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Outside Weta Workshop

Today is Sunday 27 July, 2025. Kia ora!

Our loved ones from Taiwan visited for a few days at the beginning of July.  JD and I worked very hard to make them feel welcome, but unfortunately it was really, really cold while they were here.  For two days there was a heavy frost, although beautiful days afterwards; the rest of the time it rained heavily, and was still very cold, of course.

I did warn them it would be cold here!  It’s very hot in Taiwan – our son returned to 36C, but I think it was down to 3C here. The air is different, too. Everything’s different. For some reason our heating, which usually works well for us, was totally inadequate, although there is a strong heat pump downstairs and heaters in all the bedrooms. 

Our daughter-in-law and two children were due to arrive early on a Sunday afternoon, flying from Hong Kong to Auckland and then on to Wellington. But their flight from Hong Kong was delayed, and so they missed their connecting flight to Wellington. All day we were on tenterhooks as to when they would arrive.  An aunt of mine also died that day; I wasn’t particularly close to her, and they had a private family service (I and my cousins evidently didn’t qualify   as “close family”).  So it was telephone tag all day, with some confusion between New Zealand and Taiwanese time zones (they are 4 hours behind us here).

Our visitors are vegan, which makes it challenging to find good food. In Taiwan,  there are many vegan restaurants, serving beautiful food; there are very few here, although there are quite a few vegans, including another son of mine who was away at that time. He was very helpful, giving us a list of possible restaurants, some vegan cheese, and telling us about a dairy-free Tip Top ice cream – chocolate and honey comb. Yum!

The first night I had prepared a lentil dish with potatoes, peas and spinach and garlic and chillis, and a salad and some bread rolls.  There was plenty, so we had the leftovers the next night, along with roast kumara and pumpkin and corn on the cob. The first night we had fruit salad with ice cream; after that we served vegan trumpets and dairy-free miniature ice creams.

The next day, a Monday, my daughter in law was flying to Dunedin, while our son (her husband) was arriving soon afterwards. Meanwhile our other grandchildren came to visit, seeing that it was school holidays.

We walked up to the local park, which our Taiwanese grandchildren enjoyed; but it was really cold there, although it was sunny. I had to warn the children about crossing the busy road we live in, while remembering their safe and narrow streets around their home in Taipei.

The next day we took things quietly. In the afternoon we drove out to Ohiro Bay – our son wanted to walk to Red Rocks and see the seals.  We parked in the parking lot nearby, but it wasn’t easy to cross the stream: I think a recent storm had made crossing far more difficult than I remembered on our previous visit.  It looked rather dangerous to me, since there wasn’t even an obvious stepping stone arrangement, so JD and I stayed in the carpark, watching the sea and other visitors. JD bought coffee from a coffee cart nearby – much appreciated.

Then we drove to Miramar and to the Weta workshop. We were too late to join a guided visit, but we did have a good look at the shop.  Our relatives were keen to take gifts back to Taipei, so visiting gift shops was de rigueur. The children bought some modelling clay, which they later fashioned into shapes which had to be baked.

The next day we planned to go to the Southward Car Museum at Otaihanga.  We found a park (at Raumati, perhaps?) and a café that served vegan food, It was very popular, and we sat outside in the sunshine. JD and I shared a roll with pickle and haloumi cheese. There was soup too, and a variety of cakes. Afterwards we walked to the beach nearby.

The car museum was a great success – our grandson was very interested in the cars, as we were too. I showed them my parents’ first cars: a Morris 8 and a Ford Prefect.  I can still remember the smell inside. I was so ashamed until they bought a smarter Ford. We browsed the gift shop too. Then we called at the Waikanae New World – we kept running out of food!  Next we visited cousins who have a life-style block in Te Horo for afternoon tea.

That night my son fixed food for his children, while I think JD and I had organic baked bean toasted sandwiches.  The organic baked beans from Chantals are much nicer than other tinned baked beans!

The next day (Thursday) the weather was terrible. My daughter-in-law was due back from Dunedin, but there was a car problem – we couldn’t fit six of us in the car, and JD was the only legal driver. JD dropped my eldest son, my grandson and me off in Cuba St on his way to Wellington Airport. We visited a design shop, a graphic novel shop (not my usual haunt!) and Whitcoulls, before going back up Cuba St to meet the others and have lunch at Nolito. 

We were well looked after at Nolito, but I have to admit that I didn’t really enjoy the food there.   After that we met them at the Lego store in Willis St: I think JD drove me there while the others walked. We bought our grandson a birthday present for his eighth birthday! Afterwards, I caught a bus home, leaving the others to travel by car.  The bus was fine. I should have bought Snapper cards for our visitors, but I hadn’t done so.

That evening we had my lentil dish again, which I had prepared earlier – a spicy version and a non-spicy one. I also made another salad, although this time they didn’t seem interested in salads.

The next day the weather was awful again. We were to celebrate my grandson’s birthday, since his father was leaving the next day. I made the vegan fruit cake (I hadn’t made it for years, and I’d never cooked a cake in my new oven).  Again we had a transport problem. JD was going to drop me in Johnsonville, where I could get a bus into town – they go every 10 minutes. In his wisdom, he insisted on taking me to the Railway Station and dropping me off there. Although it’s a transport hub, it was a long way to the buses from where he dropped me off, so I set out to walk to The Old Quarter where we were to have lunch.

After walking in the rain for a while I gave in and took a bus to Manners Street, where I bought some cupcakes from the Sweet Release Café in case the cake I’d cooked didn’t turn out well. Then I met the others at The Old Quarter for lunch. It was really full there, and despite the awful weather, people kept coming in.

The food there was amazingly good – I really enjoyed it. They had vegan options as well as non-vegan food. I remember some delicious zucchini and corn fritters, a spicy sauce for dipping, and some yummy sticky rice.  There was some nice salad, too. It reminded me of Taipei, where a meal is often served on a tray with different items in wee dishes.

Then we walked along Courtenay Place to the Embassy Theatre, where we were to meet another nephew, and see the F1 movie.  It was not raining so heavily now, so our walk wasn’t too difficult. There was hardly anyone at the theatre!  It was nice to see the movie in a big family group. My grandson insisted on sitting between his grandfather (JD), and his cousin, although he is four years’ older. There was so much advertising, and popcorn, of course, but it was fun to see the lengthy movie.

I think we had takeaway pizzas from Hell Pizza that night. The ones with vegan cheese taste really nice, better in my view than their usual pizzas! One evening we had Indian takeaways: there’s an Indian takeaway in Newlands that serves lots of vegan food.

That was the Friday. On the Saturday our son was due to fly back to Taipei, catching a 6 am flight to Auckland to join his international flight there. He wanted to leave home by 4 am to check in before 5 am, so I set my alarm for 3:15 am!  We got to the Airport in good time; nothing much was open there, and although JD and I could have gone to the Air NZ Lounge, you had to go through Airport Security to get there. We did manage to get coffee and some fruit while we waited for his flight to take off.

That day our daughter in law and her children went to my son’s place in Newlands to visit: then they went to a dance class in town in the afternoon (they’d found it online). 

On Sunday morning I went to church; when JD picked me up afterwards, we all went into town to Te Papa, where we met the other cousins. We had lunch there – we were going to go to Sweet Release, but the weather was terrible, as usual, and one did not really feel like going there.  The café had vegan options. Afterwards we went for a walk outside down to the Wellington Museum. Sadly, the first floor with the Wahine exhibition was closed, but the hologram with Joanna Paul is still there upstairs!

The next day was the last day for our daughter in law and our two grandchildren.  We met their cousins at Porirua, going first to the North City shopping centre, and then to Kai Tahi for lunch – a wonderful food hall where there were hardly any people. Although they didn’t have vegan restaurants, it was quite possible to get vegan food there. I had a Banh Mi – a favourite of mine.

Afterwards we went to Aotea Lagoon and walked to the play area there. The children had a wonderful time. Our eldest granddaughter and her ten-year old cousin held hands. That evening our daughter in law cooked a beautiful pasta dish for dinner, and we went to bed early as they were to catch the 6 am flight to Auckland, as their father had done three days earlier.  Along the way, JD read stories to his grandson, as requested; I talked to my granddaughter about English Literature, although sadly my voice wasn’t great, I was so tired. But I will have attached some of my favourite extracts in a future blog.

I talked to her mainly about the works I had studied for my Masters degree in English Literature, where most writing was done in “blank verse” or iambic pentameter, with great knowledge of the classical myths. Shakespeare used blank verse to great effect in his plays. 

That’s it for now. Slava Ukraini! Ngā mihi nui.