proceeded to have my mind (and ears) blown.

Having the balls to open with a B-side showed that they aren't afraid to mix things up. The setlist was as follows

• 'Da Frame 2R'
• 'This House Is A Circus'
• 'Still Take You Home'
• 'The View From The Afternoon'
• 'Dancing Shoes'
• 'Dangerous Animals'
• 'From The Ritz To The Rubble'
• 'I Bet You Look Good On The Dancefloor'
• 'Pretty Visitors'
• 'Brianstorm'
• 'When The Sun Goes Down'
• 'Leave Before The Lights Come On'
• 'Go-Kart'
• 'Crying Lightning'
• 'Fluorescent Adolescent'
• 'Do Me A Favour'

Encore

• 'Red Right Hand'
• 'If You Were There, Beware'

They played three new songs, 'Dangerous Animals', 'Pretty Visitors' and 'Go Kart', which will be on there new album they are working on with Josh Holme from Queens of the Stone Age. You could definately see the Holme touch on the songs, quite a bit darker than their previous material.

The Monkeys did not dissapoint. Their was some banter between songs, but mainly it was all about the music. They didn't do the old "save the famous single until last", they played I bet you look good on the dancefloor right in the middle of the set, leaving their encore to be A Nick cave cover (pulled off quite well) and the lesser known If you were there, Beware as the last song.

Some of the songs sounded slightly looser than I hoped, but it was their first gig for over a year, so I will forgive them. Overall a top gig, and I am definately looking forward to the new album.
4.5/5

Makara

Went, on a bit of a wim, for a drive out to Makara today. What a beautiful place. I had been there once before e few years back, but it was pretty wild and not very nice. Even though it wasn't so flash in the city today, it was actually really nice and calm out at Makara. I left my beloved and our friend on the shore and went on the ritual McCarthy 'lets have a good old explore' (thanks for bestowing that on me Dad). There is a gun emplacement right up the top, but I decided to turn back halfway, as I knew the other two would be saying "where in the hell is he"! For next time then.

It is an amazing view form up there though, beautiful views of the Malborough sounds, as well as Kapiti Island. Quite a sheer drop to the shore as well, and it certainly wasn't a good day to have a southeast breeze at the back! I was hoping to get some kind of view of where the wind farm is going out there, but from as far as I got you couldn't see anything.

All in all a good afternoon out. Makara is only about 30 minutes drive from the CBD and its quite a beautiful drive out so I thoroughly recommend it. Possibly not though if there is any kind of a westerly!

2009: Bring it on!

Well it is 2009 already. As far as resolutions go, i'm not big on them but I do have a few 'goals' for the year (which you could argue is exactly the same as resolutions but I digress)...

Get married (!): Wow how quick the time goes, but it is now less than a year until I marry my beloved one. I honestly can't wait, and am really excited about hitting Europe again.

Getting fit and healthy: 2008 was really a year of two half's in that regard, but it finished quite well so this year I plan to keep it going.

Explore beautiful Wellington: There are so many amazing walks that I have already done, yet there are so many more to do. My next one to do is walking the wind turbine to the red rocks. I would also like to knock off the tinakori hill and make it up to the massey monument amongst other things.

Write more: I started this blog last year and it was a bit of a slow start but I aim to do it a bit more reguarly this year.

Read more: I tend to read a large amount of non-fiction in newpapers, and history, but I have quite a few good books I would like to get through.

There are a few more but that covers the main ones. It is going to be a frugal year of savings for us, which is fine, the things I have listed above are mainly free, with the exception of getting married!!!

To borrow a cliche 2009 looks to be a year of change for the world and New Zealand (hopefully not too much at home). We only have about a week and a half until old Commander Cookoo banana's goes into retirement and Barack Obama takes his place in the White House. An extremely momentous timen sure, but let's not expect too much too soon for Obama it will take a while for him to get his eye in.

But some good music beckons for the start to 2009, I'm off to the Arctic Monkeys this week at the town hall (a great venue) so I will report back soon, but I am looking forward to a crackin concert......

Let fury have the hour, anger can be power, do you know that you can use it?

Sunday afternoon I managed to take a second viewing of the Joe Strummer documentary The Future is Unwritten. I saw it for the first time last year in the film festival, but it was good to take in a second viewing to understand the contradictory man that was Strummer and his role in The Clash.

Now, while I wouldn't pretend to be a die hard fan of all things Clash, I would consider myself a fan of some of their music. In particular, their early singles and London Calling, which I would include as one of the best albums ever (with the best album cover of all time, hence my profile picture).

WIth their first three singles they burst out of the blocks with White Riot, 1977, and London's Burning. All were an almost literal call to arms to knock down the tired and staid state of rock at the time. Indeed, the song 1977 is almost a year zero for music with Strummer's scathing "No Elvis, Beatles or the Rolling Stones." With a collective time of less than 6 minutes, it contained more excitement than some bands muster in their entire careers.

However, by 1979 much of the steam had run out of punk. The Sex Pistols were gone, replaced by a number of knock off bands. The Clash moved away from the pure anger and thrash of their debut and diversified. It mixes its own brand of ska, reggae, punk and rockabilly with some potent storytelling. Themes range from the political: and Spanish Bombs and Clampdown's anti fascism call to arms, to the disillusionment of consumerism (Lost in the Supermarket), bands selling out (Death of Glory) and even Hollywood actor Montgomery Clift (The right profile). While the songs are not outwardly angry, the way Strummer can craft a story in the lyrics proves even more potent.

London calling, for me at least, was their zenith, and would prove to be an album they wouldn't match. They followed it up with a bloated triple record Sadinista, and the only slightly better Combat Rock. Unfortunately, they quickly succumbed (Strummer most of all) to the standard rock death sentence; stadium concerts, drugs, and in fighting. Within a few years they would be no more. Strummer himself comes across in the documentary as a walking contradiction, and while he is unfortunately no longer around to defend himself, I am sure he will agree. Through his life he traversed the scale from a middle class boarding school upbringing, to dropout hippie, to an angry punk, to embracing being a hippie again. While he can be seen as a contradiction in the broadest sense, it is hard to doubt the intesity that he had for which ever hat he chose to wear.

No matter Strummer's contradictions, in London Calling The Clash produced one of the finest rock records of all time. We unfortunately live in a time where angst, anger and protest songs are homogenised. As another great band, Sleater-Kinney, sang in their homage to the Clash "where is the questioning where is the protest song." While the majority of contemporary music has largely failed to rage against the machine (no not even that band has), it is helpful to jump back to records such as London Calling, which are often as if not more applicable to today's environment than they were when they were released.

"The ice age is coming, the sun is zooming in
Engines stop running and the wheat is growing thin"
The Clash - London Calling