Wednesday February 13 was a beautiful day. Bright sun, just a hint of wind, with a high of 24C. Hard to beat the weather, especially when we are hearing about the dismal weather back in Toronto.
We decided to wander a bit in the sun and check out the part of Cuba Street we hadn't walked on before. We checked out Fidel's, "Serving the People Since 1996", which had a patio full of people eating brunch.
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| Fidel's on Cuba Street |
Then we walked to Havana Coffee Works for our late morning coffee. It has a small café and a large roastery. It sells its beans to a number of coffee shops in NZ. The coffee was good and strong.
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| Great coffee cups |
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| Coffee You Feel sign |
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| The Roastery |
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| Alain |
We then went for a light lunch at Prefab, just a few blocks away from Havana Coffee Works. It was a wonderful light airy café with a small bakery/provisions section and a great menu. We had a great chat with our server, who told us PreFab was owned by Acme (the folks that do all the espresso and latte cups that one sees all over NZ, Canada and the US etc. (we order them on line from their Calgary distributer). They roast Acme coffee on-site, which was very good.
Our server gave us some Acme pencils and a small pad of paper as souvenirs. We asked her about why cafés close so early (usually 3:30-4:00 p.m.) in NZ. She said they open early at 7:00 a.m. and do an incredible breakfast business. New Zealanders start work early, end early and like big breakfasts/lunches. By 4:00 p.m., folks have moved on to beer and wine. It's weird for us, as we often like to stop for a coffee and maybe a treat at around 4:00 p.m. ish. Folks also eat dinner a lot earlier than we do.
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| Inside Prefab |
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| The coffee |
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| Enjoying our coffee outside-- such a beautiful day |
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| Alain with our tuna with celery/gherkins open face sandwich on great bread |
We hung out at the café for a while and then wandered over to Te Papa, the National Museum, our destination for the afternoon.
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| Graffitti |
The Museum is spectacular from the outside, but the inside is also totally amazing, both in terms of its airiness and light and for the wonderful exhibits. We were there for three hours and did not see everything. We also did not go to the temporary exhibit of the Terra Cotta Warriors, as I had seen them in Toronto and Alain had seen them in China many years ago.
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| Outside of Te Papa |
The second floor housed an amazing exhibit about the battle of Gallipoli in 1915. It was interactive, high tech and gave a play by play of the invasion on April 25, 1915 to the ultimate withdrawal of the NZ troops at the end of December 1915.
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| Outside of Exhibit |
One entered into an alcove with a huge soldier--- with an audio of a letter written home.
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| Incredibly realistic models |
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| One of the first to land at Gallipoli- wounded in the foot |
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| Detailed audio and video of landing on April 25, 1915 |
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| Another realistic giant model |
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| There was a section on the role of the Māori contingent--- it took the urging of a Māori Member of Parliament to get the OK for Māoris to fight in the war |
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| Photos from the war |
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| A Toronto reference!!!! |
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| Captain Peter Buck from the Māori Contingent |
It was an excellent exhibit--- so many lives lost on both the NZ and Turkish sides. The NZ troops withdrew after eight months, but many then went on to fight on the Western Front in Europe.
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| Carving and window on the second floor |
We went to a few galleries dealing with
Mana Whenua (The World of Māori) and
Ko Rongowhakaata: The Story of Light and Shadow (Iwi (tribal) gallery). We could not take pictures in those galleries. The carvings, a large meeting place, canoe and art were beautifully displayed. New Zealand is definitely much further along on the path to reconciliation with its Māori people than Canada is with First Nations, even though things are not perfect. There is Māori signage everywhere and a lot of New Zealanders speak some Māori and there is widespread awareness of the history.
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| There was a section on greenstone from the South Island and its importance in Māori culture |
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| Ancestors of the Māori came to NZ in around 1200-- they brought kūmera- the wonderful sweet potato that we have eaten a number of times on our trip |
There was a small gallery with a Suffrage 125 exhibition called
Doing it For Themselves.
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| From Kate Sheppard (one of the most prominent leaders of the suffragettes) to Neve (the daughter of the present Prime Minister Jacinda Ardern) |
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| View from the Museum |
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| New Meeting Place area for talks and conferences |
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| Outside on the landing |
It is a wonderful museum. If we have time on our last day, we may return. It is all free to the public.
We walked on the waterfront, shared a sorbet and then sat for about an hour and watched all the activity on the waterfront- runners, walkers, divers and lots of dragon boaters.
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| Waterfront view |
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| Boaters and folks out after work |
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| Divers |
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| Lots of kids enjoying the sun |
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| Mast from the Wahine- the ferry that sank in 1968 |
We walked up to Cuba Street and I took a photo of the infamous kinetic Bucket Fountain which was installed in 1969.
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| Bucket Water Fountain |
We had dinner at Loretta's on Cuba Street-- another large airy place.
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| Loretta's |
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| We shared a vegan pizza (more like a flat bread) with portobello mushrooms and tahini, and a roasted vegetable salad |
We got back to the apartment at around 8:30 p.m. and had a cup of tea with our hosts. They are a very nice couple. We chatted about politics (one just cannot avoid a Trump discussion for too long) and life in Wellington. Thursday February 14 will be our last full day in Wellington.
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