Wild about Wellington

BY KIM KNIGHT

Luxury travel tip: always pack a pianist.

Ah, Wellington. City of coffee, culture and the InterContinental Hotel presidential suite with three bathrooms, separate dining room and a baby grand in the lounge.

We checked in, in the car en route from the airport. Why don't all hotels do this? We shared the lift to our floor with a couple of All Blacks. Why don't all hotels do this?

Open the double doors. Drown in the view. Or the spa bath - it's big enough. My man from Avondale plonks away on the keyboard and I consult the itinerary: a weekend of cultural and gastronomic excess. Given the latter, we decide to walk to City Gallery.

Wellington is the city you think you know. Waterfront-Beehive-Te Papa-Cuba-St-Done it all before. The capital's iconography is as familiar as a John Pule painting.

At least, that's what I thought before I actually stood in front of a real-life Pule.

A survey show of the Niuean- born, Auckland-raised artist's work is on at City Gallery until September 21. The work is gob- smacking in (paradoxically) its sheer size and intricate detail. I stood for ages in front of the cloud paintings, examining worlds within worlds. Suddenly, I was really seeing a Pule. An art work as a metaphor for a luxury weekend in Wellington? Bear with me.

Sure, I've been out for dinner in the capital - but I've never eaten Jerusalem artichoke ice cream. Yes, I've been to the national museum - but I've never taken the guided tour with Roger Gascoigne, television face of my childhood. Hotel rooms - stayed in plenty, but none with their own fax machine and windows that actually open.

I thought I knew Wellington. But then I looked harder.

The city announces its cultural intent - at no charge - well before you hit its heart. Akau Tangi, by Phil Dadson, is the latest of five wind sculptures to be placed along the road to the airport. There is zero breeze today, but, as we make the turn on to Evans Bay Parade, our driver entertains with urban myths of the Zephyrometer. (For the record, he says, the 33-metre long orange spike has never dipped low enough to hit a car).

Later, at City Gallery, sculpture on a much smaller scale. Ready to Roll, says the brochure, "does not attempt to summarise current practice". Fair enough. It did make me laugh and think. Eddie Clemens showed a web of almost defunct bank-teller pens on their ball and socket chains. He called it Captive. I was.

We wandered up Cuba St and took a left into Ghuznee. Bowen Galleries was showing Noel McKenna, Brendan O'Brien and Gregory O'Brien, three artists who, in 1982, worked together in the kitchen of a Sydney jazz club.

The thing about this show, is that the latter O'Brien curated the Pule. The thing about Wellington, said a friend who lived there once, is if you're talking about someone, you must look over your shoulder to check that person is not sitting there. It's that kind of a city. Worlds within a world.

Wellington's awash with art. You can't walk the waterfront without tripping on a sculpture or a writer's plaque or a bloody enormous museum or another gallery. On our first night though, we only got as far as Shed 5.

It's one of the Nourish group of restaurants overseen by MasterChef judge Simon Gault. I've had better paua on a barbie by the beach, but I fell in love with the truffled mashed spud. Avondale Man declared the steak, cooked "sous-vide" (vacuum packed into a plastic bag and then cooked long, and at a low temperature, in water or steam) one of the best he had eaten.

Shed 5 is a stone's throw from TSB Bank Arena, home of the Wearable Arts Awards (September 23 to October 3). In August, we did the next best thing - a quick flight across Cook Strait, and a couple of hours at the World of Wearable Art and Classic Cars Museum. I've been to the show, and watched the highlights package on TV. But there's nothing like being close enough to touch garments created from sliced photographs, fly screen wire and boysenberry ice cream containers. It's art, says our guide, "but you don't have to intellectualise it". I spend the flight back thinking about defunct typewriters and the awards entry I will almost certainly never get round to creating.

Late afternoon outside Wellington's East Day Spa, and the crowds were thronging towards the test match. Inside, Avondale Man and I are donning paper undies and getting ready for a fairly unique bonding experience.

"Maybe I should say my toenails are a no-go zone," he says, worriedly, as we pick and choose off the body scrub and massage menus. Steamed, exfoliated and rubbed to an inch of our lives, we float back out into the night. Dinner jacket. High heels. There's serious eating to be done.

"That was like watching 20 film festival films in a row," said Avondale Man, at the end of the seven-course, $170 degustation dinner at Martin Bosley's Yacht Club.

The artichoke ice cream, the black pudding ravioli, the egg done in a bag like the steak the night before - the food was amazing, and rivalled only marginally by the service (you know they're going the extra mile when they text the boss at the rugby to find out who created the stone art in the long room).

Want any more proof that Wellington is a small town? Next morning, at City Market, there is the boss - Bosley - selling cookbooks and oxtails. I pass, but can't resist the stall selling feijoa Turkish delight. Or the chocolate with manuka honey. Buy baby veges here, or real-sized ones (and $5 bottles of Marlborough smoked garlic sauce) at the open-air Harbourmarket next door. Both are worth a visit before a trip to Te Papa.

"Hi, I'm Roger," says our guide. As in Gascoigne. As in former front man for Ready to Roll and Telethon and other television moments. A guided tour of Te Papa allows you to see the museum like its designers intended.

For the first time, I realise a black circle on the floor on Level Two is a Bill Culbert and Ralph Hotere installation. (I'm standing on a Hotere?) We find a cloak, made from the feathers of 20,000 birds, and presented to James Cook in 1779, tucked in a corner.

And we take heed of warnings in the Awesome Forces section - stick down your ornaments, and tie down your telly, because on these shaky isles, says Gascoigne solemnly, "Being killed while watching Paul Henry on breakfast television is such a dumb death".

Upstairs, we visit Paperskin: The Art of Tapa Cloth in the gallery which will, on November 6, host European Masters, the Stadel Museum show currently pulling crowds in Melbourne. And then, up another level, New Zealand's most recent contribution to the Venice Biennale, shows by Judy Millar and Francis Upritchard.

Forget the spa bath. I'm drowning in art and culture and I'm loving it.

According to our itinerary, we need another cup of tea. Across the road, at the Museum Hotel's Hippopotamus luxury high tea, (macaroons are the new cupcake, confirms the Escape section editor), we start with champagne.

The maitre d', who has also seen our itinerary, decides we need a light lunch before we get stuck into the sandwiches and cakes. I'm undecided. "Tortellini de Kikorangi, poireaux a la creme et ecume de noix?" he persists. Oh, go on then. Tourne mon bra.

It's rich and delicious. And, also, the supreme winner of the Kapiti 2009 Chef Collection competition. On the wall, a Dick Frizzell lithograph of the same cheese that went into the dish. Because in Wellington, even the stinky cheese is a cultural event.

Top tips when visiting Wellington from the American Express Travel Team:

Kim Knight's itinerary was organised by American Express Member Travel Services. The team also recommends some other favourite Wellington experiences:

1. The World of Wearable Art is held annually in September and tickets sell out, so get in early. However, even if you are not visiting for the awards, Wellington has a strong theatre culture and you can see a live show and concert any night of the week.

2. If you'd like to check out Wellington from a different perspective then a helicopter tour is an exciting way to take it all in from above. Various itineraries are available, including flights to a vineyard for lunch or a Lord of the Rings tour for serious Middle Earth fans.

3. Explore the capital of culture's art galleries and museums. Topping the list are Te Papa, the Museum of Wellington and the City Gallery Wellington. But you could also head out to Pataka in Porirua and The New Dowse in Lower Hutt.

4. Head to the Beehive, Wellington's most iconic building to explore New Zealand's political heritage. Free tours of Parliament Buildings operate daily.

5. Downtown Wellington's four unique quarters offer great shopping, bars, cafes and restaurants - all within easy walking distance. Wellington's compact size means it only takes 20 minutes to walk from one side of downtown to the other.

6. The journey across the Cook Strait is something of a rite of passage, bridging the gap between the north and south via a ferry ride. Why not take a side trip to Picton and take in the amazing scenery of the Marlborough Sounds along the way?

7. The nationally acclaimed mountain bike park Makara Peak is easily accessible from the capital. Mountain bike enthusiasts can enjoy tracks to suit any level of fitness in the beautiful surrounds of the park's re-generating native bush.

8. The seaside village of Eastbourne also makes an excellent side trip. Regular ferry services operate between the city and the town where you will find art galleries, outdoor cafes and scenic coastal walks.

- © Fairfax NZ News