Windy Wellington

Photo Link: <Wellington Family photos>
Photo Link: <Wellington Airport photos>
Joe went over to windy Wellington on the weekend of 18-22 August to visit Guy, Kerstin, Daniel & Patrick... Had a great time. Over on Air New Zealand (sweet) and back on Pacific Blue. Very smooth flights both ways, Air NZ better of course as you get a meal, a drink and a movie (The Sentinel). But of course you pay for the difference (and had 3 seats to myself both ways). Was a pretty wet and wild weekend (the weather, not the nightlife), with mega wind chill Phil... (say that in strong Kiwi accent). Saturday went for a drive in the Hutt Valley, then in the evening went to a great Asian fusion restaurant Chow in Petone (Clare would have died for the blue cheese wontons), followed by the funny movie Confetti at the little Lighthouse cinema down the street - great fun! Sunday went for a drive to Martinborough and had another nice cafe lunch (NZ is just chockers full of great food, and really reasonable). Then stopped at Kaitoke Regional Park (setting for Rivendell, LOTR trilogy), for a walk on the swing bridge. On the Monday rain kept falling making it hard to get around on the streets, especially as I was trying to keep a new camera dry (Pentax K100D), and it wasn't even mine! Took a look at the city, quick stroll through Te Papa, and wanted to take some photos in the airport/Mt Victoria area, but as the rain kept falling I decided to get a small car from Thrifty, then got some good pics of Air NZ planes from the seawall at the southern end of WLG Airport with the windchill burning my face. The car ended up being pretty convenient as I had to leave Lower Hutt about 4.30am on the Tuesday morning in the pouring rain, to get in the Pacific Blue queue (that's Blues Queue, not to be confused with Blues Clues), to catch the plane to Brisbane (usual tiresome Virgin high jinks on the plane, "in the cockpit today, we have Captain Kirk and Mr Spock", etc, etc...), to get collected from Brisbane International and be at the office 15 minutes before my start time at 10am... Brought home a lovely cold too. Cheers. Family photos and Wellington Airport photos from the weekend.