Once a shopaholic, always a shopaholic. Lai Min and I took time out from Wanganui (after she went into retail shock) and headed to the capital for some serious shopping. We took the first bus out Tuesday morning (my birthday!) and got there by noon. We made a pact not to bring anything more than what would fit into our backpacks, so we headed straight to Kirkcaldie and Stains, which is the Wellington equivalent of Harrods. Definately shopping paradise, because the place was on sale! Now the difference between Malaysian sales and overseas sales is that the cosmetics and perfumes department over here really does go on sale.

I picked up a Shiseido black on black palette for NZ$15. Me being self appointed queen of black eyeshadows, was of course completely overjoyed. 3 different shades of black! Bliss! There’s also the super versatile MAC studio tech sponge I always run out of, so I picked up two. The MAC in KLCC was out of stock when I went there before I left KL. That is one good sponge. It works for virtually everything!

We hung around Lambton Quay for a couple of hours and had lunch at this quirky gourmet cafe called the Wishbone. Then I took Lai Min up the Wellington Cable Car before walking to the Willis Quarter, where we shopped somemore. Headed down Cuba St Mall, shopped even more and then went to check in at the YHA. That place is one cool backpack hostel. Everything is ultra hip and most importantly, very very clean. We dumped all our stuff there, took a rest and headed down to Sinawe on Manners St for dinner. Sinawe is a Korean joint, with good food and karaoke - David took us there last time round so I remembered the place.

We ordered so much food that the waiter kept trying to dissuade us from ordering anymore. He kept insisting the seasoning beef was HUGE and meant for a big dinner party but we insisted on having it anyway. We managed to finish all the food, plus two pitchers of water because the Kimchi soup was so hot it was killing us. Really good food though, and Lai Min paid for dinner as a birthday treat. Headed to some bars after that, I had more of my vodka infusions. Jet serves Finlandia-based infusions, which was new to me because almost everywhere I’ve been to uses Absolut as a base. The passionfruit vodka at Jet was really good, the taste of the passionfruit was a little strong and killed the vodka taste, but otherwise it was really good. Vanilla bean vodka ended up tasting like melted cling wrap, ugh.. not going there again. I’ll stick to fruits next time. Also tried a variety of cocktails, including my new un-favourite Cosmopolitan. Cosmos are nice sipping drinks, and I do enjoy it but ever since that champagne vodka cocktail I had at Coast Bar, Cosmo is now second on my list.

I swear once I start training at the gym again I’m laying off the piss. I’ve done it before and I can do it again. Uh huh.

Checked out early next morning with alot of extra baggage from all that shopping, had a really good breakfast at Expressoholic - the omelette was so fluffy I swear it’s all air - before walking to the Te Papa museum to check out the LOTR Exhibition there. It was so cool.. I think every LOTR fan should visit this exhibition.

First we saw the costumes the cast wore in the movie (yes, actual costumes!) and the ring itself suspended in a tube in a room with a ring of fire, but the most impressive thing was the armoury section. Sauron’s horse bridle was AMAZING. And the Nazgul’s crowns were so detailed. And the swords, oh man.. there was actual solid steel cast ones that they used and the craftmanship was so damn detailed I could almost imagine the middle-earth really exists. I saw the Nenya, as well as all the other rings of power, and Arwen’s Evenstar which she gave to Aragorn.. there was even an interactive display of the scaling techniques they used to make the hobbits tiny and everything else huge. Everything was there, the war banners, the myrthil chainmail - it looks so real but they actually cut about 12.5 million rings out from a resin-like substance, coated it in metal and assembled the chainmail by hand. The end result was so real but when you actually feel it, it’s really light. And the prosthetics - Lutz took 12 hours to dress up because he wore a full bodysuit, and after dressing him up, they airbrush him.. and the next day they repeat the whole process. Then there was Boromir on the boat when he died, Gandalf’s scrolls, the scaled down model of the Orthanc which they used for shooting and actual prehistoric specimens that they used in Saruman’s room. The baddies were done up so nicely, strange how evil is always more interesting than good. I al so in love with the Nazgul costumes, and the fact that they used real horses in the chasing scene and digital models of the horses in the fighting scenes. I really couldn’t tell.

And of course, Legolas’s bows and arrows - and his costume! *faints*

The only downside was that cameras weren’t allowed in, but we took some pictures at the entrance, where they set up a massive stone sculpture of the two guards (can’t remember what they were called) at the river mouth. We walked all the way back up to Lambton Quay after that to finish shopping. I bought this MAC carrier, which was the only one in Wellington. It’s really cool, black, rectangular, and has a strap. It’s like a birthday present to myself (that was MY excuse anyway) And then Swarovski had a sale and we walked out of there with three jewelry pouches/wallets which were all 50%. Argh. Sales are bad for me.

After shopping, we packed some lunch from Wishbone again and headed to the bus station. Got back to Wanganui about 7pm, finished laundry and lazed around. I have a shoulder ache because my backpack had only one strap and I totally killed my right shoulder lugging all that stuff around. I wish I could afford a massage now because I really need one. It hurts like hell, and that’s not the only thing hurting. My feet are as good as dead too.

Aida called about 11pm and I went over to their flat for a late supper. About midnight, the rest of my friends arrived and we has a quick catching up session before I came back. I’m actually typing this at home on my PC, don’t know when I’ll get to post this. Tomorrow I have to go sort out my accomodation - I want to move upstairs into the senior room, which is a lot bigger than my sardine can - and most of my housemates have agreed. Hey, I need the space.

God, I’m totally bushed. I need to wake up early tomorrow to take Lai Min to the CGD Campus for her orientation and then run back to the Main Campus to sort my room out. I knew it was a good idea not to fully unpack yet!

Highlight of my short trip was definately the LOTR exhibition. I wanna be an elf in my next life