Wellington!!
Wellington - the capital city of New Zealand - also known as "Windy Welly" "Wellytown" and the New Zealand equivilent of Victoria!
Luke and I have found our way to the bottom of the North Island.. and couldn't be happier. Wellington is much more appealing to each of us than Auckland. It's an interesting feeling to drive into a brand new city, one you've never seen before and know very little about, and know that with this visit you will be contemplating whether or not you want to plant some roots there. Provided, our roots won't go too deep as they likely will be short-term.. but still.. even committing to 5 months or so in one city is a form of root-setting.
Wellington is funky, unique, cool, different, beautiful and comfortable. Cuba Street is their main strip for bars, clubs, funky shopping, etc. Then there are many other quarters for expensive shopping, fancy eateries, etc. The city is based around the harbour, and has beautiful hills surrounding it, filled with gorgeous homes and huge trees! Both during the day and at night simply walking around town is a pleasure! I've found that most shops (and there are a LOT of shops!!) and eateries are one-offs, not part of a chain. I didn't realize how much I like that. It's refreshing. (Sarah.. you'd really love all the boutique stores!) They have this massive underground market on Saturdays down by the waterfront, and an outdoor market on Sunday mornings in a large parking lot near the Te Papa Museum (which is free to enter, has 6 floors, is actually interesting AND has free wifi...woohoo!) Luke and I spent the entire day yesterday simply walking around in the sun, exploring all the many different quarters.
Wellington is funky, unique, cool, different, beautiful and comfortable. Cuba Street is their main strip for bars, clubs, funky shopping, etc. Then there are many other quarters for expensive shopping, fancy eateries, etc. The city is based around the harbour, and has beautiful hills surrounding it, filled with gorgeous homes and huge trees! Both during the day and at night simply walking around town is a pleasure! I've found that most shops (and there are a LOT of shops!!) and eateries are one-offs, not part of a chain. I didn't realize how much I like that. It's refreshing. (Sarah.. you'd really love all the boutique stores!) They have this massive underground market on Saturdays down by the waterfront, and an outdoor market on Sunday mornings in a large parking lot near the Te Papa Museum (which is free to enter, has 6 floors, is actually interesting AND has free wifi...woohoo!) Luke and I spent the entire day yesterday simply walking around in the sun, exploring all the many different quarters.
Luke's glorious photography skills at work
We took a big cable car up to this beautiful lookout called Kelburn Lookout.. we then happily walked through a massive Botanic Garden. The trail had beautiful little painted flowers on the trail to guide you all the way through the garden and back into the city... what a great idea! New Zealanders definitely understand the benefits and necessity of green space in the city! It's beautiful here. It also helps that it has been sunny every day and not very windy (even though the city's nickname is Windy Welly... hmmm)
We have both fallen in love with Wellington and will likely end up back down there to start our 'working' portion of the trip in a few weeks.
 Enjoying the view of Wellington City from Kelburn Lookout - the sun was so hot, but as Autumn is coming, it gets cool when the shade or wind hits! |  While walking down the road, exploring the city, we saw a sign "$3 beers @ 3:00pm" It was 3:00pm - done BOOM! **Terik - this was your Happy Birthday beer** |
 Oriental Bay - a swimming beach within walking distance from downtown Wellington. Beautiful isn't it? |  Day Trip to the Wellington Zoo :-D Our favourite animal was the Chimpanzee's. They were so entertaining! AND, we saw a live Kiwi Bird |
Deanna's Random Thoughts
| It's interesting how easy it is to forget that you are halfway across the world, separated from everything you know by a massive body of water, when you sit in a movie theatre, munching away at popcorn and slurping pop. At that moment, it's all the same. Luke and I opted to have a date night in Wellington. I found a coupon for cheap movie tickets so we went to watch the Hunger Games at the Reading Cinema. At first I hated the movie, feeling almost sick from how much the camera moved around and the fact that I had read the first part of the book (up to the reaping) I could see all the details they had left out (as is the case with any book turned movie). But, as often happens with big screen movies, I got into it and overall it was a good film. I still think the story concept is disgusting (which is why I stopped reading the book) but I concluded that I may watch the 2nd movie... maybe. What were your thoughts? | My life has changed. I can admit that now. It has finally set in that my priorities are different, and will be for an extended period of time. I used to get so stressed out about work and the events and things that I was in charge of, when I'd sleep at night, I would constantly dream of things I needed to do the next day before a deadline, or people I needed to call. To be honest, I hated it. I always felt a bit jipped. Sleepy time was MY time.. not works'. Turns out, I do this with anything in my life. I have begun dreaming about my current priorities... which are quite different than they used to be. For example, I woke up this morning and realized that I had had a very vivid dream that Luke had our deck of cards in HIS backpack, instead of where they usually are in MY backpack. I had been quite startled by this change of events. ha ha ha... wouldn't you say my priorities have changed?? |
| Some "Fun" music for you to enjoy :) |
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