Beautiful Wellington

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Beautiful Wellington
Day 1 - Friday
After finding sustenance in my Grande Caramel Macciato in Starbucks, feeling refreshed & refueled, I ventured off into the unknown city (well, unknown to me as everyone else looked like they knew where they were going!). It is so quaint with streets darting off everywhere, people everywhere and little boutique shops that look far too expensive to even walk into! Very arty & chic was the vibe that I got from the city of Wellington. I kept walking and exploring and takings pics and was enthralled by the sights. Wellington has trolley buses...like trams, they are powered by overhead electricity source which they are connected to by cables, but they are buses on wheels, not on tracks. I haven't seen vehicles like these before - fascinating.
I kept walking and eventually found myself at the Wellington City Visitors Centre - how fortuitous! After looking around at what was on offer, I decided to pay NZ$30 (AUS$24) for a 48hr pass on a Hop on Hop off city sights bus - perfect. It took an hour to circle around the sights of Wellington including the Zoo, the cable car and the museum Te Papa among others. It wasn't the most comprehensive tour bus, but it was the cheapest. Some of them ranged up to NZ$89 per day so I felt that I had chosen well considering I could use my ticket for 2 days.
I initially stayed on the bus for the whole hour in order to get my bearings and work out where I wanted to stop on the next round. It's great to be able to get a bird's-eye view of and a running commentary about the history of a city. The bus driver, Colin, was fantastic and obviously loved his job so was very passionate about his city of Wellington, but not so passionate about Auckland I found. There seems to be a bit of rivalry between the two cities :/
Colin (we're on a first names basis now 😉) was telling me about an area called Newtown (i think?) where there are lots of uni students from all over the world and was very multi-cultural & bohemian. Apparently there is a caravan in the main street that sells 'Bacon Butties' for $2 which he reckons are the best thing ever!! I think I will have to go on the hunt for them tomorrow 😊 they also have lots of markets on on the weekend, so I'll definitely make a point to stop off there tomorrow. I love markets!
After going around once on the bus, even though it was mid afternoon, I decided to get off at Te Papa as I had heard rave reviews about this museum. Well, it certainly lived up to it's reputation. It is an amazing collection of artefacts, displays & stories told in a variety of ways of New Zealand and it's people. The was one 'display' that was set in an old antique shop called 'The Good Old Days' which was a 17 minute multi-media presentation through the settlement, history, wars, natural disasters & prominent primary industries of the country, as well as how the New Zealand people have built & rebuilt their lives over the last 150 odd years. Fascinating and so well done. The Kiwis have certainly earnt their place in the world and deserve to be respected as an independent country which has a lot to offer.
I spent the remainder of the afternoon browsing through Te Papa before catching the bus back to my hotel to get ready for an evening with an old friend. I hope to get back to Te Papa if time will permit, as I only got to see one floor! Haha..

Day 2- Saturday
After a wonderful sleep in, I wandered across the road from my hotel to a wonderful little French cafe where I had crepes with lemon curd for brekky/brunch (I know...it's a hard life eh!). After devouring this absolute taste sensation, I caught up with my tour bus just around the corner and headed up to the top of the hill to the Wellington Cable Car. Wellington had certainly put on amazing weather today despite the weatherman stating otherwise. The sun was out and Wellington was sparkling, especially from the top of the hill. The Wellington Harbour view from this vantage point was spectacular. The Botanic Gardens were also up accessible from here so it was so nice to just sit & relax & rest for awhile whilst looking upon a real life postcard! A few yachts were just coming onto the harbour, rugby games were beginning and the city was alive with activity everywhere you looked. I eventually managed to get the energy to board the cable car itself and travel the five (or so) minutes that it takes to get to the bottom (Lambton Quay) which is one of the main central city shopping areas - not far from my hotel. After going for a walk & doing some window shopping, I got back on the cable car and headed back up to the top where I practiced taking some panoramic photos (this was the perfect place to do it!). I eventually caught up with my tour bus and headed down the hill to Newtown where I experienced my first Bacon Buttie from The Greasy Spoon (a little caravan on the sidewalk). Well, it was pretty good I must say, despite the 'rustic-ness' of the establishment itself.....the tables hadn't been cleaned in quite a while so I shared my space with someone else's dirty spoon and some of their cigarette ash, which I ignored and just put down to 'all part of the experience'! After wandering up & down the main shopping precinct, and browsing through some shops & markets I hailed down my tour bus and continued my loop around the city. By this time it was late afternoon and wanted to find an Internet cafe and upload some of the pics I'd taken today as well as get back to my hotel in order to get ready for a night out at the Embassy Theatre with a friend. So, I did a final circuit on the bus and got off at Lambton Quay (again!) just adjacent to the Kirkcaldie & Stains department store (the most expensive in Wellington) and went to the Internet cafe and hotel before going back out again that evening.

Midnight
Well, after an amazing meal at Nicolina's (most fabulous Italian food I've ever had!) in the Courtney St. area of Welly, we headed over to the Embassy Theatre where we had tickets to see the movie The Rocky Horror Picture Show. Oh my gosh! What a weird, wonderful & eclectic collection of people - dressed to the nines in all sorts of outfits, or lack thereof in some cases! Haha. The Welly locals are pretty uninhibited and know how to have a laugh at themselves as well as how to have a really good party! What an amazing night... I haven't laughed so much in a really long time. Everyone we came across was so polite & engaging and seemed genuinely happy that this old chic from Oz was even there! I got told 3 times throughout the evening that I was beautiful or gorgeous, I had a couple of gentlemen begging me to get up and dance and generally it was a very comfortable, inclusive & fun night out. Good on the Kiwi's 😊 But, sad to say, everything must come to an end so I caught a taxi back to my hotel and gratefully fell into bed after a busy but really good day in Wellington 😊
One of the things I really love about traveling is that when you arrive in a new place you experience a feeling of total disorientation & vulnerability (even more so in a non-english speaking country) and the challenge is to find your way despite that. Usually, after a couple of days, those feelings dissipate and you start to feel more comfortable in your surroundings despite being so far from home. It's this feeling that is empowering, when you know that no matter where you are in the world, you're ok, learning new things, meeting new people, experiencing new things and making good decisions around your safety & wellbeing. It's a good feeling 😊

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