Storyline: Home to home westward
One can’t be but fit in Wellington, NZ. The city itself is confined on the narrow strip between steep hills and the ocean. And then come many suburbs/former villages scattered on the hillsides. Every hill and valley is a village. As our host Nicki put it, Wellington is like being run in a laundry machine. I’d say it is rather like being run in a centrifuge that broke while spinning, and villages were fetched out in a random order.
Our home for a few days was on a top of a hill in Northland. I was way too optimistic when I first asked our host Wayne in an Airbnb communication how to get there by foot. I knew it was on a hill, but we had dragged our luggage up many hills before. If we were so inclined to walk, Wayne wrote, he’d meet us half way, at the upper end of the botanical gardens.
Our train was delayed so he picked us up from the train station. Glad he did. We would have never been able to find his hill even on main roads, let alone pedestrian paths. While walking up the next few days, on paths so steep and upright that my nose was touching the ground I was constantly reminded of my naivety about the Wellington hills. Our hosts were outstanding. Wayne would made us cappuccinos and espressos in the morning, paired with croissants or Nicki’s freshly baked cookies. Mmmm… Alex, who is not much of a coffee drinker is now a convert (to Wayne’s coffees only – A).
We walked up and down hills, through villages and Wellington city. The botanical garden is worth a day itself. Sunday was the end of CubaDupa, their street festival in the area around Cuba street. Because of the recent shootings on Christchurch, the street performances were at little alleys or other places where the entrances could be closed off for bag check.
So, we had to show our bags every time we entered a performance area.
It rained a lot, except our first day during which we explored the city. But we did manage to climb up and down a few hills, recognizing that Auckland’s hills were just a prelude to these.
Alex wished he could spend 6 months here. No gym needed. Just doing one’s daily errands will be enough to get anyone in shape.
Our friend, Slavka had recommended that we should try the green-lipped mussels. We had completely forgotten about them, although it was on our gourmet tour menu.
And our hosts told us to try the Chippery, with best chips ever. Here they call the French fries chips. So on our last day we walked down the hills had grilled moki, a great fresh local fish and a bucket (must have been a kilo) of home made chips, each the size of a small potato.
A word of caution: One can be taken for a ride as a tourist in any country. Walking on Featherstone Street we found a NZ gift shop and asked where we could buy a postage stamp for a card we wanted to mail. The lady told us that her stamps are only good for cards, which was all we needed. She gave me a nice kiwi-shaped stamp. It was strange, but who knows. It was 2.60NZ. We thought the stamps are $2, but again who knows…. I put the stamp on and she told us to just put it in a mail box on the street. Walking further down we saw a New Zealand post office and asked if they can take our card. They looked on the stamp and said, no, we can’t take this. It is a courier company. What? So if NZ post can’t take our card, what do we do with it? You’ll have to drop it in their box. But how do we find their box. They are blue boxes and NZ post are red. Oh, I see. But will it arrive to destination? Yes, the guys says, but much slower. So, let me get this right: There is a private company that competes with the government one, but it is more expensive and the mail will be delivered slower. Well they actually bundle their mail and send it through NZ post!
We ended our last day with a really nice dinner at the Belgian pub. NZ green-lip mussels (a kilo) with French fries (Flemish style with mayo) and Kwak beer. Mmmm. Loved the freshness of the mussels.
We’ll have a separate post on food in New Zealand, but so far, our experience is that one has to be careful where they choose to eat, get take out or buy groceries. We mentioned the prices our friends have experienced a month ago in a conversation with our hosts. “Where have they been?” Nicki asked.
During the only sunny day we poked our heads into some waterfront pubs and restaurants and they seemed on the high end in terms of price, but then next to some there was a take out with decent prices, and once in town – all was much more normal. We had huge lunch for NZ$12 each in a nice pub on Cuba street, the Chippery with fresh grilled fish was also good and, in the end, the New Zealand green-lip mussels in the Belgian pub were not overly expensive either.
Next morning Nicki and Wayne drove us to the ferry terminal, after the usual cappuccino and espresso paired with home made cookies with walnuts, of course. So off to the South Island we went. Alex hasn’t been well the entire night, so we’ll see what is next.
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