Wellington: a long weekend, and a wedding
Alastair and I flew into Wellington on Friday morning for a long weekend. It was a very busy one – we attended a wedding, had a couple of drinks with friends, had dinner with Alastair’s dad, and went to a wedding lunch, a wedding dinner, a day after wedding lunch, day after wedding drinks, plus many, many walks (in high heels) up the stupid hill to our hotel on the Terrace.
Wellington from the Majestic Centre
Somewhere in the middle of all that stuff, we managed to have a quick walk around Wellington. I hadn’t been back in almost four years, and wasn’t terribly surprised to find that not much had changed since my last visit. Most of the shops and restaurants were still the same, the bucket fountain was still there, and it was still windy.
On Friday, after a quick sleep, we met up with mum and dad to give them some tech support. They had especially brought their laptops down from Auckland, and Alastair patiently answered all their questions (sucks to be the IT guy, huh?). Alastair needed a bit of strength first though, so we walked down the road to get a coffee. We walked into a place that looked cool and hip, and Alastair went up to the counter to order us some coffees. I’m not sure what the problem was, but he had issues ordering a latte – maybe it was the accent, or perhaps the guy was new, but eventually Alastair had to flag down someone else to place the order!
The picture above wasn’t from the place in question. This coffee was at Old Bank Arcade on Lambton Quay. We had a quick bite to eat there before going to the wedding ceremony. The coffee was good and we returned on Sunday morning. I felt like a soy latte on that morning and although I didn’t take a photo it was the BEST soy latte I’ve ever had. It tasted like chocolate, caramel and soy. Yum.
At the Old Bank Arcade, I had a smoked salmon and rye bagel for breakfast. I did take the pickle out and eat that first though.
On the soy latte day, I had a mushroom croissant. Alastair had a danish on both days.
On Friday evening, we caught up with one of my friends for a drink. She suggested the Southern Cross. Later that evening, we met up with one of Alastair’s friends. He made it super easy for us by suggesting that we meet at Southern Cross. And where was the day after wedding drinks held? Yup, the Southern Cross!
While there we wanted something to nibble on before dinner. Normally we would get a bowl of hot chips, but then we discovered you can buy a bowl of cheerios – so cheerios it was! It made me think of birthday parties that I attended as a youngster where cheerios and tomato sauce would always be served.
Speaking of being a youngster, we went to the supermarket so I could buy some supplies to take back – sour cream and chive Grainwaves, Chocolate fingers and Aprioot and chocolate CookieTimes. While there, I saw a bottle of Mello Yello, and had to buy it for the nostalgia factor. And…. it was sickly sweet and icky. What a disappointment. Some things should remain in the past!
These photos were taken from the 28th floor of the Majestic Centre, Wellington’s highest building. There’s no public viewing facilities in the building – we were there for the wedding cocktail luncheon. The view from up there is gorgeous. The room that the function was held in appeared to be a meeting room – what a waste of a view!
claire
March 11, 2008 @ 12:02 am
MELLO YELLO!! I too would have bought it for the nostalgia factor – and from the sounds of things, I too would have been disappointed… š
Another Outspoken Female
March 11, 2008 @ 7:30 pm
I went for the whitakers peanut slab (now in dark chocolate) last time I visited and needed a nostalgia hit. I’d love to find Camroc ginger ale again which we were given only when we were ill when I was a very small girl. But have to admit that the Hardy Boys dry ginger beer more than makes up for it and the most grown up Radler beer.
Just how many of us ex Wellingtonians are food blogging off shore??
Agnes
March 12, 2008 @ 9:40 pm
mutemonkey – isn’t it sad when things from your childhood don’t turn out as good as you remember?
another outspoken female – oooh Radler beer is very tasty, and far too easy to drink! You and me make two ex food blogging Wellingtonians – have you come across many more? There must be quite a few!
danny
March 19, 2008 @ 1:33 am
Mello Yello! Oh man, blast from the past.
And mushrooms and croissant? That is a new combo to me… how does it taste? Does the mushrooms make the croissant soggy?
Agnes
March 20, 2008 @ 10:30 am
Danny – It was just tasted kinda salty…! The tag on the croissants said bacon and mushroom but I couldn’t see any bacon in there.
The mushrooms were diced and cooled, so fortunately the croissant wasn’t soggy.