Wet and Windy in Wellywood

Catching up a bit here, we've been very busy and internet access has been limited at times. A couple of weekends ago we left JB's in Ohope and took the long bus ride down to Wellington. Not that Janine noticed as she slept most of the way. Both of has been to Wellington before and remember it to be wet and windy, it lived up to our memory but we now have some good memories from it too.

We wandered round the city to get our bearings. There are loads of sculptures dotted around the main centres some are pretty cool  and very apt for Wellington. By chance there were some dragon boat races taking place in the harbour. It was the national schools championship so there was a large noisy crowd. The sun came out for about half an hour so we chilled out watching the races wishing that we had been able to do something similar when we were at school. Round the corner we found a large food market, it seemed like most of the city were queuing up for the car park to pick their fruit and veg.

You Are Here

Dragon Boat Racing

Singing in the rain - notice she's still in flip-flops

We really loved Te Papa, the national museum. The building is huge and has an outdoor area which includes a cave, a swing bridge and a rainforest. As the rain had arrived again we spend ages in here exploring, and still didn't see everything there is to see. I managed to convince Janine to spend a couple of hours there the next day too as there was a special exhibition on the history of computer games. The exhibition was like a large arcade with games from every era and most consoles. It was a good morning spent out of the rain, I even let her beat me on Space Invaders. Sunday was also St. Patricks day. We found a bar and settled down to a few drinks with an Irish bad playing covers. Luckily there wasn't too much U2 on the set list.

Maori wood carving

Tom, Bert and William from the Hobbit

Geek

On Monday evening we picked up Janines parents from the airport and after a swift beer in their hotel bar we went for dinner on Cuba Street. This is the main street in the city for bars and restaurants, we ended up eating in a Mexican place called the Flying Burrito Brothers. If you are  ever in Wellington seek it out, it's amazing.

Look who we found!

On our way out of Wellington the following morning we headed up to a wind farm for a stunning view over the city. Not surprisingly it was pretty windy, the rain was also making it a less enjoyable view but it was still cool to see out into the Cook Strait.

Wellington and Cook Strait beyond

Maybe Carol shouldn't have stood behind Boyd when he passed wind!