Wellington

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We flew from Auckland to Wellington this morning and had a free day to explore. We started out with lunch and a bit of shopping. For lunch, the hotel clerk recommended Cuba Street if we wanted something “funky” and that sounded good. We ended up at Floridita, a restaurant with brown paisleys on the wall and our new favorite dessert - pavlova. (I also had a lamb burger with feta and hummus that was outstanding; Ben’s orzo salad was “amazing”, Gary made quick work of his risotto with white wine chorizo and Rich enjoyed his potato gnocchi.) But pavlova - mmm - is a NZ specialty, a meringue with whipped cream and fruit on top. Everyone but Rich loved it, but he’s funny that way. Not as overly-sweet as it sounds (we’ve loved the fact that most NZ desserts/snacks are far less sweet than their US counterparts.) Specifically at this restaurant, the pavlova was served with fresh cream, strawberries and rose water. It was all we could do to refrain from licking the plate.
After lunch, we did a bit of shopping. The four of us wandered into a store called Hallensteins that sells men’s fashions. We got into long conversations with different clerks about our travels in New Zealand, the music scene in the U.S. and N.Z., etc. At one point the one clerk got a death-stare from her supervisor who wanted her to spend more time selling and less time chatting!
Next we wandered over to the civic centre and waterfront, making our way over to Te Papa, the national museum of New Zealand. We spent a few hours making our way through it; I especially liked a travelling exhibit on genetics that spoke a lot about genetic engineering (GE) and explained many of the pros and cons. Back at the hotel we met our friend Arne who lives in Wellington, then took the Kelburn cable car up the hill to see Arne’s university and home. At the top of the hill we went into the observatory, but the sky show was expecting a large group of children so we just took a look at the telescope and a few exhibits and then moved on so Arne could take us for a walk around Victoria University where he is studying, then down to his house for a drink. We had some delicious sherry with ice and an orange slice, then headed down the hill to find dinner. Unfortunately, Franz had to work late at the backpackers where buses of new guests had just arrived, so we didn’t get to see her for dinner. We asked Arne to take us to one of his favorite places, and he chose Kazu, a Japanese restaurant. We devoured the Japanese pizza - fried potato crust with shaved dried fush & crème fraiche on top - then I moved on to an assorted sushi plate. Everyone enjoyed their food very much and it was a fun, crowded, energetic atmosphere. After that it was back to the hotel for some sleep - we agreed to meet Arne and Franz the following morning for breakfast before catching our ferry to the South Island.

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Photos

Pavlova
mmm...