Wellington: Food Glorious Food
Food Glorious Food
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| The view from the roof of Te Papa |
We took the long bus journey from Kaikoura the next morning towards the coastal town of Picton at the north of the South Island. From here we boarded the Interislander ferry to head towards Wellington. On our three hour ferry journey over Cook's straight we passed many fabulous islands and even a few groups of dolphins that swam towards the boat. Alas, to Olivia's disappointment there were no whales to be seen.
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| The deck was a little windy |
Soon we were winding our way towards Wellington bay, houses were nestled on the hills surrounding us as if a somewhat eclectic stacked city. We stepped outside to see the luscious hills and blue water and were buffeted by the wind, after walking around the deck and back into the main body of the ship we made a horrific discovery. The quiff that we thought we'd killed after our exploits in Fiji was back...
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| The return of the Fijian Quiff... |
Wellington itself is a smallish capital city and apparently the windiest city in the southern hemisphere. It is situated at the southern tip of the North Island and is described as the mouth with which Maui pulled the fish (the North Island) out of the sea, so for all you Moana lovers, we have gone to see Maui's exploits, but not really the disney kind.
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| The view from Mt Victoria towards the South Island |
We made it to our accommodation in Kilbirnie, a small area of Wellington, not far from the airport. Our host was a lovely woman who'd just arrived back from her work in China ten days previous, along with her son and husband who lived in New Zealand full time. I went of in search of food and we decided we'd try a Kiwi specialty, chip butties with Marmite. So I bought the marmite and a loaf of bread and headed to the chippy. I feel it's worth pointing out now that English marmite is called Our Mate in New Zealand, we had New Zealand marmite which is a bit milder and slightly more beer like, maybe more akin to British Bovril. We have now been converted, Marmite and chips is clearly a food worthy of the gods! Hmmm...
We rested for the night and then left the next day to head to the town centre where we wandered around and saw the Art Deco buildings and Cuba street before heading to Te Papa. Te Papa is a fascinating museum where we willed away the rest of the day. Housed within its walls is the story of the Maori people of New Zealand as well as an interesting art exhibit on the first floor. Our favourite installation was a hanging rainbow consisting of clear orbs filled with different coloured natural substances which gave off a pleasing aroma.
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| The Smelly Rainbow |
A brief break for a lovely juicy burger for lunch and we resumed our museum visit learning about Maori culture and the discovery of New Zealand by the west. We also saw some amazingly sculpted houses, one which is pictured below is done in a more modern style to reflect the modern day.
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| A modern style carved house, including the very relatable, Maui the Introverted |
The next day was equally marvellous and we were thankful that the promised rain was not delivered. We climbed Mount Victoria which looks over Wellington with stunningly good views. We also saw our first Lord of The Rings filming location where the hobbits hide from one of the ring wraiths. We then walked back toward Kilbirnie and had a delicious roast of NZ lamb with potatoes, mint sauce, carrots, beans and roast pumpkin which was amazing as we hadn't had a roast dinner in ages!
That evening, after discovering in the morning that we had spent a month in China, our host offered for us to try some fennel dumplings on our return. Much to our surprise she didn't just mean one steamed dumpling she had provided us with a whole feast of Chinese food with fennel dumplings, Radish Dumplings, beef, chicken, fish roe and Congee (a kind of rice porridge) which was all superbly delicious! Our hearts felt so warmed by the lovely hospitality and made us love both China and New Zealand that little bit more. We talked about China which is apparently even hotter in August than when we were there and was amused to find that even our Chinese host thought there were too many people in Beijing!
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| Wellington Harbour from Mt Victoria |
Yes it is true, Wellington had some lovely sights, but we also enjoyed our food there. As Olivia put it, 'I think about food quite a lot, I reckon I'm just a fat person in a thin body'
The next day we left to go to town to catch our bus on to Rotorua. I had written the above on the first part of our journey and intended to finish. However, we just had the most amazing burgers... (Yes, food has struck again!)
On our way to Rotorua we stopped at a place called Flat Hills (an odd oxymoron which was made even more so by a sign that stated Flat Hills Cafe, All day breakfast) We ordered two burgers and split them between ourselves at the cafe. Our first burger that we had was called the Kiwi burger and was fairly similar to some other burgers we'd seen. The kiwi burger was a beef patty with tomato relish, caramelised onion, an egg and beetroot. Initially I was sceptical about beetroot on a burger but it really works and the burger was great, but the second one...
The second one was amazing! It was a lamb patty, beautifully cooked and placed on a crisp bun with salad, garlic alioli and mint sauce and was one of the most beautiful things that I've ever eaten! I hear that England is a scorcher this summer. I implore you, go out and turn the barbecue on, make some lamb burgers (or buy some to cook, whatever) take your bun, slather it in garlic mayonnaise (which is nearly the same as alioli, unless you can buy this in England, I've never really seen it) and pop on some mint jelly (make sure it's not too runny) then eat that thing and feel gloriously happy! (I apologise if you are a vegetarian... They did a feta and quinoa burger that you could try, but I don't know if it's any good...)
I originally planned to write about Wellington and Auckland in the same post, but alas I've rambled on about food a bit too long so I've decided it's probably best to have this in one go. In case anyone is wondering about our health and the inordinate amount of burgers we have eaten in the last few weeks, it is winter in New Zealand so we're just trying to regain some insulation... I apologise for the lack of food pictures, we're just not those kind of people. I think we only have about four food photos that we have taken, one is my dad eating with chopsticks (hilarious! It's the fourth picture, sorry dad!) one is fish waffles from Japan (not made with actual fish) and the other two contain no food, just very happy faces.
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| A very happy Olivia after our Roast Dinners |
Anyway, I hope this post finds you all well, we will write again about Rotorua in the near future
Take care,
Andrew and Olivia
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| More Views from Mt Victoria |
- Re-cap on where we have
- See our time in Rotorua and Hobbiton over the coming days on our Instagram here.
- Learn a little about some of history of where we are
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