Windy Wellington

(Molly) We made it to Wellington a couple of weeks ago, now, to take Grant to the airport. We drove down Saturday morning and walked all around the city before we took him to his flight Saturday afternoon. Correction, Patrick took him to his flight, I went shopping! Wellington is a gorgeous city, with great museums, beautiful landscapes and fantastic restaurants. It's a very hilly city right on the bay, so it is very reminiscent of San Francisco. We were so overwhelmed with the number of delicious restaurants that we ended up having a progressive dinner of sorts, spliting appetizers/main course & salad/dessert each at a different restaurant so we could try more places. We had bread and dipping sauces at Duke Carvells, then had amazing pumpkin tortellini and salad at Scopa (this changed our life) and ended up with donuts stuffed with black currants and served with ginger ice cream at Logan Brown. (They just won best restaurant in New Zealand!!) There are still a bunch of places we want to try...so much food, so little time!


Sunday morning we took a walk through the botanical gardens and ended up in the rose garden where the Salvation Army band was playing. We had a good laugh when the little kid pictured here wandered by and asked his dad if he could go pet this "lamb". Only in New Zealand!

The botanical gardens are accessed via the cable car which take you from the city up the steep hill to the suburb with the gardens. Gorgeous views abound, and then you get to walk DOWN through the gardens instead of up!! You can see the Wellington harbor behind us, as well as some of the city...hills, streetcars, great food...you can see why it reminded us of San Francisco. (Oh, and also, we accidentally went to a gay bar Saturday night after dinner! Walking up and down Cuba Street, popping into places for food/drinks, one place looked warm and full of people so we wandered in and ordered drinks. When I got back from the bathroom Patrick pointed out that we had, in fact, ended up in a gay bar...Which in the end, is much more entertaining than a regular bar! San Francisco, indeed. :)