Absolutely Positively Windy Wellington

The slogan is actually "Absolutely Positively Wellington" - they just must have forgot to put the windy in there! As anybody who has ever spent anytime here will be able to testify, you can't miss the "wind" in this city. The wind aside, it's a great place. We are having another one of our extended city stays, primarily because there is so much to do and the lion's share of it is free. You get to enter into a debate with people who say that New Zealand is about walking, countryside and scenery, but by not hanging around in the city is their loss.

The museums are too numerous to mention, although Te Papa is probably the most acclaimed - an interactive den of everchanging exhibits and "more than a museum" as it proclaims in it's slogan. The Museum of Wellington City and the Sea also deserves an honourable mention. Whilst it's not free The Embassy Theatre where one of the Lord of the Rings' premieres was screened, must rank as one of the finest cinemas anywhere in the world.

We've been on a major geographical exploration of the city courtesy of the very efficient buses and trains, as far a field as Petone, Island Bay, Lyall Bay, Miramar and Scorching Bay. The inner city around the harbourside and the waterfront are also full of self guided walks in the older suburbs such as Thornden. Miranda was taken by her chocolate fish at the Wellingtonian institution, the Chocolate Fish Cafe at Scorching Bay.

The sporting activities have been confined to football. It was with some disappointment that the Air New Zealand Cup Final of egg chasing involved Wellington, but was played away in Hamilton and thus the opportunity to get a big game in at the Westpac Stadium eluded us. We were acquainted with the left back of Team Wellington FC ( who play in the New Zealand Football Championship i.e. Division 1) from our travels in Australia and having expressed an interest in attending a game, we were presented with a couple of season tickets no less on arrival at the "ground". The real star of the show was Wellington's Director of Football, the former legend at Meadow Lane for those of you who have very long memories - none other than Mickey Waitt. We actually went to two home games in our week stay - no home victory in either - which surely leaves Mickey looking over his shoulder.

A visit to Wellington is not complete without a trip to Parliament. We timed our visit to coincide with Question Time, in order to get to see the heavyweights of New Zealand politics perform. The aftermath turned into a bit of a debacle, which saw three opposition MPs ejected from the house for bad behaviour.

Miranda insisted on us attending the Diwalli festival, so she could fulfill her recently acquired ambitions of checking out some live Bollywood dancing - we could have gone to Leicester as a more cost effective exercise. On a more New Zealand note, we went on a kiwi night safari at the Karori Wildlife haven. It's apparently the only place where you can see the Lesser Spotted Kiwi living independently in it's own habitat anywhere on the mainland. Alas they had heard we were coming and as with other rare wildlife we try and see, they had a quiet night in!

We've enjoyed our stay and are off to the South Island in the morning - gale force southerly winds and rain are forecast, so it should be an interesting few hours on the ferry.

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