This morning, I met my tour guide, Wally, and the rest of the tour group (a retired couple from Sussex), at the i-Site in town, and we headed off north out of Wellington. Our first stop was a brief one, pulled over to the side of the road to look at Dry Creek Quarry, where the Helm’s Deep section of “The Trilogy” was shot – I thought I could avoid it, but I couldn’t – and then we headed onward, into the Hutt Valley. We passed through farmland and horse country, and wound our way up to the top of Paekakariki Hill, with a beautiful view of Kapiti Island to the north, and the South Island to the south. Naturally.



From there, we stopped off at a little chocolate shop for a look around, marveled at the holiday traffic backing up on the road, and then made our way to the Southward Car Museum. Now, from our experience last year on both the North and South Islands, I’m beginning to wonder: how many car museums can one small country have? We visited at least three, and passed up one or two more, almost all of which we came across by chance. There’s something in the Kiwi mentality, a love of cars, a fondness for engineering and restoration, a pioneering spirit, an interest in a bit of the mother country way out in the middle of the ocean – who knows, but they’ve got it. We spent about 45 minutes wandering through the cars, trains, airplanes, motorcycles, and so on, which was lots of fun, as always.

We then stopped for cheese-tasting and tea at a little farm complex that was very popular with families, but for which Wally felt the need to make excuses, as a number of its tenants hadn’t survived the recession, and it was looking a little bare. That Kikorangi cheese sure was tasty. We headed back to Wellington, which gave Wally and the other guests time to share their common dislike for “the government” and “the way things are these days,” regulations, political correctness, immigrants, and so on… The old and bitter, always the same wherever you go.

I did some shopping at the Old Bank Arcade and at Frank Kitts Market; one’s a beautiful and stately bank building turned permanently into shops and cafes, while the other is a subterranean parking garage that doubles as an art and craft market on Saturdays. I had success in both locations.

I hadn’t yet stopped at the Mac’s Brewery building right near my apartment, and this sunny afternoon seemed as good a time as any to take the time to do it. It seems they’ve recently stopped producing beer there, so there was no brewery tour to be had, but I had the next best thing, a flight of six of their beers. I spent the afternoon reading and periodically scooting my chair and table to follow the sun, and enjoyed watching clumps of teens in strange costumes (Star Trek, Pokemon, Alice in Wonderland, unidentifiable, and so on) emerging from the Armageddon Pulp Culture Expo at the arena next door. I should really get my photo with Bonita Friedericy from Chuck, right? After a little break at home, I headed out for dinner at Olive Cafe on Cuba Street, and then to see Gentlemen Broncos at the Paramount. I also investigated renting a bike, so I think I’ll give that a shot tomorrow.