Birthday*

February 25 2010
Happy (Special) Birthday Christine
Another yummy breakfast before saying farewell to Ruth and hitting the road for our drive to Wellington, most of it through undistinguished countryside with little sign of habitation. We passed through two “Scandinavian” towns which were new areas opened up for colonisation in the 1870s and NZ sent out a call for rugged folk – Danes, Norwegians and Swedes answered the call and a few stayed to face the hardships of the clearing and settling the land. Norsewood has the “Norsewear” factory which produces outdoor clothing with a reputation for producing hard-wearing woollen socks but as we’ve been wearing sandals for such a long time we didn’t feel in need of them – although by the time we reached the next “Scandinavian” town of Dannevirke it had turned much colder and had started raining heavily. On past the Tui brewery (by and large NZ beer is light and fizzy and not at all to our taste – we’re sticking with the wine); and writing of wine here is another item for your next pub quiz – the seventh largest winery in Australia produces more wine than all of vineyards in NZ put together.
We reached the Pukaha Mount Bruce Wildlife Centre in time for lunch in their very pleasant café and as it had stopped raining we decided to go for a walk through the small amount (actually several thousand hectares but small by 19th century standards) of lowland native forest that is preserved there and try to see some of the most endangered native (and world’s rarest) birds that they attempt to save, breed and reintroduce into the forest. They have blue ducks (they took a different turn on the evolutionary path from all other duck species in the world), hihi, kokako, kakariki, takahe and of course kiwi. All of these are in very generous sized cages in thick foliage so are difficult to spot, but we did manage to see quite a number and a chat with one of the wardens confirmed that the strange birds Chris had seen earlier on the trip were indeed kaka – large bronze coloured parrots. There is also a nocturnal kiwi house where we were able to get quite close to two kiwi.
On through more small settler towns which have a very Victorian feel to them – we managed to restrain ourselves from visiting the Toy Soldier Museum, The Fell Locomotive Museum and the Cobblestone Museum as well as “Stonehenge Aotearoa” a full-scale replica of Stonehenge built of concrete and classified as “garden ornament”! We soon reached the magnificent forested slopes of the Rimatuka Mountains where the road twists and turns with some hair-raisin bends. The Rimatuka Range was widely used as location sets for Lord Of The Rings so we passed Rivendell, The Fords of Rohan, Helms Deep and Minas Tirith before arriving in Wellington in the mid afternoon and returning the hire car (sorry, we do of course mean Shadowfax) to Avis.
Trailfinders had told the hotel we booked through them that today is Christine’s birthday but they hadn’t put any flowers or chocolates in the room – instead they have upgraded us to a ‘Vista’ room on the eighth floor with a balcony overlooking Wellington Harbour. And on a very sunny day l;ike today that is an excellent birthday present.
Wellington is, by NZ standards, a big city (pop: 400,000) but is hemmed in on one side by the sea and on the others by huge hills. It has a good blend of historical and modern architecture that encroaches the shoreline which has beaches of a sort, marinas and restored warehouses turned into apartments and restaurants. All of this is overlooked by Victorian and Edwardian weather boarded houses (some small one-storey affairs, others large villas) which climb the steep hillsides and are reached by steep stairways or narrow winding roads. One final thing to say about Wellington is that its weather is very changeable – we were told that it can have four seasons in one day but whatever the season, it is windy!
We tried to book a table for Christine’s birthday at a restaurant that our friends Louise (originally from NZ) and Garvin had recommended but it was fully booked, as were three of the other top restaurants in Wellington. Slightly despairing we tried a fifth and came up tops. Great meal, great wine, service not quite up to scratch but just one word from Victor Meldrew and everything was put right and we got free brandies at the end of the meal.
Thank you to everyone who sent birthday wishes; it was a very good day.