Weekend-ing in Windy Wellington

This weekend we finally made it up to Windy Wellington. From the skinny jeans in every direction to the art galleries and cafes on every corner, to the muesams and film festivals, it felt sort of like San Francisco breeded with Burlington, and a little bit of Providence in there too. In other words, it was super-down to earth, a little bit hipster, and the perfect destination for a weekend getaway.

Looking out on the harbor

We got onto an hour long flight Thursday morning, and were happy to find that there were stand-by seats for Mel and I. Things were already looking way better than the last attempt. We arrived in Wellington with a whole day ahead of us, and decided to grab some snacks from the grocery and lay on some rocks by the water for most of the afternoon. After a hectic last week of classes and tons of hiking in the weekends before, it felt like a well-deserved break. We met up with Max’s brother Eli, who works in Wellington, for dinner and ice cream. Let me stop here and say that kaffee ice was literally the most mind-blowing dessert experience of my life. I got chai gelato and never before have I had something that so accurately tasted like it was supposed to….which is sort of probably a bad sign for artificial flavors, but either way it tasted like Christmas.

After I finally shut up about the ice cream, we geared up for the night and took the town by storm, as per usual, and generally just caused a ruckus. We played a bit of pool – thanks to Thomas for all those years playing on the table in the basement, made me feel like I knew what I was doing.

Getting fierce

The next day we decided to take in a bit more of the Wellington culture, and check out some of the markets and galleries. I was reminded me that art is more than just a portrait or an abstract drawing…here’s a uh, piece, made completely of toast!

Fascinating, I guess. I was mostly confused on how it didn’t get moldy. Not sure I’m cut out for the art scene. We went by the water to rent some rollerblades, and I immediately became aware of how long it’s been since I’ve been on a pair.

Getting the hang of it?

I decided to get ambitious and try out the skate park which was sort of a horrible idea – luckily there’s no pictures of that. We got some ice cream cones and continued blading around the harbor for a couple hours, until I got a flat tire and we had to retire (desire, hire, fire, wire, chicka yeah). Not before Mel, Eli, and Eliza bladed through the grocery store and got kicked out by security. Oh well.

Blading along

We finally got some real Mexican food at the Flying Burrito brothers, as per a recommendation of a kiwi we met the night before. It absolutely did not disappoint. I’ll post a picture of me after eating a frighteningly hot hot sauce. It’s pretty embarrassing, so don’t expect it to see it on Facebook – only for my loyal blog followers (read: Mom).

FINALLY.

We went out for another night on the town, and then took it pretty easy the next day. While Zoe and Eliza headed south to check out Nelson for a couple of days, Mel and I needed to catch a flight home to study for finals. Unfortunately it was the Queen’s birthday, meaning that there weren’t any direct flights to the small Dunedin airport. We ended up having to go up north to Auckland, then all the way back down to Dunedin – sort of a pain, but Air NZ’s customer service was pretty great about making it happen for us. Kudos.

On another note, I just finished up my first final. My hand is sore, which I
think translates into a pretty good effort. Three more to go, and then back to the home of the free and the land of pizza. And the brave. But mostly pizza.