I am just loving hearing the rain on the roof and seeing moisture on the trees and plants, I seriously think I have seen more rain here in Wellington in the past week than I have in the last year at home. Sometimes it will only rain for an hour or two, but come down pretty good and then stop and the sun will come out. Especially if there’s been a southerly wind, afterwards the air is so fresh and clean and the sky is gorgeous. I don’t think it’s gotten above 70 since I’ve been here, but most people are wearing light clothes and I’m even getting used to it. It’s definitely a bit more humid than in the Bay Area so that makes it feel warmer, though when the wind gets up it’s very cold.
When it’s raining you can always spot the tourists in Wellington, they are the ones who have umbrellas. Because of the wind an umbrella is pretty much useless and it’s usually ripped apart in a matter of minutes, or there could be disastrous results if a young child happens to be hanging onto it and the wind catches it just the right way! After walking through several parks I don’t think I’ve seen any sprinklers. I guess there’s enough consistent rain – what a concept.
It’s windy, in fact I just learned that Wellington averages 173 days a year of winds over 60km/h (37 miles/h) or 32 knots, which is a 7 on the Beaufort scale (near gale force). Wow! When I was walking around Oriental Bay, a very exclusive waterfront area in Wellington that has a nice little beach, I saw young women in a bikini just getting out from a swim. Wow! I can’t imagine, I’m in long sleeves and have a vest on.
I’m not getting around by car on this trip, I’m either walking or taking the bus. I have Ubered twice, once on the day I arrived because it was 9 o’clock at night, the second time when it was pouring rain. But otherwise I’m walking and learning to use the buses, adjusting to last-minute cancellations and delays. It’s giving me a whole new perspective on Wellington, I’m going slow enough, and not having to pay attention to the road that I can see other things. For example, today I’m walking to the top of the Mt Victoria overlook, a place I’ve only ever been driven to before. It’s granting me beautiful views of the harbor, and all the lovely trees here, it’s also a very good work out, I’ve gone up 55 flights! (Combined with the hills I did on my morning walk, I’ve climbed over 100 flights of stairs this morning, but only just broke in 10,000 steps, which means every one hundred steps I went up a flight!) These are sights I probably would never see if I had a car because I could get around so much more quickly and easily. I also don’t have the stress of dealing with city traffic and remembering to stay on the left side of the road and parking, etc. It’s lovely to be able to slow down and enjoy everything this way.
On my way down from the Mount Victoria overlook I passed some school groups playing at the parks that dot the trail, most of the play equipment is made from natural materials and local wood, so it blends in well with the scenery. Not far from the playgrounds is an area where part of the Hobbiton village was filmed. Further down I came across an Anne Frank memorial that I was unaware of. It is quite striking, consisting of only three chairs. One has her name and birth and death years on it. The other two are inscribed with one of her quotes in both English and Māori. “I don’t think of all the misery, but of the beauty that still remains” The memorial is set in a meadow that backs up to a cliffside, it is a very peaceful place.
About a half an hour later I ended up walking past the New Zealand War Memorial Park which includes memorials from different countries, including an American memorial to the ANZAC forces in World War I.
Later I stopped at Preservatorium cafe for lunch. I got Kawakawa tea, which was very light and refreshing. The café is really cool, it has lots of artifacts from long ago. I sat and read the daily paper, the Dominion Post. It’s funny to see a newspaper that can show all of the TV listings for the day on one page. New Zealand has quite a few more channels than when I first visited in 1989, at that time everyone was very excited that TV 3 was on air, because it meant the number of TV stations had increased by 50% from 2 to 3! There is one sports channel, three movie channels(which I found surprising), UKTV, a business news station, a Māori language station, a couple of stations that seem to have shows mainly from Australia and the US. I recognized a couple of very long time shows that that are still going strong, Coronation Street from the UK and Shortland Street, New Zealand’s own soap opera. I used to watch Temeura Morrison play Dr. Hone Ropata on Shortland Street long ago before he began acting in movies.
I realize when I’ve been mentioning temperature I’ve been referring to Fahrenheit instead of Celsius as Fahrenheit is what my phone defaults to. Since Celsius is the temperature that they use here I should switch my phone settings so I can get again used to it, though when I hear somebody say that it’s 16° out I start to shiver!