Sunday, August 26, 2012

Three eats to the Windy City -- Wellington on a Plate, New Zealand


A whirlwind trip to Wellington on a Plate begins with arriving at late o'clock on Friday and departing at shhh you'll wake the rooster on Monday. And in between is a whole bunch of decadence and silliness.

Disclaimer: Detective Chow's trip to New Zealand was completely privately funded. If anyone wants to sponsor him for future visits to Wellington or any other city/township, he is totally up for it. (I hope you're reading this, Tourism NZ and Air New Zealand.)

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 

Pravda Cafe. They pulled out all the stops and I must say it was amazing. I'm surprised how well the wines matched the food, considering it was a one-label affair. The Murdoch James wines were great on their own, too.

Someone asked about non-food things to do in Wellington. Purely a hypothetical question, I imagine.
  1. Te Papa museum in the CBD has a giant squid, earthquake re-enactment and other cool stuff. Could easily spend half a day not eating there.
  2. The Weta Cave in Miramar is a museum of the Weta Studio (Peter Jackson / Lord of the Rings / Meet the Feebles etc). Some time could be spent there before having Mexican at La Boca Loca. Just near La Boca Loca is a beautiful old cinema (now the Roxy) -- worth a quick look inside at the upstairs ceiling
  3. The St James Theatre in the CBD is also worth a look.
  4. Lots of gardens, parks and whatnot. And the (famous?) cable car.
  5. Is beer non-food? How about wine? Welly seems to have a few micro/breweries. Regional Wines is an amazing bottle shop where you can fill your own bottles with local beers, plus they have an incredible range of wines and spirits.
  6. For nightlife, Cuba St and surrounds seems to be the place to be. The Fringe Bar has comedy, karaoke, live music etc on any given night. Luckily, Cuba St is also the food capital.
Sorry, thinking with my stomach again. Occupational hazard.

12 comments:

  1. Are those farmers markets on every week Detective Chow. And go Olive *free range meat* - putting it on my list! And that chocolate shop too (that's gotta be the think I was going to like, right?

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    1. Those farmers markets aren't but there are two others in the CBD every week. One in the Te Papa carpark and one in the building just next to it.

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  2. i love the around town shots! great perspective :)

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  3. Great post! I'm looking forward to both food and non-food based activities in Wellington, and I am also catching the ridiculously early flight out!

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  4. For a second there I thought you were on a sponsored trip for WOAP. It's such a great little city isn't it? I look forward to returning. Pravda looks pretty damn good!

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    1. A sponsored trip would be the icing on the (already tasty) cake. As it was there was too much to eat in too little time.

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  5. Wow! That crab ravioli looks incredible. The hubby and I are planning to spend a few weeks in NZ over Christmas, so I'm going to bookmark this to use when we're making all our fun plans!

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    1. NZ is amazing, especially that time of year. We spent 3 weeks driving around the South Island a few years ago -- such incredible scenery. Happy to hit you up with highlights when planning time comes.

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  6. Nice work detective - the Mayor spent a few years in Wellington last decade and you managed to visit many of my favourites in a short space of time. I hate that early flight though; a killer.

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  7. There's also a couple of other farmers' markets in the city. On Saturday morning there is one in Hill St in the cathedral carpark and on Sunday morning there is one at the corner of Willis and Vivian St.

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