Wellington, 2023: Waitangi Day

We were in Wellington for a week, a week of good weather, if characteristically blustery, but more or less sunny and dry. We did a number of things we normally do (this was our fourth visit to Wellington): Te Papa Tongarewa (the national museum), a national festival, the cable car and museum, the botanical garden, assorted walks around the harbor and environs, the downtown, the peninsula drive...but also a few new things, the Weta Cave tour, some new restaurants and shops. Wellington is one of our favorite cities, and not just in New Zealand. A month, November or December, in an apartment in Welly is now high on our to-do list. Perhaps sooner than later.

We camped first a couple nights at the Evans Bay Marina site, free to self-contained rigs, up to four nights a month, then three at the paid Barnett St. Site, next to Te Papa, then another two back at Evans Bay, and then a final night, before the South Island ferry, at the Top 10 in Lower Hutt. Our stay at Lower Hutt of course was extended as our ferry was cancelled and cyclone Gabrielle hit the North Island. We're now still in greater Wellington, at the Ngati Toa domain, in Paremata, on the Kapiti coast.

We arrived at the Evans Bay Marina on Waitangi Day, February 6th, New Zealand's national founding day, commemorating a treaty between the Brits and the Maori in 1840. Needless to say, it was a somewhat one-sided treaty and has been in dispute practically since its signing. The Maori translation was substantially different from the English version, for example...but let us not dwell on such things, especially since we went to the festival at Waitangi Park mostly for the pageantry and the food and not to celebrate colonialism.

View of the famous windy Welly sign from the
Evans Bay Marina

Searching for the correct bus stop...and watching a cricket match
en route...

Downtown now, and I guess I will post all the art
deco pix in passing, rather than collected together;
Wellington has many art deco buildings of interest,
as well as many other styles...

Near Te Papa, the cross walk signs are in Maori
(!)

The crowd growing at Waitangi Park

This was a mixed school-age group that performed a variety
of numbers, styles

The festival is known for its hangis, but also for its street food;
maybe they mean southern hemisphere?

Oh no!

Chimney cakes...just like in Prague...

The show goes on

But we are transfixed by the Hungry Monkey, and its claim to
serve the tastiest modern Malaysian street food in Wellington;
and the apparatus used to make its one-piece spiraling french fry...

The chef permitted my documenting the event...thus, on the 
Makita-powered rotisserie slicer...

And stretched to its full elongation, before frying...

For a very pleased customer

In addition to entertainment, many were there in
beautiful traditional costumes

The kids doing a haka was a sight and sound to behold