The Road trip: Day 9 Wellington and friends

Today was our first day in Wellington, the capital city. Wellington is built on the hills of Wellington harbor. It is blessed with great views but also usually suffers from the strong winds coming from then southern ocean.

In terms of architecture, the capital is a mixed city. There are lovely beach houses situated right next to 1970’s tower blocks and the roads are wide but steep. Although the central business district is not necessarily attractive the suburbs around the harbor can be as pretty as a picture.

After huge breakfast at the chocolate fish café we headed to the Te Papa museum. Te Papa is New Zealand’s foremost museum and it contains a wealth of artifacts ranging from New Zealand’s Maori culture to modern art and inventions. It is difficult to describe all that we saw and experienced there; suffice it to say that I could spend a whole week in that museum and still want to go back!

In our first evening in Wellington we tried to catch up with a number of friends. Shaun and Sue, and their little boy Nicolas, had us over for a great BBQ. This was followed by tea at Nick and Helen’s beautiful house on the Melrose hill until late into the night. Although it was lovely to see them all we couldn’t help but wish that we had a bit more time to spend with them.

Blair: Shaun I’ve known for 16 years or more so it was nice to introduce Grigoria to them and catch up on their / our lives. Nick & Helen are friends I’ve known from both NZ and London so it was great to compare travel stories.