All's Well In Wellington

Thursday

Mark was up into the wee hours of the morning, backing up all of our NZ pictures onto DVD to guard against losing them if something were to (God forbid) happen to the laptop as we lug it around the South Island. Even so, he was up shortly after Ro and Sherry, since he needed to sell our car before we left. Check in hand, he ran by the bank to deposit it, then rushed to pack (Sherry had long since finished packing all of her and Ro's stuff).

Getting some fresh air while we wait for our plane

Our second flight to Wellington in a week was quick and painless. Ro again sat with Mark while Sherry enjoyed a book in solitude. As we were landing, the stewardess borrowed a page from Southwest's book and joked, "The captain has turned on the good weather for the Sevens weekend, so be sure to keep up your fluid intake." Everyone on the plane cracked up (except Ro), since many of us were going to the Sevens and packing an extra liver for the occasion. Our rental car was apparently not to Ro's liking, as he quickly dissed the red Corolla hatchback, asking why we couldn't rent the flash BMW convertible parked nearby. "When you get a job and pay for it," was Mark's reply.

The adventure begins

We took the scenic route into the city, by Oriental Bay. Just on first impressions, we'd have to say we like the feel of Wellington over Auckland. It's arguably prettier, and even though it has all the amenities of a big city, you don't really feel like you're in one. Our checkered family history with Corolla hatchbacks continued, as Mark dinged the rental in the parking garage of our hotel. He was simply negotiating a tight turn in the uncannily cramped garage and caught the curb. Not usually an issue, right? Well it is when some idiot engineer designed the curb to be over a foot high, just right for denting rocker panels. D'oh!

After settling into our room at the Intercontinental (Mark used up the last of his Priority Club points for our stay), featuring a nice view towards the waterfront and Queens Wharf, we made arrangements to finally meet up with Allan & Martha for dinner. First, a little background: Mark used to work at The Outer Banks Hospital in Nags Head, NC, and he has a friend there, Karen, who has a partner, Rick, whose first cousin Allan lives in New Zealand. Clear as mud? (A quick aside: "partner" in NZ is any significant other, no homosexuality implied). They live up in the Bay of Islands, which we drove past on the way to Cape Reinga. We would have stopped in to see them in the beautiful harbour town of Russell, but they were already down here in Wellington visiting with their first grandchild.

Martha is the family foodie, and she recommended a great little Italian place called Nicolini's. They swung by our hotel to pick us up, and we got to meet Allan’s mother Lois, their son Reef, daughter-in-law Lucy, and one-month-old Leo. The restaurant was on a busy row of bars and restaurants called Courtenay Place, not far from where we ate last week. The Sevens crowds were already out in full force, some groups of them already in their matching fancy dress.

Rush hour traffic below our hotel room

Nicolini's was small and intimate, with excellent food, not unlike Maria's Trattoria in Melbourne. We started off with some "Squids Italian Style" (i.e. huge calamari) and a big bowl of olives, with beer for the guys and wine for the ladies. Ro was on his best behaviour until we were nearly finished, as he was captivated by Leo, as well as the attention he got from Martha – a primary school art teacher. Mark had a huge plate of seafood piscatore, Sherry the tortellini with ricotta, bleu cheese and walnut pesto, and Ro his standard "pisghetti" – no sauce.

Hmmm...interesting what you've done here

Dinner with the Meyer clan

Ro helps Reef feed baby Leo

Leo got plenty of attention all around

We elected to take our dessert elsewhere, since Martha knew a great gelato place across the street, "kaffee eis." Everything looked good, and Ro had great difficulty making up his mind, finally settling on chocolate, which was soon all over his face and Mark's polo shirt. He started getting a bit restless, so Sherry took him outside to run around and talked with Lucy about the trials of those first few months of motherhood.

What'choo talkin' 'bout, mum?

Getting in some snuggle time

Saying goodnight to Allan & Martha

We ambled past numerous bustling bars, including the trendy Establishment (the "official bar" of the NZI Sevens) and the tongue-in-cheek Monsoon Poon, with "Love you long time" carved into the front steps…twice. Reef dropped us off at the hotel, and Ro immediately jumped into his togs and headed for the pool. Unfortunately, he and Mark got to it 10 minutes before closing time, but that was still long enough for Ro to burn off some energy trying to touch the bottom of the 1.6m (5ft3in) pool.

Ro in his element

Sherry had a bottle of champagne already opened when Mark and Ro got back to the room, reading her book by the window and savoring the view. It was way past Ro's bedtime, and although he wasn't enamored of the separate controls for Hot & Cold, Ro rinsed himself off in the shower (he's getting to be a big boy) and fell asleep snuggled next to Sherry on the bed.

The pool is closed already? Really?