Wellington - February and March 2013

Bearing in mind we are getting around to writing this in the depths of winter just after the shortest day of the year; looking back on February and March brings back pleasant memories, bathed in seemingly never-ending sunlight. Right on cue, the moment the schools went back after their "summer break" (most of December and January), the sun finally came out and seemingly didn't take a break for weeks on end. We had almost 2 months of calm and pleasantly warm weather... pretty darned blissful in most people's book. Not long before the rains eventually returned, there were rumours abound that Wellington was down to it's last few days drinking water supply. It turned out to be a record breaking summer, although interestingly the rainfall average for the month of March was normal - it just all came down at once and washed straight out to sea, thus doing very little to abate the drought. Bad news for farmers, but you didn't find many people in Wellington complaining.

Enjoying a harbour front coffee
whilst watching the paddle boarders

Droughts aside, it was fabulous to be able to enjoy being outside in this beautiful city. People here love to trot out the cliched-sounding "you can't beat Wellington on a good day" the moment the wind dies down and the clouds part, but it happens to be an undeniable truism (although I can't imagine there are many places on earth that aren't improved by blue skies and sunshine). The always impressive backdrop of mountain and sea wherever you look seems even more idyllic in the summer, and to complete the picture, pods of dolphins and orcas even paid the harbour a visits on a few occasions (although sadly we didn't see them).

The Rainbow Warrior!

Another visitor to the harbour was the Rainbow Warrior, on which we took a tour and learnt about Greenpeace's new flagship vessel and upcoming campaigns. It was a very different experience to visiting the Sea Shepherd boat, Greenpeace put on a much more corporate and respectable face (that's not a slight at either party, they just employ different way of raising awareness I suppose), and did a very good job of selling themselves to the average person in the street. Watching a video and listening to the fundraising spiel down in the hold felt a little full on, and we half expected them to lock us down there until everybody had emptied their pockets. But fair play to them, they do a fantastic job and the boat was paid for in it's entirety from donations (they don't take government grants so as to remain impartial), so I suppose they have to convince people to part with their cash somehow!

The buzz about town for most of February was all about the Rugby 7s, even the build-up to Christmas paled in comparison. Despite the usual marauding packs of drunken goons, it was good fun to be part of the excitement and chaos. Some of our friends threw a fancy dress party, and later on we hit the Jagermeister tent on the waterfront. Some of costumes we saw in town were incredible, and the group who won the official fancy dress competition were in very elaborate traditional dress then each covered with a transparent plastic dome, the idea being that they looked like souvenir dolls. It was a very commendable effort, and certainly put our half-baked outfits to shame! We didn't actually do much watching of the rugby itself, but it seems that's not really the done thing. Even when buying tickets to the event itself, you can opt to sit in the special 'rugby zone', where people who, for some weird reason might actually want to enjoy the spectacle of the sport itself, can do so without their view and enjoyment impeded by a rowdy bunch of Smurfs. Says it all really!

Rugby 7s Party

We partook in a rare bit of actual sport watching ourselves, at the Westpac stadium for the 20-20 NZ v England match. It was an enjoyable spectacle, the pace is of course a lot quicker than a test match, which given our casual interest in the sport suited us fine. New Zealand opened the batting with an uninspiring effort, which meant that most of the crowd weren't particularly enthusiastic about watching England trounce their beloved Black Caps in reply, so the atmosphere wasn't really as keyed up as we had hoped (not quite the same level of craziness as the Indian league anyway!). The match was the final test in the series (which had so far been a draw), so after watching England put on a show and very quickly destroy their 139 for eight score, the whole thing was over rather quickly.

Another Wellington summer tradition is a series of films shown outdoors in Waitangi Park, with everybody sprawled on the grass with cushions, blankets and bottles of wine. We went down to watch Searching for Sugarman, a documentary about the US musician Rodriguez. It's a bizarre tale of a man who was a household name in South Africa during the Apartheid era and became the subject of myth and legend, most believing the rumour that he had committed suicide on stage. In actual fact he was living a modest life in America completely oblivious to the extent of his fame in another country.

Ariel greeting us on arrival at Somes Island

As part of Wellington's Fringe Festival, we watched Adam Page perform both as a solo artist and as part of his 80s tribute show 'We Built This City', a riotous beer-soaked sing-a-long to various 80s hits, under the premise that the two musicians involved were responsible for all the hit songs of the 80s. Much more fun than it sounds in fact! We also watched a rather odd play called 'Follow, Follow, Follow' about children brought up in one room together without adult interaction. It was basically a commentary about how we learn about the world around us and ourselves if we don't have adult intervention, but it was fairly perplexing at the same time. Charlotte took part in 'Wheels of Justice', a murder mystery cycle tour of the city, with the audience playing new police recruits investigating a murder. Quite good fun! Also on the theatre front (but not part of the Fringe) was a production of the Tempest, taking place on Somes Island in the harbour, with the initial 'shipwreck' taking place whilst on the ferry on the way over. It was a very fun and accessible production, with the eerie nature of the uninhabited island really adding to the atmosphere of the show.


Charlotte took a one-off class to learn how to 'knit like a Viking' where she learnt that Naalbinding is a very tricky, technical and laborious technique. We checked out some retro games at the 'Games Masters' exhibition at Te Papa, a celebration of the world of gaming with an astonishing collection of old games to have a go on as well as all the new stuff. Liam thoroughly enjoyed being let loose on various free-to-play arcade machines, all the way from Space Invaders to Mario Kart.

We finished off the summer in style, and enjoyed a lovely holiday in the South Island before the weather turned and brought us back to reality. More of that in the next instalment!