When you come back home

OK Road, 8 March 2007 7:18:29amSometimes there comes a time when you must leave this town, your town for a break – it could be a holiday; it could be your OE; it could be that career move; it could be to do a geographical and just get away.

What’s that? Your favourite barista moved to Westport, and you had to follow? (Yeah, OK. There’s always an excuse.) But sooner or later, you must come back. And when you do there is always a moment when you know you are home.

Here’s one such:

Coming down the Ngauranga Gorge there’s that long sweeping curve where the Hutt and Porirua motorways meet. Look up from the road and you’ll see Wellington arrayed in full panoply before you. There are our small cluster of tall buildings standing proud, feet in the sea and backs to the hills. There are the hills themselves, steeply carpeted with houses in defiance of tectonics and plain good sense, looking on to and out to the sea. There is the bowl of the harbour, rimmed with bush and filled with reflected sky. There is the sky, mostly blue, sometimes grey, often set with clouds scudding.

There it is. Our town. Where you live. Where I live.

Where is this moment for you?

Is it, as the Front Lawn once had it, flying overhead?

over Wellington Harbour
Oriental Bay is standing there in the sunlight

Is it that first sip of Mojo or Fuel?

Is it Courtenay Place at the weekend?

Where? What? With whom? Comment, zoomin, or blog away!

Quote of the night

James, whilst walking through Cuba Mall with us all: “Hey, that bollard (covered in posters) looks just like our site!”.

Also, James gets super large bonus points for coming swimming tonight.

(And also: I heart Wellington.)

Let’s all shut up about the weather now.

Dear Wellingtonians,

I’ve become so sick of you whinging all the time that tonight I made this for you:

Sunset at Lyall Bay
Sunset at Lyall Bay

Walking, 7:05am

Wellington is often a good city for walking: some would even say it’s better for walking than cycling.

Public Address | Club Politique | Burying One’s Feet

I’m sure Che Tibby won’t mind, but this is one of the finest love letters to Wellington I have ever read. Public Address | Club Politique – Burying One’s Feet

Links for Monday, 30 May 2005

A couple more additions to the ‘Let me count the ways…‘ Wellingtonist meme, from Sibylle at heimatseeker and Mr Reasonable at Whispering Inferno The Wellington City Council in-fighting reaches new lows Tornado action in Paraparaumu, resulting in this from MetService… Severe-weather forecaster Paul Mallinson said he had “almost mentioned weak tornadoes” in predictions for the […]

Let me count the ways…

Here at Wellingtonist towers, we’re always thinking of new ways to let people know just how cool this town is. And we know we have lots of readers out there who like to do the same. So here’s our suggestion: people of a mind to participate can post to their website an article talking about […]