good life: July 2012

We got a great Air New Zealand deal to Wellington so decided to visit Irwin and Michelle last weekend. Despite it being about 5 degrees cooler than Auckland, the weather was beautiful and it was a good excuse to catch up over lots of coffees and be entertained by the mini-me's, Eva and Matilda.

Irwin and Michelle live near Petone which is a neat little suburb that reminds me of Ponsonby - lots of great cafes, neat little independent shops and old buildings. According to Michelle, Wellington has the most coffee roasters per capita in the world. I'm not surprised as there are cafes and roasters everywhere through the city and the suburbs and the aromas are wafting everywhere.

Cool stained glass at Caffiend Cafe, Petone

Cafes of particular interest in Petone are 'Caffiend' and 'Go Bang'. We've been to both a few times now and there's always great coffee, great atmosphere and the cabinet food looks homemade and delicious.

Fresh Water on tap in Petone

Petone also has the neatest little attraction - the fresh water spring, Te Puna Wai Ora, right in the middle of town. People come from all over with their big drums to fill up on fresh water.
On Elle's recommendation we also got to the Dowse Gallery in Lower Hutt which is worth a look if your in that part of town. The Hairy McLarey children's book author, Lynley Dodd, was signing books, so there was a queue out the door.

On Saturday night we went into the city and checked out a few of Wellington's attractions. To me, Wellington has a real creative, artistic and cosmopolitan vibe that is hard to find elsewhere in New Zealand. All roads (and good public transport) seem to lead to the city centre which gives it a heart. You can walk pretty much everywhere - people are walking down Cuba St Mall at all hours and it doesn't seem as overrun with hooligans as Auckland's Queen St at night.

Here was our Saturday night line up:
First off was 'Matterhorn' for a drink. A very cool bar with an amazing wine list. Wow - I wish this was around the corner from my work! The restaurant is meant to be great also, but that will have to wait for another time.
We then strolled down to 'le Metropolitain' for yummy French bistro fare. Of course they had good duck confit so how could I not be happy with that?!
We finished at 'Logan Brown', Al Brown's award winning restaurant, and my glass of Clearview Sea Red and some nice homemade chocolates was the perfect finish. Just the architecture is worth going in for the drink. What an amazing building. I think its an old bank.

Well, maybe next time we go we'll leave it for a warmer time of year to go to Wellington but it was a great escape for the weekend. In the words of Dr Averil: O for Awesome!