NZ Day 19 - Wellington

Last day in Wellington :-( I didn't do much today. Some shopping, some coffee, then visited Te Papa - the museum of NZ. It's a fantastic museum - reminds me a lot of Melbourne Museum with it's interactive exhibits.

I spied this sculpture from a walkway inside - as you can see from the weather, I wasn't about to venture outside to get a better photo.

The Maori exhibits are particularly good - I learnt a lot today.

But my absolute favourite exhibit was Golden Days - a junk shop that comes to life to show us 100 years of NZ history. It's awesome - really well done.

Goodbye Windy Welly. I've had an awesome time. I'm sorry that I can never live here, but your weather is too extreme for me.

And goodbye for now NZ - I'll be back soon.

NZ Day 19 - Wellington

The weather has been pretty horrendous since I arrived in Wellington (it's even made the news - apparently that's quite an event!). So, I took full advantage of a sunny morning to go for a run.

I'm staying with friends in Miramar, so decided to head around the water away from the city, towards Shelly Bay. I can't believe this is only 8km from the city.

The (infamous?) All Blacks Hollywood sign.

After treating myself to a morning of spa treatments at East Day Spa (highly recommend it), I wandered through the city. Couldn't resist a photo of the Beehive & Parliament House.

Later in the day we went for a stroll through the Botanic Gardens. This is the Puriri Tree - which had leaves growing right out of the large branches.

The rose garden.

A couple of very cute ducks. Have I mentioned how much I love ducks before? I love ducks :-)

The Wellington Cable Car. We didn't ride it this time, preferring to walk instead.

There it goes.

The evening finished at a bar I knew I had to try as soon as I heard about it - The Library.

Don't worry, there were real books inside :-)

NZ Day 18 - Wellington

It was really nice to be back in Wellington. Back to bars and cafes and restaurants and cool shopping. Don't get me wrong, I absolutely loved the south island and had a ball. But right now, I'm pretty much a city girl. And Wellington is a cool city.

After a leisurely breakfast we stopped off at the Weta Cave. Cool! I used to be a massive LOTR nerd, though admittedly, I have let my knowledge slip in the last few years.

Here is Gollum, thinking 'what the hell is this girl looking at...'

The orc Lurtz guarding the entrance.

After dropping the bro at the airport, friend A & I headed up to the Mount Victoria lookout to check out its 360 degree views. Pretty nice.

Then we decided to go even higher & find the wind farm. On the way we passed Brooklyn Library - a Wellington City Library branch.

The wind turbine was cool. I've never seen one up this close. They're pretty big. I'm that black spec you can see at the bottom of the tower.

They look cool from below as well.

Plus, the views up there were fantastic - a lot higher than Mount Vic, though not 360.

Then it was back into town for a wander around. We found ourselves in the civic district. The City Gallery is on the right, Wellington City Centre library on the left. With a random flying object in the middle (or is that unidentified flying object?).

The library has a really funky, industrial vibe. I have hung out there a couple of times over the last few days & have enjoyed every minute.

View across the civic square from the library steps.

Some sculptures that caught my eye. Wellington is full of sculpture and public art, it's one of the things that gives the city such a great character.

NZ Day 1 - Wellington

So here we are at my second overseas trip this year - NZ. Wow. I'm exhausted already and it's only day 2. But I love this place. It's clean and green and artistic and vibrant, but most of all cold (actually, I don't love that last one so much).

I'm not sure how long I'm staying yet, but probably about 4 weeks. I plan to squeeze a lot in - 2 tramps & a cycling tour on the south island, plus Wellington, Raglan, Napier, Auckland & hopefully Gentle World vegan sanctuary on the North Island.

It all started yesterday when my brother M & I flew into Wellington. Our friend B very kindly picked us up from the airport and then it was a quick bite to eat, a quick drive around town & home for a short rest. Then we headed out to my first ever football game - Central Coast Mariners v Wellington Phoenix at Westpac Stadium.

We got away supporters tickets - there weren't many of us in that stand - just these 3 guys and one other guy - a total of 7 versus hundreds (maybe thousands - it wasn't very full) of Phoenix fans.

Despite the bitterly cold wind that was blowing all night I quite enjoyed myself, especially after the first Mariners goal.

And even more after the second.

We won 2-1 - go team! The guys got a bit excited, pulling their shirts off & waving them around. Considering how cold it was I was impressed by their level of dedication to the team (though I'm sure the amount of beer they had clearly been drinking that day went some way to warming them up).

Of course, in similar fashion to my first AFL game all those years ago when the Pies devastated the Tigers, I'm now a totally converted die-hard fan - go Mariners!

After the game we headed into town to celebrate with beer & pool. Perfect.