Wellington

I arrived in the rain and the wind and after a night of painting the weather gods smiled upon Wellington and me. Two beautiful days in the lovely harbour capital.

Most of the first day, Tuesday, was spent updating the blog. I've struck continuing problems with mapmyride, so might give it a rest for a while.

On Tuesday evening Ed and I went to Freyberg pool for a swim and a soak in the spa. I managed a leisurely 200m before hitting the hot pool to sit and enjoy the view of others toiling up and down the pool or running or cross training or doing anything active.

It was a beautiful evening and I only wish I had my camera to get a photo of the night time cityscape. It would have looked a bit like this (thanks to the net again) ....

Wellington is simply the most beautiful city I've ever been to. Sure on crap days, like Monday, it's awful, but on days like today it's stunning.

I cycled around the Mirimar Peninsula this morning. A lovely, flat 35km ride. Not too much traffic and plenty to see. Of course there'd been changes 1) The Chocolate Fish cafe in Scorching bay is now Scorch-o-rama, 2) Medway Seafoods in Island Bay (former home of the planet's best chips) is now a Chinese takeaway, and 3) Deep Blue Seafoods in Newtown seems to be gone; the building demolished. Progress?! Probably.

Generally Wellington looked fresher than I remembered. Like the Queen was coming and they'd given the whole place a fresh lick of paint.

Here're a few photos I got on the way round.....

Oriental Bay from Freyberg Pool

Oriental Bay (looking westward).
You can just make out my friends Stella and Mark's old house - it's the red brick building, an inch to the right of centre. Great place. Shame they're no longer there....

Scorching Bay

Surfers, Lyall Bay

Island Bay

Pretty stunning eh? Now if they could only sort out reinstating a couple of chip shops and fixing up the lane swimming hours at the Aquatic Centre, I might just move back here.

Later this afternoon I caught up with one of my Environmental Engineering lecturers from 2006. He's currently finishing off his PhD. I wish him well.

After that I headed to Te Papa - Our Place (the national museum). They have some amazing stuff , including the only ever Colossal squid that was captured alive. It's 4.5m long, has eyes the size of soccer balls (the largest known eye) and has these wicked rotating hooks on its tentacles. Scary stuff.

They also have a pair of stuffed huia. They were treasured by the Maori who wore huia tail feathers in their hair to denote mana (status). Note how the male and female have very different beaks. the male would break up trotting logs and the female would pluck out grubs. After the Europeans arrived it became fashionable to wear huia feathers in your hatband and the demand rocketed to the point that huia became extinct. Nice one guys.

Te Papa sits on the edge of Wellington harbour and which has an interesting trail with quotes about the city and the harbour from famous authors. This one's by Katherine Mansfield:

"Their heads bent, their legs just touching, they stride like one eager person through the town, down the asphalt zigzag where the fennel grows wild ... The wind is so strong that they have to fight their way through it, rocking like two old drunkards."

Absolutely right for Wellington on a windy day. Very far from the truth today. Today was a gorgeous day and the inner harbour was like a millpond.



Plenty of myPod stuff today, but the classic remains the Mutton Birds. Tomorrow I'm off to Picton on the ferry. Let's hope the myPod doesn't start playing Split Enz - Six Months In A Leaky Boat!!!