Thursday, March 1, 2018

Wellington Sunday Market

We had read good things about the Wellington Sunday market, next to Te Papa, and, Sunday morning, hoping for something as good or even better than Nelson's market, we set forth...
En route; subliminal suggestion

The market...turned out to be strictly produce...plus a dozen or so food carts/
trailers/trucks

I finally had a nitro coffee...another "once in a lifetime" experience

Porridge stand

"'murican mustard"

Still, there was much to like...

Chilean food trailer; authentic, too, we can attest

Doesn't take much to have a food stand here

Next to the harbor, every now and then something odd washes up; this I think
off a Cook Strait ferry from a couple years back...

Welly's a great food town, especially if you fancy Asian food

Old St. Paul's Cathedral And Katherine Mansfield Birthplace

I wanted to see the old St. Paul's cathedral--19th century timbered Gothic--and Vicki wanted to see the Katherine Mansfield house, so our long day's walk continued.
Down from the botanical garden and therough the Bolton St.
cemetery, which we found unusually sparse for a central settlers'
cemetery

Until we realized it was bisected by Wellington's central
expressway and that some thousands of graves had to be
relocated up the hill; note interesting iron tombstone...

Inscriptions quite effusive in those days; or maybe
engravers were cheap

One of several Maori

Moving right along, through the government center: the Beehive,
NZ's parliament building

Monumental view

More government buildings 

St. Paul's, Wellington's original Anglican cathedral, 1860s

All timber

And Gothic too

Chancel

Probably not 13th century



More of the growth vs. historic preservation thing

And beautiful art decos scattered all over


Central expressway

Katherine Mansfield birthplace


A short story writer of note; Rebecca teaches a
couple of her stories; she died quite young

The US embassy, occupying the site of the family house where
she lived most of her life

Cable Car Ride And Wellington Botanical Garden

In 2014, we took the cable car up the prominent hill overlooking Welly, did the cable car museum (featuring a video on Welly's more than 400 private cable cars and funiculars; it's a hilly place), the astronomical observatory ("southern skies"), and intended to do the botanical garden, which comprises the walk down the hill. Rain interfered with the latter plan, however, and we took the cable car back down to the CBD. This time it was a beautiful, sunny, and not even very windy day, and so after decamping Brendan's driveway holiday park, we first took a drive around the Miramar peninsula, located and settled in at the Evans Bay Parade marina (freedom camping, close in), and then took the bus into the centre ville.
On the peninsula, a heavily-laden container ship plies the narrow
channel

Really narrow

Downtown; Welly is confronting a real crisis of growth vs. historic
preservation; here, a pop-up out of an old facade


It was time for showers, and Wellington, like most of New Zealand,
obliged; clean and free, too

In the cable car museum; these are outside seat on the old cable
car; note their angle and the leather straps you can hold on to

Top of the line, with a bit of the harbor and city in view

Saturday, and of course there's a cricket match under way

Us, there

Big garden, emphasizing Australasian, but not without its fair
share of European and North American imports

My favorite exotic tree, the Monkey Puzzle

Moreton Bay Pine


Important explanation




Monterey Bay Pines

Japanese Maple

Some redwoods in the picture somewhere

Silver Fern



Love the weird natives

In the rose garden, a bit past prime, but still impressive