Water and city views in Wellington – New Zealand – March 2017

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Coene's Restaurant, New Zealand, Oriental Bay, Wellington

My last day in Wellington

On the last day of my recent visit to Wellington, my friend Nicola drove me to a hilltop suburb called Kelburn.  On the drive up I saw parts of the Botanical Gardens and the hillside terraced houses of the suburb.  I really wanted to walk through the gardens but I didn’t have enough time unfortunately.

 At the top of the hill at Kelburn is the Wellington Cable Car which takes about five minutes into the city.  It’s been running for many years and takes about five minutes from the top of the hill to reach the city.  Many of the residents of Kelburn use this mode of transport to get to and from the city every day.

 We then went for a drive out of Wellington and upon our return to the city we stopped off at a lovely waterfront pub.  We were lucky on two accounts, firstly the weather was lovely and secondly there was a vacant table outside overlooking the boats and water.

We sat around for about an hour enjoying a glass of New Zealand white wine and Nic ordered some fresh bread with flavoured olive oils and a little bowl of olives.  The menu had lots of good snacks but I knew I would be eating on the plane as I had pre-ordered a vegetarian meal, so didn’t order anything else.

Then it was time to freshen up before my three hour return flight to Canberra.  It’s great that it’s a direct flight from Wellington; so much easier than having to stop off at either Sydney or Melbourne.  We dropped into my friend’s city apartment and then head off to the airport.  This apartment was stunning with magnificent views of the water.

Not sure when I will get back to Wellington but I do know that I would love to visit New Zealand’s other major city; Auckland.  Maybe next year!!

Monsoon Poon Restaurant – Wellington – New Zealand – February 2017

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Monsoon Poon restaurant, New Zealand, Wellington

Dinner with friends in Wellington

Earlier this year when I was in Wellington for my friend’s 50th birthday, we went to a wonderful restaurant for drinks and dinner on the night I arrived…and what a treasure of a place!!  We arrived a little before the rest of the group so sat in the very dark bar area and enjoyed a glass of wine.

It was a pretty cool place with a great vibe.  It was quite dark all throughout the restaurant which I thought added to the ambience but it was a little difficult to take photos as I only had my mobile phone and there were such great paintings, posters, lamps and ornaments throughout the restaurant.

The restaurant offers cuisines from India, South China, Vietnam, Thailand, the Philippines, Malaysia and Indonesia.  So many choices!

There are booths and long tables within the restaurant so it can be either an intimate or sociable dining experience and the main idea is to share dishes so you can enjoy cuisines from all over South East Asia…and an open kitchen which allows you to see the chefs busy cooking throughout the evening.The menu was difficult to read in the dark so I used my mobile’s torch…and no surprises here that I chose the sweet chilli eggplant dish which was crispy and wok tossed with garlic and coriander.

Our group chose a diverse range of dishes to share, all non-vegetarian, and I guess they were good as all were devoured during the evening.

I also ordered another vegetarian dish which was a delicious potato, pea and pumpkin curry that had just enough spice and was great with the naan bread.  My photo is pretty bad [sorry] but it really was good.

A fun night in a great location!

(source: http://www.mark tantrum.com)

 

Peka Peka Beach & Long Beach Cafe – Waikanae Beach -Wellington – New Zealand – March 2017

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Long Beach Cafe, New Zealand, Wellington

A beach walk and casual lunch an hour out of Wellington

Whilst in Wellington, my NZ friend Nicola took me for a drive up to Peka Peke and Waikanae Beach to show me different parts of outer Wellington. I was very grateful for this as I didn’t have a car and would not have had the opportunity to see these areas without this driving experience.

Peka Peka is a small seaside town on the coast of New Zealand’s North Island. I was told it is famous because a young emperor penguin, nicknamed Happy Feet (maybe the inspiration for the movie or because of the movie more probably) appeared on the beach in 2011 and this is special as emperor penguins are usually only found in the Antarctica…a little way away from NZ.  I am still unsure why this is famous but anyway it is…

After our walk on the beach (a really nice beach but not the lovely golden sand I am used to in Australia – little bit brown and dirty but still lovely as people were out and about walking their dogs and generally just enjoying the day) we stopped off at a small town called Waikanae also along the coast.

There we had lunch at  Long Beach Cafe…

This cafe grows its own produce for the food and also for most of the beverages which come from the veggie patches at the rear of the cafe.

For lunch both Nic and I ordered the avocado on sourdough bread, cherry tomato salsa, goats cheese and sunflower seeds.  I asked for the goats cheese to be omitted which the waitress was very happy to do.  What an incredibly healthy and delicious meal along with a lovely glass of NZ Antipodes sparkling mineral water.

This was a lovely part of the north island of New Zealand; and I really need to return and see more!!

Oriental Bay Homes – Wellington – New Zealand – February 2017

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New Zealand, Oriental Bay, Wellington

Walking along Oriental Bay foreshore

During my recent visit to Wellington, I decided each morning to take a lengthy stroll along Oriental Bay which is very lovely in the early morning.  But this time instead of looking at the water as I did in my October visit last year, I thought I would check out the apartments and homes along the other side of the road. And also the little boat houses along the water front…so sweet!

I do love modern buildings but along this foreshore it’s the older  and refurbished homes that are really lovely.  In the 1950’s Oriental Parade only had a mix of grand homes and smaller villas but with the changing times, up to seven storey apartments blocks have made their way along the parade.

These modern buildings do overshadow some of the smaller homes which is a shame, but I must say that I would definitely live in one of the newer two storey homes with huge glass windows and large balconies overlooking the water.

But it’s good to see that the delightful and beautifully restored homes are plentiful along the road and up in the hills.  some not restored but still with such character.

And for those of us who cannot afford these homes, there  are some very glamorous looking garages that could be converted (?) but I guess owners would not be that willing to part with these homes for their cars!! Then there are pictures of homes painted on the rock walls.  A couple of these are along the rock face and add colour to the drabness of the walls.

And colourful little shops between big buildings…I like how these older buildings look and how they have not been sold to make way for taller buildings (yet).

And more lovely refurbished homes…

I must say as I was walking along the water front each morning I really enjoyed looking at the lovely homes and catching people having their breakfast before heading out to work.  And I really would have loved to see inside homes at the top of the hills – I think they would have been pretty special but no chance as the only way to enter the home is to park your car down in the garage off the road and take the electric lift up to the house.  I saw one lady and her golden retriever dog out for a walk one day and then both hop into the lift to return home – sweet!!  Dog knew exactly what to do as soon as the door was opened by it’s owner.

Also along Oriental Bay there are a set of seven villas which are dubbed the ‘seven sisters’.

(source: http://www.kiwiarthouse.co.nz)

They are beautifully restored homes and whilst my camera (or perhaps it’s my skills) could not take all seven together, I did manage to capture all from different angles.

Lovely sights; lovely city!!

Logan Brown Restaurant – Wellington – New Zealand – October 2016

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Fine Dining, Logan Brown Restaurant, New Zealand, Wellington

Dinner at a refurbished bank in Wellington

Logan Brown restaurant opened in 1996 and is located in the former Bank of New Zealand building on Cuba street.  It’s a grand restaurant where my friend Jane and I had a truly lovely evening.

It’s a pretty small restaurant really with a lovely bar area, huge columns, ornate ceilings and dark wooden floorboards that add to the ambience of this lovely place.

We had made a reservation as knew it was required due to it’s popularity and when we arrived, we were seated at an intimate table and whilst I took a walk around to take some photos, Jane ordered us a glass of wine.

The waitress was particularly helpful with my request to have vegetarian dishes without cheese and in the end I ordered a side dish as an entree which was the Logan Brown fried cauliflower with spiced yoghurt.  Very tasty!!  Jane ordered the Ceviche fish dish with lemon cream, citrus, palm sugar and coriander.  Also delicious.

The food at this restaurant is sourced from sustainable ingredients and we were told that whenever possible ingredients are local, seasonal, organic and Fairtrade.

For our main courses Jane ordered the venison with braised osso bucco, malted parsnip and apple and I ordered the risotto bianco which had summer broad beans and truffled peas.  I love risotto and this was very good.

And…of course the obligatory chips (which I must say Jane didn’t eat-so I did!!)

And lastly a cup of coffee and a peppermint tea…a wonderful night with a good friend; great atmosphere and lovely food.

Te Papa Museum & Fidels Cafe – Wellington – New Zealand -October 2016

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New Zealand, Te Papa Museum, Wellington

Final day of our long weekend in Wellington

On our final day in Wellington, my friend Jane and I decided to visit the national museum as so many people had told us before we left Canberra, that we ‘just had to visit’ the Te Papa Museum.  And as you know sometimes you take travel advice and other times you just don’t have time or the inclination; this time we did and we were so glad!!

We walked from our hotel and reached the marina where the museum is located.  It’s really beautiful walking along the water front and we spent a bit of time just looking at some of the structures and waterfront apartments.

At the museum, which like most museums is free to enter, the first exhibition we visited was Gallipoli: The scale of our war.  As the museum’s website says…’this ground-breaking exhibition tells the story of the Gallipoli campaign in World War I through the eyes and words of eight ordinary New Zealanders who found themselves in extraordinary circumstances’.

‘Each person is captured frozen in a moment of time on a monumental scale – 2.4 times human size. The large-scale sculptures took 24,000 hours to create, and countless hours were spent researching their histories’.  They were absolutely amazing, every wrinkle, frown and muscle accounted for!!

It was a magnificent exhibition as these ‘people’ were so life like and so life like; their stories so sad as over 2,500 New Zealanders lost their lives on Gallipoli.

Being Australian, Gallipoli has huge significance not just for the New Zealanders but for us Aussies too, as it was on Gallipoli shores on 25 April 1914 that Australian and New Zealand Army Corps (ANZACS) fought their first military action, during the First World War and over 8,500 Aussies lost their lives.  The pride the soldiers took in that name ANZAC endures to this day and 25 April is remembered every year with a Dawn Service both in New Zealand and Australia.

After this sombre visit we walked through the rest of the museum and enjoyed a history lesson on the New Zealand indigenous people (Maori) as well as some other exhibitions.  Six floors of amazing historical and contemporary exhibitions.

Before we left we went up to the roof of the museum and had spectacular views across the water.

We then did a walk around the city of Wellington (my feet killing me as I had worn shoes that caused blisters) but I soldiered on!!  We did stop off at the famous Cuba Street which is known for its bars, cafes and restaurants and funky clothing stores.

We found Fidel’s Cafe that Jane had read about and popped in for a cool drink.  But it smelt of old fat used for deep-frying so we didn’t even finish our drinks and left.  It was a bit funky inside but the smell was too much for us to stay and look at all the revolutionary posters and photos on the walls.

Then it was time to go back to our hotel (by taxi due to my painful feet) and get ready to take our shuttle to the airport to return to Canberra.

Must say… I loved Wellington and am looking forward to returning to New Zealand some time soon; perhaps next time to the south island.

 

Hippopotamus Restaurant – Wellington – New Zealand – October 2016

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French cuisine, Havana Bar, Hippopotamus Restaurant, New Zealand, The Library Bar, Wellington

Two cocktail bars and a great French restaurant

 As I mentioned in my last post, my friend Jane and I went to a wonderful French restaurant called ‘Hippopotamus Bar and Restaurant’ on our second night in Wellington.

But before we went to the restaurant, we stopped off at two bars we had researched on the internet as both sounded fabulous.  From our hotel we took a taxi to Havana Bar which is accessible down an alley beside two small, colourful cottages which date back to the late 19th century.  One cottage is the restaurant and the other is a bar that serves cocktails and Spanish inspired tapas.

The bar has supported international and local musicians for the past thirteen years and on the night we went, it was extremely busy and we were seated out the back with a large group of boys, who were extremely loud, so after drinking our mineral waters we decided to leave.  It seemed as if the boys had been out all day drinking enjoying themselves and that is fine,but this night it was just too noisy for us.  But glad we went to see the inside of the bar with its propaganda posters on the walls.  A pretty funky place.  A definite place to visit if you go to Wellington.

Our next stop, by taxi again as it was raining, was to The Library, a reading room and lounge bar with live music.  We walked up quite a few floors to an amazing door to enter the bar.  It was very dark inside and there were a series of smaller rooms; the room we were taken to looked just like an old reading room.

Jane and I enjoyed a mocktail; mine a  Raspberry Lemonade with real raspberry syrup, fresh lemon juice and sparkling mineral water – absolutely refreshing and Jane ordered the Strawberry Blonde which was made with strawberry syrup and fresh lemon juice topped with ginger beer.  And after this we made our way to our restaurant.

What a sight when we arrived; outside there was a huge hippopotamus on the roof and the entry has two extremely large brass head cut-outs and what looked like the cut-out of an Indian head.

The restaurant is actually located upstairs in an art gallery/hotel so fabulous art was displayed in the foyer.

Then up in the lift to the restaurant which was so beautiful!

We sat on these beautiful French provincial chairs (well I think that is the period) and ordered a cocktail whilst we waited for our table.

We were seated at our tables by a lovely French waiter and then served by an Italian waiter.   Excellent service throughout the evening with fabulous views across Wellington and the water.  Jane absolutely loved her meals.  She first ordered the Mon Sashimi which was salmon sashimi; the restaurant’s signature dish followed by the Le boeuf dans la prairie -a medium rare beef fillet on celeriac purée, truffle aioli, mushroom quenelle, white needle mushroom, pickled red onion slivers, watercress and truffle oil caviar.

 

I didn’t have an entree as with French food I find there is not a lot of vegetarian dishes. Even the accompaniments had either duck fat, gruyere cheese or ricotta mixed within the dish – all things I don’t eat but grateful they are specified in the menu.  But my main meal was lovely.

We were served an amuse bouche and as mine had cheese on it, Jane was happy to have them both as they were so small and delicate.  Also before our main courses we were served a delicious and tangy sorbet…now that was enjoyable.

I ordered the Jardin printanier which comprised roasted baby roots vegetable in hazelnut oil, mushroom puree with soil, rain and snow.  Now I was waiting to see what soil, rain and snow were and when the meal was served, our waiter poured and placed several additions on my meal which he said were to resemble those elements. Nice!!

It was a wonderful night; excellent service, wonderful ambience and Jane loved her meals.  As I said mine was tasty but I didn’t really go to this restaurant for the food; it was more for the experience which I enjoyed immensely.

Wellington (1) – New Zealand – Oct/Nov 2016

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Electric bike tour, New Zealand, Singapore Airlines, Wellington

A Long Weekend in Windy Wellington

In September this year, Singapore Airlines commenced flying direct from Canberra to New Zealand’s capital, Wellington.  This is big news for us Canberrans as even though we are the capital of Australia all our international flights depart from our other larger cities e.g. Sydney/Melbourne/Brisbane etc.  So my friend Jane and I thought we would take advantage of a direct flight and half price fares and to travel to Wellington for a four day weekend.

We departed Canberra on a Friday morning and enjoyed the wonderful service of the staff on Singapore Airlines.

After three hours we arrived in Wellington and took the shuttle bus to our hotel, which was the Soffitel, a new hotel in the city.

That evening we took a taxi into the city and went to the night markets which are located in a mall just off the main restaurant street in Wellington; Cuba Street.  The markets are open every Friday between 5pm and 10.30pm.

We enjoyed some dumplings and decided to sit outside a little restaurant called ‘Satay Kingdom’ where I ordered a vegetable curry which came with rice and roti bread.  Pretty good but I was a bit full from the dumplings so didn’t eat that much.  We then relaxed for the next hour or so listening to a two-person band before we returned to our hotel for a nightcap before a good night’s sleep.

Our next day, I took a cab down to the waterfront to where my friend Jane had booked a half-day tour of the city on electric bikes.  I must admit I was a bit nervous at first but once I got the hang of it, it was so much fun riding around the water front checking out the beautiful homes and stopping off for lunch at a quaint little restaurant called the ‘chocolate fish’. [clearly the people around this area are trustworthy as we didn’t have to lock our bikes and even left our helmets outside]

After lunch we were due to return to the city but as there was only two of us, our lovely tour guide asked if we wanted to ride up Mount Victoria – I thought it was a nice idea as the bike was electric and I could just sit and it would take me up the mountain…how wrong I was…it was still very tough peddling uphill and I had to stop twice and walk a little with the bike.  Over three hours of peddling at this stage so that is my excuse…but I think I am a little unfit!!  Definitely worth the effort as the views were spectacular.

Then it was time to ride down the mountain; riding down was easier but I used the brakes all the way as it really was very steep!!  Along the way we stopped by an unusual public sculpture.  It is three dimensional with an orange 26m long needle which sways to indicate the strength and direction of the wind. The needle pivots 22.5 degrees in any direction.

Our tour guide told us that the needle was damaged when it was struck by lightning during a hail storm in 2014 and was fully repaired the following year.  It was amazing to see as with Wellington known as the ‘windy city’, the needle was swaying considerably when I was there, and I already knew how windy the day was having to ride into the wind all morning on the bike.

Then back along the waterfront to the bike shop and along the way we saw another other sculpture of a man overlooking the water and got to check out the lovely waterfront apartments.

After returning the bike, I walked back to the hotel [got lost and had to take a cab] and took a little rest before we went out to dinner at a fabulous French restaurant called ‘Hippopotamus’ [more on that in another post].