Not quite so windy today luckily but I can see why it has the nickname it does, as soon as I stepped outside the airport it was blowing a full-on gale. I am liking the city though, very smart and compact. It is very hilly so most of the residential areas are built up on the hillsides and the more affluent residents have their own mini cable cars to take them from their garages up to the main house - alright for some!
I've been here a couple of days now and have crammed in as much as possible in the short time that I've been here. Yesterday I went on a little bus tour of the city. It ended up being an exclusive ride as I was the only one on the hop-on, hop-off tour. I went to Katherine Mansfield's birthplace first, probably New Zealand's most famous author, part of the Bloomsbury set (she spent a lot of time in England). A very quaint little house that has been restored to how it could have been, based on photographs and descriptions in Mansfield's books and short stories for which she was famous.
I then headed off to Parliament for a free tour around the old and new buildings that house the nation's government. There are many similarities with Westminster, unsurprisingly given the country's colonial roots. The tour also included an insight into the building's state-of-the-art system of strengthening should another big earthquake strike the city. The base isolation system means that the whole building rests on over 400 rubber (among other materials) pillars rather than brick.
Today I continued my bus tour and took in the lookout point on top of Mount Victoria, a stunning view of most of the city and it's many hills and mountains; plus the Weta Cave, where the effects and sets for Lord of the Rings and many other major Hollywood films have been made. Amazing how many big budgets pics they've been involved with over the last few years. They have one of the four largest computer networks in the world, bigger than NASA (that one's for you Dad!).
As the weather cleared up nicely by lunchtime (it's been pretty gloomy and miserable since I arrived) I took the very quaint cable car above the CBD and then walked back down through the Botanical Gardens. I then finished off the afternoon by continuing my tour of Wellington's large museum, Te Papa, after a walk along the waterfront. I started the tour the evening that I arrived as they had a late opening but it's so vast that you need at least a couple of visits to do it justice.
I am thoroughly enjoying my travels again after my dip at the beginning of the week, helped by finally having a proper night out after what seems like a lot of staying in. I accosted an English girl called Charly in the kitchens last night and started what seemed like an awkward conversation at first as I couldn't think of an organic opener. A few months ago I probably would have bottled it but slightly desperate for some proper conversation and the possibility of socialising with a like-minded person won out over any embarassment. So we chatted over a bottle of wine and then headed out to meet some friends that she'd made on the same bus tour that I'm due to embark on after the weekend. So I'm really looking forward to hopefully making some more new friends over the coming weeks. 'Bout time too!
Looks like I might get a proper weekend by going out with her and another friend tonight too. It's a proper student lifestyle with limited funds of having a few drinks before going out late. Oh how things have regressed but it's all worth it (most of the time).
Getting the ferry across the Cook Strait tomorrow to arrive in Picton for the start of my South Island tour on Monday. Hoping I can fit in a nice walk somewhere tomorrow. It's an early start though so I'd better behave myself tonight. Don't want another boat trip of seasick suffering...
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