Funky Wellington, NZ

Don and I headed out of our hotel freshly changed and ready to explore Wellington, the capitol of New Zealand. As with each city new to us, we set out on foot. Our hotel was a couple of blocks away from Cuba Street, famous for its bars and restaurants, as well as its funky bohemian scene. Sounded like the perfect place to find lunch.

Cuba Street is a pedestrian only zone filled with second hand shops and an eclectic assortment of dining options, including a Ben and Jerry's, and local gelato places. Though we were there on a Saturday in early Spring, we did not see any buskers (I was specifically looking out for the ones in the picture the artist gave me the day before at Auckland's Art in the Park). It was easy to imagine the street alive in the summer.

Wellington's Rainbow Crossing

Let me back up a little, before we boarded our flight from Auckland I handed Don a tourist guide book to Wellington I found in the airport. He spent the flight reading this 4"x8" 60-page page, identifying places to go and things to see. As my notes for the city were a walking tour that was cancelled, riding the cable car to the botanical garden, walking on Cuba Street (funky), strolling on the Oriental Parade in the late afternoon, and looking for glow worms after sunset, and we were here for three days (September 9-12), I needed a lot of help to fill the days.

Don got his taste buds set for different restaurants. The first few didn't pan out, either because they were closed for the day, or that time of day, or the menu or vibe wasn't right. I was pleased he was taking ownership of part of the trip. 

After much walking, and much indecision, I decided on a café that had a dive-vibe, but was filled with a lot of people. We ordered at the counter, and took our food out back to the graffiti-filled courtyard.  

The salads exceeded our expectations, in the "you can't judge a book by its cover" kind of way. After days of not having much in the way of greens (as tends to happen on vacation) Do was thrilled to have an amazing salad for lunch. My notes said I opted for the chicken filo sandwich.

We dined with locals teens, and friendly pigeons. I hope the pigeons were not too disappointed we didn't leave any food behind for them. 

The cakes in the front case 
looked too amazing to pass up

Feeling fortified we walked to the waterfront to take advantage of the sunshine. My notes are very scant on the day, so the next part of the day's adventures will be told through pictures.

Love the architecture

At the bottom of Cuba Street

The main theater in town

Sculpture

The city is hillier than I expected

Street art

16 to vote. Something to
think about.

 

Along the Oriental Parade

Views from the Oriental Parade at sunset

Waterfront

Roller skater! First of many I saw on the trip.

Like a postcard

First sunning seal we saw
At first we wondered if it was alive,
later we learned they just do that

Oriental Parade

Later I realized we were supposed to stand next
to the second L to make the I.

We popped into the Te Papa Museum knowing we did not have enough time to absorb all of us, but also recognizing it is free to enter We asked where we should start, and were told to basically start at the beginning in the Natural History section. The museum is so incredible, even though we popped in and out of it on our trip for an hour or two at a time, it deserves a separate post.

We looked for a sports bar to watch the Auckland rugby match, but they were too loud and did not have enough real food for dinner. We didn't last long.

We decided to eat at one of the places Don circled in the guide book, Apache, a Vietnamese/French restaurant near Cuba Street. The place was packed. It looked like everyone arrived at about the same time, and all left at about the same time. There were groups of friends, and tourist couples like us. At the place was thinning out, we saw the staff eating food from the kitchen -- which I took as a good sign.

We had yummy potato dumplings (it took a lot of research, but we learned "pumpkin" means anything from butternut squash to what we think of as pumpkin in New Jersey, it is something they eat year-round, not just in the fall). Don ordered the chicken salad, I had "poulet au caramel." Though not the most filling dinner, and one of the more expensive ones we had, it was the most flavorful and left us smiling.

Don with the pumpkin dumplings

Our meal. Pretty plates.

It was colder on our walk back to the room. Once again we were fortunate to be in a room that was on the same floor as the washer / dryer -- not all floors had them. Before leaving Wellington we did some laundry because we knew our next hotel did not have laundry facilities.