Monthly Archives: June 2015

Last things to do in Wellington

Bohemein Chocolates - Chocolate class

Master chocolatier

Last Christmas, I wished for a couple of vouchers for things that I wanted to do in Wellington. In March, I went to the zoo and had a close encounter with the red pandas and about two weeks ago now, it was time for me to have a two hours chocolate class with my favourite Wellington chocolatier: Bohemein chocolates.

The class was designed for someone like me: Having tried to work with chocolate at home and having run into problems. So instead of looking at all the maschines to work with 50 kg of chocolate, we started with a 2kg bag of chocolate chips on a stove. Just like you would at home. Well, probably not 2kg for you alone but we were 6 people in class.

We started with how to melt chocolate without spoiling it, checking temperature (I want a thermometer for chocolate!) and then the ‘stirring until your arm is falling off’. Working with chocolate is a science in itself as chocolate is the most squirmish material and hates a two degrees difference in temperature.

Bohemein Chocolates - Chocolate class

Chocolate truffels

We used the molten chocolate to make a ganache, dipped it in chocolate and rolled it in chocolate shavings. They were yummy. The reason for the exercise was that truffels are the easiest piece of chocolate to make and you can flavour it with almost anything.

In a nutshell

We had a decent  list of kit that we wanted to get right for this big trip, and some things that were on our wishlist for a while. This has less to do with all these shiny new gimmicks that we eyed a couple of years ago and more with real gaps and improvements to our gear that we uncovered during previous trips. After all, we have been traveling for a while now.

Although we had some troubles, our decision to go for the Touratech Compañero suit was never much in question. My one fits nicely, but because it is not easy to get and Nina’s first try with the size was miles off, we decided to leave this till we stop by at Touratech Australia and try them on until the right size is found.

Now, about those nutshells: We had two contenders for helmets, based on recommendation and research.

Luckily, a local shop was stocking both of them. For New Zealand, that is like hitting jackpot! After the issues with the suits we did not want to go for anything without trying it on.

Let’s start with the Aventuro then: It is light – oh wow is it light. A carbon shell and full-on adventure helmet, neither one of us felt really comfortable with the shape. Maybe it is the head shape they are designed for or just that they are a bit more basic rather than comfortable. So, amazing helmet, but not for us.

The C3 pro (or C3 pro Women for Nina) on the other hand … ohh … heaven. It fits very snug yet oh so comfortable. The flip front is easy to use, we like chin straps with buckles instead of D-rings and we have not yet met anyone who owns one and is disappointed with it.

That was it, pretty much. Unfortunately, NZ has a real issue with getting Schuberth helmets in stock, so the store could not get us two of the same colour, even with a month and a half lead time. So with a heavy heart, the internet it has to be. This time armed with the right model and size though …

Getting photo savvy

Flo gave me a voucher for a beginner’s class in photography for Christmas and this

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA


 

Saturday, I actually went. It was just a one day/ 5 hours class but it was exactly right for me. It was advertised as ‘get you off the automatic setting on your camera’ which I was on pretty much until yesterday.

The class had only four people, which was a very nice size to have enough time for all the questions etc. I had severe camera envy for a SLR cameras but then we will not be able to take anything that big with us on the motorbike. My compact camera it is.

We started with a lot of theory around iso, aperture and shutter speed which I might have heard about before but had no clue how to change on my camera. We started with some practical exercises in portraiture shots and, for obvious reason, I will be unable to share any of the pictures.

In the afternoon, we went on a small exploration tour around the waterfront with little exercises and also with the task of trying everything we had learnt in the morning. For me, this mostly meant to take focused pictures and try to get the background blurry…

Some examples: