Absolutely, positively...

The trip really couldn't have come at a better time. The first couple of weeks in August were incredibly busy and stressful so I was seriously looking forward to my weekend getaway to Wellington. Like, seriously.

The forecast was rubbish, but hey - Auckland certainly wasn't serving up anything more appealing and I wasn't about to let a bit of rain ruin the weekend. I'm just glad it wasn't windy (amazingly). Brace yourself, the following is kind of reviewy... but in a Jane way (not sure if that's a good thing or a bad thing).

Firstly, Air NZ check-in kiosks - when you work, I love you. Checking-in was almost worryingly trouble-free. Plane ride was pleasant enough, nothing out of the ordinary to report there... except maybe that flying out of Auckland was much bumpier than flying into Wellington.

We arrived and were met by a fellow from Wellington Combined Taxis (first cab company in NZ to go carbon neutral etc), who proceeded to give us the full, guided tour as he drove. It was dark out, so not the ideal way to see the city by car, but we appreciated his efforts nonetheless - he was very enthusiastic.

We stayed at the Trinity Hotel on Willis St. It used to be called Just Hotel, in fact the information file on the desk in our room still had that name emblazoned on the front. Our room was, to be honest, very small with precious little space for - um, anything. We had a view of an alleyway and a carpark, but with the blinds down you'd never know...

I'm being nitpicky, really, because the room rate for their "Welly Weekend Getaway" is $120 a night, and that includes a bottle of bubbles, two cooked breakfasts per morning, and a late midday checkout. Sure, it's not the Ritz, but chances are you can't afford the Ritz so really, this is a pretty sweet deal if you're on a budget and would like to stay somewhere central. And you like eating big breakfasts.

On Friday night we had dinner at the Boulcott Street Bistro with our Positively Wellington host Angela, who was charming and easy to talk to and not remotely smarmy like PR people can sometimes be - which was good, because I didn't fancy engaging in a smarm-off over dinner. We were treated to a sample of the kind of dishes the restaurant will be serving up next week as part of the Wellington on a Plate festival that is in full swing.

The theme for Boulcott Street Bistro's festival celebrations is a menu based on what you might have found in front of you at a local restaurant in 1979 - my birth year, so that was all very fitting. Although the entrée of smoked eel freaked me out a little, the main was far less intimidating and involved a hearty serving of Chicken Chasseur (chicken with brown mushroom sauce) which we enjoyed with shared sides of Dauphinoise potato (creamy potato bake) and glazed carrots (um, glazed carrots).

Dessert was a giant Bombe Alaska each. If you're not familiar, we're talking raspberry sorbet in the centre with a layer of ice-cream on top of that, all wrapped up in meringue casing - grainy phone-photo here. It was intense but yum. Staff were nice, atmosphere was pleasant, company was ace. Next stop Mighty Mighty where Cougar Cougar Cougar graced the stage and made convivial conversation nigh-on impossible. Not their fault, of course, they're a band and playing music is what they do; we were the fools who stumbled into a live-music venue for a quiet drink. I had my red-wine sleepy on, so we ambled back to our hidey hole and jumped into bed.

Scene.

We didn't stray far from our hotel on Saturday morning before I was quite simply forced (by my own lack of willpower to resist awesome shops) to patronise Good As Gold. This turned out to be an excellent decision, and here's why:

Ladies, you know what a crapstorm it can be trying to find a new pair of jeans, especially when the reason you need new jeans is because you've put on stacks of weight and can no longer get into a single pair from your current collection. Well, on Saturday in Wellington I found the perfect pair of new jeans, and oh how the angels sang.

The guys at the shop were extremely helpful and totally not wanky (like they probably would've been if I were in a similar store in Auckland). Best of all, when they realised I was leaning towards the jeans with a very reasonable $145 price tag they didn't try to upsell me a pair that would send me bankrupt.

You are never more vulnerable to the upsell than when you are desperate for a new pair of jeans. Thank you to the guys at Good As Gold for double-thumbs-upping the ones that actually looked good on me instead of the more expensive ones that I would probably have bought if they'd advised me to.

That's three paragraphs on jeans... right, moving swiftly along.

Next stop was Slowboat Records, where Joel bought some old and new vinyl and we engaged in lengthy (but totally pleasant and interesting) discourse with one of the staff. Hi Jeremy, thanks for the music-nerd chats.

More food waited for us at Matterhorn, where, once again, we were able to sample what might be on offer for their Wellington on a Plate celebrations. You can check the menu options here - a really good price for a fancy two-course meal with wine and a hot drink to finish. Joel and I shared an entrée and dessert in order to spread our courses a little further. If you're the visual type and want to see what we ate, there's a picture of our mains on Monday's photo entry. Again, the service was great and I couldn't fault the company.

After lunch we tried not to fall asleep from the wine and delicious food and wandered to Te Papa for the Formula One exhibition...because I am a closet ex-F1 fan. True story. I'm even thinking about getting back into it now that I have Sky.

After taking happy snaps of the replica GT40 outside the museum (bonus display) and drooling over the McLaren that Kimi Raikkonen drove (before you say it, I realise the picture is of a Ferrari), we ambled through the art exhibitions and then shot downstairs to check out le colossal squid. That's one hell of a squid, I can tell you. I also went into the earthquake house (as I always do whenever I'm at Te Papa) and was disappointed that the books didn't fall off the shelves (as I always am). I suppose replicating the real dangers of an earthquake could cause some health and safety issues...

Post Te Papa we ended up back at the hotel for a quick holiday snooze before heading out to Khandallah for the big boardgames night with a bunch of strangers i.e. Readers of this very blog...! Eeep!

Oh wow, look at that - this entry got massive. Okay, I'm going to have to save the rest for tomorrow. What? I don't want you to strain your eyes with all the reading.

Until then, why don't you tell me what you love (or hate) most about the town or city you live in. Also, I will be rounding off tomorrow's entry with a Casual Friday Five so please fire some questions my way.

Thanks for reading this far...