Smellington (Wellington) Roadtrip weekend

Took a nice long road trip to check out the country's capital for a few days. Eight hours to be exact. The city was beautiful, had lovely people, a wonderful art scene and some amazing food.


We spent the weekend in open air markets, meandering through museums and eating in parks. The first full day, we found a farmers market out by the water. There I found the most delicious dumplings I have ever had in my short life. Even though they were a bit pink still when i bit into them, these dumplings made me feel invincible, and certainly wasn't going to wast the 4 dollars i had paid for them on the slim chance id get sick.

The culprits of my stomach cramps, but just look at them. Could you have said no?

After lunch we headed to the museum. The Te Papa museum in the heart of the city must have been one of the best museums i'd ever been to. With a different part of New Zealand themed information on each floor we spent hours wandering inside. There first floor had corridors for natural history, ecology, history, art, and culture. My favorite exhibit must have been the immigration exhibit. Part of the exhibit was a large filing cabinet that corresponded to an individual who had actually took the plunge and came to New Zealand, with our without their families. Inside of each drawer there were pictures, personal items, diaries and passports all collected through centuries of immigration to the country. How brave these people must have been to abandon their homes and start again anew in a place that was actually a world away. The rest of the exhibits were breathtaking as well, lots of interactive sets and even a earthquake simulation house! how fitting, haha. That night after returning to our room i realized exactly where the worst place is to be when one is having "digestion problems". The top bunk of a bed, when a very large and scary german woman is sleeping underneath.

A completely acceptable dinner of bread, cheese, Italian salami, grapes and of course some fermented grapes as well.

The next day I woke up feeling much better, swore off the dumpling and we wandered around the suburbs of the city, checking out an independently owned art gallery in lower hut. Who knew there was such a thriving arts scene? The three of us had a great time, if it wasn't for the loud German girls in our hostel on the last morning. They had woken up at 5am to leave and woke us all up. Why you may ask? Because Germans are incapable of whispering. It's almost a fact at this point.

On our way home we stopped in a quiet town named Bulls. This place did justice to its name as the entire town had a strong smell of cow manure. However rank the town itself was, they did have a lot of pride and humor for their odd little town. They named things around the town in bull themed puns. For example, the bank was renamed "bankabull" and the bathroom "relieveable". I guess you'd have to have a good scene of humor to live in a place that smelt like bulls. Despite the smell, we found a great bakery that had wonderful mince and cheese pies. We devoured a few before heading back on the road to Auckland.

How witty are these guys?

This trip was a ton of fun, though the 8 hours of driving was pretty grueling. Wellington was a lovely city and almost what I had expected Auckland to be like. Definitely worth the gas money for a visit, if not for those dumplings, mmmm. Unfortunately its getting a bit too cold here to continue hiking, and while its great visiting cities, I'm already homesick for the mountain trails.