food

Today was Marcos’ birthday. He’s our bus driver, and according to our guide Paul, “The second best driver in Costa Rica. The first best is in jail.” Many times Marcos proved his skill at maneuvering the huge Mercedes bus.

Happy Birthday, Marcos!

I wish I wrote down the name of the place we stopped for lunch, the food was great plus they had a nice butterfly garden out back. It’s near the town of Guapiles, and it’s exactly here: N 10.20316667, W 83.77471000.

Butterfly

Morphos wing detail

The plant is called “Labios de Puta”, or in more polite English: “Hot Lips.” It makes more sense before the blue berries appear.

Passion Flower

I got up at 5:20 this morning to take a picture of the sun rising over the Caribbean Sea on the first day of the new year. Sunrises aren’t as dramatic as sunsets, especially when the sky is completely clouded over. Everything gradually got brighter, but there was no way to see that the sun came over the horizon at 5:50am.

Sunrise on New Year's Morning, Tortuguera, Costa Rica

Sunrise, New Year’s Morning

As I was setting up my camera, another gentleman walked out onto the beach. We smiled at each other and he headed down the beach. Then he stopped, turned around and walked up to me with a big smile and his hand outstretched. We shook hands and he said "I wish you a very happy new year," in a wonderful Northern European accent. I wished him the same, and he turned and walked down the beach.

There was something really moving about the encounter – it was so genuine and sincere on both our parts, standing on this remote beach, that was so different from the typical “Happy New Year” greetings we toss about.

Around 6:30 I got the rest of the family up so we could pack up to continue our journey. The boat left the dock at 8am, and we were looking forward to the hour long boat ride through the river and canals back to the bus. Unfortunately, the sky opened up again dumping enough rain to cause the captain to stop the boat and roll down the plastic window sides. If you’ve ever tried to look though the back window of a convertible you know the kind of view we now had. An hour of humming engine and the occasional banking turn, while blurry trees slide by outside the window.

Paul, our tour guide, on the boat leaving Tortuguero. It’s New Year’s day, he doesn’t normally look like this! (Sorry Paul!)

The rest of the day was primarily a day of travel to get halfway across Costa Rica to our next stop in Fortuna. The bus ride was broken up with two stops – one for lunch at the same place we ate a couple days ago (delicious! No problem having a repeat), and one at a 300 foot suspension bridge over a river. The second was kind of a novelty stop that was fun to do but mostly broke the trip into segments so we could stretch our legs.

Lunch

On the suspension bridge in the Selva Verde Rainforest Reserve.

Kevin and Eric on the far side of the bridge.

We arrived at the beautiful Lomas de Volcan hotel in Fortuna around 4pm. We traveled about 150 miles today by boat and bus, over about 5 hours of travel time.

Finally there!

The view out the back door of our cottage. We’re looking right at Arenal Volcano, which can’t be seen at the moment due to the clouds.

And here’s two shots of the volcano from right outside our room. These were actually taken the next day, but the flow works better if I put them here. These shots were taken about 20 minutes apart – the view of the cone was always changing. I wish I had set up a time-lapse series.

7:03am

7:24am

The first thing we learned upon arriving in Wellington is how good the coffee is. We had a bit of time to wait at the airport before Kim and Ray picked us up, so we grabbed some coffee at a shop by baggage claim. I was introduced to a ‘Flat White’, which is a Latte with a double shot of coffee in it, and it was excellent. This has become my new standard in NZ.

Kim is a friend of mine through the Visual Effects Society (VES), and is the reason I was invited to speak at AnimFX. She and Ray (both from Sauce FX) picked us up and gave us a driving tour of Weta on our way to the hotel. After hearing about Weta Digital for the first time when they were ramping up for “Lord of the Rings”, I’ve been following their work and rise to CG superpower. As is the case with so many effects and animation ‘shops,’ their humble exteriors hide the amazing work that is going on inside.

The Weta Cave - their retail shop

We checked into the Museum Hotel, right across from the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum where the conference will be happening.

View of the Te Papa Tongarewa Museum from our room at the Museum Hotel. The AnimFX conference is held at the Te Papa.

After lunch down the street and a walk through the Sunday farmers’ market, we boarded a bus tour of Wellington to help us get our bearings. We learned a bit about NZ politics (though it still remains somewhat cryptic to me), saw some wonderful historic architecture, drove along the Carmel-esque shoreline, and went to the top of things.

Wellington, from the top of the cable car

Old St. Paul's, a beautiful wood church in Wellington

Sarah, in Old St. Paul's

The view of Wellington from Mt. Victoria

We ended the day with a walk along the waterfront, stopping for drinks and a great dinner at Macs brewery.

I had a Macs Wheat Beer, while Sarah dreamt of sleeping

Chicken breast marinated in hard cider, with leeks, carrots and mushrooms. Yum.

The conference starts tomorrow, so even though I’m ready for my sessions most of the day was spent reworking slides and fretting.

After breakfast (with great coffee!) at Joe’s Garage and lunch on a decommissioned tug boat nee cafe, Sarah toured the Te Papa museum as a visitor, and I toured it as part of tech prep to check out the rooms and computer/display compatibilities. I had the pleasure of meeting Enrico Casarosa of Pixar, who will be presenting the Southern Hemisphere premiere of his short ‘La Luna’ on Tuesday.

Enrico Casarosa checking out the projection of "La Luna" in the theater at Te Papa.

It’s always comforting to walk though the spaces you’ll be presenting in beforehand, especially when it’s as well organized as the AnimFX and Te Papa teams are – everything plugged in and worked perfectly the first time.

In the evening there was a VIP dinner at the Museum Hotel’s Hippopotamus Restaurant. Fantastic food with fascinating people. I got to meet many of the other presenters and hosts.

VIP dinner at Hippopotamus. I wish I could have sat at both tables!

This was one of the astonishing options for dessert at Hippopotamus - a raspberry delight with almond macaroons.

This was my big work day. I distilled my fifteen week Entrepreneurship in Entertainment Technology class down to a five hour Master Class.

Forty four people signed up for the class, all Kiwis, with a variety of backgrounds and experience from students to business owners to producers to representatives from NZ Trade and Enterprise. I had timed out the whole day on my notes and was right on schedule until about half way through. Utimately I ran long by about 15 minutes and sadly had to rush the last section. The people in the class made this a very enjoyable experience – I wasn’t nervous about having enough material (in fact I was throwing stuff out right up until yesterday), but I was a bit concerned about keeping everyone engaged though a five hour session. As it turned out we had a great dynamic – people shared their experiences, asked questions, and participated in some great discussions. I’m excited now about an opportunity to do this again, with obvious tuning based on today’s experience. And lemon and honey tea to fight off a subsequent day of hoarseness.

There were about 40 people in attendence, but I only remembered to take the picture after the class was over. These are most of the survivors.

While I was at the conference, Sarah was learning more about Wellington at the Wellington City Museum and the local shopping district.

We had dinner at Ambeli, an excellent restaurant recommended by my buddy Jeff. Thanks, Jeff!

Lamb chops at Ambeli

Poussin at Ambeli

Lunch And Butterfly Garden

Happy New Year!

Acclimating in Wellington

Tech Prep and Meet the VIPs

AnimFX NZ – Master Class Day