Profile
Blog
Photos
Videos
If you read my blog about ice cream, you may be worried that I haven't done anything in Wellington other than gorge myself on gelato. Rest assured, Louisa managed to pry my face off the counter long enough for us to visit three art galleries, two WWOOFs and a Rugby match. I should probably keep this down to the edited highlights, as we have done rather a lot.
So check the list below and let us know if you want more details about:
1) We milked a goat!
2) We visited Te Papa (New Zealand's National Museum)
3) Went to see The Hurricanes Vs The Blues (Super Rugby) at Westpac Stadium
4) Wandered around Wellington Gardens
5) Saw some great art exhibitions at The City Gallery, Portrait Gallery and The Dowse in Lower Hutt
6) Had a Rendang almost as good as Cynth's Mum's
7) We went to the WETA Cave and met Gollum, the baby from Braindead and the dog from Frighteners.
8) Went on a night walk in Paremata, where we saw giant man eating cave wetas
9) Saw kiwis!
The truly amazing thing about Wellington, is the fact that you can be in a capital city bustling with office workers and people who wear trendy hats, but then ten minutes down the road you can be climbing a mountain, five minutes from there is a colossal bush walk and if you drive a bit further you can go bother some seals. The scenery is spectacular, but also very varied.
The coastal walks take you past massive rock formations just begging to be clambered over. Being within 'Kiss from a Rose' distance from a Fur Seal was really quite something. The males all hang out near 'The Red Rocks.' They tell the missus that they're going to go look for food and then all meet up, have a sleep and then go for a pint.
The other side to Wellington is of course it's status as New Zealand's cultural capital. The galleries and museums are all really good, but what's really cool is how many sculptures there are around. There are pictures of quite a few in our Wellington album, so have a peek if you haven't already. There's a Henry Moore, some great contemporary stuff, like the WETA sculpture of a camera standing on a giant alien tripod or the fountain on Cuba St that looks like something out of 'Mousetrap.'
My number one pick for naff artwork of the year has got to be 'Body to Soul.' This artist has made her fortune by doing a really w***y version of 'Chain Letters' the ITV lunchtime quiz with Jenny Faulkner. The premise of the game is basically to change one letter at a time to make a new word (here is my latest masterpiece as an example: crap - crop - chop - shop - ship - s***).
So it's competition time. Her artwork ('Body to Soul') has eleven steps. Changing one letter at a time can you get from the word BODY to the word SOUL? The winner will no doubt receive something insignificant from somewhere overrated. Good luck.
For those who care (family members, clingy friends etc.) we are currently being very well looked after by Jenn and Barrie at our current WWOOF. They are a semi-retired couple living in Karori, Wellington. They've given us some great ideas of how to spend our afternoons. They took us to the top of Mt. Victoria, from where you can see all of Wellington. They also pointed out the Skyline and Otari-Wilton's Bush Walks, one gave another spectacular view of Wellington, the other took us deep into the foliage. Future endeavours include going to the New Zealand Opera to see Rigoletto.
Next week we hit the South Island, so tune in to hear Lou talk a little bit too passionately about Marlborough Sauvingnon Blanc.
Bye for now,
Mike
- comments
Patrick Neylan body bode bore core cure curd cord lord loud lour sour soul Amazing. Eleven steps too. It's like two minds.
Mike It's good but it's not right. Sorry, when I say 11 steps, I meant actual stairs, not stages. So Body is also counted and then there are 9 changes before you get to soul. Also, I didn't asterisk my naughty words, so Off Exploring is obviously s*** hot on bad language.