Wellington

We spent 3 days in Wellington, catching up on laundry, doing errands and visiting with Illaria and Larissa. It was a hectic and busy few days, but highly enjoyable after all the lazy days that preceded it.

We enjoyed a few more feasts courtesy of Illaria and Iain, an antipasto type brunch our first day in town thanks to Illaria and Iain created the most decadent crepes for us the second day. My mouth still waters when I think about them.

Our first day was filled with souvenir shopping at an amazing store just past Balena Bay, incredible wool goods at factory prices. Once we had loaded up on our woolly wonders we figured it was time to send a few things home. It took a few hours to organize the van, ourselves and our shipping box, but we had so much glorious space when we were finished!

We wanted to be close to town for the next few days so we parked for the night in the Te Papa Museum overnight lot and went out to explore Wellington; something the weather had prevented us from doing on our previous visit. We discovered that the downtown area frowns upon campers, although they don't outright ban them. Instead they make it very inconvenient for us by closing ALL the public toilets at 9pm. Of course it's not just because of the plethora of campers that park at Te Papa, but it did feel like we were being targeted. We pondered our options as we walked back to the van and discovered a few creative options that made the next few nights at Te Papa much more agreeable. Of course, I'll never tell what they were!

We set the alarm and woke up early and got our parcel shipped home for a fairly reasonable rate courtesy of Kiwi Post. Once our chores were done the day was filled with pleasure seeking. We enjoyed the crepes with Illaria then beer and cider on an ocean side patio in the sunshine followed by three hours exploring the phenomenal exhibits at Te Papa museum. Our first trip to the museum I had only managed a taste of what it held, I wanted to explore every nook and cranny on my second trip. I enjoyed modern art, ancient history, naturalist displays, the history of the earth and New Zealand culture among others. I could spend days there and not get bored, it is a marvelous museum. There was one painting, 'The Widow' done by Charles F. Goldie in 1902, that had me spellbound for quite some time. It was undoubtedly the most memorable object in the museum for me after the full size meeting house in the Maori exhibit.

That night we enjoyed a few more drinks on a patio on Cuba Street downtown then headed off for the visual feast that is Alice in Wonderland. We saw the movie in an old converted opera house, there was a wine bar upstairs and lovely plush seats to relax and enjoy the film from. So much fun!

Our second to last day we spent most of in the internet cafe, Immigration offices, I-sight and DOC offices. We had to change our airline tickets and extend our visas so we could spend extra time exploring the west coast of the North Island. It was occasionally tedious but successful, we were granted a month long extension and Air Canada changed our flights with no problems.

We had arranged to meet up with Illaria when she finished work and we greeted her on the dockside patio of the Mac's Brewery and Pub. We had a cold pitcher of beer and seats in the sunshine; it promised to be a good afternoon. After chatting and drinking for a few hours we convinced Illaria to stay out with us and we moved our party to Cuba Street where another pitcher of beer and a few cider were imbibed on a patio in the middle of the street. Cuba Street is similar in feeling to Gas Town in Vancouver, a narrow street with lots of shops and restaurants and trendy pubs. Street buskers appear every hundred feet; some with phenomenal talent others sadly lacking any. We were accosted by a drunken trombone player who sidled up to our booth to bum a smoke, he perched on the ledge beside our table and made incoherent conversation until our laughter drove him on.

Around 7pm Illaria pulled us to her restaurant, the Olive Cafe, to meet up with Larissa and a few other friends. We transitioned to wine and started learning the history of our new acquaintances. The only person I remember is a fellow traveller, Tyler from Prince Rupert, who ended up needing a ride towards Taranaki. We drunkenly arranged to meet him at the Olive the next day as we were heading the same direction and could take him with us. People came and went, more wine was drunk and eventually we were the only rowdy and boisterous group remaining at the cafe. It was late and the staff wanted to go out to enjoy their own Friday night so we were kicked out into the street to either head home or find further entertainment. I was ready to sleep so after a brief stop at a kebab shop Iain and I staggered back to the museum and the sanity of our van.

The next day was rough, as they always are. Breakfast was foraged at the local grocery store where we gratefully clutched our fresh coffee. We ate on a bench overlooking the docks, and watched in fascination as a serious of million dollar speed boats were lowered into the water by cranes. Apparently there was a competition that weekend and people with futuristic looking and fantastically fast boats from all over the country came to compete.

Neither of us had much energy so we killed time at the internet cafe before our meeting time with Tyler at the Olive Cafe. We also stopped at my new favorite restaurant - Burger Fuel. I could get a tasty and totally edible gluten free burger with kumra fries and Iain could enjoy a normal burger and fries for under $25. Heaven!

We said goodbye to Illaria and Larissa at the Olive, grabbed Tyler when he arrived and after a few wrong turns headed out of Wellington.