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Wellington - houses hanging on the hillside - January 1999
Wellington is a delightful city - the most pleasant capital we know. It has a small central area and round it many of the houses, like the house we stayed in, almost hang on the hillsides with decks and even carports cantilevered alarmingly from the steep slopes. It is a clean tidy city and not overwhelmed with tourists - most people seem to have a purpose and it is one of the few places in New Zealand where one would only feel slightly out of place in a suit and tie.
The first place we always go to is the DOC (Department of Conservation) office which is in the Old Government building. The office is run by Pearl Hewson who has an encyclopedic knowledge of New Zealand - we met her first two years ago and she could tell us the details of every campsite run by DOC on both islands plus information on almost every other area of interest. We made extensive use of her recommendations and went in to "top up". Unlike last year, when we were disappointed to find she was on holiday, she was available and we picked her brains for over half an hour. She has traveled extensively throughout both islands over 25 years so she has intimate and personal experience of all the DOC National Parks etc. She also recommended to us a number of other camp sites and areas to visit. We have always found her advice to be extremely good, completely reliable and have yet to be disappointed. We prefer the basic DOC sites for camping because of the scenery but we ended staying longer than planned at both of the other places she has recommended. If you go to Wellington a stop at the Old Government buildings is a must to see her - she is a great asset to DOC. The buildings are also very interesting in their own right being one of the largest wood framed buildings made so allow at least an hour and preferably more for the visit.
Highlights of the time in Wellington include walking round the central area with its contrasts between the new blocks and the old buildings and how, in many cases, they blend. The area with the library, art gallery and other municipal buildings by the waterfront is a good example of tasteful merging of the new and old. The new museum Te Papa (My Place)is close by and is in an interesting modern style but has yet to blend fully.
Alongside the municipal area on the waterfront area some small "parks" used for outdoor displays and productions. This time they were creating a display of sculpture and we found several dozen artists carving vast blocks of limestone with all manner of tools both mechanical and power. In some cases parts of the sculpture had already emerged whilst in other parts of the blocks were being attacked enthusiastically with axes, pneumatic drills, saws and hammers and chisels. It is difficult to convey the contrast between a serene head at the top of a block being attacked by enormous swings of a huge axe - I took lots of video and we plan to go back in a few days to check progress.
At the other end of the central waterfront is another pedestrian area full of restaurants round a small marina which had been full of the BT Global Challenge yachts on our last visit. We has a bar snack at 'Shed 5', a converted warehouse with an excellent reputation although a bit outside our budget for an evening meal (although it offers a set 5 course menu for $55). It also has an excellent wine list - both Cloudy Bay Sauvignon Blanc and Chardonnay on the list and actually available. In contrast to the impressive main menu we had two enormous bowls of Kumara wedges with a big bowl of salmon dip for $5.80 from the day board.
In the evening we returned to another interesting watering hole we found a couple of visits ago, namely the Malthouse, which claims to have 30 naturally brewed beers available. It is on a first floor in Willis street and has a big balcony as well as a large internal area. We were there early on a Friday evening and most of the clientele were obviously relaxing after a hard week at the office before wending there way home.
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