Season 2, Ep. 10

Abercrombie & Bitch

Ah that wonderful magical world of Abercrombie & Fitch. 

More specifically, the magical wonderful world of the Abercrombie and Fitch stores. Feels like nothing else is going on in the world when you walk in those stores, doesn't it? ISIS, what ISIS? I have a topless male model staring at me here, bothered. 

For those of you who don't probably know what on earth I'm talking about, Abercrombie & Fitch or also known as A&F is an American Retail brand that sells casual, everyday wear across the world and it most certainly has a unique style when it comes to its stores. Now, 80% of the company's stores are located across America, however the rest of them are around Europe and pretty sure there must be one in Aussie somewhere, but you guessed it right, where there's white people, there's a store. Ahem. I'll get to that later. 

The stores are big, poorly lit and with many floors and it plays extremely loud music and usually dance beats. So if this painted a picture of a club to you, you guessed it right, that's pretty much their aim, to make you feel like you're partying while shopping minus the alcohol. True paradise for the shopaholic, if you're not an alcoholic. Hash tag rhyme. But that's not the MAIN signature style of the stores. Nope, as if the darkness and the loud as music are not enough, the sales people who work on the floor are models. Some proper working models, others are unemployed actors and just extremely good looking students. All in all, beauty galore. Uh-huh. Believe me the eye candy is insane. And to add another little cherry on your cream pie, there is usually a ridiculously ripped guy standing topless wearing A&F jeans at the entrance of each store ready to greet you and take a photo with you. A polaroid. A polaroid photo with a topless 6-pack with a head on it. You don't usually see past the pecks that's why I'm objectifying the person so much. What can you do, looks are looks. And Mr M. Jeffreys-look him up- knows that. I'm not sure if he is still the CEO of A&F but he sure was while I worked there. Oh yeah, I was working there for 6 years. 6 whole years, I jumped from department to department, I did the sales person thing, then I did some dancing-oh yeah-on the floor as well, just, you know, some casual bopping while greeting customers, then I did my share of recruiting beautiful models myself to be part of our campaign and London stores,now that was fun and shallow, then I decided I no longer wanted to feel like a carrot so I jumped into more productive roles like work the stockrooms, shipment of stock, some office work etc. All this in London. The store there is mahoosive. 

Mr CEO current or not, has very strong views on his models aka employees' looks, and not only that, he even has strong views on what kind of customers he likes to target. What do I mean by that? He promoted the all-natural look widely. I have no opposition to that, I believe in natural, clean looks too, so basically he wouldn't allow too much make up, coloured hair, tattoos or facial piercings but he was also too strong about his boys being clean shaven. I am using the word boys here because that's unfortunately how most men look clean shaven.

I mean this sounds all fair until the Muslim girl came along for a job and since she is wearing a head scarf she can only get a job at the stockrooms. And then the girl with the prosthetic arm came for a job too and suddenly she is never allowed on the sales floor during opening hours either. Suddenly the employees that are allowed to be seen all look similar, there was nothing special or different about and in one word perfect. Sounds like an

Aryan race case to me, ahem. Now, whether you agree with me here that this sounds a bit ridiculous or not, the two girls along with tens of other employees with a similar A&F treatment from across the world have indeed sued A&F multiple times for this outrageous manhandling. I swear, I'm not lying look it up. Pretty sure the company has spend millions on compensations it says. And to top it all off, Mr CEO has mentioned in interviews, "I don't want to sell my clothes to poor people and I only want my clothes to be worn by beautiful people". Something like that. Hash tag burn baby burn. Between you and me, not worth it. Clothes overpriced and bad quality, trust me I know. 

And yes I worked there. One of my many jobs for this lifetime was this and I may say after the first couple of years where I established a relationship with my managers who by the way were changing every month pretty much, I lost track, things became pretty cruise-y for me. There were times where I would work there full time and there was times I worked there once a month for a year and then back more regularly etc. You can NOT believe how magical that moment was when I handed in my resignation for me. Tears and everything. TOODLES to A&F, Noodles to you.

There is always positives to every experience, and with this one I take away all the hundreds of beautiful souls I met while working there. "C'est tous"

Ta.

K.

Season 2, Ep. 09

Christchurch Art Gallery

Okay. So this post shall be brief and to the point. Nothing deeper than the title which is pretty self explanatory. The posts about the holiday at the South Island are wrapping up today with a post about the Art Gallery I visited while in Canterbury. 

I hadn't visited a proper Art Gallery since forever I feel. So it was much to my disappointment when I heard that the Christchurch Gallery may be shut and under construction since the earthquakes. That was an assumption anyway and that's what it looked like as I was walking up to the building from the side and that side was covered in scaffolding. But no, all good, false alarm, wide open to the public and quite an impressive building may I say. 

I first started at the top floor with my partner who after the first room decided to walk back downstairs, give me my time to view and wait. Lol, hash tag not for everybody. The range of art was just enough I reckon, not too tiny, you know, one room, 10 paintings and you're out, neither was it endless floors of art that you can't even remember the last one you viewed after.

The first room that really impressed me was The Golden Age. It was engravings on wood from the 20th Century. So impressive. The details on each piece were so carefully done that I almost started believing they're fake, no way someone could do this on wood. Indeed my friends, indeed. 

I looked through rooms that focused on New Zealand's history in paintings but the next room that caught my eye was post-modern art. These rooms always catch my eye and not always for the right reasons. Here I am looking through amazingly detailed paintings and engraved pieces of art from the 20th Century and then I walk into a room with a LARGE yellow painting, excuse me, 'painting', and... I'm supposed to read between the lines? I mean, that's just one woman's opinion but I never understood that kind of art. There's the artist that sheds blood, sweat and tears over an oil painting of a meadow for example, with excruciating detail you can almost see the little bird on the tree about to poop, and then there's the lazy 'post-modern' artist who prints a yellow canvas aaaand suddenly it's the hottest thing in the gallery. Come on...

Again, one woman's opinion, everyone is entitled to their own. Happy to hear yours. 

Anyhoos, yellow, shmellow, I thoroughly enjoyed the entire thing and finally I should mention the room named 'Pip & Pop'. It was a massive installation in a small room made from sugar, tiny objects, glitter, paint and portrayed the landscape allude to the Japanese tradition of Kintsugi*. So beautiful, so colourful, so yummy, so happy, it caused all the happy feelings I tell ya. 

Loved it. Hope you can love it as much as I did if you get a chance to travel down here or even through my photos. Now, this week is for art lovers, next week is for lovers. V-day.

www.instagram.com/katerinageorgiou

*Kintsugi

Season 2, Ep. 08

Wrapping Up

Previously on The Moo Point...

So we are at Christchurch at the moment, after a day of travelling down to the city with one stop-over in Kaikoura, and a quick visit in few towns on the way including Waipara Hills,and then Lincoln University and Akaroa once we got there. 

Today...

Christchurch is a struggling beauty. The ruins from the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes are more than visible, YET, the first flash buildings have already emerged and boy do they look cool. I give it 4-5 more years and I reckon the city will look cooler than ever, futuristic, modern, fresh out the box. But for now, all you hear is the sound of drilling and scaffolding all around which takes away pretty much all of the fun walking around the city, but hey, what can you do.

The problem is, there's still some buildings of sentimental and historical value that have gotten completely ruined during the earthquake but it's still undecided whether they should tear them down completely and start from scratch or try to keep them up and 'fix' what's left of them. Pretty dangerous though I reckon, evcen if they do this, they can only be for show. Noone will be able to walk in them let alone live in them. Sounds like a joke to me that they are even considering fixing the ruins but I get it, there's buildings like the Christchurch Cathedral at Cathedral Square, right at the heart of the city,which is a true landmark but is still barely hanging, but also, how do you completely demolish such a landmark. And this is coming from a super non-religious person, but it ain't about that. 

Anyhoo, my day exploring the city was super hot and sunny so I loved every little bit of it. Prior to our walk-about in the city though, we made a little trip to Sumner Village, 20 minutes out. It's an area right by the ocean, obviously super busy at this time of the year with surfies, kids swimming, boogie-boarding etc. Then you come across a big playground and a line of cafes and restaurants around. The road leads to a massive hill which is full of flash-ish houses but boy what a view they must have up there, right above the ocean. 

Overall, I noticed that apart from the old ruins getting rebuilt etc, there's a massive line of new homes getting built further from the centre of the city. I'm not sure if people have now decided to migrate towards the suburbs after what happened, or if the population is growing, but there were new blocks of houses EVERYWHERE.

On our way back to Picton to catch our ferry back to the North Island, we made another stop at Cheviot, remember from the previous episode? Cheviot, lattes, try it. Our ferry back was smooth as, we spent all 3 hours at the 'Quiet' room, reading, napping, and we booked our final accommodation literally 3 hours before arriving in Martinborough. This time we stayed at a camp ground but in a cabin. Beautiful little batch, and the camp had new facilities, such as showers, kitchen etc,so it felt pretty flash. Check it out, TOP 10 Holiday Park. Now, I LOVED Martinborogh, stayed for like a day before we finally made it back to the Naki, and for a small town,it is so nicely maintained, CUTEST little pubs and bars. I appreciated that, it don't matter how small the town is to me, it was so nicely taken care of and remodelled. We visited a winery as this is what Martinborough is famous for BUT our main day trip was to Castle Point a famous surf beach. Beautiful indeed. Endless hot, smooth sand, beautiful waters. The partner had to go for a surf. Of course. 

The next day meant the road trip wrapped as we drove back to Taranaki. A much worth mentioning town on the way up is Greytown, we only drove past but it was enough to mention how preeeetty it is. Masterton, mmm not so much. 

Sad to see the end of our trip but was definitely stoked to see my little teapot puppy again who probably had a better holiday than us with the pup mate she stayed with. Hashtag it's a dog's life.

Alright, now back to reality. See you next week when things turn artistic. So yeah, get ready to get in touch with your artistic side.Hashtag  Christchurch Art Gallery. Woop.

Christchurch

Castle Point

Martinborough

Season 2, Ep. 07

The One With Kaikoura

Previously on The Moo Point...

The South Island, Nelson, Golden Bay, hipster coffee houses and The Revenant. 

You with me? Excellent.
We said bye-bye to Nelson in order to drive down to Canterbury with a small stop over in Kaikoura. Kaikoura is a small town between Picton and Christchurch and it is famous for its fresh fish and seafood to locals. Me being from Europe, New Zealand is awesome when it comes to its fresh seafood over all, but locals are bound to get pickier and Kaikoura tops the list I guess. And boy is it true. I am a little fussy personally with fish, I have a strong feeling it ain't just me, but yeah, if the fish ain't fresh, nah, sorry, just get me more fries. 

Unfortunately the weather had started to get sad. And it kept getting sadder and sadder until it started raining and not only that it kept getting colder and colder believe it or not, until we went to an Irish pub, beautiful one, make sure you check it out, it's called The Strawberry Tree, wow that is a huge parenthesis I am making in order to get to my point, anyway the pub had a fire on. Yes. It was beautiful, beautiful scenery I tell you but hello, middle of summer here. Hashtag global warming.

Next day we couldn't wait to get back on the road and get out of the motel we stayed in and make our move down to Christchurch. The motel was called Dusky Lodge and Backpackers,and even though it had amazing facilities, spa, pool, kitchen, internet, pool table and a TV in the room,however my oh my, that toilet in our room smelled like a cow's fart. Hashtag it was moo. So yeah, outta there.

The trip to Christchurch was smooth, with a couple of small stops, one at Cheviot town where I HAD THE BEST LATTE EVER ALRIGHT, I mean for a small town they sure have a couple of super cute, modern coffee houses, so if you're driving down there stop at Cheviot. I repeat, stop over at Cheviot town. Ta. Later we stopped quickly at Waipara Hills, a very flash winery. Like, very flash. We had our coffee watching a bunch of men taking down a massive stage where UB40 had just performed on the night before there, Waipara Hills is a famous venue for concerts etc. Hashtag red red wine. It was still a little rainy but at least we weren't roasting in the car. Arriving in Canterbury, our first stopover was at Lincoln University in Lincoln. Why? That was the university my better half attended, thanks for asking. I had a good nosy around the campus and after we discussed what had changed we made a move to Lincoln town which reportedly did not use to look like the way it does now. Some locals claimed "we're important now, we have our massive chain supermarket and heaps of flash new cafes, library and brewery-pub". Overall, a very nice upgrade then. 

We arrived in Riccarton in Christchurch around 4pm and checked into our room. It was such a wonderful, tidy, clean room, with heaps of facilities including a mini kitchen. Hashtag bargain. If you're interested, check out Academy Motor Lodge. Best stay that far. For the rest of our day we drove to Westfield, yes we have a Westfield too, and had dinner locally. We had a long day awaiting the day after.

The weather was still pretty crappy but hey, can't win them all. The next morning we took off to Akaroa in the Banks Peninsula. A super cute former French colony, therefore it has kept all its French names, even the streets are named in French. "Rue Oxford" par example. Cute. Akaroa is surrounded by the beautiful Lake Forsyth and once again you'll have a chance to explore heaps of shops, coffee shops and restaurants. If you feel adventurous and up for a splurge, you can have the opportunity to pay for a trip to swim with dolphins, IF you're lucky to spot any that is. Up to you. 
Right, so I shall leave you with the above information for now to digest for a week and get back to you asap. 

Next on The Moo Point: Christchurch and the way back on the North Island  that marks the end of the road trip. Look after yourselves!

Katerina

Making friends in Kaikoura

Waipara Hills

Akaroa

Lake Forsyth/Akaroa