Sunday in the City

Gill's notes:

Am. Sunny/warm. Walked to harbour front market, v. good. Lots of street food, fruit & veg - stalls run by Chinese mainly. Bought veg for lunch back at apartment. Pm. Cable car to botanical gardens - lovely. Walked down to govt. buildings. Wooden old parliament building. Beer on waterfront. Back to apt. ate in.

We have visited dozens of cities over the past five years in Europe, North America, Asia and Oceania. One of the things we have concluded is that Sundays are a really good day to visit them - often they are less traffic choked, the locals are out and about enjoying themselves, there is a festive atmosphere and often there is some event or other going on. In this case, the Wellington half marathon. We missed it. By the time we headed out it was all over. What was in full swing, and more to our liking, was the regular big open air food market held every Sunday in a big space near the harbour, just behind the Te Papa museum.

Sicily is the only other place we have been with such a range of locally produced fresh produce for sale...

The Italian connection continues - people in Wellington reach almost Neapolitan levels of nerdiness regarding coffee.

The place truly is a triumph of multi-culturalism

At first I could not understand why there were so many Spanish people in Wellington - a classic Eurocentric error! They were speaking Spanish, but most probably haled from S. America's Pacific shores - just over the horizon...well, 6000 miles over the horizon in truth.

Hand chalked-up 'Almost Gourmet' - very 'Kiwi' understated humour - old fashioned Englishness is part of the alluring mix.

People are not shy about making the odd pithy comment - about politics...

or religion - the first time I have ever seen Humanism positively promoted - New Zealand grows on us day by day...

We bought some fruit and salad ingredients at the market then too a stroll towards Oriental Bay. You get a great view across the water towards the Roseneath district which retains a cluster of pastel shaded Edwardian and Victorian villas dotted about the wooded promontory. It's very pretty.

Then back through the business district....

to have a healthy green salad for lunch at the apartment.

The plan for the afternoon - visit the city's famous botanical gardens. They were a little over 600 metres distant Google maps advised, an easy stroll you may think; however they were also 600 metres above us - by my reckoning that is a 45° slope. We opted to walk down to the Wellington cable car station and took the funicular. We found a seats. A young woman, late teens I suppose, squeezed in opposite us. She gave us a beaming smile as she sat down carefully. Balanced on her lap was a sizeable drum shaped chocolate cake. 'That looks delicious,' we observed.

The girl explained, 'Eets fer mee nain, ah beeked eet thees mornin.' I hope her 'nain' was suitably impressed by her kind, bright grand-daughter. We were. It is impossible not to be utterly charmed by the positive, inclusive and open hearted people you meet here. New Zealand is a very impressive place, both the country and its people. Of course it's not perfect, we saw areas of real deprivation on the fringes of Rotorua, but you sense that there is a willingness to work on problems, that things can be improved and progress is possible.

Beyond the upper station there is a lookout place at the Carter Observatory. From here you can really appreciate why the bay is regarded as one of the finest natural harbours in the world.

From the observatory its downhill all the way through the botanical gardens. The path winds through a wooded area showcasing New Zealand's unique trees. Hot houses are scattered among the trees full of exotic flowers. At the foot of the hill is the biggest rose garden I have ever seen. Beyond here was a cricket pitch; a juniors game was in full swing. It all suddenly felt so familiar, not of today's UK, but the England of my childhood

The rose garden

A prize specimen from the Begonia house

orchids

water lilies

and we have no idea! Beautiful though..

At the foot of the hill you reach the area of Wellington housing various ministries and the Parliament Building - nicknamed 'the beehive' for obvious reasons. Sir Basil Spence's uncompromising 1960s design has divided opinion ever since its conception, whatever your views, it is undoubtedly a memorable building - French inspired brutalism meets Thunderbirds. 

Nearby are the 'Old Government Buildings', these are made of wood, built in the 1870s and is the second biggest wooden building in the world (the biggest is in Tokyo). This fact is not immediately obvious as the wooden structure is meant to resemble stone - a trick it pulls off quite successfully. Though it is called 'Old Government Buildings' it never housed New Zealand's parliament, but was home to the British Government's colonial administration. These days it houses the Victoria University of Wellington's law department.

It was a sunny Sunday, almost hot and we had walked for miles. Time for a beer! Which of course proved difficult to find in the middle of the parliament area. Luckily, Wellington is a compact city and it was only a few minutes stroll from the redeveloped dock area near the ferry terminal which is full of bars and restaurants. It also gave us an opportunity to spy out the one-way road system around the ferry terminal - that's where we are heading tomorrow - S. Island here we come. Not without a twinge of regret - Wellington deserves more than a couple of days, all the more reason to return in the not too distant future we agreed.