This past weekend Will and I went for a trip to Wellington, the capitol of NZ. Will is working there this week, so we thought we'd take advantage of his free flight and make a holiday of it. We had a great time, despite the gale force winds.
We left Auckland Friday after work. The airport was really easy to navigate and they are much less tense than airports in the US. I went from Auckland-Wellington and then Wellington-Auckland without ever showing any form of ID! Crazy! We got into Wellington about 7:30 and hit the streets immediately. I read about a night market on Cuba street, which is the uber-trendy, hipster district. The website said it had numerous craft and food stalls, but that night it was mostly food. I was kind of bummed as I was hoping for some cool handmade items. Regardless, street food is always good! Our favorite was chicken and cilantro pot stickers.
Saturday we had planned to go for some nice walks around town to see the sights, but mother nature had a different plan for us. So we braved the weather just long enough to walk to the waterfront for another market (this one called the underground market) which was located in a basement parking garage. More food stalls! This time our favorite was a nutella crepe! Since we were obviously not going to stroll along the waterfront, we decided to take camp in the Museum of New Zealand, known as Te Papa. It was an amazing 6 story museum with some really cool exhibits including an earthquake simulator and a piano carved in Maori style with a short concert. Saturday I learned that Will and I have different museum going tactics. I walk through exhibits, getting more an overall feel for the story the exhibit is telling, and maybe stepping aside and reading closely about a few items that spark my interest per room. Will likes to read every single plaque and look at every single picture. I guess that's the top-down/bottom-up processing differences in our brains! To end the night we went to a pub to have some fish and chips and watch the All Blacks win, again. We're actually knowledgeable enough now that our cringes of a missed play are in time with the rest of the crowd! Score! This was my first time watching the All Blacks in a crowd and was a lot of fun!
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| Windy Welly at the waterfront. Sailing anyone? |
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| Wellington Underground Market |
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| Getting my nutella crepe. This was taken just before Will insulted the crepe maker asking if this was his hobby... |
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| My hair pretty much sums up our weekend :) |
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| An early Maori whare (pronounced far-ay) meaning building |
Sunday turned out to be a much nicer day, compared to Saturday. It was still pretty windy, but it wasn't raining and the sun made it feel a little warmer. So what do you do on a nice Sunday morning anywhere in the world? We went to more markets :) There was an outdoor farmers market with traditional food stands (curry, churros, crepes, noodles) and an indoor city market with more upscale artisan foods (chocolate, organic dairy, cheese). We found a good Mexican booth in the cheap-o market with no signage and the guy spoke Spanish to everyone (even though he could speak English). He was a lot of fun, especially when he told me he thought I was 17! He even had Will go behind the counter and put his own money in the register to help him out while he helped the next customer! Will said the tacos were near the best he's ever had! After lunch we took a ride in the cable car to the top of the Botanic Gardens, then walked down through the gardens and got to see/smell/learn about Kiwi trees and flowers. And what would a stroll through the gardens be without a cuppa (cup of tea/coffee) and a scone? Our last stop in Wellington was the Old St. Paul's church which was built in 1866 from exclusively native timber. The inside was very ornate, like cathedrals of Europe, but being made from wood gave it a unique look, separating it from all the other churches you see.
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| Will playing banker at the Mexican food stand |
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| Tally in front of "The Bee Hive" AKA Parliament building |
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| Will on the antique cable car |
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| Will wanted to swing on the swing set at the Botanic Gardens, but rules are rules.... |
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| Smelling the blossoms. They smelled like honey suckle, but I'm not sure what they were |
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| Our hotel had a pillow menu! For no extra cost you could special order your pillow. I went with the relaxing package with lavender, Will ordered the "V" pillow good for sitting up in bed working :) |
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| Old St. Pauls |
Overall we had a great time in Windy Welly, though if we go back, we will make sure to bring more scarves/hats to keep warm from all the wind gusts.
Cheers
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