Wellington

Until today, we have just thought of Wellington as a place that is always windy, often wet and had only one good thing - Te Papa, New Zealand's national museum. Te Papa is indeed by far the best museum we have ever been in. The kind of place that you go in for half an hour and five hours later you wonder: What happened there?

After today however, we have decided that Wellington is actually a beautiful city, full of surprises, and indeed a lovely and exciting place to be.

I spent most of the morning at the house that was the birthplace of Katherine Mansfield, the short story writer and one of New Zealand's most distinguished authors. Introduced to her work by my daughter years ago, I have enjoyed her stories, been interested in her life (she died of TB in 1924, at the age of 34) and was keen to see the house, now a heritage home. It was well worth the visit, but I was also amused by the two dear ladies who were in charge of visitors. Extremely knowledgeable about the author and the house, they were not so good at managing anything, being easily confused and flustered. How they coped with the tour that arrived from a Cruise Ship I have no idea, as by that point I had long gone.

In the afternoon we followed a Lonely Planet Walking Tour of City Sculpture and this took us all around the city centre and the waterfront. It was a lovely day and there were lots of people about enjoying the sunshine.

The picture I have chosen to blip sums up the day. The lovely waterfront, so close to the city centre and the business area and yet just made for wandering and sitting about. Two of the sculptures: the oldest working crane ship in the background and the iconic figure leaning over the edge, Solace in the Wind. There are even some of Katherine Mansfield's words about the wind in the foreground!

Early morning ferry to South Island tomorrow.