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Ben is marry Humperdink in little less than half an hour… Movie quotes aside, we really are sooo behind here. Let’s call it Ben’s fault and leave it at that.
May 24th - 26th
We were looking forward to Wairarapa, not necessarily for great entertainment or the most incredible scenery, but because it sounded like a nice place to settle (potentially). Wairarapa is a string of rural communities, not far from the sparkling capital city of Wellington. One of the towns, Martinborough, is full of wineries. This makes the village a popular weekend escape for the city slickers. Another, called Greytown, is known as the first inland town, so the Victorian buildings are a draw. We definitely wanted to peek around the less touristy towns as well.
Although the really obvious thing to do is hit Martinborough and enjoy the somewhat hoitey toitey township, we decided to just drive around a bit and see what we could see. It involved a lot of cows, which to us is pretty awesome. The houses in Greytown did have some charm, but abodes in neighboring Carterton were much more reasonable. The charm tax seems like a bit much. Accordingly,
Carterton looks like more of a growing and thriving community for families. Am I boring you with settly-down talk? Okay, I’ll move on to Mount Dick.
So, we decided a picnic would be a good thing. After poking around the local supermarket, we went to the tourist info center to find out where we should eat. The info lady was somewhat mortified to let us know that the best view in the area was to be found at the summit of Mount….Dick. Fair enough.
One of the reasons Wairarapa appealed to us was the idea that it was somewhat hilly. We come from hills, we live in hills, we like hills. Plains kind of freak us out. The peak of Mount Dick made an excellent perch from which to survey the land. As it turns out, the place is settled on the flats, but surrounded by big huge beautiful hills, e.g. Mount Dick. A few brave souls have blazed driveways into the hills, but they are largely unsettled.
In any case, Wairarapa seems beautiful and peaceful, and there’s even a bellydance scene, according to a random lady at the Istanbul café. It was a lovely setting for
a day of just unwinding.
In the evening, we had some internet friends to meet. For the past three years or so, I’ve been a member of a forum for people who want to move to New Zealand (or already have). Two ladies and their husbands came out for dinner, plus one Kiwi housemate. One of the immigrants is Mexican, but lived in San Jose CA for awhile. We ate at the same taqueria, no less! Long story short, we had a really great time wining, dining, and going back to one of their houses for dessert. Adriana was only sorry her other bedroom was full of moving boxes, otherwise “mi casa su casa” would certainly have been in effect. We couldn’t have asked for a warmer welcome.
Unfortunately, something in Ben’s food really wasn’t cooked right. As it turned out, he had food poisoning, and had to spend almost the entirety of the next day in bed. Poor baby…I kept him company most of the time, and our Pokemon gained many levels.
The following morning, we took one last look at Wairarapa as we headed out to Wellington. Lovely place, we’ll have to check it out
again, sooner or later.
Everyone makes a big deal out of how yucky a drive the way to Wellington is, because of those big huge beautiful hills getting in the way. They really are quite grand in scale, for hills. However, being hillfolk, the drive wasn’t too hairy. It’s worse than Hwy 17 in Cali, but better than the drive to Coromandel, for sure.
Before you hit Wellington, there are even more pastoral villages. Cute! Now here is where the hillfolk live, clearly. The closer in you get, the more suburban it grows, but the forest is never far.
We had scored a great deal for our first two nights in the city. That’s how we ended up in a fairly ritzy part of the central city, in one of the better “serviced apartments,” as they are called. Basically, you get an apartment where they make your bed and do the dishes while you’re out. Pretty sweet. Even sweeter, we were mysteriously upgraded from a studio up to a 2 bed 2 bath. Score!
Then began the quest for food, a recurrent struggle to find restaurants that are open. NZ has pretty limited business hours, especially
in this particular industry. For lunch, virtually nothing is available after 2. You might find a sandwich that was made that morning and stuck in a café display case, but otherwise, pray to the falafel gods. Thank you, kebab work ethic. For dinner, it’s interesting to note that nothing has a fixed closing time. Inevitably, the hours are from, say, 5:00 “til late.” Apparently they close “when we goshdarn feel like it.” It even says “til late” in frosted letters on their glass doors.
Luckily for us, Wellington is teeny tiny. You can walk from one end of town (the central business district, or CBD) to the other in maybe 40 minutes, I would guess. On this particular day, a pan-Asian noodle house was our gastronomic savior. Go upstairs for adult sex shop and noodle restaurant. It hit the spot (the noodles I mean, you sicko), plus big windows gave us nice views out over the Cuba mall, which is the most happenin’ district of Wellington. In terms of coffee and shopping, that is. Much livelier than our hotel area on Lambdon Quay, certainly.
Wellington tip: “Quay” is pronounced “key.” There are tons of “quay” streets in Wellington,
so don’t be a dork, lol. I was tipped off ahead of time, so I probably sounded totally hip and “with it” to the locals.
One of the reasons to get an apartment-style accommodation for Wellington was so I could try cooking dinner for once. After a 2 hour grocery expedition, I was pleasantly surprised by the selection. Not only did they have a fair bit of convenience food like salad kits, but they also had a few acceptable Mexican items (besides El Paso, please! El Paso has way too much market penetration). I even found one of my favorite tortilla chip brands and organic refried pintos. A far cry from kidney beans and 1% avocado guacamole dip (not kidding on the proportion there) encountered earlier.
I made a basic steak, salad, and broccoli dinner, we watched some of the 6 channels available on their premium TV service (satellite, I think, since its called SKY), and just kicked back in anticipation of busy days ahead.
I’d made a few plans for us in advance, including two more forum people meetups, mock house hunting, a visit to the national museum, and even feeding red pandas at the zoo.
What we didn’t at all anticipate, however, was running into an old friend. Tune in next time for our thrilling conclusion of…Tourists in the City!
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Janet Planet
non-member comment
To the two intrepid tourists
Wow--now I am all caught up on your journal! Most amusing. I see there is no shortage of animals for your comfort and delight...and the locals seem more than hospitable. Odd to think of you as earlybirds... perhaps it's explained by that down-under reversal effect. Hmmm. Anyhoo, the sunset photo put me in mind of your mom's day gift and our little send-off...the flame-colored scarf with all the pleats (still haven't figured out how to fold the thing away but love wearing it)--we drove home from SF that evening alongside a molten orb sinking into the ocean mist... Meanwhile the workaday frenzy continues, and Tonyo madly rebuilds his boules complex in time for celebration on the Fourth. Keep those stories coming, wish we were there! Love, Mom