Wellington day 1. Windy Wellington

When I landed in Wellington on Saturday evening, I had already crossed nine time zones heading east. Usually, people take three days to a week to recover from such a jet lag. But as a long-time reader of Exler, I knew about the magical pills — Melaxen — that help the body adjust to drastic time zone shifts. I decided to give them a try. The effect was incredible! The next morning, I woke up at 8 AM feeling like I hadn’t traveled at all. Great stuff; highly recommend!

Locals call their city “Windy Wellington.” The city is located at the very tip of the North Island of New Zealand. The two islands, North and South, form a funnel, and as the wind passes through, it intensifies due to the narrowing gap between the islands. Wellington is located at the narrowest point. The wind is quite cold and could pierce through even two T-shirts and a sweatshirt. To illustrate the wind’s strength, I even recorded a video of water rippling in a kettle on the 5th floor of a building. It was definitely not an earthquake—we checked. 🙂

Such windy weather didn’t stop us from walking around the city, especially since we had to go out to find some food.

Just stepping out of the hotel and turning the corner, you immediately come across the Parliament building.

002 — The trees there, of course, amazed me!

There will be many trees; I won’t describe them further.

004 — Lambton Quay, one of the main streets in Wellington

005 — Note how the entire sidewalk is covered! It’s like this everywhere, making it easy to walk in the rain downtown.

006 — A street performer 🙂 There are many of them.

A funny contraption that spins depending on the wind’s strength. Each disk rotates independently of the others. I caught a very rare moment when it was aligned. 🙂

008 — An office tower where two floors in the middle are designated for parking.

009 — Various tariff plans with free phones.

The cost of a contract to get a Galaxy S3 for free is about $100 per month for two years. The plan includes 600 minutes of talk time. Over two years, that’s $2,400 NZD. Separately, the phone costs $1,000. So, $1,400 goes toward service over two years, or about $58 per month. Not too expensive by New Zealand standards.

010 — A Chinese market with cheap fruits and vegetables.

A very popular shopping spot for Wellington residents. Almost all fruits and vegetables are $2 per kilogram (around 52 rubles).

012 — Eggplants, all boringly identical.

014 — Kumara, a local root vegetable that’s like a potato on the outside and a pumpkin on the inside.

A local root vegetable. I didn’t get to try it, as all the Russians strongly advised against it. 🙂 They eat it like a potato, and there are even kumara chips. Although, considering they put beetroot in burgers, nothing surprises me. 🙂

017 - some kind of little thing poured at the base of a pole

018 - a metal sphere hanging near the Te Papa museum

019 - of course, I couldn't resist getting closer 🙂

023 - there is also some kind of weekend market here, and the musicians are playing well

024 - someone composed a poem and carved it to remember

The harbour is an ironing board
Flat iron tugs dash smoothing toward
Any shirt of a ship any pillowslip
Of a freighter they decree
Must be ironed flat as washing from the sea