Wellington Apartment Hunting - Part Two

Cable car to Kelburn - 30 - 35 percent grade is my guess?

Much like Saturday, Sunday was a purposeful day.  We still had multiple apartments to "walk by" so we started somewhat early and hit the road.  Even though we have narrowed our preferred neighbourhoods there was still one outlying area that we couldn't quite shake so we took the 10 minute stroll and hit the cable car.  Wellington, being quite hilly, has multiple cable cars to help you get from sea level to the hilltops -- this cable car took us from the Central Business District (CBD) to Kelburn.  Kelburn is a nice area with incredible views of the city below.  It is also home to a lot of University students attending the nearby school.  You get off the cable car and straight ahead, about 10 minutes, is the city centre. It's a rather limited area with a butcher, a pub, a baker and that's about it... not even a candlestick maker.  We ruled out the neighbourhood once we realised we'd be isolated from every conceivable amenity.

It's definitely worth noting that Kelburn is the beginning of the trip back down the hill via the Botanical Gardens.  Even heading downhill it's an arduous trek through the gardens that will surely tax your legs and knees.  Still, it is amazingly beautiful with all sorts of wildlife, flowers, trees, shrubs and other animals.  Worth the trip to be sure, but as we'd done it before, and had a purposeful day, we skipped the adventure.  

Interestingly, the Kiwis are all about preserving the natural habitat in country and have developed a 5,000 YEAR conservation plan for the gardens.  Sadly, there are other areas where conservation and environmental efforts have failed miserably including massive contamination of many of the rivers and lakes due to agricultural runoff (Cows!).  They also lead the world in the deployment of the 1080 pesticide which is highly controversial leading to the deaths of countless horses, cows and family pets.  Pretty much anything that ingests it is a goner.  They use 1080 in an effort to contain the 70 million possums, and millions of ship rats that roam the islands.  The possum is not indigenous to NZ and was brought here intentionally to create a fur trade in 1837.  I guess nobody considered NZ has no natural predators so the population has swelled to epic proportions decimating the forests of NZ.  

** FOOTNOTE: The same possum so loathed in NZ is actually a protected species in Australia.

Welly waterfront near Oriental Parade in Te Aro

Back to our apartment hunting... Having ruled out Kelburn we struck out to the final area for our search -- the Wellington waterfront.  We ruled out 5 or 6 places and have keen interest on 3 that remain.  Obviously, water views are awesome so that is appealing to us, but more than that, the wide range of lifestyle options along the waterfront is a bit overwhelming (in a good way).  I think we have a short list finally assembled of 5 places total to actually visit.  All of them are furnished which probably suggests that we lack the ability to envision apartments without furniture as liveable places. On the upside, moving out of a furnished place is infinitely less stressful.  

Incredible Farmers Market

Under the category of amazing lifestyle options is the Sunday Market.  The variety of produce is enormous and it's all so fresh!  How fresh you ask? The ends of the broccoli weren't just bright green where cut, they were actually dripping moisture -- now that's fresh.  They also have a wide range of food carts (about 30) that sell all sorts of ready-to-eat items or specialty items like cheeses, jamon, etc. We had some chicken-chorizo paella that we ate on the steps along the harbour.

Fishing boat selling fish caught only hours earlier

The coup de gras has to be the butcher tent and the fish monger.  The fish guy sells all sorts of fresh fish, oysters, mussels, scallops, clams, lobster... you get the picture.  It's easy to imagine hitting the market on Sunday morning and making a nice fish lunch that same day at our home steps away.  In fact, we pretty well decided that Sunday would be a good food day for us... hit the vegetable area hard and make three different soups that we can enjoy throughout a busy week.  With a bag of 20 limes costing $5.00 I am thinking Marguerita Sunday might become a weekly tradition!  By way of comparison, ONE lime in Manly Beach was $1.99. Maybe these new economies can help us get our Tequila consumption averages back on track -- one can hope!

After finishing in the waterfront area we wandered about a bit longer eventually hitting Cuba Street.  Cuba Street is the premium area of Wellington for dining, pubbing and clubbing.  We hit a place called J.J. Murphy's and had a few beers while watching the people walking about. Struck up conversation with a few visitors to Wellington and had a generally good time.  A quick word about J.J. Murphy's... it exudes comfort much like an alpine lodge with a roaring fire makes everyone who visits feel all good inside.  It's mostly wood and even though it's quite large, it is laid out in such a way that no matter where you sit you feel wrapped in hospitality and somewhat secluded. This was our second trip to Murphy's and even though our first trip (last year) was less than good (rude bartender) I have to say this place feels like a good regular spot for meeting friends or taking a brief respite from shopping.

JJ Murphys

Capped Murphys off with a little Indian food next door and were back to the hotel by 6:30.  The Indian food was nothing to write home about, though, it was pretty darned good to be sure.  I sense we are already spoilt by the quality of the food here as I would have probably rated the Indian cuisine as top-notch just a week ago. I had the Kadai Chicken and Julie had the Lamb Masala. The place is named little India... if you want to go.