Tag Archives: Wellington

Wellington and the seat of power – Mar 23

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The Beehive

Will it pour or not today? Bit of rain as we get up.

Rosemary says she’d like to see the birthplace of Katherine Mansfield. She then looks at her iPad and sees amazon is suggesting she buy the kindle version of The Complete Works of KM for 49p. She does.

We decide to take the bus into Wellington. Find the bus stop, but the bus is a tad late. The driver suggests we buy a special ticket will give us our return journeys as well for less than the cost of the two separate journeys.

I follow the bus route on google maps.  I announce we need to get off. R rather dubious cos it is not that likely an area. After a false start we find the house. There’s no sign outside, so we reckon we are not entirely to blame.

We pay our entry fees and walk around the house where KM lived until she was about five. Not all the furniture is the family’s, but it is all v reminiscent of a 19th century house. At the end of our self-guided tour, R asks the custodian a few questions. The desk in one of the bedrooms is KM’s. We, and a lady from Edinburgh with her daughter, are then shown an embroidered Russian jacket that belonged to KM. The embroidery is used on bookmarks and other items for sale. We are shown a book which shows KM’s Russian friend wearing a v similar jacket. R announces the whole thing “charming”.

We divert via Old St Paul’s, a wooden Anglian cathedral built in the mid 1860s in the Gothic Revival style. Many different NZ woods. The ceiling looks like an upturned ship. New St Paul’s has replaced it as the Anglian cathedral.

We need a drink, but bars are scarce. We find one near the stadium with rugby connections and have a drink there, for some reason I have a dark beer.

Then on to the parliament buildings. Outside it clearly says the 3.00pm tour is full, but we go inside through a security scan of our bags etc, and are promptly booked onto it. No cameras allowed, so all our possessions are locked away.

We have an hour’s tour. We walk through all the buildings, including the beehive which is the home of the executive. So many similarities to our UK Parliament, except they did away with their upper house some while ago. Voting is done in a form of proportional representation, which sounded rather complicated. Surprised at the number of Americans on the tour. A well-informed guide ends the tour by showing us the anti-earthquake measures added to the buildings during a major remodelling.

We emerge to light rain and decide we might as well find a bus and wend our way back to our basecamp.

For LOTR fans, the Weta Studio – Mar 22

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Killing Azog

Killing Azog

The rain hammering on the roof of the van woke us during the night. It never stopped until late the next night. We were late rising, eventually eating breakfast and driving into Wellington for another Lord of the Rings scheduled stop. We drove to the Weta Workshop where they make models and sets for films. Now, they also have a CGI studio. They have worked on many films, including, of course, The LOTR & Hobbit Trilogies, plus the new Bladerunner etc etc and the re-launch of the old Thunderbirds show.

On the model side we saw the models of Tracey Island, various rockets and other scenery used in the Thunderbirds series. They build the sets and film these from many different direction, to form a library. Superimposed onto these shots are the CGI “actors”.  The studio has a sense of humour and so wherever they can, they include a lemon squeezer. This originates from the first series when a viewer wrote in to complain about the lemon squeezer (purporting to be a rocket motor), threatening he would never watch anymore episodes which contained one. Back then, the model makers decided to put a lemon squeezer in whenever they could. This tradition has been continued into modern days. To replicate the very first lemon squeezer, they ended up having to 3-D print one, having failed to find the real thing.

The next tour was the LOTR and Hobbit tour. Here they explained the making of the armour, chainmail and the various costumes which the actors wore. The swords were mainly plastic, but they still they made steel swords for close ups where reflections and weight mattered. They made a great deal of use of CNC machines to create the initial moulds used for helmets. Another interesting use of these machines was to create replicas of actors who were too busy to travel to New Zealand for costume fitting. The costumes would be fitted to these replicants, and so fitted the actor exactly.

Unfortunately, they do not allow photography of most of the workshop. These photos are from the area where they allow pictures to be taken. 

After our excellent tours, we searched for a pub on the outskirts of Wellington. This failed somewhat, even several miles from the centre, parking near a bar seemed at a premium. It also started to dawn on me, the P60 pointing along a road does not mean 60 parking places, but 60 minutes parking time. I am expecting to see a lot of parking fines ☹.

Giving up, we drove back to Lower Hutt for a bar there, a pint of beer (yes, a real imperial pint) and some loaded wedges. We did a wander along the street looking into charity shops (well, Rosemary did, think she bought something) and other such places. It was then back to the campsite to sit in the dining area in the dry and cook our supper in the kitchen while we charged are devices

The Havana for a Special Occasion – Mar 21

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The Havana

Not a sunny day, but at least it did not rain. We drove into Wellington, fearful of leaving the car without a charging run. Should not have been a problem as we made sure lights were not on and no items were being charged. The fridge, we determined, runs off its own battery.

Drive-in was fine, but parking was a bit of an issue. Need to be in before 10am to get the $13 parking for the day, later than that and you pay $4 an hour.

Rosemary noted the shelters by many of the pedestrian crossings. Was it to keep the rain or the sun off??

Started off at the Museum of New Zealand Te Papa Tongarewa where they have a very good natural history display. At least R was impressed by the shell collection that had on display. I had to photograph them all. The bird displays were also useful for identification. Poor on the Odonata!

We then did the geology and earthquake room where you get to stand in a room which is shaken to simulate a quake.

R’s birthday, so off to have lunch. On the recommendation of my brother Peter, we went to the Havana near Cuba Street. Good choice, we ate in the restaurant and had a lovely selection of tapas. R particularly enthused by the pickled mushrooms and her dessert of liquorice flavoured pannacotta.

Back again to the museum, this time stopping off at a few shops on the way back. Lots of retro shops selling 70s stuff, masses of vinyl at significantly more than UK prices. At the Te Papa we looked at Maori art, modern, and the agreement when they accepted rule by the British. We also looked at the exhibition on the Maori artefacts, greenstone, carvings and some Maori buildings.

We of course left Wellington in the rush hour and spent a considerable time on the motorway. But little supper needed when we got back to camp. A rather unwisely chosen (before our tasting day) fizzy wine was downed with the last of the artisan cheese.

Off to Wellington when the Van Allowed Us – Mar 20

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Lazy day today, or so we hoped. Up late because no rush as the Irish bar did not open until 11 am and Rosemary wanted to retrieve her newly bought bird book. She had been in email contact and they had found it.

Everything then went wrong, the car key had vanished and after emptying the van we eventually found it almost where is should have been, but it had slipped down through a gap.

Then the van would not start, the battery was flat. Inexplicable, we had only been off power for a night. Surely the battery starting the engine is separate from the battery operating the fridge? The AA took ages to answer and they were going to charge us. The couple in the campervan next door came to our rescue and we swapped batteries and started the van. Put our battery back while the engine was running and we were good to go. Saved! But imagine (as R of course did) what would have happened if we had stayed two nights in the forest where there was nobody around and no mobile phone signal.

We drove into town, and parked. Rosemary walked to The Rose to retrieve her book, while I sat in the van with the engine running.  Book retrieved, we set off to see the cheese shop and model railway Middleton Model Railway & Cwmglyn Farmhouse, as recommended by friends in Kingswood.  This was a couple of hour drive, so batteries should be well charged by the time we get there.

Stopped at the Cheesery, bought the cheese and viewed the 1950s-set railway, complete with a model of Banbury, yes Banbury, station. Lots of buttons to press. R entranced by the minute ‘T’ gauge train and track they had on show. We ended up buying some aprons and a small model VW campervan to join our other one.

On the Cheese lady’s recommendation, we went to a nearby wildlife compound to see some white Kiwis. In the event we drank some horrible Cappuccinos and forgo the viewing of the Kiwis. A snap decision was also made; we were originally heading to Martinborough, but as we had done an extravagant all day wine tasting, we thought we would head straight on to Wellington instead.

Arrived at Wellington where we booked into the Top 10 for a couple of nights to get the washing done etc etc. We may move to the posh DOC site nearby for the last 3 days. Van holding up at present, but we are being extra careful of power use, now sitting in darkness in the evening and charging everything in the kitchen.