Wellington City surprises

It's a delightful experience and a revelation that I can do this – make my own perfume! – but Wellington is full of surprises. Every time I wander from Ghuznee Street’s Intrepid Hotel just off Cuba Mall, I am either surprised, delighted or both at once.

Food, for example, which the ‘hood is famous for it. A small sample: dinner at The Old Quarter, understandably popular for Vietnamese fusion; lunch at Mr Go’s involving incredible fried cauliflower, herb and peanut slaw, mushroom dumplings. The wholesome Oatery is renowned for mighty porridge or off-the-Richter-scale cheese scones; The Hangar for home-made granola with strawberry compote and coconut yogurt. Floriditas’ scrambled eggs! And, everywhere, excellent coffee.

Poking around Wellington’s old Opera House reveals more surprises, including that I am allowed to be there in the first place, albeit on a guided tour. Nearby St James theatre is also occasionally open for tours but today, Bob and Sally-Anne from WellingtonNZ stick to sharing the grand Opera House with its showy foyer, its elegant swooping staircase leading up to a double landing – the perfect setting for patrons glammed-up for opening nights since 1914. We step into the darkened theatre, look up into the gods, wander between the seats and admire the proscenium arch of beaten tin, designed to project voices from the stage. A high-flying star-studded dome is a recent addition, symbolising the night sky of opening night.

We go backstage to the green room and to where the techs hang out, then up to the paint frame, an intriguing studio high above the stage where backdrops were once painted before being dropped directly down to the stage through a long slit in the floor. 

On the raked stage I hear more about the theatre’s history, its tragedies and dramas, fame-fuelled stories pouring from the guides testament to their passion for the place. I sense there are secrets here that will never be spoken of.  

But hands-down the biggest surprise of my central Wellington sojourn was seeing the remnants of a pā site in the basement of a Taranaki Street apartment block.

This revelation came on Te Wharewaka o Pōneke Hidden Māori Treasures Tour with Paddy and Kauri who work from the urban marae on the waterfront. First, I spent time awestruck by the architecture of Te Raukura marae, suggestive of a waka, its modern, confident angles thrusting in the direction of Taranaki, from where the local iwi moved in the 1830s. After a warm and heart-felt welcoming ceremony, Paddy, Kauri and I walked to the City to Sea bridge where the sculptures by Para Matchitt tell the story of that migration, shapes echoing Maunga Taranaki, the pou with symbols of stars and heart influenced by Te Kooti speaking too of celestial navigation. I learn about the taniwha who once dwelt in the harbour, whose adventures left shapes in the landscape.

But then! Then, we walked up Taranaki Street to the entrance of a building that I had earlier walked past without noticing. Security codes punched in, the glass doors slid open and we stepped into another world. Here lie the archaeological remains of Te Aro Pā, protected by a glass barrier but right there, for me to look down on, to see clear signs of a 200-year-old whareponga – a fern house. Images from 1855 show the pā alive with activity and show settler houses encroaching on the prime real estate. The rediscovery of the pā, how it was managed, how the developer worked to preserve the site, is heartwarming. 

Wellington Central bristles with creative energy. I visit a café where you can make your own flower bouquets; I see ads for sewing courses, encounter a mobile CD and vinyl business in a brightly painted campervan. Between the vintage clothes and book shops and cool bars, barbers. So many barbers!  And every walk was accompanied by the live music of buskers.

For a break from city noises, I ventured up the cable car to Zealandia. The first urban sanctuary in the world, Zealandia opened 25 years ago and boasts 8.6km of fencing built at a height that cats can’t jump. I see tūī and kererū, cormorants, grey warblers and saddlebacks and a family of quail. Benefits of this conservation effort go beyond to surrounding suburbs; it’s inspired a city-wide phenomenon.

Although I knew about them and it shouldn’t have been a surprise, I was taken aback to see so many tuatara, their weird spiky bodies half out of holes, staying super still in a bid to be invisible. 

I jumped on the shuttle back to the cable car but elected to walk through the Botanic Gardens and Bowen St cemetery because it was such a glorious day. The sun shone, the wind was elsewhere, people picnicked in pretty pools of dappled shade.

Picking up walking speed as I needed to get to the airport for my flight back to Auckland, I felt in my coat pocket for the small glass flask of personalised perfume – bottled harmony to carry home as the perfect souvenir.