As we are here, a gazillion miles from everybody and everything, for pretty much the sole purpose of traveling, of course we couldn't miss it! New Zealand being a main travel priority, it was lucky for us that Australia's neighbors to the east had monopolized roughly half of the convention center. This pretty much solidified our dream of renting a camper van and driving our way around the south island (Did you know NZ is made up of 2 islands? I didn't until shockingly recently). The south island is also home to the wine regions of New Zealand, so I call dibs right now on not driving the van. When we save up the vacation time to pull this off it's going to be awesome!
The convention center that housed the travel fair is conveniently located next to the most reasonably priced movie theater in town. I was so excited to kill two birds with one stone that day, the other bird being none other than glorious, fabulous, amazingly awesome:
Ever the moody 16-year-old at heart, there was no way I was missing the cinematic re-release of Titanic! I was pleased to learn that Junior Mints, my movie theater snack of choice, exist here so I stocked up on some mildly overpriced ones from a convenience store to avoid paying the insanely overpriced movie theater price. Pain in my arse alert: this theater only accepted cash so we had to haul ass outside to find an ATM to get cash before we can get our tickets. What century is this again?
Ok, cash acquired, Junior Mints safely hidden in an obscure pocket in my purse. Let's do this thing! Until I saw it: SOLD OUT plastered in cold, cruel letters across the beautiful, nubile faces of Kate and Leo.
Whyyyyyyyyyyyy, God, why me?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
I told you I was a moody 16-year-old. And overly emotional to boot!
It seemed to be the last day it was playing in theaters here, so it was that day or never. The mere thought of missing it on the big screen put a lump in my throat, and I needed to save all my emotion for the part of the movie where the old couple is laying in bed waiting to die. I cannot miss this movie!
Thankfully there were other theaters in town showing it later that day, and I gladly paid a shit ton more money to see it elsewhere. That theater sold out, I think, because it was so cheap. The important thing is I got to see Titanic. I would sell a freakin' kidney before I missed it.
Clearly, I really am 16.
Unsurprisingly, I really, really enjoyed it. Way more so than my moody, overly emotional 16-year-old self who saw it the first time. I noticed things I hadn't noticed the first time around and the sadness and tragedy struck me way, way more this time around. I got a kick out of the fact that I originally saw it in the theater with the OMG LOVE OF MY LYFE I AM GOING TO MARRY HIM!!!1!! and did this time around as well. I just hope they re-release it in another 15 years so I can see it with whoever is the current love of my life at that time. Only time will tell who the lucky fella will be!
One last thing I will say about this glorious, ridiculous film: Jezebel, my main news source, did a hilarious review of the movie, which can be found here. I implore you to read it; it is hilarious! It's the funniest non-Tina Fey thing I have ever read. And that's saying something. I've read it like 10 times and it truly added to my enjoyment of the film. Hilarious!
It was built in 1907 or thereabouts and the queen of England rode in it at some point before she was queen. I really didn't catch the details because I spent the entire ride IMing on my phone with a friend in the U.S. who just had a baby. For some reason the horrors of child birth interested me more than this ride, but it gave Martin a proper nerd-gasm.
Australia has a pretty sizable Greek population (and this is before their economy went tits up) and every year Brisbane has a huge Greek festival. The main selling point for our attendance was some previously un-heard of confectionery called honey puffs.
I don't know exactly what they are, but they are deep fried and doughy looking, which is my definition of a Must Try food item. There's Greek traditional costumes and dancing but from what I could tell, filling your face with Greek delicacies was the main event. Fine by me! Martin, and a surprising number of other people, enjoyed these tiny marinated octopusses (octopi?).
Martin attended a game of Aussie Rules Football, which is its own sport, with [male] colleagues one weekend. There are no pictures because we just bought a really, really nice camera and no way in HELL was I letting him take it to a booze soaked sporting event. So expect better blog pictures in the future!
"Aussie rules", as it is commonly known, is more similar to rugby than it is to football/soccer. This is my extent of knowledge on the subject. They have got some weird sports down here, let me tell you what, with their love of Aussie rules, cricket and some sport called "netball" which, as far as I can tell, involves throwing a volleyball through a basketball hoop that is missing its back board.
I have no freaking clue what any of these sports are, and they interest me as much as sports I am more familiar with (read: less than 0%) so I will stick to events that revolve primarily around deep fried food items.
You will love driving around the south island. Definitely do it if you get the chance. We spent 10 days with a camper on the south island earlier this year, didn't get to see half as much as we wanted to because there is so much there and had an absolutely fantastic time. We have plans to do the same thing with the other half of the south island in the not too distant future.
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