Yesterday we braved the freezing south-easterly to go out and do a couple of Wellington things that you don’t always think of when you live here but are pretty great and impressive to visitors. Parents aren’t used to the vicious cold but they do like a long walk so off we went in the direction of the Botanical Gardens.

We walked through town and rode up the Cable Car (the ticket bit is totally new and modern since I was last there with electronic gates and glass and shiny tiles).

The Mister got hold of a map and with his Father-in-law in tow took charge of said map for extra man points and guided us across the gardens. We started off on the main path, clearly marked even without the map.

But soon went off-road to show we could cope with the outdoors. Real bush in the middle of Wellington.

And eventually arrived back at caffeine-filled civilization. As Father said, only the Mister could beat his way through the wilderness and come out in a clearing to find a Supreme cafe. It was the cafe in the begonia house near the rose garden, ‘Picnic’. I was unimpressed last time I was there many many years ago as it was hot and steamy with bad smells, limp sandwiches and terrible coffee. Now serving Supreme, home baking, counter food and a reasonable menu it’ll be a good spot to remember for other visitors or for ourselves if we feel like the great outdoors one weekend! I *think* they might do picnic baskets in the summer too which would be great. On a calm day!

So all smiley, filled with coffee and cake I was fairly amenable to the next leg of our journey, back down through the gardens to the start of The Terrace and down to the waterfront to, at Mother’s insistence, a museum. It was the Museum of City and Sea that we’ve not been to (not really being into museums) but it was free and a nice break from the wind and not too bad a wander for 45 minutes. The only disturbing thing about it was a real cat that had been stuffed and sat up on a pile of sacks in a reenactment of a wharf scene from yesteryear.

And to finish off the day we walked on to the movies, then back home to change, then back down to Capitol before it started raining for a lovely dinner with all the parents.

No duck confit at Moore Wilsons yesterday morning However we’d been perusing the latest Cuisine magazine at breakfast and Father had spotted a pork and spinach paella that he thought look quite tasty so we just adapted. Yikes. Changed our plans!

We got all the exact ingredients from Moore Wilsons per the recipe … instead of just scooting by with ordinary paprika, we got smoked paprika and rather than any old rice from in the cupboard we actually got Spanish Calasparra short grain rice that comes in a special little fabric sack with that clever sewing that I remember being on maize sacks as a kid where you just pull one end of it in the right way and the bag comes undone! We even blanched and peeled the tomatoes. It was serious stuff.

And it paid off – really REALLY delicious and even though we didn’t have a stove top pan that could go in the oven we had success using a heated oven dish – looked just like the recipe! (Don’t look Steph, we can leave the pork out when you come to visit.)

And I made sticky date pudding with THE most divine caramel sauce for desert. And there’s some of that left over – YUM!

Went up to Wellington Zoo yesterday – seemed like it was going to be the only fine day this weekend, it was half price day and as good a place as any to go for a walk with the parents. It was a great couple of hours. Our last visit to the zoo was just over a year ago to see the baby giraffe. He’s not so baby any more!

A highlight this time was seeing one of the little red pandas in action – last time there were just asleep in the trees but this time this little guy was out trotting about the place – never still enough for a good photo though!

We also hung around the giraffe enclosure for a while thinking there was to be some feeding/patting action at 3.30pm but it never eventuated.

And the absolute best thing was seeing the kiwi up close. It was almost closing time when we went into the old hut that’s the entrance to the kiwi enclosure and for once no-one else was in there. Which meant it was quiet and we all stood very quietly by the fence and watched the kiwi pick around just in front of us. The enclosure is open, just a stick fence separating us and I bent down to look closer at him and he came right up to my face, just a foot or so away. It was amazing!

The Mister nearly got covered in tiger’s pee – they were also up near the fence (as opposed to sleeping up the back on our last visit) and the big cat smooched on the fence so the Mister start up his best cat voice “hey kitty kitty” and the tiger backed his rump into the fence and fsssssssssstttt!!! Sprayed! Thankfully the Mister leapt out of the way … although I’m sure I could smell animal pee in the car on the way home …