Oh Brother, Where Art Thou?

Erm, right here in Wellington, actually. Yes, Jason has broken his Wellington duck and come over from the West Island for a visit in the coolest little capital in the world last weekend, staying from Friday to Monday. So we decided to take him on a gastronomic tour of Wellington. After picking him up at the airport (an adventure in itself, as they are changing all the roads, lanes and car park access there to increase capacity), we first went for a drive around the Miramar peninsular, finishing up with a  coffee at Coco at The Roxy. Wellington was laying on its best weather for the weekend – cold, rainy, windy.

In the evening we headed into town to have drinks and dinner at Matterhorn. They’ve changed their set-up a bit since we last went there, and now offer “sharing plates” rather than a traditional dinner. We ordered a selection of starters and mains, including the slow-roasted beef, which was excellent, and too much of everything else. All washed down with some startlingly good pinot noir from Otago.

On Saturday, the weather had improved somewhat. The wind had dropped and whilst it remained cloudy, the sun was trying to come through. We drove round the bays to get into town, then took the cable car up to the Botanical Gardens to take a walk whilst the weather was still dry. We saw the inevitable tuis, and also a bird of prey which may have been a New Zealand falcon (v. rare, but there are known to be some nesting in Zealandia), or an Australasian harrier, which whilst common, are rarely seen in the city. We then took the cable car back down to the city, and after a quick tour round the cornucopia of delights that is Moore Wilson, we went home for some lunch.

Falcon or harrier? You decide!

An inevitable tui

These two followed me around all day

In the afternoon the weather turned rainy and windy again, so we decided to go and see the Warhol exhibition currently at Te Papa. They had some early drawings, the big famous ones, and also a silver balloon room, which Warhol made when he gave up painting for the first time.

In the evening we went to Logan Brown, one of Wellington’s top restaurants, which Jason had previously expressed a desire to visit. On Saturday nights they do away with the à la carte menu and serve only the dégustation menu.

So far, so tasty…but the next day snow was forecast.