To Wellington and Back

I'm back at the office now, staring blankly at the white screen of my computer. Just yesterday, we were in windy Wellington, skipping happily to anywhere our feet would take us. The big smile on our faces only accentuated our 'asian-ish' features, pushing our eyes to slits like a Chinese drawing. But who cares when you are in Welly. We balut eating brownies scatter the streets of the central business district.

In fact, our taxi driver to the airport on our last day was an ilonggo from Bacolod, and I was thrilled to brush up with the language that I have grown up with in the quaint little town of Marbel (which is now a city, by the way).

On our first day in Wellington, we also met up with a small group of Filipino friends, most of which know Poms from ACI Systems, and over indulged on Filipino food while watching a movie on DVD that is coincidentally currently showing on all cinemas all over the world. (*wink*) How more brown skinned can you get?

The next day, we met up with some friends from my university days and had lunch at a Japanese restaurant. Yup, we want our rice! After that, we had authentic gelato on a winter's day. But that's our way of giving tribute to our kiwi brethren.

On our last day, we rode the Wellington Cable Car (which is actually a funicular) up to the Botanic Gardens, and walked our way down the hill towards the Parliament buildings and on to both the old and new St. Paul Anglican Church, both icons in New Zealand architecture.

The evening saw us riding Air New Zealand back towards Christchurch to a sea of white skins. For a brief period there, we felt alone again, but the cold air of the South Island slapped us back to a grin as moonlight bathes the snow covered Alps in the distant horizon.