Wellington, NZ: Day One

We've been quite busy having a lot of fun in Wellington. Its nice to be back in a relatively big city, but to a large extent, I'm glad we are spending the year in a smaller place like Nelson.

We woke up fairly early at 4:00 am on Friday. Got the car packed, kids ready and were on the road by 5:30 am. NZ driving is significantly more difficult than US driving. The roads are curvier, fair amount of construction and its pretty much a 2 lane hwy into Picton. It took us a bit longer than expected and we had to skip coffee at the Picton Village Bakery (or Le Cafe) and headed straight to the BlueBridge ferry boat, Santa Regina. The Inter-Islander boats are a bit more comfortable and spread out, and have a few more activities for kids. Next time, we'll take the Inter-Islander between the two islands. We got into Wellington at 11:15, drove around the city in search of our apartment hotel (The Terraces). Its a good find. Its quite central to the city but a good step climb away and very spacious. The major drawback is its close to the Wellington freeway, but the noise level is quite tolerable

The ethnic food in Wellington has met or surpassed our expectations already. We started the trip with a good meal at Roti on Willis St. We had the Egg Roti with lamb, the veggie murtabak, mee goreng noodles, mango lassi and rose lassi. We polished most of it off quite nicely. It was significantly better than the local malaysian restaurant in nelson (spices). They also had thosai (which is the malaysian spelling for the south indian dosa!). Didn't know that before we ordered, so we unfortunately skipped it. (i used to be a dosa addict, still am!). Have not had good ethnic food is some time, so my ratings are a bit off. I'd probably give Roti a good solid 7/10.

We walked around downtown a bit. Wellington is a fairly compact city and all the popular areas are a few blocks from each other. We saw quite a few places that were on our list while we wandered around. PJ needed her afternoon nap, so we headed home to put her down. On the way home, I picked an excellent cup of coffee at Mojo (on Willis and Dixon).

In the evening we headed to the Frank Kipps playground along the waterfront. The kids were quite happy there and we go a good view of the harbor and the afternoon ferry coming in. The place was quite happening since it was a Friday evening. On our way home, we checked the cable car location for a potential trip the next day. Mari took the kids home, while I walked to Courtney Place to get some takeaway dinner. It was either Chinese food from The Beijing or Latin American food from sweet mother. I found Sweet Mother first and went there. We got the Fish PoBoy, Chicken Quesadillas (for PJ), Jambalaya and Kumara Mash. I had a pretty strong margarita while I was waiting and also read a pretty good review of the restaurant in the local Wellington magazine. (the praise was a bit too generous and flowing for all the restaurants there, which made it seem like an advertisement rather than a review). I was tired (and a bit drunk), and did not relish the prospect of a long walk back home. Figuring the kids might be a bit hungry, I jumped in a cab :). The food was quite good. In general takeaway food does not have the same taste/feeling as eating at the restaurant. The Poboy and the kumara mash were excellent. The jambalaya and the quesadilla were above average. I'd give it a 6/10

We were quite tired and slept early the first nite in the Big City :)