Landed in Kiwi Land and its capital

It was amazing how well I weathered my 14 hour flight. Throughout my flight, I could feel my stresses dissipating from the preparations for my trip and saying goodbye to dear family and friends that I won’t see for 9 weeks. It wasn’t long before the feeling of excitement started to take over. Travel has always been such a life expanding experience for me as I know it is for so many. All of the new adventures and meeting new people definitely make me feel UP!
Also, having so few things to care of – just myself, my health, happiness, safety, and luggage. Hurray for the simple life!
It is hard to believe it’s been a week since I landed in New Zealand. I started off my journey in Wellington, the capital which is situated between the north and south island. Wellington is a beautiful city with a very active harbour, lots of green space and a friendly and walkable city.

I spent a lot of my time roaming the streets, watching the harbour activity, eating delicious food and witnessing people enjoying their lives. I was really struck by how young the population appeared to be. However, people were still on their summer holidays so lots of families out and about. It seems like people from all over the world both settle here and travel to this amazing place. I thought it was quite funny that one of the first people I met was a woman from Saskatoon, who was working at the information centre. She gave me all kinds of helpful hints and signed me up for a walking tour with a nonprofit the next day. The tour was really quite wonderful as I got to see things I probably wouldn’t have through my normal roaming and hear a bit more about the history and culture. Our guide was quite informative, although she had tendency to focus on sharing both natural and social disasters that happened in Wellington, I later found out that she actually worked for the government, and I suspect it was in the disaster relief area. Anyway, I feel quite fortified with my new knowledge, and also very appreciative of how communities do come together when challenges happen.
The downtown core had a mixture of new buildings and also some old heritage buildings. My favourite was the old bank that was turned into a shopping mall . It had a really nice vibe in there. A great place to have coffee and do a bit of people watching.

I met a woman from France on our tour. She was a young woman who just arrived to have her first work experience after her university education. I found it funny that we were both excited about our journey’s -her starting out in her career and me starting out on my retirement or repurposing part of my life.
I was fortunate to catch a free concert series that was happening in the Botanical Gardens every night I was here. I managed to get to the Motown and salsa evenings and really enjoyed both the music, the environment and seeing people dancing, picnicking and enjoying their time together.

The restaurants here are quite lovely and there’s a variety of every kind of cuisine you can imagine. There are plenty of local farms, fish and seafood locally sourced. Everything tastes so fresh! I took in a few happy hours ( in honour of my friend Bonnie, the happy hour queen), had some South Pacific cuisine which is often cooked in the earth over hot rocks and great Vietnamese food. One night I was really craving fish. I’m not sure about how I manifested this but on my search for a great place to have fish, I ran into this young man who is carrying a fish throughout the street and at times on his skateboard. I thought I would just follow him. Surely he would know where a good fish restaurant was and sure enough he led me to a very delicious Asian fusion place. Thankfully , I didn’t eat the fish he was carrying cause it really did look like it had been through quite a bit!

From Wellington, I signed up to go on a wine tour in the Martinborough area. This area known for its Pinot Noirs ( a favourite of my friend Leonie who I will be seeing in Australia, so I thought I should get my taste buds activated). We had a great group of people -two couples from the United States, a couple from Melbourne and a woman from England , myself and the tour guide Simon . He was very knowledgable both about wine and also about New Zealand and the Maori culture. He mentioned that all of the children learnt the language in elementary school which was foundational in their relationship building. I sat upfront with him so got lots of great stories , information and views. The drive in the countryside was just beautiful. We travelled through the Hutt Valley, passed through a Summit and then back down into the vineyards. The wine tasting was wonderful. We started out at the Moy Hall Vineyards, then went to the Te Kairanga and Pallisters. We had 4 to 5 tastings at each vineyard. What I found really amusing was at the beginning of the tour, people were quite quiet, after the first tasting conversation started to happen. The second, deeper conversation emerged and by the third, we were completely animated and sharing loads of laughter. We also found the courage to discuss Trump. Thankfully, we were all on the same page.

The people in New Zealand are incredibly friendly, helpful and humorous. A traveler I met described them as Canadian with a cuter accent! One of the things I’m finding most challenging is getting used to the traffic flowing in different directions. When Simon picked us up for the tour. I automatically started to go to the wrong side of the vehicle. Simon very cutely said “you know Paula I was thinking I might drive today”. Also, one day I was sitting by the harbour writing in my journal and this lovely fisherman comes over and says what are you doing? I said “I’m just writing about my thoughts and what I’m seeing and witnessing here in your beautiful country” . With a big smile , he graciously thanked me for taking such an interest in his people and his land. He touched my heart!

On my last day in Wellington, I went to their National Museum, Te Papa Tongarewa. I really think that it was one of the most amazing museums I have visited. It gave a great overview of New Zealand, its natural environment, cultural environment, and social environment. I really enjoyed the Maori exhibition and understanding the migration of people to New Zealand. They had an amazing section that talked about refugees. It was heart wrenching, and also very impactful to hear the stories of their journey here and the help they received from New Zealand. I used to feel Canada was a leader in compassion but recent cuts to the settlement sector has me losing faith in our political leadership and pride in my country. The museum was really interactive with lots of engaging activities for children and families. So many of the displays had been developed by the Weta workshop. This is the group that makes the props for Lord of the Rings and Hobbiton. It was amazing how beautifully they displayed images in people and environments.

Tomorrow’s adventures take me from Wellington to Blenheim. Another wine region!