Ever since leaving the capital city in early December, we (especially I) have been looking forward to our return. It is vibrant, quirky, energizing, filled with international culture and set in a striking harbour amongst the hills – offering so much to explore and absorb. We chose to stay even closer to the city center this time for easier access.
Friday – Travel Day
Not much sleep as I woke up every hour thinking it must be time to go catch the early ferry. (How funny that I never have a deadline to get up anymore – this used to be 5 to 6 days a week for work!) A dark drive up to Picton was a clear sign that the Autumnal Equinox is fast approaching.
Sad news that Elizabeth Warren has indeed dropped out. What went wrong that this amazing candidate has done so poorly in the primary and we are left with two old white men fighting for the chance to compete against another old white man? I’m left in a funk.
We had great weather for the crossing this time, with light winds and flat seas.
This ferry is much older and not set up nearly as well for a “scenic tour” experience. We were very careful about touching any surfaces and well-armed with our antiseptic wipes and hand sanitizer as this is the closest confined quarters/mass transit we do.
We found a pair of seats together and took turns throughout the 3.5 hour trip going up to the top deck for views.
I was lucky enough to see Hectors Dolphins twice during my time up there, leaping through the bow wake and playing along the stern.
The day was turning from cloudy to blue when we disembarked in Wellington and we had a couple of hours to kill before we could check in and leave our belongings at our Airbnb, so we parked at Te Papa and walked up to Cuba Street for a caffeine hit at Coffee Supreme.
Our brains were a little too fuzzy from the early morning to absorb any learning at Te Papa, so instead we enjoyed a walk along Oriental Bay which was entirely different on this sunny, light wind day than last time we were here and I was drenched and practically blown over along this stretch. My mood started to improve simply by being back in this small city that I have come to love.
Our place for these five nights was just out of the city in the posh neighborhood of Brooklyn on the hill above Central Park. Our hosts live in a big house with amazing views over the harbor, and we were in a pool house studio, also with lovely views over the trees and a peekaboo view of the water. It’s a long walk down stairs, across a boardwalk and up more stairs to move in, and then a cram to try to fit our stuff into a small space, but totally worth it for the quality of this place and the location. Plus our hosts are super welcoming and their three dogs are hilarious.
We set off for an early evening walk through city, surprised with how well I remembered various routes and corners from our last visit. Our destination was an outdoor band concert at Te Papa. Mehana is a six piece gypsy folk band playing songs from the former Yugoslavia in multiple Balkan languages. Many in the audience were also from the Balkans and in addition to the lively and sometimes haunting music, there was much merriment and group dancing. We loved it and enjoyed the walk home through the city.
March 6, 2020 COVID Cases NZ = 4
Saturday
Early morning for me, starting with delicious coffee and falling in love with the milk frother! Beautiful, long morning walk up through neighborhoods up to Brooklyn Wind Turbine, the first in Wellington. Late breakfast, more coffee, chat with hosts, then we walked into the city trying out a new route along The Terrace, which turned out to be the business district and thus deserted on a Saturday morning.
At the waterfront, our first stop was the annual Dragon Boat Races, which was enlivened by other meeting groups and street performers. I was particularly fascinated and impressed with the group that set up just behind us on the promenade – Capoeira is a mix of martial arts and dance accompanied by music, singing, and chanting, similar to Brazilian jiu-jitsu but capoeiristas do not make contact like jiu-jitsu fighters. I’d never seen it and it is mesmerizing to watch.
Eventually we moved on to the National Skateboarding championships (in preparation for the first time this sport will be in the Olympics) but it was a definite scene and impossible to get a good view, so we gave up quickly and strolled along the Oriental Bay promenade instead.
A rite of passage in Wellington is hiking up to the Mt Victoria Lookout, so that is what we did. It is a pretty walk up through a green belt (this town has loads of them) and the views from the top are 360, encompassing harbor, straight, airport, port, Brooklyn where we live this week, Island Bay where we lived pre-South Island and of course, the city itself with its green hilly surrounds.
Back down to the waterfront for the Pride Parade which concluded in front of Te Papa. It was wonderful to see all the groups represented and the community support – including a fly over from the national air brigade! We loved it and I was choked up by emotion at how far the world has come for this type of diversity since we were born – still a long way to go, but a world of difference and wonderful to be in a city where it is celebrated without protesters.
COVID Cases NZ = 5
Sunday
Another clear blue sky day. Lazy morning then down to the Farmers Market on the waterfront, which is a great market with loads of produce, music and food stalls. We filled a big bag (mainly with pears – so great to be in another pear season) and so I headed back up the hill to Brooklyn to drop it off at home and then cut across the parks to meet Hale at the Newtown Festival.
This is a big annual music festival where they close the streets of this entire urban neighborhood, set up 14 stages with rotating bands, and line both sides of every street with stalls selling food, clothing, jewelry, etc. It is a complete zoo and at first felt like we would hate it. We had a nagging worry about coronavirus around so many people, but just practiced good hygiene and tried to forget about it.
We ended up having a great time once we found some quieter band stages. Our favorites turned out to be the “Music from the Old World” stage with Russian and Bulgarian singing and dancing and the “Singers Songwriters” stage with really good original music. Before we found those though, we enjoyed a Kiwi legend Don McGlashan performance and a song from a cool band made up of all disabled musicians.
Evening at home included a fun chat with our hosts and their houseguest. Turns out they have a cottage up where we are going later this week and offered to let us harvest fruit from their orchard there – so Kiwi nice!
Monday
Rain. This feels more like a typical Wellington day. I took a long wet, walk in the morning to talk to a friend, with the wind forcing me to pace back and forth at a quiet stretch near the wind turbine or else be impossible to hear. We lazed around the rest of day at our apartment on laptops.
Tuesday
Another fine day, but a slow start for us getting into town. The coffee setup here is just too good! On the walk down, we stopped by Warehouse Stationary to scan our ballots for the Washington State Primary which can just be emailed in – such a great way to do it.
We had an hour to spend before the big event of the day, and while I took a waterfront walk, Hale explored the Gallipoli exhibit at Te Papa. Then we were off to Parliament!
We had arranged in advance to have seats in the public gallery for the Questions session at 2. This is where the opposition parties (currently National and ACT) get to ask questions of the Government (governing coalition = currently Labour, NZ First and Greens.) I was downright giddy with the chance to see Jacinda and her government in action, and she did not disappoint.
The session started on a sad, yet inspirational, note as tributes were spoken for the first female leader of the Greens Party. Then the first question to Jacinda was (roughly) whether she approves of her government’s management of the nation, which she chose to answer by discussing their approach to the Coronavirus contagion sweeping the world.
She was impressive and so were her ministers as they moved on to discuss the healthcare plan, economic relief planning, possible border restrictions, etc. The interaction between all parties was sometimes rowdy and the speaker interjected humor to keep the mood amicable. We were energized by watching it in action.
We spent the remainder of the day at Te Papa, visiting the natural environment section, the modern marae and several other small exhibits. After two weeks in Wellington, we still barely scratched the surface of all that this museum has to offer.
We finally gave in to my urge for Indian takeaway from the shop at the base of the road. The only other excitement was that our sweet old Gus dog tried to spend the night but we knew we finally had to shoo him home.
Wrap
Another too short visit to Wellington. I love this city and could easily live here for a month or more. We still didn’t find time to take advantage of any of the natural beauty areas surrounding the city itself, but couldn’t tear ourselves away from the gems the city itself has to offer. Watch out Welly – we’ll be back if we have the chance.
And we adored our studio apartment for the week – from the funny and sweet trio of dogs and their habit of visiting one by one in turn, to our welcoming and kind hosts, to the view, to the location and right down to the milk frother, we couldn’t have asked for a better spot.
Week 21 of our journey