Taking on Wellington
August 29th 2007 09:05
Even as a brave traveller we run. We can run from others, from following the pack, from danger...and from those answers that will cause us reason to stop and rethink things. Things we were happy with and want to keep just as they are. The brave traveller understands that sometimes the cost for what we do is to carry with us a 'mind that looks in on itself' (quote from Oxygen, Andrew Miller). Yes, it isn't easy but we wouldn't want to be anyone else, or doing anything else. This is who we are. This is what we do. We search out the cracks and the beauty in our world and in ourselves. And then we celebrate it.
When friends need time alone, time away from family or need to run away from a particularly messy break-up, they inevitably ring me asking where to go. They want close but not too close. Safe, but not without an edge of excitement and luxurious but without the debt and I invariably point them to the island across the ditch, New Zealand.
It's easy to forget that New Zealand is one of the few places on earth that deliver what it promises on their fancy advertisement campaigns. The lakes really are that blue and the people, they still smile. Peek into Auckland, I say. Even stay a couple of nights and dance your little feet off in your choice of nightclubs along the Harbourfront but if you want to meander through world-class cafes, boutique bookshops and get your arms around a city, Wellington's the place you want to go. If Auckland is the brain of New Zealand, then Wellington is its heart.
Staying in the city centre is both inexpensive and lands you in the middle of everything worth seeing. The range of serviced apartments available in the CBD now means that they often undercut hotel room rates and give more space for less money. If you stay in an apartment or a hotel along the harbour, you'll be within walking distance to Te Papa Museum, worth an afternoon at the least, especially if you know little or nothing on the culture of the Maori people and the hip Cuba Street, which used to be alternative and smell of weird herbs but is now a treasure trove of unique cafés and eateries and holds the best clothing boutiques in all of the city.
When friends need time alone, time away from family or need to run away from a particularly messy break-up, they inevitably ring me asking where to go. They want close but not too close. Safe, but not without an edge of excitement and luxurious but without the debt and I invariably point them to the island across the ditch, New Zealand.
It's easy to forget that New Zealand is one of the few places on earth that deliver what it promises on their fancy advertisement campaigns. The lakes really are that blue and the people, they still smile. Peek into Auckland, I say. Even stay a couple of nights and dance your little feet off in your choice of nightclubs along the Harbourfront but if you want to meander through world-class cafes, boutique bookshops and get your arms around a city, Wellington's the place you want to go. If Auckland is the brain of New Zealand, then Wellington is its heart.
Staying in the city centre is both inexpensive and lands you in the middle of everything worth seeing. The range of serviced apartments available in the CBD now means that they often undercut hotel room rates and give more space for less money. If you stay in an apartment or a hotel along the harbour, you'll be within walking distance to Te Papa Museum, worth an afternoon at the least, especially if you know little or nothing on the culture of the Maori people and the hip Cuba Street, which used to be alternative and smell of weird herbs but is now a treasure trove of unique cafés and eateries and holds the best clothing boutiques in all of the city.
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