Monday 12th March 2007. Wellington. New Zealand.

Breakfast this morning was at the Pandoro Panetteria bread company.

Some more interesting facts about Wellington...


The more you explore the more you find.

Tinakori Road where I visited the Katherine Mansfield birthplace was home to some of the finest houses in Wellington and some of the wealthiest and most influential Wellingtonians; but it nearly had a more distinguished history. Parliament in 1865 had authorised the area to become the site of the Governor's residence, General Assembly and governmnet offices. However the move from Auckland was eventually sited around Molesworth Street.

Lambton Quay was originally known as The Strand or The Beach and it represented the shoreline when the New Zealand Company settlers arrived in 1840.
It was named after Lord Durham the company chairman, whose family name was Lambton. Reclamation began here in 1852 and the original buildings on this site were wooden. However a series of fires led to the beginnings of brick construction with the remaining wooden buildings being almost wiped out by the fire of 1906. The fine Victorian and Edwardian buildings that once lined the Quay were gradually replaced as land values rose in the late twentieth century.

Lambton Quay was where the first Kirkcaldie and Stains store opened in 1863. The present store was begun in 1897 and was designed by Thomas Turnbull & Sons being built in three stages. In 1928 fire damaged the centre building and as a result Llewellyn E. Williams designed a facade that united all three buildings.

A little more about the Father of Wellington. Plimmer and his family arrived in the city in 1841 where he leased land at Clay Point and began his first business, a lime kiln. He later bought the land built a house and hotel and in 1849 he beached a barque, the Inconstant, which had grounded at the harbour entrance. He used this as a warehouse known as Plimmer's Ark.His location was strategic as all traffic from the government end of town in Thorndon had to pass the ark enroute to the business end Te Aro. A strong promoter of the rail link between Wellington and the Manawatu he died in 1905.

One building I would loved to have gone in lies at the corner of Boulcott and Willis streets and is a very rare example of a French Renaissance timber house. Again a Turnbull design the building was constructed in 1902 for Dr Henry Pollen. Although built further up the street it was moved in 1991 and is currently undergoing renovation.

Lunch today was at Pravda where I had apple soup for the first time in my life, and it was really nice!

I spent a very pleasant afternoon wandering through the Gala Exhibition at the New Zealand Academy of Fine Arts. I liked Bruce Luxford's work, particularly the painting showcasing the need for foundations from buildings to nature. We all need strong foundations on which to base our opinions...if we had such foundations maybe, just maybe, we would be a little more tolerant.

Generally the art was very good. Some works were excellent, a few were rather poor; many though were thought provoking and even controversial. The Maori/Seabed/Foreshore piece by Robyn F. Kahukiwa was a wonderful study from the dispossession of the Maori, to face-to-face modern equality, to the inequalities that still exist.

Tonight I am dining at the James Cook Hotel Grand Chancellor with Jim and Barbara Milburn (the President of ESU Wellington and his wife) and Joyce Troughton (the President of ESU New Zealand). I have another wonderful evening which is rounded off with drinks with Joyce and her son at Arbitrageur.

I cannot thank the ESU in Wellington enough for all their kind hospitality and in particular Jim and Barbara, Gretchen and Gary, Joyce and Margaret and Alex...They have all made my stay very pleasurable.