Wellinton Botanical Gardens

11 Oct 09

TULIPS

Sundial

View from the cable car

getting everyone organised.....

Birthdays!

When decades turn, you have to go big or go home

Here are some pics of the celebrations...

First, a quiet family style celebration...

The cake

The cake with candles

The cake was really GOOOOOODDD!!!!!!!

Happy to be on a sugar rush

And then, we go to Phase 2: Let's go out!!!


We found an amazing spot called Osteria Del Toro right in the heart of Wellington's night scene.

All cheers to the brithday girl!



Ken explaining to Russ just how serious things can be...


and Helen doing the same with Ilse!!



But here's evidence that they can have fun too!

Niel and Esmé, plates still clean, eagerly awaiting the advent of FOOD.




Food came, drinking continued, converstaions flowed...




Busted, Paulus, busted!!!!






I really don't know what to say here, other than I hope you can sense the atmosphere of the restauarant and that we all had a good time.




The Italian/Spanish/Whatever mediterranean dialect Waiter - there was a language barrier but he quite understood "more Vino" so we were all good! :-)

And speaking of wine...



Dit maak jou vatterig....





Dit maak jou vryerig....






En dit lyk of dit baie lekker was!! :-)

En toe die Nightlife.....

Wellington's Courtenay Place at night

A little bit of extra cheers in a pub around the corner...






And a little more cheers....





Hoe later hoe kwater! O, wait, it was a birthday, the later, the older! :-)

Auckland
The city we did not chose

There were a few obvious reasosn why Sonja and I chose Wellington before we'd even seen either Auckland or Wellington...

1. There was family already living here at the time.
2. Auckland vs. Wellington is like Joburg vs. Cape Town (Geographics, size ratio's, people's attitudes etc.)
3. It just looked better on Google Earth! :-)

But this does not mean that it is not a wow city. In its own right Auckland has a buzz and a beauty which can only be a truly New Zealand thing.

The two of us managed to coincide our AKL business trips and landed up in AKL together! (Sort of like an in-house marital affair with a legitimate partner.)

Here are the evidentiary bits...

The Sky Tower towering it out over all other skyscrapers



An old church

Their own twins - they're still standing though




Another apartment block!! There are gazillions of students because there are too many universities , hence the need for multiple residential skyrises in the CBD. This is also what makes the nightlife buzz, so I guess you bear with it, but it is strange to stand in the Telecom 9th floor Tea Room and look down on someone's washing drying a few floors down in the adjascent building. (See, glad we chose Wellington!)





Auckland's surrounding suburbs seem rather flat, but the CBD is hilly as hell. You get quite a workout walking around town.


Albert Park is a piece of Eden right in the CBD. Pretty as!


Either a very skinny guy or a very old tree. You decide.



Pretty as. Think I said it before.



Another freaky tree. I guess he decided that in a land of Earth Quakes he's not gonna go down without a fight.



The evening skyline is lit by many surrounding building lights, but as you can see, the Sky Tower steals the limelight.

This was the view from our hotel.


On the 2nd day I was in another side of Auckland where I could get some other perspectives of the Auckland City.