Wellington

14 July
With our North Island plans a bit undecided Steph arranged for us to meet their cycling friends Helen and Mandy who could advise on routes north. Over coffee and cheese scones in the cafe of the local art house cinema, The Empire, lovely Helen and Mandy told us about their recent trip cycling in Slovenia and Croatia, including bears, heat stroke, rolling hills, and picturesque towns, that kept them grinning. It was really great talking to fellow cyclists and their tips about onward trails gave us food for thought.

Don took us up narrow twisty-turny roads up Mount Victoria to show us the spectacular 360 views of Wellington. What a fantastic city location! The centre is on the waterfront, with suburbs nestled in the hills and valleys around the large circular bay, with large corridors of protected green belt trees and the sea beyond. It was great to see this expansive perspective of Welly, a view we’d never have seen had Don not shared it with us.

Don dropped us at Te Papa, NZ’s national museum, which houses Māori and Pacific cultural treasures, interactive natural history, the powerful ‘Gallipoli: The Scale of Our War’ exhibition, and art galleries.

The Gallipoli exhibition we found to be a profoundly moving experience. Both of us were moved to tears. Designed by the Wētā Workshop - known for their work on Lord of the Rings and Avatar - the exhibition was the best we’ve ever seen. Walking through, you encounter the sights, sensations and sounds (a haunting score punctuated by gunfire and shouts of soldiers) which summons the horror of the war. Its real emotional power however comes from telling the story of the WWI campaign through the eyes and words of eight New Zealanders on the front line. Each individual is introduced as a hyper-realistic figure captured frozen in a moment of time, on a monumental scale: 2.4 times human size. The detail is remarkable - every pore visible, thousands of human hairs inserted by hand, each stitch exactingly to scale. These larger-than-life figures provide a strangely super-charged experience, so life-like we could almost imagine them breathing. The tactile 3D aspect runs throughout the exhibition, with digital maps, scale models, videos, hearing soldier’s letters, and seeing the photos they took, all bringing history to life.

In the evening we joined Steph and Don and their neighbours Polly and Pete for sausages - a wonderful decades old tradition they share, both taking it in turns to host each other every Monday. We felt warmly welcomed into this tradition and had a very enjoyable evening chatting round the table.

15 July
Getting the bus into the city centre we rummaged in a second hand bookshop, returned to Te Papa, before exploring town - walking up quirky Cuba Street and getting a cheese toastie in West Two Espresso cafe. Pottered about getting closing-time pastries (half price!) from Aurora Argentinian bakery and topped up our refills at Commonsense. Back in Island Bay we had a very tasty dinner in ‘Parla’ - a new Mediterranean restaurant that has just opened - spending a lovely last evening with Steph and Don.

16 July
Our generous new friends not only welcomed us into their home, introduced us to their friends, but also offered to give us a lift out of Wellington and up to Whanganui! A journey that would take us three days to cycle. Accepting their kind offer helped us enormously by avoiding busy highways along this stretch and gained us valuable time we plan to use to explore the beautiful Northlands, where Don is from, before our flight to Australia on 14 August. Don drove us up on a sunny morning arriving into Whanganui early afternoon. It felt strange waving Don goodbye: I wonder if our paths will cross again?Leggi altro