Our first stop on this beautiful Saturday morning is the Thorndon Farmers' Market in the Hill St carpark of St Paul's Cathedral - "Wellington's home of local food". It was very quiet this morning but we enjoyed our coffee in the sunshine, a bit of live music and an opportunity to buy some local Fix & Fogg peanut butter (smoke and fire flavour) to take home with us (the label says extra dark roasted hi-oleic peanuts and a sparing amount of organic Marlborough sea salt flavoured with organic NZ chillies, smoked paprika and natural manuka smoke!)....hopefully Abi & Ella will be impressed.
St Paul's Cathedral is adjacent to NZ's Parliament buildings - a real pastiche of design and function....Bowen house, the Beehive, and the actual parliament building look OK together - especially in this bright blue sky sunshine.........
....... but the Gothic inspired, parliamentary library building next door is a bit of a mismatch (but a picturesque one).
On such a beautiful day, we decided to join the majority of Wellingtonians on the harbour front, and walking the two or so kilometres from Thorndon to Oriental Bay, Wellington's inner city beachside suburb.
On the way we stopped off at the designer's market under Frank Kitt's Park on the waterfront where I enjoyed supporting some local contemporary jewellers.... but back on the walk, the views were just as jewel like.
Our mandatory lunch stop pics were taken at Beach Babylon today, a laid back cafe with a retro Hawaiian vibe (very popular here granted NZ's Polynesian heritage). I tried a Tuatara beer - another hand crafted beer from the Kapiti coast. We finished off the beach experience with a delicious feijoa gelato from the nearby Kaffee Eis.
It was so spectacularly beautiful on the harbour today - we could have walked all day........... That Gothic styled building overlooking Oriental Bay on Mt Victoria in the pic below is St Gerard's Church and Monastery.
... and the young Maori warriors were out again today, practising their dives.... with much noise and laughter too!
We finished off our waterfront sightseeing at the Museum of Wellington City & Sea - housed in the late 19th century Bond Store, formerly the head office of the old Wellington Harbour Board. We are very impressed with this beautiful city!
On the way we stopped off at the designer's market under Frank Kitt's Park on the waterfront where I enjoyed supporting some local contemporary jewellers.... but back on the walk, the views were just as jewel like.
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