Absolutely. Positively. Wellington. - March 5

 19Yes. Absolutely. I could live here. 

Wellington is very accessible. This city really makes an effort. There are city ambassadors here and there, dressed in black and yellow jerseys, to answer tourists' questions. There are useful maps. There is a lot of public art. There are lots of arts venues. There is a robust food culture. There are great parks. There is civic pride. Wellington even has a tag line: Absolutely Positively Wellington.

All the big city amenities and there is still on-street parking in the CBD.

We took a walking tour/food tour through Zest Food Tours. Our 3 1/2 hour tour ended up going for four. Doris, our guide, was excellent. It turned out that we were the only people in her group today, so we essentially had a private tour. In addition to food, Doris told us about Wellington and pointed out buildings, sculptures, and other items of interest.

Our first stop was Mojo Coffee, where we learned about all the small coffee roasters in coffee-loving Wellington. We drank "flat whites" and ate "bakings."

I loved the floor in Mojo. I can see a quilt.

On the way to our next stop we crossed the City to Sea (?) Bridge, passing by a little harbor. There was some kind of rowing competition going on. Lots of rowing teams, mostly women, were marching over to their boats.

Moore Wilson Fresh is a grocery store that only sells fresh local food. Their stock was beautiful to look at and I could have happily browsed there for a few hours.

At Moore Wilson Fresh we tasted three cheeses: a cheddar aged for 3 years, a feta with mint, an a mild, creamy bleu cheese. This was accompanied by some local oat crackers, fresh fruit, quince jelly, feijoa chutney, and another chutney. Also, feijoa soda, Granny Smith juice, and 4 types of boutique peanut butter from Fix and Fogg. Give me more.

Next stop: Gellissimo. The process of making gelato was explained while we tried out all of the flavors and saw the gelato machines used to produce all this scrumptiousness.

At Kura Art Gallery we got to taste Manuka honey and two other kinds of New Zealand honey, while learning about Maori art and browsing through the gallery.

Finally, we visited the Wellington Chocolate Factory. This company is committed to fair trade/direct trade, low impact, sustainability, and helping others. The owners developed a new source of chocolate beans in the Solomon Islands in a unique manner. They sailed to Bougainville in a waka, a traditional Maori sailboat, without using an engine. It was supposed to take 5 or 6 weeks but it ended up taking14. They helped local farmers set up a small cooperative and worked with them to develop methods for drying cacao beans. They brought bags and bags of beans and bright them from the port to their shop by bicycle. All of their chocolate is processed in their small shop, the wrappers are designed by local artists, and it seems to be a thriving business.

One of the take-aways was that many of these businesses maintained quality by staying small.

Doris and I are about to be attacked by some kind of Hobbit creature that snuck into this photo.

After the tour we went to the 1902 cable car and rode up a hill to the Botanical Garden. Nice view from the top. The Botanical Garden was free, and there were pleasant trails to walk on, but there was very little signage.

We were enticed by a store that only a tourist would enter, so we went in for a look around. There were some nice things with the fern designs that you see everywhere. We made a few small purchases. Oh. It's that tourist fugue that overcomes you.

After that we were hot and tired so we went back to the ship. Good-bye to the southernmost world capital.