13th NZ post: Wellington (ahhhhh, Wellington)

Monday night, home from swimming, after dinner. We've had a lovely weekend with the NBF and the NBFBF in Cleveland. Dinner of an omelette and salad and a half bottle of a New Zealand rose. My favourite CD of 2006 playing. Nice.

So then, back to the New Zealand travelogue....

A gorgeous day in the capital. We did get in a swim again that morning - back to the 30.5 meter outdoor pool nearby. That gave us a chance to stop and linger in the National Library on the way back. Some handsome exhibits there pulled from the wide-ranging collection. Still, it was sunny, and we knew we had the big museum visit ahead, so we wanted to get out and on the harbourfront. Past the Beehive, then, and Conrad's namesake street.

Lunch, in fact, was up not long after our library visit.
We settled on One Red Dog, not far from Shed 5 where we'd eaten a few nights before. The wine was mediocre, but the people-watching was fine. Lots of joggers and government workers out enjoying the summer on their lunch breaks. We ate a pizza with braised lamb and pumpkin and a salad on the side.

From there it was a walk along the waterfront to Te Papa. Wellington has done an interesting and fairly successful job of public access to and use of the harbourfront. The result is a walkway that looks a little busy arcitecturally but that has a lot of energy and life thanks to all the people out enjoying it.




Te Papa was probably the one attraction in New Zealand I most wanted to see. Yes, it's a museum, and yes it was a sunny day. But the museum combines natural history, Maori culture, and national art gallery into one modern building. We wandered through for a few hours (augmented by flat whites, of course!) and admired the exhibits, the building itself, and the views from it before stopping in the shop a while.






From there it was through the Civic Plaza nearby




and on into town. We shopped a wee bit more (another tie, and a real beauty, I think!) and had another coffee. And soon it was time to return to the hotel to get ready for dinner.

Shed 5 closed out our Wellington stay. We'd rather liked the food the first night - and the wine. We greatly appreciated being recognized on our arrival thanks to dining there a few nights prior - we were treated very well, I think. The food was good again, and the wine was also tasty. I think we picked better things the first time (especially the octopus salad), but we did enjoy what we had the second dinner as well. Fresh oysters to start, then tuna carpaccio for Conrad and some shrimp for me. Conrad's surf and turf was not too bad (he didn't care for the pork belly as much as he delighted in the fish). My whole roasted snapper took a bit of work to eat, but it was prepared quite well - tender and juicy, not overcooked. I think I managed fine.

And of course, it was back to Floriditas for us. Same waiter as the one we overtipped the night before, but oh well. He was nice, we got to have a bit of dessert, and I once more had the Seresin Marama Sauvignon Blanc I loved so. A very good way to close out what turned out to be our favourite place in all New Zealand. If/when we return to the country, we will book some time to revisit the city.

That left us with a good night of sleep to get in - no rushing to the airport the next day, happily. Snuggled up in the blanket we nicknamed "Snuggle Possum", I was comfy and ready for sleep!