Wellington Wander

With winter creeping ever closer here in Wellington, the more adventurous walking season is over (too much snow in the mountains!), so decided to go for a stroll down to the waterfront from the house on a sunny Sunday afternoon.


Wellington was named for old Arthur Wellesley, the first Duke of Wellington in Somerset and became capital of New Zealand in 1865. Situated on the southern tip of the North Island and surrounded by many picturesque hills, it sits worrying on a major fault line, which runs through the centre of the city. Yikes.


Leaving the house...a typical Wellington residence, made mostly of wood with ornate windows - which gives us much more chance of surviving an earthquake (so I'm told). Not many brick buildings around here!



Just down the road is this odd graffiti memorial to Ian Curtis (a member of Joy Division). It used to be the same colour as the wall behind, but some over efficient Council worker painted over it one day when doing a graffiti clean up. It was painted on again the next day. Some die hard Joy Division fans around here somewhere...

Lampard Flats...Looks like the Lampard dynasty isn't restricted just to English football...

Fidel's cafe - a Wellington institution and marks the far end of Cuba Street (get the theme yet?) - one of Wellington's most vibrant and cultural streets. A carnival is held along the street every 2 years. Fidel's is one of hundreds of cafes here. Amazing they all stay in business, but good coffee is second only to rugby in NZ.

My workplace - the town hall and Council buildings. Used to have a lovely clock tower apparently, but this was taken down as it could have your eye out in an earthquake. Nice building, but suddenly realised i didn't want to stare at where i work on a Sunday, so swiftly headed off to the waterfront.

City Gallery and former library in Civic Square. Impressive building, which fronts the square, with the waterfront off to the right of picture. Note the giant silver fern ball dangling overhead.

The waterfront - well used boatsheds which play host to an annual dragonboat racing weekend.

Fantastic invention these - chuck your kid inside a giant inflatable globe and go enjoy your afternoon.

Time for a sit at the waterfront to soak up the sun. Mt Victoria hill is in the distance, which provides a fantastic view of Wellington. Note the houses clinging on to the hillside - every last piece of real estate is snapped up here.

A-Team ready for action....tourist flights ambitiously priced at $100NZD (50 quid) for 10 minutes.

After a walk along the waterfront I reached Circa theatre. Quite a striking building, and one of many good theatres in Wellington.

Wellington art outside Te Papa (Museum of New Zealand). Te Papa is a Maori name and translates as "Our Place". The vogue is to name everything in Maori, which is all wonderful but just can't pronounce any of them reliably! Interesting mirrored objects these - which reflect everything in sight at odd angles. Great photographic work, with the classic "shadow in shot" error.

Wellington is proud of its weird art - many odd sculptures adorn the city such as this bronze chap in the thrusting pose fronting the marina.

Time to leave the waterfront as the sun starts going down. The edge of the marina is marked by these uniform huts. Note the monastery on the hill, a listed building these days.

Beautiful art deco style central fire station built in the 1930s, and still a working station.

On the way home i get to pop into a Test Match cricket ground - strangely the Basin Reserve is a public walkway when not being used to host international cricket matches, here being used for rugby in the winter. Used as a cricket ground since 1873, it is the oldest in NZ and the flat ground was raised up in the 1855 earthquake. Not surprisingly it sees a fair amount of damage at nights with drunk students walking past.

Nearly home now - just had time to stop at the cafe down the road before heading up the hill for dinner.