Windy Wellington
Trip Start
Sep 02, 2011
1
19
Trip End
Oct 03, 2011
Wellington, North Island, New Zealand
Wednesday, September 28, 2011
We really like this sity, the architecture is very different to any of the other cities we have visited so far in New Zealand, there is mixture of the art deco style and more traditional buildings in the CBD. Also it is similar to Auckland with it being on the waterfront and have water on two side of the city. We have noticed that there are coffee shops everywhere so it would appear there is a big cafe culture here which is all good with us :-) The cheese scones & caramel slices (they use coconut in the biscuit base) here are superb!
On Monday we took the bus across the city to visit the parliament buildings and had a free tour around the three buildings - we were very impressed at how much we could see given its a working building!! It is a quirky looking collection of buildings, the first building which is famous here is called the “Bee Hive” as funnily enough it looks like a bee hive, this is the executive building which houses the prime ministers offices etc. Then there is the Parliament House which is more of a traditional style which houses the “House of Representatives” the equivalent of our “House of Lords” and we were allowed to go in here and see where the Prime Minister sits, this was quite a privilege to see!! We then experience rush hour here and there would appear to be a lot of people that use the train to get into the CBD as there was a stream of people walking to the station.. We took a walk back via the Waterfront (and a very nice wine bar!!) and enjoyed the views across the bay...
In the evening we enjoyed dinner at a restaurant that has won awards for “Best Casual Dining Experience” with the Cuisine Awards - Angus has fillet of Angus Beef, this was grilled which gave it a great crust and the steak was cooked perfectly Angus was a very happy man as it melt in the mouth!!! I had Venison Osso Bucco (which is typically the shin), this is a cut I have not tried before - given how much venison I have seen grazing over here I thought I’d give it a go and I was not disappointed, it was very tender as they have braised/cooked it very slowly so it just fell off the bone - yummy!! The food was absolutely fantastic and we can certainly see why it won... After we finished our meal we met up with Scott & Louisa (the pals we made in Picton) to watch the Welsh match, everywhere was so quiet, if there wasn’t any rugby be one I don’t think we’d have seen many people - this is very strange to understand as this is the capital city of New Zealand so you kind of expect it to be busy all the time - I guess we are just comparing it to London.
On Tuesday, we had a very slow start to the day - I might have not felt too fresh for most of the day, too many vinos the night before (ouch!) We did some research as we wanted to change our itinerary around a bit, so we are no longer going to Hamilton today, we are staying in Wellington an extra night and have a “FREE” hire car tomorrow to drive up to Waitomo Caves and then drop off in Auckland on Friday. So once we had rearranged all that and got some accommodation booked we took a walk across the road to the famous museum Te Papa, this is an amazing museum and we learnt a lot about the history & culture of the wonderful country...
We decided to take the opportunity of the excellent facilities in the hostel and cook dinner and have a quiet night in. There is a supermarket across the road from our hostel called “New World” we haven’t experienced this supermarket yet and I reckon it is the comparison of Sainsburys/Waitrose as the products you could choose from was amazing - love it!! So we spent some time mooching about choosing our dinner!
Today (Wednesday) we took a train to Plimmerton Beach, this is a suburb 1/2 hour north of Wellington on the West Coast - it certainly made my daily commute to work on the train look a lot tougher as this is clearly where some of the Wellington commuters live and wow what a lovely place to go home to everyday (still windy though!) We hired a couple of bikes from the station shop and took some time to explore the local area on the cycle/walkways around the bays, the sun was shining and it was very such a treat for us to sit on the beach to enjoy our picnic. We had a very amusing Seagull protecting our space on the beach as he made sure no other seagulls came near us to ensure if we took pity on him he’d get it, it was soo funny!!! (You had to be there ;-) Although getting to the beach turned out to be a wee trauma for Mr Fraser as he thought he would take a short cut down a sand dune which turned out to be a bit deeper than he thought causing him to go over his handlebars - what a duffus! Thankfully he was fine if not feeling a bit silly...
In the evening we did some further research on the restaurants in Wellington and decided we would like to further sample the seafood, so we went to a place again around the corner from the YHA called The Ortega Fish Shack (this was nominated for a Specialist Restaurant Award) - wow what a fantastic decision this turned out to be the food was outstanding. The place itself was quite small but they had made the most of all the space possible and it was packed for a Wednesday night, clearly a very popular place for the locals! I had Big Eye Tuna (cooked to perfection!!) with spicy potato & prawn wonton, Angus had Marlborough Salmon, potato gratin & creamed leeks. The dessert was also a yummy treat - please see photo for my smile :-)
Last day in Wellington tonight, so early night xxx
Comments
As usual, a very entertaining read. I must confess that when I see your posting come up, I can barely wait to open it to find out what you have done next. Looking forward to catching up with you both soon although the promised dinner (with my signature dishes) won't be even close to the ones you have been eating! xxx
I agree with Kat, and you jst make my mouth water with all that food.
So England and Scotland next, is it, that should be interesting for you!!
I bet you are sad to be thinking about going home now. Safe journey. speak to you soon. xxx