Wellington City
Day 5 – I’d spent the previous night enjoying the sights and sounds of Courtney Place. Earlier in the day I had enjoyed a delicious and wonderful lunch at Mr Go’s. Having been to Mr Go’s on previous trips, and with less than 24 hours left in the city, I simply had to enjoy the Asian Fusion Restaurant before I left. My taste buds had drawn me to the mouth wateringly good Pork Belly Bao Bun and Pork Dumplings. Now, many hours later I found myself sitting in a bar called the Welsh Dragon with my stomach hungry for food. Approaching the Welsh Dragon, I had initially thought it was a deserted building in the middle of a median strip. But, it turned out to be an old historic public toilet that has been converted into possibly the most laid back and down to earth pub in the whole CBD. There were no fancy flashing lights, drums hanging from the ceiling or large neon lights that were accompanied with extremely loud music. It was a friendly, hospitable pub, no more than that. I felt at home instantly.
It wasn’t long before three pints had disappeared and knowing my lack of tolerance for alcohol wasn’t high, I set off for food. Having walked several blocks I settled on the South East Asian cuisine offered at Monsoon Poon. My last night in Wellington finished with my mouth dancing with spice and flavour as my stomach was set to burst.
The next morning, after rising early I found myself sitting at Wellington airport marveling at the way Airport announcements are made in such a friendly, welcoming and helpful tone. That’s assuming people hear them of course.
A lady standing near me seemed to be totally oblivious to the airport happenings around her as she tapped away on her sparkling white Macbook. Suddenly she moved like a bolt of lightning. Realising that the last remaining passenger being summoned was in actual fact her, she sprung into action. In what was a very impressive display of coordination, she slowly reached out to her half eaten muffin with her left hand. Then, in one sweeping motion that took a matter of seconds she somehow managed to finish her muffin and coffee, close her laptop, put her rubbish in the bin, put her laptop away and her face mask on before dashing off like Usain Bolt having produced a boarding pass from thin air. I wanted to stand and applaud however by the time I had thought of it she had already disappeared down the airbridge. Clearly this was something she had done before and I dear say would repeat many more times in the future. I am sorry to say that when my own boarding call came my actions weren’t quite as impressive. I slowly reached out to my coffee with my left hand. Then, in one sweeping motion I managed to drip coffee on the floor, drop my phone, lose my page in my book, and trip over my bag.
A while later, as the plane took off, my last sight of Wellington City was accompanied with the careful and wise dialogue of the 3 year old child sitting behind me. My favourite of which was as we headed into the clouds ‘wow mum, the whole world has disappeared’ I reflected on my time in Wellington. In the last 12 hours I had seen how the Lord Of The Rings was made, enjoyed a few pints and now I was leaving the city!
