Today we treated ourselves to a unique experience, arranged through an AirBnB “Explore things to do near Makara” offer. A few days ago we chose the “Mystery Dining with a colorful past” and emailed the host at Thistle Inn for a lunch date for today. We were confirmed and just after noon we bussed into town, getting off near the restaurant, walking the few blocks in the beautiful sunny, warm breeze. We were greeted and seated at a table for two in the sunroom and started off with glasses of bubbly! We were served a 4 course dinner with 3 paired wines and personal service with historical insight into the building!

First course; oysters, raw and battered with a watermelon mignonette sauce.

The paired wine was a delicious, smooth Pinot Gris. Since Robert doesn’t drink white wine I got both glasses of bubbly and both glasses of Pinot Gris!

Second course; smoked Kahawai (commonly called Australian salmon, but it is a marine perch) with pickled onion, and gherkins. Delicious!

Third course; main course, a serving of fish and a serving of lamb, guess which I chose! Again, mouthwatering delicious! Paired with a Pinot Noir, which Robert got both glasses of!

Finishing off with brown sugar and cinnamon panna cotta with honey & creme fraiche gelato and blueberries.

We moved to the bar for more liquid dessert after a short walk around the building.

When we started at 1pm the restaurant was busy with lunch time diners, bustling wait staff and lots of conversation swirling around. When we finished our 4 courses we were about the only ones in the place and enjoyed a quiet round of drinks!

A picture circa 1866 of the Thistle Inn on the left and Old St. Paul’s Church on the right, when both were practically waterfront properties! The current waterfront is now about 600m away and filled with modern buildings, the railway station and the ferry and cruise ship docks!

Our hosts, Jack and Jill, invited us up the hill where they live, for tea, coffee and scones this morning. We walked up the steep driveway bordered by a lush growth of flowers and vegetation and enjoyed a wonderful few hours getting to know them. The property goes further uphill to paddocks where they keep Highland cattle and sheep in the pastures they have spent 50 years creating and maintaining! After we enjoyed the fresh, warm, savory scones and the pastries with our coffee and tea, Jack offered to take us on a tour of the upper reaches of the farm. We took him up on it and headed out to the barn where he revved up the side by side farm vehicle and drove us up the steep road through their forest tract to meet the sheep and cattle. Unfortunately neither of us brought our phone/camera so we didn’t get any pictures of the rolling meadows with huge distant windmills poking up into the mist above us, the many shaggy highland cattle Jack knows by name, the ram who demands his toll of feed to allow us into his pastures, the roly-poly sheep awaiting their shearing next week, the system of pond, water tanks, solar panels and piping to fill the water troughs, and the fencing, roadways, forest tracts and native bush that have all been created or restored by Jack & Jill and their friends! It is amazing! We hope to get another chance to see the farm and take pictures next week. Until then, here are pictures of their labor of love garden around “Te Whare Iti” (te-fare-eetee) or ‘the small house’.

Tall lilies along the front of the house.

Fuschias by the entrance.

Rhododendrons outside the huge wall window in the living room.

The wall window that lets in so much light and nature!

The windmill overlooking the stream garden across the driveway.

And the rose bush lining the driveway going uphill to Jack & Jill’s house and farm.

Today was grey and rainy so we did nothing. It was hard to do nothing so we drove down to the suburb of Karori where we usually catch the bus to get some stamps to mail some cards to people we have met here in NZ. Here’s a map of the Wellington area. The green is where we have driven, starting at the B&B near Makara Beach. Generally the red is where we have hiked, the blue is where we have taken the bus, and the purple is where we have biked.

We have gone further afield by bus and train, but we have found lots to do and see right here in the Wellington Harbour area! And there are still a few adventures awaiting us!

Today we bussed into the city to meet fellow Bendites we were introduced to via e-mail by our mutual friends in Prineville. Katy & Steve are on a monthlong visit to the North Island of New Zealand and we happen to be in the same city today. We met at the Te Papa Museum cafe and spent over 2 hours talking about NZ, travel in general and back home (Bend)! It turns out they live only about a mile from us back home! Since we had never met before I used the old cardboard sign method of finding them in the crowded cafe!

I got some strange looks from some cafe patrons, but it worked and we found them!

We had a wonderful time and parted ways as the cafe was being closed down! Robert and I headed over to the grocery store and bought some food for dinner then bussed our way back to the B&B to grill our fish.

Monkfish grilled with lemon! The seafood (kaimoana -literally foodsea, or “food which has been gathered from the sea”) is awesome and fresh in this island nation!

Not such an early morning today, but we still had a long bus ride! We rode the bus all the way around Wellington Harbour, through Petone at the north end of the harbour and down the east side to Eastbourne, again to the end of the bus line. We had a short walk to the Wildfinder bike hire stand and collected our e-bikes for a ride around Pencarrow Head, the eastern land at the mouth of the harbour.

The view across the harbour towards the Miramar peninsula. We’re on the Rimutaka cycle trail!

After about a 30 minute cycle against a head wind we could see the lighthouses at Pencarrow head.

The upper Pencarrow lighthouse is the original, erected in 1858 and started operating on Jan. 1, 1859. the lower lighthouse was erected in 1906 because the upper one was frequently obscured by fog or clouds. The lower lighthouse is still in (automated) use.

We finally made it to the base! Now we have to kick in that pedal assist to get up the hill to the upper lighthouse!

It seemed less windy up on the hill!

Looking to the south over Cook Strait. It’s too foggy or hazy to see the South Island today. A lonely little sail boat is bobbing on the waves. A huge cruise ship was passing out of the harbour when we started. It’s long gone now!

Starting our 16km ride back we saw this concrete structure extending out to sea.

Then we saw this sign and understood the significance of the concrete structure, and it explained the smell at the lower lighthouse. Not too pleasant on an otherwise wonderful day!