Day 18: Wellington

Warning:  This post is picture heavy--mainly because our first full day in New Zealand I was trigger happy with taking pictures.

Long story short:  Wellington put on what we learned was an uncommonly sunny and non windy day for our first day wandering around.  It was amazing.  We wandered up and down streets in the capital, took pictures of everything, and generally adjusted to being in a new country.

A cute little park on Dixon Street.  There is free wifi everywhere, including here.

Our first of many many plaques.

Take that, Portland.  Wellington also has a waffle window.

The view from a small hill up a bit from the main part of the city.

Oh yeah, this was on top of said hill.  It's a momument to WWI and New Zealand's contributions to it, specifically the veterans in the Gallipolli campaign.

It's a very impressive carillon, museum and grounds.  The pillars in front are of redstone and black stone, as a testament to the shared history of Australia and New Zealand.

I made a joke about how nothing says "AMERICA!" more than Peanut Butter Crunch and Chocolate Cookie Crumble ice cream, but then, as we thought about it, there are very few things that scream "AMERICA!" like overly complicated ice cream flavors, on a stick.

And then we found a homebrew store.  Evidently, you can buy stills at homebrew stores in New Zealand.  Score, NZ 1, USA 0.

You can also buy 5 gallons of sterilized wort, already made for you.

The coolest, and simplest sparge arm I have ever seen for a home brew set up.  A shower head.

And all the fittings.  More fittings than anything else in the store.

See?

And then down to the water front.

This picture doesn't really do justice to the color of the water.  It changed from hour to hour, from teal to jade and more.

Nothing that Molly likes more than a bit of sun.  And she's so adorable I had to take pictures.

We couldn't quite figure out this group, but they were dressed sort of like a quidditch team, plus a few dressed as the various balls, as well.

This sculpture is called "Solace of the Wind".  It's indicative of the typical winds in Wellington, in which one could easily lean that far into a "light breeze" and have no problem staying on your feet.

The feet of the statue, and the harbor water in another lovely color.

The fern is the most commonly used symbol of New Zealand.  This is the base of an information kiosk about the troop ships used during WWI.

The famous Te Papa Museum.  We plan to go there, but not when the weather is this nice.  We were told many times that this sort of sun is so rare we should enjoy it while it lasts.

Sorry, plenty more shots of the harbor where that came from.

See?

But yes, what we really came for.  The beer.  So far, beer is expensive.  It may just be a Wellington thing, but glasses start at $10, or a 'jug', roughly a liter or so, for $20. Grocery stores are no break, as a 6 pack starts at $12 and only goes up from there.  I've seen cases of 12 for $32.  The only thing that makes this even slightly palatable is the exchange rate, which is hovering around $.65-$.70 per NZ dollar.

But we found a lovely little cafe on a small harbor, with bean bags and grassy areas to sit, so we took full advantage.  The beer, a Pale Ale from Black Dog Brewing, wasn't bad, but very much in the style of a British Pale, rather than an American (read:  not very hoppy).

We wanted to walk to a local hill, called Mt. Victoria, for sunset.  Along the way, this nice little succulent.

The way to the top started with a bunch of neat little alleys and staircases.

A wrong turn took us to someone's porch and a dead end, but a nice view of the city.

At the edge of the neighborhood, a number of very steep trails, and then to the top.

And the sun setting on the far side of the valley.

Looking east, across the airport, a small inlet (evidently one of the best places in the world for wind surfing due to the funneled winds) and beyond the next small ridge, the exit of the harbor.  In local legend, the Wellington harbor used to be a lake where two spirits dwelled.  One of them decided to leave, and in the thrashing to leave, carved the entry to the harbor.  The other became lonely and tried to follow, but became stuck in this narrow neck of land, and as its body sank, became the low lying land in this picture.

And looking north, toward more beautiful mountains.

Ow!  Hot.  Ow! Hot!

Better.

Okay, despite my stupid looking hat hair, a mountain top selfie.

On the way down, we gave away our non-Kiwi-ness by walking on the right side of the staircase, but to our credit, the strange man who called us out thought we were Europeans first.

Well guys, we made it!  Tomorrow, with more sleep, we will walk around some more, and let you know how the city is.