Wellington's City Gallery: Demented Architecture

The City Gallery as an interactive exhibit going on right now featuring architecture and its relationship to contemporary art. The diverse theme also has different video installations and sculptures that relate to architecture and the architect. 

Giant LEGO city

Aaron adding to the city

Street view

The architect

Susan Te Kahurangi King: From the One I Call My Own

Looking out of the gallery

Jasmina Cibic

Entrance from Civic Square

July then Goodbye

View from Polhill Reserve near Aro Valley, Wellington

The beginning of July marks the final month of living in Wellington. We've called this city home for almost a year now and traveled the North Island a couple times. We saw waterfalls, volcanoes, deserts, beaches, glowworms and the year 2015 first.

August, the last month before our visas run out,  will be devoted to seeing the South Island. This last leg of the year is going to be a bit of an experiment. We're going to do it as cheap as possible and show our experiences along the way. Cost will be cut completely for land travel and lodging... or as much as possible. 

Friends back home often tell me they have no money to travel. I want to show that you can still see a lot with little money. Yes flights end up being the biggest cost, but many times cheap domestic ones are easy to find. Aaron and I are flying to Christchurch on $29 tickets each. 

As for land travel and accommodation, we're going to hitchhike and couchsurf. New Zealand is known for safe hitchhiking and I have met many people here who have done it and loved it. There are even "thumbs-up" signs off the road for good pick up spots. After all, the roads are full of other backpackers so odds are you will be riding with a fellow traveler.

Here's to the last month of living and working in the beautiful city of Wellington. 

Best Beer Bars: The Malthouse

The Malthouse is Wellington's original craft beer bar. Serving local brews since 1993, it has gained a large following of beer advocates old and new. They also have a very committed staff that are as awesome at their job as they are to hang out with.

The bar has a massive selection of tap and bottled beer from almost every craft brewery in New Zealand. There is a style for every taste. This video is from their annual event, Darkest Days, which features stouts, porters, and dark robust beers.

The Malthouse is on the popular strip of Courtenay Place. Anyone coming to Wellington has to check it out, it is a staple for the craft beer capital. 

Friday Night Markets

On Left Bank right off Cuba Street

Music and international food

Plenty of options for eating

The night market is all about food

Dumplings

Alley into the Market

Best Beer Bars: LBQ

The Wellington Jazz Festival was here this weekend and had gigs scattered all around town. I popped into LBQ to see what they were featuring. LBQ, or Little Beer Quarter, is a cozy back alley bar in the middle of Wellington. With a dozen taps and endless bottles, the selection is diverse and always featuring some of New Zealand's best craft beers. I would highly recommend anyone visiting Wellington to check it out. Here is a little video of the busy night they had during the Jazz Festival.

Flooding in Wellington

This week Wellington saw a lot of rain, so much rain in fact, that part of Wellington experienced some serious flooding. Apparently, around this time of the year right after summer the region gets a few big first rainfalls. The amount of rain that fell on Thursday, however, was a once in 100 year event. The Lower Hutt got hit pretty bad including Petone and Porirua. Around 1pm there were already cars completely submerged.

A lot of people that work in central Wellington live in the Hutt area including a few people I work with at Fork & Brewer. They either depend on the train or the motorway to get home - the flooding blocked both of these. There were also minor landslides that blocked even more roads. The Fork & Brewer ended up being pretty busy because of all the people stuck in the city. 

There was one fatality, an 80 year old man that was found in the water near his car. The worst flood to hit Wellington happened in 1976 and caused $30 million in damage. Fortunately, there wasn't a large loss of life and happened to be only one fatality in that one too. 

I happened to be working so I snagged these images from the Dominion Post.

All the photos from the Wellington flooding at stuff.co.nz

MATT DUNCAN/Dominion Post

DAVID MORRISON

ANDREA MALTHOUSE

Sunday Markets

Wellington has a couple nice farmers' markets on Sundays. There is one off Victoria and Vivian, and then there is one in a big lot on the waterfront right next to Te Papa. These markets are great for getting a lot of fruits and vegetables for a low cost. Around ten bucks gets us a week's worth.

The market by the waterfront has other vendors besides fruits and vegetables. Here you can get homemade almond butter, crepes, german sausages, and wood fired pizza. There is also usually live music and various other performers. Aaron and I decided to head here today to get our weekly produce. We also met our friend Elliot who was getting ingredients for chilli he's preparing for his flat dinner.

Aaron and Elliot conducting the ripeness test

A very popular fruit in NZ

Ghostly looking pumpkins

Gettin' them chillis

Part of the marina next to the market

Elliot having a bratwurst from Fritz's Weiners

Cool wood fired pizza oven on wheels