February 26
Hutt City to Wellington
Sue ran me into Marion Street in Wellington. I marched down Cuba Street, the centre of the entertainment quarter, did some shopping and arrived at the travel agent's, where I dumped my bag and collected my tickets for the bus ride to Kakadu.
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I met Judith by the fountain at Astoria, where we had coffee and a long chat.
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With lunchtime approaching and the crowds gathering, I headed to the waterfront, found that Crab Shack was packed and settled in One Red Dog for pasta and wine. With a cooling "breeze" blowing outside, I sat at a window and watched the world go by.Albarino, a Spanish grape I think, is becoming trendy here. I ordered a glass and decided that it was nice but needed food to go with it. My pasta and salad was fine and I left feeling suitably replete.Right: The view from One Red Dog |
I walked along the waterfront to Te Papa, hanging on to my hat as the wind was becoming increasingly gusty. It was still very warm though, with the sun appearing through the clouds.
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The Gallipoli exhibition was probably too busy to explore properly. The time line aspect explained the story well and the huge models - two and a half times life size - were impressive. I was starting to learn quite a lot when disaster struck Lots of alarms sounded and we were all ordered to leave the building, not too easy as they didn't open the fire exits. We all made it into the outside world with a minimum of fuss, however, and stood around outside. I observed the chaos for a bit and then decamped to the Lagoon for a large ice cream. |
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Feeling suitably ungruntled, I walked back to Jo's, collected my bag and caught the bus to Jane & Robert's. I repacked my bags and settled in for an evening of food, yet more wine and conversation.