Welcome to the southernmost national capital in the world .        A smallish city, with its core built on the amphitheatres of land, rising around the several harbours here.    Seems that every house has a stunning view.  Wind constantly blows – anything less than a roof-raising gale is called a breeze.

We spend extra time here too, keeping with the slow-down theme.     We’re liking it.        

Our best accommodations have been found through Airbnb this trip – as a dedicated VBRO user for a decade, I may have just changed allegiance.    Our place here was posted as “a room” with private bath.    What we found was a charming one-bedroom apartment, complete with a full-sized fridge and stove…with oven!       These are rare and precious finds.          While we have become very adept at using a mini fridge, microwave and if we’re lucky a hob (hot plate) for many meals, this place had us heading to the market for fresh rack of lamb and other delights – when our host hears of our meal plans, she arrives at our door with a pile of fresh rosemary, parsley and bay leaves .      Wonderful.     

A highlight is the Weta Cave, the company that does the creative and special effects for movies – notably Lord of the Rings, Hobbit movies, some for Avatar and the like.      
Combined with our Hobbiton visit, this piques our interest even more and we now want to see the movies and put the pieces together.      We’re shown the miniature fortress they build out of foam at 1:100 scale….and then they explain that they also build “big-a-tures” of the same thing at say a 1:24 scale to accommodate other perspectives.      

The sizing thing is intriguing – we learn here that at Hobbiton they would use very small fences
for shots with Gandolf in them; then replace them all with very large ones for Hobbit shots - making the elves look elvish.   

We visit the national Museum, Te Papa, the observatory (too late to catch the best bit), the funky Cuba Street, the waterfront, the markets and food stores .     We stop into an op shop (thrift store) to pick up some cold-weather gear as we are heading south where the southern alps will take us to higher altitudes and just a bit closer to the Antarctic.     Autumn colours and temps await.       

The ferry to the south island ends our visit in Wellington.      A little wistful at our departure.