Windy Welly

Well we’re in windy Welly. Wellington is the windiest city in the world and the southernmost capital. We spent the previous two days in Napier by Hawke’s Bay. We hiked up to a Maori Pa (fortress city), visited a water spa, and toured the Art Deco buildings downtown . At the Maori Pa, we met three Maori social workers who had come there to center themselves. They were going over their genealogy, which goes back 30 generations. One of them had lived in Chicago for a while.

Napier was leveled by an earthquake in 1931, when Art Deco was the popular architectural style. The new downtown had a consistent Art Deco theme to the buildings . They really were quite extensive and well preserved.

The next day, we drove along one side of Te Mata Peak and then hiked on the other side . We saw a Tui , a bird endemic in New Zealand. We also saw some California Redwood trees , which came right from California in the 1920s. The owner of this land (since donated as a park) thought that the climate was similar to where the redwoods grow in California, so he brought some over and planted them.

New Zealand is like Tasmania on steroids. There are sheer cliffs carpeted with trees that have managed to colonize little flat spaces. It looks like God took a flat forest and lifted up one side so it was vertical. There are amazing areas where the hills look like bubbles, steep ravines cut into rolling buttes, etc. There is no way I can capture such sights in photographs.

Wellington is built into one of these many steep hills, and the view from our hotel looks like a city drawn by M.C. Escher . It is very concentrated, and to get in my 10 miles walking today, I had to do three loops (including going up Mount Victoria). But there are many lovely views and shops here. And we happen to be here on the weekend of the “A Very Welly Christmas” event. All the Christmas preparations feel out of place to us because it is so warm and the days are getting longer. But it is a reminder that time is marching on, as are we. We’re off to the East Side of New Zealand’s North Island the day after tomorrow. It’s been a nice break in Wellington just seeing a town instead of sightseeing it.