It was a nice, pretty straight, drive from Wanganui to Wellington, about 1.5 hours away, and I (Denise) drove for a little more than 1 hour. It was nerve-wracking (I don't know if it was scarier for me or for Corey) because I kept drifting to the left...it is REALLY difficult centering yourself in the lane from the right hand side of the car and it feels entirely unnatural having traffic whizzing past you on the right hand side of a two-lane undivided "highway". Our local road in Belmont even has two lanes on either side of a divided road! Corey kept freaking out and it caused a great deal of tension in the car. Of course, as Corey quite rightly points out, he would have been a lot less stressed if he wasn't passing within inches of bridge abutments at 65 mph.
Corey took over, and drove the rest of the way into Wellington. We had a quick lunch on Cuba Street at a place called Oriental Kingdom- I had a roti and Corey had chicken curry- both very tasty and cheap! We checked into Hotel Ibis and then walked to the Te Papa Museum about 1 km away. We took a guided tour of the museum, and it ended up being just the two of us on the tour. The tour showed us the highlights- including the collosal squid, a marae, and their extensive green stone collection, and then we wandered around ourselves for a few more hours until the museum closed.
We walked to Chow restaurant downtown based on my Auntie Carolyn and Uncle Michael's notes from their trip to NZ. Chow serves small plates in a very hip environment- we ordered edamame, prawn coconut dumplings, blue cheese wontons (which Mom B would have loved), salt and pepper squid, and beef satay. Everything was very good except for the beef satay, which was quite tough. We ate lamingtons (sponge cake squares covered in chocolate or raspberry and dipped in coconut flakes) for Corey's birthday cake, and watched "Couples Retreat" on TV. A side note: Denise did not particularly enjoy Couples Retreat, but this was the best that we could do, as this was even on SkyTV (the only cable company in NZ). Most places we were at, if we had access to a TV, only had 2 or 3 channels available. Needless to say, we will be VERY behind in our TV shows when we return home. Tomorrow we are dropping off the car and taking the ferry to the South Island.
View Larger Map
No comments:
Post a Comment