Hold on to your hat!

I thought Kingston was windy.  It's nothing compared to Wellington. 

It's hysterical! Grown men hang on to light poles and street signs so they don't blow away! Lace had told me about the wind but I didn't imagine it to be like that. Take the wind in front of the Jeanne Mance building on a windy day and multiply it by sixteen and you'd have a taste of it. Walking the streets is like being sucked into a tornado and spit out again. She made sure we walked through the windiest intersection so I could see the adults being blown away. It's hilariously fun. Well, maybe not for the lady who was blown over and had a big bloody gash on her head. But for me, it was fun. 

Okay, so the day started off with homemade yogurt brekkie (some people make their own yogurt...) and a ride on the Wellington Cable Car to the top, at Kelburn. 

We roamed around the Botanical Gardens and snapped lots of pictures from on top of the hill. 

We made our way through the "sculpture trail" and pretended we understood their deeper meaning. 

Visitors are encouraged to stand in this one to experience the sounds of the city. It's pretty hard to hear in a giant funnel. 

And the view isn't as memorable as the hilltop. 

The gardens themselves were pretty, especially the rose gardens and the begonia house. 

I'm getting accustomed to being a lady who lunches. Lunching in a rose garden?  I'm upping my game. I washed down lunch with the infamous "lemon, lime and bitters" pop. It's sour. Would be good to find this back home. 

We went back to the apartment and had a Tim Tam Slam, because my sister told me about them and said I should try one. Cookies and tea?  Okay!  I browsed real estate and realized I could never buy property here unless I become an oil baroness. 

Dinner was at one of Wellington's top-rated restaurants, Logan Brown. It's a tres la-dee-da spot where we met up with some of Lacey's former flat mates and friends. Meeting them was excellent; I've only heard names and funny stories over the months, so I felt like I knew them in the same way I might know a local celebrity.  And then you meet them and realize they're nothing like how you thought they'd be, which makes the event even better. 

The restaurant had a giant deer head, which as some of you know, I would have ripped off the wall to bring home if it were white porcelain. 

The lamb dinner didn't photograph well. The berrymisu did!  

We went for drinks downtown afterward and then parted ways. Meeting Lacey's gang in Wellington was another trip highlight. Not only is the landscape beautiful here, the people are great, great, great.