Monday in Chew's Lane

Well so much for Gotham City, a good ten minutes wait for a coffee when I arrived at ten am. Yes it is peak hour for coffee I suppose, but  still.. so I say no, and I go right next door to the Coffee Club and get an excellent long black and a ham and egg croissant to boot, so I feel better already. 

It makes me think how good the cafe scene is here in Wellington, even better than the enormous Auckland in comparison. Again it's the proximity. Everything is just around the corner, or next door in this case. In Chew's Lane which is all of thirty metres long, there are eight eateries and of them are five good coffee chops. So there Auckland, beat that.

Which brings me to make a list of what I will miss most when I leave this windy city, here it is:

1. The cafe scene, without a doubt the best I have ever experienced anywhere. Excellent coffee, friendly service and a great and colourful variety. Beats anywhere I have been in the world.

2. The friendliness which pervades the whole of Wellington. They are just so helpful the Wellingtonians, perhaps  because they unite to fight the awful weather which is very often the case in this very windy city, although this summer has been a fabulous exception.

3. The cinema and theatre scene is all you could want, and more. Film Festivals occur seemingly every month, and an enomous breadth of theatre and dance, all just great.

4. My swimming and dancing friends, so fit and such fun, I will miss them so much.

5. Learning the Maori Culture up close and personal. Although the language has been beyond my ken, the culture is one I have learned a lot from. Warm and unconditional and very giving, one can learn a lot from these loving people.

6. The nature: the skies, the bay, the walks which I never really made, but I know they are there. Sometimes it's just good to know if you were younger you would have been a tramper, like all the Kiwis.

So there's a list already and in my next blog I will make a list of what I am looking forward to when I return to OZ, and there will be hopefully six things which will enrich me enough to validate my decision which has been made in spite of many urges to reconsider. Then I will make a list of six things I have learned and will take with me from Kiwiland as I am an Aussie, after all.

The runners from yesterday

Cafe Club in Chews Lane