February 10, 2004 - Botanical Gardens

Went up the cable car in Wellington and walked back down through the botainical gardens. Was a lot nicer than I'd thought. Stopped at a duck pond on the way down where a cat was hanging out looking for laps to sit on. Went Nazgul hunting, photographed the two on Courtenay Place, and then stopped in to check out some parts of Te Papa. Although the LOTR exhibit has long started touring, so it's not here anymore, they still have a separate LOTR STORE. It was so hard to leave. But they left behind one piece... Barad Dur, I'm guessing around 25' tall, at 1/166 scale. Stunning!

The wine from last night was from Drylands, which I believe we drove through (or very near). I have three rolls of film back, and as I'd hoped for, there are a number of "keepers" in the lot. Some aren't that good, but there are enough good ones to make me happy. I'm underexposing a bit too much on the bright beach shots, so I'll fix that here on out. Will try and find a way to scan a couple for more immediate consumption on the web until I get back and do it properly.

I'v found that they don't know how to make martinis here. In one restaurant, I had to point at the vermouth, and got the drink in a tumbler, mostly warm, having ordered a "gin martini" -- nothing fancy. Tried again tonight in the hotel restaurant, and they got it right, but when I ordered a "dirty martini" they had no idea what I meant, and I had to tell them how to make it, and as they were lacking olive juice, squeezed an olive in it, but at least brought it to me offering that if I didn't like it, they'd make something else. I wonder how hard it'd be to open a bartending school here....


Overnight: James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor, Wellington
Words and images Copyright 2004 Bill J. Jerome
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