Heavy Metal in Wellington

Wellington, New Zealand
Gonvernment Buildings

The Botanical Gardens...
every city has one.

So, when Karl and I planned our five day trip to the capital, Wellington, we somehow failed to notice that this was Easter weekend AND the Rock to Wellington Concert weekend. Nothing like a town ruled by ancient religious prohibition laws and a bunch of metal freaks dressed for Halloween! Apparently, alcohol sales are prohibited on Good Friday, Easter Sunday, and Easter Monday, unless you order a full meal (appetizers don't count, we tried that). Good thing our fancy hotel had a mini bar. Watching the loyal fans of KISS, Ozzy Osbourne and Alice Cooper is infinitely more fun if one is slightly intoxicated. The booze makes one brave enough to laugh out loud a 50 year old sporting black goth clothes, spikes, and a mohawk while riding his unicycle.


The people watching in Wellington rivals that of South Beach, no small feat.
Oh, in addition to not selling alcohol on the dates mentioned above everything shuts down. A great idea for small shops and boutiques? I still managed to get some productive shopping in on Saturday and Tuesday. We spent the other three days praying. Hahahaha!
Te Papa, the national museum, was surprisingly open on Sunday. We thought that would be the perfect day to go... So did the rest of the town, and why not bring the kids, and the grandchildren (even if they are in strollers and looking at the ceiling fans instead of the exhibits), and nieces and nephews (even if they are teenagers that would prefer to play on the Nintendo DS), etc., at least that was my impression.

The weekend after returning from Wellington, Graeme and Gretchen (our fabulous neighbors) invited us to join them at the Bluff Yacht Club. It is now oyster season here, and they were having a regatta and feast to celebrate. Of course we couldn't pass it up. It was delicious. We both had our fill of oysters and paua (local abalone) among a spread of other delights. Following the dinner I was invited to help crew one of the boats for the following day's races. Again, I couldn't pass it up. The previous day's races were quite exciting including leaning boats, and broken masts. The day that I went out was a little different. Calm, calm, calm. It was still nice to get out and be on the bay in the sun. I had a great time chatting with the skipper (Anders) who is a Swedish man that moved out here after falling in love with a Kiwi. We participated in two races and skill was needed to manage the calm that day to pull off a win. Through the culmination of our combined sailing prowess we managed to pull off a DNS and a DNF. (did not start and did not finish)

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