Down Under - Day Nine, Friday, February 14, 2014

Happy Valentine's Day everyone.  I've sent it your way.  It was Valentine's Day here yesterday.

What a fabulous day we had in Wellington today.  Stevie and I went on a walking "foodie" tour with the most delightful guide, Fiona, with Zest Tours.  Her enthusiasm and love of the city was contagious.   We set off from the ship and  literally ate our way through the city stopping at the "best of the best" award winning gourmet shops and restaurants.  Wellington is known as the Coffee Capitol, Cultural Capitol, Culinary Capital and just recently, the Craft Beer Capitol of New Zealand.  

Parliament Building sits adjacent the "Beehive"

The "Beehive" houses the Prime Minister

Before we began our tasting tour, we drove around the Parliament and government buildings which were an interesting juxtaposition of architecture, one building very traditional and the one next door crazy modern.  

Built of timber but appears to be a stone building.

I can certainly understand why some of the Wellingtonians have mixed reviews.  I was fascinated by this government building.  It appears to be built of stone, but it is made entirelyof timber.

Inside St. Paul's looks like a ship

Next stop was at a beautiful church called Old St. Paul's Cathedral.  

Old St. Paul's Cathedral 

The inside of the church was beautifully designed to resemble the inside of a ship.  The church flies an American Flag inside as a reminder of the American Marines who were deployed to New Zealand during the 2nd World War to protect New Zealand from Japanese invasion.  This was their house of worship.

Our next stop was to the "Starbucks" of New Zealand, Mojo's Coffee Central.  We were greeted by coffee roaster, Lambros who shared his coffee bean roasting secrets that he has perfected over the years.  

Lambros and his collection of various imported beans are displayed in front of the 50 K coffee roaster.

Now I'm not a coffee drinker, but Lambros's brew won me over to the dark side.

Mojo Coffee and Cookies.   Not a bad way to start the day.

 

Mojo Coffee.  18 Wellington locations have shut down Starbucks

One of the factory workers had prepared some Greek wine biscuits to go with the coffee, so this stop launched our tasting tour.   Lambros had a very edifying spiel and a display of various beans that are imported for roasting as well as a display of items he's removed from the imported beans such as rocks, bolts, wire, nuts etc.

Left: Coffee Beans from Mexico.  Right: debris from the beans.

All of Mojo's beans are imported as coffee beans do not grow in New Zealand.  In third world countries beans are placed on the road to dry so various litter gets scooped up and into the bag of coffee beans.  I'm so grateful Lambros has a thorough screening system to sort the beans from the debris.  We had a lovely and informative visit with Lambros and then moved on down the wharf continuing our foodie walking tour.  

This 20 ' diameter aluminum ball is suspended above the square

Fiona pointed out various sculptures and pieces of art along the way to Gelissiomo Gelato where we were warmly welcomed by Graham who invited us to taste all of his very interesting and different flavors of Gelato.  

Graham uses fresh organic milk for his Gelato and walked us through his workshop sharing the Gelato making process with us.  In addition to traditional flavors like Mint Chocolate Chip, Mango, Salted Caramel, Coconut, etc, he likes to experiment creating unusual Gelatos such as his Gorgonzola Gelato that he prepared for a restaurant to accompany a poached pear dish.  His cucumber, lime and ginger Gelato was also quite tasty.   After tasting EVERY SINGLE flavor, I settled on a combo of Salted Caramel, Mint Chocolate Chip, Coconut topped off with a small serving of his incredible dark chocolate.  SO good.  There goes the scale in the wrong direction.

Gabriella - owner shows us a cocoa bean pod.

As we walked a bit further into the heart of Wellington, Fiona introduced us to The Cocoa Press, a chocolate factory.  Now that's what I'm talking about!!!  What better way to follow up Gelato than with chocolate?!!  

Roasted Cocoa Beans

Tucked away on the little side street of Leeds, The Cocoa Press dazzled us with their unique method of making chocolate bars ... from "bean to bar."  They travel the world in search of the perfect Cocoa beans, import them to the factory, roast and hull 

them, pulverize them until they 

From Bean to Bar.

reach a peanut butter consistency, then add sugar that begins the emulsification process turning the beans and sugar into creamy chocolate, which goes into the molds for chocolate bars.  

Old Bags sitting on Bags of Cocoa Beans imported from Guatemala.  

Mmmmm!  So yummy!!  Of course we sampled every flavor they had and then bought several bars at $13.50 each!  Dang.  Remember when a candy bar cost .25 cents???

On the way to our next stop, we quickly visited the bakery that was awarded the cuisine award for the best croissant and salted caramel cookies.  Croissants were sold out, but we scored a Salted Caramel Cookie.   Need I say more about the bakery?

Best breads from local bakers

These meats aren't on the shelf at Publix

Next stop was Moore Wilson Fresh, a gourmet supermarket.  Local Chefs come to Moore Wilson to gather "the best of the best" for their menus.  

Various Fish, mussels and even fish heads

Also open to the public, the store has unique items that one certainly doesn't find at Publix, like Wild Pork Belly and Wild Venison Osso Bucco, Diced Wild Goat and breads from all the local bakers.  Fiona parked Stevie and I at a lovely butcher block table in the middle of the store and brought out a tray containing the local cheeses and oat crackers all of which have been awarded Cuisine Magazine awards.  

We were introduced to golden Kiwi, which has a mellon consistency and Elderberry and Feijoa Chutneys.   Instead of wine, we had an Elderberry Soda, a very light, sweet carbonated soda.  It complimented the cheese and chutneys perfectly.  We also sampled a non grain granola that was spectacular.  Wish I could have brought it all home with me to share with all of you.  But trust me, Stevie and I put away enough cheese and  chutneys for all of us.  

So after the coffee and cookies, gelato, chocolates, cookies, cheese and chutney, it was time for lunch at Logan Brown.  This restaurant is in an old bank building and the food was amazing.  We started with Paua Ravioli.  Paua looks and tastes just like abalone.  delicious.  Next courses were Zucchini and Green Onion Fritters, Filet of Beef and roasted Monk Fish.  Dessert was a lemon grass Panna Cotta.  I was SO happy to see the dessert was something that I just really don't care for.  I ate the Salted Carmel Cookie instead.  The bank manager's office has been converted into the ladies room.  So after lunch, I excused myself to "do some business with the manager," which is the customary saying at Logan Brown when one needs to use the facilities.   

Cable Car Departing

We'd eaten everything that Wellington had to offer and it was time to return to the ship, but first, Fiona took us to the top of Mount Cook to view the harbor and see the cable car.  

Kudos to Fiona and Zest Tours.   Without exception, the New Zealanders that I've met have been the nicest, most polite, friendly, humorous and helpful people I've ever met, but Fiona even exceeded that.  She made us feel like members of her family.  The sparkle in her eyes when telling us about the foods we were eating and the cuisine awards they had been awarded just made the food taste that much better.  She could have fed us a dog turd and made it sound good enough to ask for seconds.  She was just a splendid guide and I would suggest the Wellington Foodie Tour to everyone.  Hopefully, you'll be lucky enough to get Fiona.  Thanks Fiona!!

Maori tattoo their faces

Maori Tribesmen

Upon returning to the ship, we were treated to a show by a local Maori tribe.  Quite interesting and colorful.  The Maori  tattoo their faces with designs to depict their family heritage and major accomplishments.  The more tattoos, the more important the person.  I think I prefer medals to pin on a jacket, but the tattoos seem to work for these people.

Alistair passed out roses to us.  Love a guy in uniform!

Since we'd been eating all day long non stop, we didn't want to change our eating pattern, so we had a lovely Valentine's dinner, guests of the Bridge Director.  The ship set sail around 10:00 and we were off to our next adventure.