With such short days and cold weather settling across the south island, Will, Rachel, and I went up to the capital, Wellington, at the bottom tip of the North Island.
IN SHORT
THE WIND: It was nuts! I mean shit, good ol' Chicago is nothing compared to this windy city. Gale force winds are almost the norm here.
THE BEER: Great. Craft beers all over the place.
THE FOOD: Wonderful. We went to so many places. Mainly Asian joints.
THE COFFEE: Now, I have always been a tea-kinda lady but this trip has made me realize how delicious coffee is. Good coffee. I'm pretty sure Wellington has more coffee shops on any given block then New York does. We did as the Wellingtonians do and attempted to drink 4-5 cups a day (we often only had 2). Starbucks has nothing on the various coffee brands here.
THE PEOPLE: Still kiwis but heaps more artsy people. Slightly more diverse than Chch.
THE TOWN: Wellington is a very lively place. There was live music going on somewhere almost every night. The city spans along the harbor between some hills and has its distinct sections (as any city does). Cuba street offered the most to do and had the coolest vibes. Overall the city is pretty artsy and happening.
Day-by-day
The plane landed around 7:30am on Wednesday. We decided to make the most of our day and set off to see all of the basic touristy things. After some coffee at a cafe and a walk down cuba street, we hiked up Mt. Victoria to see the city from atop a hill. We then walked over the the parliament, saw some churches and went to Chow's for dinner. After chow's, we went next store to a hip bar called The library and worked on some puzzles while taking advantage of the 241 cocktails.
The next day Rachel and I went on a food tour in the morning which was pretty cool. Our tour guide took as all around showed us all the cool places to check out. We had a ton of free samples and even got to go to where on cafe roast's their coffee. We met up with will later, had coffee at a cafe with a cool half outside section, and walked around town stopping at various shops and galleries. For dinner, we went to a vegetarian and vegan place for some Malaysian food. We basically got high on ginger tea and had fantastic food. In the evening, we bar hopped and danced to some live music at a place called San Fran (yes, there is a strong American presence all across NZ).
We spent all of Friday in Te Papa, the national museum. After some coffee, we strolled around cuba trying to figure out what we wanted to eat. We settled on Maylasian/ South Indian place and again had some great food. That night we bar hopped some more. We found a real classy one that had a katie perry themed menu. Will defeated me in a card game there. We found some cool little craft beer bars later in the night.
Saturday we went to the morning market on the boardway then went to a cafe for some coffee. After that, we took the tram to the botanic gardens and strolled through them. After coffee and lunch at the cafe in the gardens, we walked back to the hostel in the city. Rachel had to leave so she packed up and we all went out for more coffee and cake. Once we saw her off, will and I walked over to Newtown and grabbed some drinks at a Brazilian bar. Taco's were calling us so we went over to a local Mexican joint for some sangria, tacos and flan (what was absolutely amazing). We then went back to the brazilian bar for some dancing but felt a little out of place so we decided to try and catch a ska show. By the time we got there it was 11pm and the show had just started. It was sooo much fun. I had never really experienced ska (other than punk ska) but let me tell you, such great vibes. The music is so fun and up beat. The dancing was great. There was no specific dance or anything, you just moved around to the music, completely let lose, everyone had his or her own style. It was great.
Our last day was calm and slow. We did some shopping and went from cafe to cafe absorbing the city and watching the day go by. We cooked up yellow curry in the hostel at night and chilled.
Once again, quite a successful trip with great people. I didn't take very may pictures, however.
