Tuesday 28 February 2023

Our only duty today is to drive five hours to Christchurch airport, to catch the 6pm flight to Wellington. We head off and plan a leisurely trip. We drove this road only three days ago so there’s not much new to see. Although we did catch a better view of the seals, and so many of them today

They were having great fun in the water. We didn’t sight a single whale, but we know where they can be seen, and the station where their weight is recorded

We stopped in a tiny town for a very ordinary sandwich lunch. The town is Cheviot, where I expect they have put a Holt to any swimming (only the oldies will get that little joke, and even then perhaps not many)

We reached Christchurch in time to make a detour to the Air Force Museum. We have it on very good authority that the uniform of a dear friend is on display.

It’s a terrific museum, with lots of aircraft and interesting memorabilia and stories. But could we find Geoffrey’s uniform? Nada. I sent him a WhatsApp message to enquire of it’s whereabouts, only to receive an almost immediate response to advise that when he was in the museum himself just two weeks ago he couldn’t find it either. I hope he is more careful with his civvies.

We returned the car to Hertz. We have clocked up 2696kms.

Uneventful flight to Wellington and we taxi it to the hotel. We are in Room 108A. We should have known when a letter follows a room number that it was the broom closet converted to a Booking.com room. It’s tiny and there are more than 300 office windows facing our room, including the NZ Department of Education, amongst others. We are in very close proximity to the Beehive.

A call to reception returns a ‘sorry house full’ response, and ‘if you have any complaints take them to Booking.com’. Yes, well, you can guarantee we will.

Eateries are too far away to walk to at this time, and our room is too small to contemplate room service so we head to the Ambience Restaurant on Level 1. It takes us by surprise. The lack of ambience is astonishing. A dozen white plastic tables, cunningly disguised as marble, completely bare. Two men drinking beer at one table. The other five eleven are deserted. Having established that this actually is the Ambience Restaurant we are advised that the kitchen closes in 10 minutes. At 8.15pm. We quickly order a steak and the obligatory bottle of red. We are even supplied with a knife and fork each and a wine glass. I acquire salt and pepper and napkins from a sideboard. We consume the meal, which is actually quite nice, while the staff set up for breakfast. By the time we finish our meal we are surrounded by bain maries, jams, toasters, plates, cutlery etc etc. We are back in our room by 8.50pm

Wednesday 1 March 2023

Wellington must be the steepest city in the world. We plan our day to walk downhill. We do so by heading to the harbour and walking along the foreshore, which is very pleasant. This area was left idle for years, after the shipping container terminal was relocated. The Council has spent a lot of money to restore the wharves and cargo sheds into restaurants, bars etc and it’s worked brilliantly

Trains and boats and planes are in full view. Actually, forget the trains, replace helicopter for plane, and there you have it. Although, the airport is positioned that the planes approach and take off over the harbour, so the sky is busy

As we head to Te Papa Museum, we note more investment from the Wellington City Council in terms of this wonderful sculpture of sea urchins

We spend three hours in the Museum. It’s amazing. Set over five levels, we see stories of Colonial history (not everyone travelled with hand luggage)

stories of Maori history, art displays, craft displays and Phar Lap

He’s lost some weight you’ll notice. Poor old chap. His skeleton in Wellington, heart in Canberra and hide in Melbourne. What did Phar Lap ever have to do with Canberra? Why is his heart there, when no one else’s is?

Amongst the Colonial impact on NZ is a significant environmental one. Here is a map of the forestation before and after European settlement

There’s a whole room dedicated to the Waitangi Treaty, which is really interesting, especially at this time of Voice From The Heart, for we Aussies.

There is plenty to question in the text above, and clearly the treaty is not satisfactory to all.

But, in recognition of the differences the Government has established a Treaty Tribunal, which investigates claims made by both sides.

But quite the most amazing exhibition at Te Papa is Gallipoli. It is an enormous installation, enormous in every sense of the word. Ww walk through the ANZAC assault on the peninsula, in grueling detail. The soundscape is brilliant and the larger than life figures so very realistic.

Each of these figures is based on a real person, and their real stories told either vocally or visually. There are diaries, letters, telegrams and all sorts of items. We are in awe of the level of detail of these figures. Look at the veins on him and the tears from her eyes

Whilst the exhibition is specific to Gallipoli, it is a lesson to us all about the stupidity of war, and how those incredible men and women fought for their countries under the worst of circumstances. Everyone should see this exhibition.

We leave Te Papa and walk to the Cable Car, which we catch up to the Botanic Gardens. They are on top of yet another Wellington hill and incredibly steep. By now both of us are feeling the significant kilometres we have walked today and we choose the downhill paths through the gardens.

Cherrie spied a plant. Well, of course she spied several plants but this one peaked her interest. She has one fan aloe (in layman’s terms, one blade) of this plant at home

and is very excited to see it will grow into this

After walking 17,500 steps, 9.5km, we are both limping badly on our walk DOWN the very steep hill back to the hotel. A well earned rest before we are collected at 6.30 by friends of friends to take us back to their house for a most delicious dinner and lively conversation. It is such a lovely evening and Robyn and Tolis are now our friends too.

Thursday 2 March 2023

We check out of the broom closet this morning and catch a cab to Hertz. We collect a little car to drive north to Martinborough. Our friend, Gourmet Garry, has insisted we do this trip because he says the best cheese shop ever is there. It’s an easy 90 minute drive and indeed it’s a very pretty town. But there’s no cheese shop. We potter around, buy a bottle of wine to have in the hotel room tonight, and call it a day. I am heartened to see that others subscribe to my philosophy

On our way back to Wellington, and the airport, we drive through another little town called Featherstone. And there’s a cheese shop. So we stop, buy a little cheese in honour of Garry, and drive straight to the airport. We return the car and check into Rydges. Our flight departs at 6.15am tomorrow (4.15am for you lot) and our wake up call comes through at 4am (2am for you lot).

We have a quick swim with other hotel guests

and realise how absolutely exhausted we are. I blame all that exercise yesterday. I have a quick nap

While Cherrie tries to stay awake

We have had the most marvellous holiday in New Zealand. What a beautiful country. Thanks to you for reading this blog

So for now, poroporaki