The Windy City: Our First Week in Wellington
9/30-10/6
Our first day in Wellington, we went out to breakfast at Sweet Mother’s Kitchen, where I could finally get huevos rancheros, which I had been searching for everywhere. We walked to the grocery store and then went back to the apartment. After Mom went shopping, Dad and I went on a run down by Wellington Harbor. There was a great view of the city from the point and a really beautiful church up on a hill. We watched football in the afternoon and I practiced some flute. We decided to take a walk up the hill behind our house to the Mount Victoria lookout, which was a much longer walk than I expected but was an amazing panoramic view. We could see the other side of the mountain, with the airport, and the downtown, where the ferry had come in. Dinner was Dorito taco salad and then we went to bed.
It took a few days to get used to sharing a room with my little brother, but we finally settled into a pattern. The next day was spent at the apartment, catching up on schoolwork and watching TV. We walked up to the Hobbit Hideaway Scene Shoot from the Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring, where the four hobbits hid from the Black Rider. Mom, Jackson, and I walked up to the top of Mount Victoria and ran down and out to the point before going back to the apartment. On the third, we took the bus into downtown Wellington. We walked by the parliament buildings: the Beehive, Parliamentary Library, and Tomb of the Unknown Soldier. They were all completely different; the Beehive was the most modern building I’ve probably ever seen and the Library was very traditional, with turrets and very Neoclassical decorations and murals.
We went by a bookstore called Unity Books, where I got an amazing book called Juno of Taris by a New Zealand author named Fleur Beale. We went by the Adidas store for Jackson to get something All Blacks, but he didn’t like anything there. We went down Hannah’s Laneway, where there were a lot of good food options. We wanted to go to a peanut-butter place, but it was closed. We got samples at the Wellington Chocolate Factory and got food at Leeds Street Bakery. I got a junkyard cookie, which was so, so amazing: popcorn, chocolate, caramel, marshmallow, and a few other random ingredients that went together so well. Dad and Jackson got a giant salted caramel cookie that they raved about. Dad took us back to the apartment while Mom went shopping. We went to the Old Quarter for dinner (Vietnamese). We got beef pho (noodles), pork Bao buns, salt-and-pepper squid, pork and prawn crepe/pancake, and a mild chicken curry with rice. Every time that I try to decide what I liked more, I think of another reason to like something else.
The next afternoon, we went to the botanical gardens. We finally got to see the famous New Zealand silver fern; the underside looked like it had been spray-painted white. The wildflower garden was probably my favorite part, with lilies and other flowers I don’t have a name for (they looked kind of like Indian paintbrush). The section with tulips was impressive too; there were so many different colors and they were everywhere.
The next day was spent entirely in the apartment, with schoolwork and blogging. We had teriyaki chicken skewers for dinner, with green beans and potatoes, and watched the Dark Knight. To conclude our first week in our new homebase, we went to a farmer's market and went to some turf fields so I could practice hockey. We went to a bar to watch the All Blacks play Namibia in the Rugby World Cup, where I got potato soup and a banana milkshake.
“This garden is dedicated to the honorable pleasure of rejoicing the eye, refreshing the nose, and renewing the spirit.”