DAY ONE – Friday 15th September
An early start for everyone off to Wellington on NZ 7914 – departing at 7.35am and arriving at 1pm. Landing at Wellington Airport is often very hairy and today was no exception landing into 90klm winds with the plane rocking from side to side - all the passengers cheered as we successfully touched down.
We arrived at our hotel The Apollo Lodge – a quaint hotel on the side of a steep hill – well after lunch and after settling in we set off to explore the city. It was incredibly windy as we walked along the main street noting the myriad of bars and restaurants and eventually settling on a café called ENIGMA where we enjoyed fantastic coffee and cake. A bit of shopping rounded out the late afternoon and then back to the hotel. We decided it was definitely too cold and blowy to walk back to the city so we opted for the local Thai restaurant a block away for dinner. We celebrated the start of our NZ adventure with a lovely dinner and a great bottle of Cloudy Bay sparkling and we are excited to anticipate the next few days of cultural exchange. We are really looking forward to seeing what the NZ Theatre Festival is like, the standard of the plays and understanding how they have managed to bring all their festivals under the one umbrella.
- Madeleine Johns
An early start for everyone off to Wellington on NZ 7914 – departing at 7.35am and arriving at 1pm. Landing at Wellington Airport is often very hairy and today was no exception landing into 90klm winds with the plane rocking from side to side - all the passengers cheered as we successfully touched down.
We arrived at our hotel The Apollo Lodge – a quaint hotel on the side of a steep hill – well after lunch and after settling in we set off to explore the city. It was incredibly windy as we walked along the main street noting the myriad of bars and restaurants and eventually settling on a café called ENIGMA where we enjoyed fantastic coffee and cake. A bit of shopping rounded out the late afternoon and then back to the hotel. We decided it was definitely too cold and blowy to walk back to the city so we opted for the local Thai restaurant a block away for dinner. We celebrated the start of our NZ adventure with a lovely dinner and a great bottle of Cloudy Bay sparkling and we are excited to anticipate the next few days of cultural exchange. We are really looking forward to seeing what the NZ Theatre Festival is like, the standard of the plays and understanding how they have managed to bring all their festivals under the one umbrella.
- Madeleine Johns