A Wellington lunch time

Today I travelled to Wellington on an early flight to a couple of appointments; moving me was cheaper than moving those I saw. A quick run before heading for the airport was totally in the dark, and although I got a blippable shot, I have chosen this one instead.

In the middle of the day, I went for a walk to the Wellington waterfront before having my lunch. The picture is taken on a bridge connecting the area around the Wellington Town Hall (and associated buildings) with the waterfront. It crosses over a major traffic route.

The building on the left is an old rowing shed, on the edge of a wee basin from the harbour. It is now a restaurant. Beside it is Te Wharewaka (the house of canoes), which houses old and important waka belonging to Maori of the local area; clearly a recent addition to the waterfront architecture. Behind it (orange brick and arched roof) is Te Papa (the national museum) and behind it all is Mount Victoria, older by far than any human building.

I was attracted also by the two young women earnestly drawing. When I first arrived here, both were leaning through gaps in the wooden sculpture behind them drawing whatever they were looking at; city buildings probably. When I took this (about five minutes later) they had both moved back onto the bridge; one sitting, one standing, both tightly focussed on the finishing touches. I hope they won't mind being in my blip.

The wooden designs and sculptures have various meanings, mostly to do with the first arrival of people in the area, and the later arrival of the English/British settlers, and all the other immigrants in the more than 150 years since. There are places to sit, and places to stand and look, steps up and steps down. And nothing commercial to be seen.

Both sides of this bridge are built on land that was below the sea before the great Wellington earthquake of 1855. Centred north east of the current city this very large earthquake (estimated at 8.2) raised a large area of land two to three metres out of the harbour, creating a tidal swamp which was later reclaimed. Almost the whole of the Wellington foreshore is on land "reclaimed" following that earthquake.