Wellington Adventures
Aug. 8th, 2018 10:22 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
lillibetYesterday we had breakfast at Hippopotamus, the hotel's very fancy restaurant. Alice and I had their buffet, while Jason had an enormous eggs Benedict with salmon. She ate so many croissaints that as breakfast was ending and we were leaving, the host (who reminded us very much of Michelle Yeoh) brought Alice a bag of the remaining croissants to take with her.
It was a rainy, windy day so we spent most of it across the street at Te Papa, as everyone refers to the Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa. It is at least three museums put together: an art museum, a natural history museum, and a history museum. We saw them in approximately that order. Alice was very engaged in the art galleries and not so much in the other areas, exactly the opposite of her focus earlier in the trip. We got to see a bunch of art by NZ artists, including a very interesting room tackling questions of cultural appropriation. And we learned more about Maori history and culture and about modern NZ. There was a whole exhibit about Gallipoli, put together by Peter Jackson and Weta, but only Jason had the stamina to tackle that one after six hours in the museum, so we waited for him in the gift shop.
We came back over to the hotel and had a five-course tasting menu at Hippopotamus: beef tartare, duck tortellini in broth, miso-crusted snapper with Cloudy Bay clams, chicken with peas and mushrooms, and mango panna cotta for dessert. The sommelier asked if we had any general preference in wine and we said we'd love to get to know NZ wines beyond Sauvignon Blanc. He seemed really delighted to show off for us with some spectacular wines including a Blank Canvas Gruner Veltliner that was one of just 36 bottles from 2010, their first year releasing that varietal. Everyone was very impressed with Alice and one of the staff said she's the youngest kid he's seen try their tasting menu.
Today was devoted to an all day Lord of the Rings tour. Our guide, Dave, picked us up at the hotel, added just two more to our group at another stop, then took us up Mt Victoria to look over the city and then visit three different spots where scenes of the Outer Shire were filmed and look down over the site of the encampment at Dunharrow. From there we went down to Weta Workshop, passing by Stonestreet Studios and Park Road Post Production (other companies in the Weta family) on the way.
At Weta we took pics of Alice with the trolls outside and then watched a 25-minute film about the founding of Weta in the 80s and their work on LOTR and many other films (more than a hundred at this point). Then we waited in the very interesting gift shop and mini-museum until time for our tour. That was very interesting, giving us a sense of their process of creating props, costumes, creatures, and sets.
After the tour we went to a lovely beachfront cafe called Scorch-o-Rama for a quick and tasty lunch. Alice had picked the fish with dahl and ate about half of it before ceding the rest to her father in favor of finishing the croissaints she'd brought along.
After lunch we went to Harcourt Park, where a couple of Isengard scenes were filmed, then made a longer drive up the Hutt River valley to see another spot along the Great River Anduin. Then it was off to Rivendell, where there's really nothing left except for a gate that was rebuilt by the local council after the fact, to give tourists something concrete to see. It is a lovely spot, with picnic tables in the carpark that made a nice place for tea and a muffin, and a brief nature walk across the river on a swing bridge. And Dave had an elven cloak and a couple of swords for us to post with among the trees, so that was fun.
All that was left was the drive back to the city center, which took more than an hour, but I dozed a bit and it didn't seem long. Throughout the day Dave had a steady stream of stories about Wellington and the filming if LOTR and the various actors and buildings we were passing, so the time went quickly.
Back at the hotel Jason and Alice had a swim while I showered and then we tried the hotel's other restaurant, a pan-Asian place called Hot Sauce. It was really too much of a trendy bar for us, with loud music and a choice between sitting on high stools, or low couches, but it was early enough not to be crowded and the food was very good. We shared a variety of skewers, some bao, and a larger plate of fish steamed in banana leaves. There was a small service screw up along the way, which netted us two free desserts and we were out in just over an hour, so that worked out well enough.
I helped Alice pack up and get to bed early to make up for early starts today and tomorrow. Now I've caught up online and can get to packing myself. Tomorrow we head to the South Island!
It was a rainy, windy day so we spent most of it across the street at Te Papa, as everyone refers to the Museum of New Zealand/Te Papa Tongarewa. It is at least three museums put together: an art museum, a natural history museum, and a history museum. We saw them in approximately that order. Alice was very engaged in the art galleries and not so much in the other areas, exactly the opposite of her focus earlier in the trip. We got to see a bunch of art by NZ artists, including a very interesting room tackling questions of cultural appropriation. And we learned more about Maori history and culture and about modern NZ. There was a whole exhibit about Gallipoli, put together by Peter Jackson and Weta, but only Jason had the stamina to tackle that one after six hours in the museum, so we waited for him in the gift shop.
We came back over to the hotel and had a five-course tasting menu at Hippopotamus: beef tartare, duck tortellini in broth, miso-crusted snapper with Cloudy Bay clams, chicken with peas and mushrooms, and mango panna cotta for dessert. The sommelier asked if we had any general preference in wine and we said we'd love to get to know NZ wines beyond Sauvignon Blanc. He seemed really delighted to show off for us with some spectacular wines including a Blank Canvas Gruner Veltliner that was one of just 36 bottles from 2010, their first year releasing that varietal. Everyone was very impressed with Alice and one of the staff said she's the youngest kid he's seen try their tasting menu.
Today was devoted to an all day Lord of the Rings tour. Our guide, Dave, picked us up at the hotel, added just two more to our group at another stop, then took us up Mt Victoria to look over the city and then visit three different spots where scenes of the Outer Shire were filmed and look down over the site of the encampment at Dunharrow. From there we went down to Weta Workshop, passing by Stonestreet Studios and Park Road Post Production (other companies in the Weta family) on the way.
At Weta we took pics of Alice with the trolls outside and then watched a 25-minute film about the founding of Weta in the 80s and their work on LOTR and many other films (more than a hundred at this point). Then we waited in the very interesting gift shop and mini-museum until time for our tour. That was very interesting, giving us a sense of their process of creating props, costumes, creatures, and sets.
After the tour we went to a lovely beachfront cafe called Scorch-o-Rama for a quick and tasty lunch. Alice had picked the fish with dahl and ate about half of it before ceding the rest to her father in favor of finishing the croissaints she'd brought along.
After lunch we went to Harcourt Park, where a couple of Isengard scenes were filmed, then made a longer drive up the Hutt River valley to see another spot along the Great River Anduin. Then it was off to Rivendell, where there's really nothing left except for a gate that was rebuilt by the local council after the fact, to give tourists something concrete to see. It is a lovely spot, with picnic tables in the carpark that made a nice place for tea and a muffin, and a brief nature walk across the river on a swing bridge. And Dave had an elven cloak and a couple of swords for us to post with among the trees, so that was fun.
All that was left was the drive back to the city center, which took more than an hour, but I dozed a bit and it didn't seem long. Throughout the day Dave had a steady stream of stories about Wellington and the filming if LOTR and the various actors and buildings we were passing, so the time went quickly.
Back at the hotel Jason and Alice had a swim while I showered and then we tried the hotel's other restaurant, a pan-Asian place called Hot Sauce. It was really too much of a trendy bar for us, with loud music and a choice between sitting on high stools, or low couches, but it was early enough not to be crowded and the food was very good. We shared a variety of skewers, some bao, and a larger plate of fish steamed in banana leaves. There was a small service screw up along the way, which netted us two free desserts and we were out in just over an hour, so that worked out well enough.
I helped Alice pack up and get to bed early to make up for early starts today and tomorrow. Now I've caught up online and can get to packing myself. Tomorrow we head to the South Island!
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Date: 2018-08-09 09:55 am (UTC)no subject
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Date: 2018-08-14 02:16 am (UTC)