When the weather is fine Wellington is the most glorious city. I awoke to clear skies and no wind! First stop is cafe l'affare, a coffee roaster and cafe that takes their coffee as seriously as I do. Across the road is food nirvana, otherwise known as Moore Wilson, a fresh food supermarket of the best of NZ and overseas. Some of the new local products I stocked up on.... Preserved limes, damson plum paste and freeze dried fruit - wait till you see what I bake with it. I also got grandmas birthday goodies of jams and curds.

The problem with returning to cities you love is balancing returning to favourite restaurants and trying new places. I decided to revisit an old favourite for lunch, chow, and had 7 spice tofu fingers and peking duck and sticky rice lettuce cups.

The day got much hotter than the forecasted 18 degrees and I joined most of Wellington on the shorefront and walked to te papa. People were diving off the jetty into the harbour, and buskers made the most of the crowds. The feature exhibition at Te Papa was of wedding dresses over the last 200 years borrowed from the Victoria and Albert british museum. It is a relatively modern idea to have a one off use dress, and the sense of spectacle is also quite recent. There were wedding dresses worn by gwen Stephani and dita Von tease, but the older dresses and traditions were the most interesting. Another new exhibition focuses on young immigrant stories to Wellington and it was very thought provoking. Finally there were updated exhibitions on growing up Maori and pakeha, and some of the common household items were very familiar - turns out we were an on trend kiwi family in the 70's.

Dinner was at monsoon poon, mostly for their amazing coconut and palm sugar sago, then a walk through the deserted city to work it off.