Chiwawines Travel: Wellington, Windy Welly

Time to hit the road again towards our NY Eve destination, and where better than in the world's greatest small capital. After the East coast with all its bays, small sandy beaches, sheltered coves and good spearfishing, the West coast seemed a bit boring, flat, tasteless and windswept. I think it is a matter of finding the beauty in it...Wellington or Windy Welly, due to its western and southern gales coming in, received us with a bright and shiny day towards or small AirBnB room which in my opinion came the closest to a cave in the basement of a house on a hill but which was worth every penny due to the magnificent view on the sea, watching kayaks, sailing yachts and the South-North Island connecting ferries pass

Continuamos camino a Wellington, ciudad donde recibiriamos ano nuevo, el cumpleanos del Chiwawin, y ultima ciudad visitada de la Isla Norte, puesto que desde Wellington tomariamos el ferry que nos llevaria despues a la Isla Sur.

Llegamos a nuestro hogar temporal que conseguimos por AirB&B, una habitacion con vista magnifica a wellington harbour.

El primer dia, llegamos a acomodarnos, comer algo, salir a conocer la ciudad y visitar el jardin botanico de Wellington. (Precioso, con vistas de la ciudad que parecian sacadas de postales) ... terminando la caminata por el jardin botanico fuimos a refrescar las gargantas a un bar frente a una laguna donde podiamos tomar una cerveza y una sidra sentados en unos puff en la terraza del bar, todo un placer!

Gallipoli to me sounded like an italian beachfront town, which I vaguely knew was involved in one of the World Wars, but with Ypres, Paschendaele, Bastogne there was no need to go much further during my primary school career and after. The Te Papa National Museum had a Gallipoli exhibition, based on testimonies, memories and relics of people involved with impressively real images of these people made by the Weta Cave (normally involved in making hobbit feet, elf ears and King Kong heads for Hollywood movies directed in NZ). The exhibition was very good, emotional and mind boggling. You wake up one day and suddenly, through your link to the empire which you are so proudly and thankfully part of, you are at war. You come from NZ, leave farms and fishing, to support and fight with the Australians, for a shitty and desert piece of land with the back against the sea against the Turks supported by their land supply lines. A one day truce was held to burry the rotten bodies by both Turks and Anzac. Sleeves where cut off to support the summer heat in order to loose fingers and toes to frost bite when winter came. After a few heroic battles for another hill or crest the operation was abandoned and Gallipoli became calm again. Useless and pointless in sacrifice for our European peace young boys enlisted and died, fortunately humanity learned its lesson ... or didn't it. I can not help feeling very grateful to these NZ and Aussie army corpses although I am not sure what for.

El 31 empezamos con una visita al museo de Wellington (Te Papa) especialmente a la exposicion Gallipoli, en la que nos contaban con maquetas, imagenes, audios, etc la paricipacion de NZ en la primera guerra mundial (participacion que costo muchas vidas para que finalmente se abandone la operacion). Despues de Te Papa, fuimos a alistarnos para recbir el ano nuevo... empezamos con unas copas de Sidra frente a la laguna, luego nos dirigimos al restaurante Istana (comida de Malasya) bueniiisima... realmente delicioso. Saliendo del restaurante fuimos a la laguna donde disfrutamos de una orquesta y fuegos artificiales al llegar las 12.00 pm ... finalizamos la noche en una fiesta latina en el bar mas grande de Wellington (The Grand) bailando y celebrando el ano nuevo ... y claro! el cumpleanos del chiwawin.

A visit to one of my Mums childhood residencies and a walk to the botanic gardens gave us a good first view of the city. A delicious Malaysian dinner, public concerts, local beers and a Fiesta Latina took us to 2016. By then we had figured the provincial character of Wellington, not a capital at all, but with a laid back atmosphere and great setting it is a beautiful city to live in. On the 1st of January, coincidentally my 30th birthday, we did a beach walk and in a nostalgic moment expressed my wish to have a cheese and wine table exactly as Mum used to prepare for me all these years when I would wake up late and hung over on my birthday, together with the entire family around the round table at the Canadalaan.

This was professionally and deliciously catered for by Belen, and the round table was changed for a round rock in the Harbour with views on Wellington. Thank you Belen, te amo. With the loss of 2 incomes and careful spending, a birthday present didn't seem to come until, discussing on the same round rock, I said "after all the wildlife we have seen so far what is missing are doplhins, whales,...." 43 seconds after saying these words, a bunch of dolphins was jumping in front of us, graciously traveling the bay. Now I see where Michelangelo got his inspiration for the Sixtine Chapel, God sitting on his cloud, pointing down to Wellington Harbour and with a thundering voice "give him his dolphins". Cheese, wine and dolphins, a happy chappy went to bed.

El 01, hariamos lo que mi cumpleanero favorito quesiera por su dia, por lo que empezamos con un suculento desayuno levanta muertos, para despues irnos de caminata por la costa pasando por distintas playas, montanas, playas nudistas etc. Despues de la caminata, nos fuimos a hacer un picnic a la playa, con una tabla de quesos,pan, tomates cherry, aceitunas y un vino... para luego cantar HB al chiwawin... que estaba fascinado viendo el atardecer sentado en una roca frente al mar y viendo a los delfines pasar.

En wellington quedaba el Weta Cave, pequeno museo de la empresa que se dedica a hacer toda la produccion de vestuario y maquillaje de peliculas como: The Lord of the rings, Hobbits, King Kong, Avatar...etc, no podiamos dejar de ir a visitarlo.

Wellington, actualmente capital de NZ, (en ningun momento sentimos que estabamos en la capital) es una pequena ciudad acogedora, con lindas vistas, buenos restaurantes asiaticos y un buen ambiente de after office con los bares y restaurantes frente a la laguna, donde se aprecia a la gente que sale a andar en Kayak, o a los calurosos que deciden darse un chapuzon saltando desde un trampolin en medio del muelle.

One of the things that I like about a capital like Wellington, as well as Santiago, is that with a 2 hours drive you can be in the middle of nowhere, and that is exactly what we did. One hour towards Martinborough, a small wine area which produces 1% of the wine in NZ which in its turn produces 3% of the world's wine production. As we saw the big clouds coming and the first drops falling we decided to buy one of the Syrahs and then drive south to the coast opposite of Wellington harbour. For the next 24 hours it wouldn't stop raining bringing to a first real test the small physical space the back of our van provides as well as our ability and patience to spend long hours there. With a beautiful rainy ocean view, big waves, the Syrah and the cheese left overs, this didn't proof too difficult and the next day we woke up to the remnants of the storm which soon converted in a bright blue sky. Driving further down the coast we then got to the NZ fur seal colony, small baby seals included, where we spent a good part of the day observing the seals. They are cute, stinky, playful animals with an exceptional quality to swim in huge ocean waves beat to white spume against the rocky cliffs. Our camping spot was on the grass right next to the beach where there would be at least 50 bulldozers hooked up to trailers to bring the boats going for crayfish to the sea or to shore. To the question why a few common bulldozers wouldn't be sufficient for the town, the answer was that many boats come ashore at the same time and that much time is also spent leveling the beach again after big southerlies.