And with that, our time in Wellington was almost over. The first good-byes had to be said, though luckily just for now. Mat had to leave to the US for a work trip so we had a last brunch, all of us together.

In the afternoon, we rented kayaks from Ferg’s to explore Wellington harbour a bit. I first got to Wellington 19 years ago, I have lived here for three years later on and I have never been kayaking in the harbour before. It was about time. Plus, the kids are really keen on kayaking.

We had a blast, I got a blister, we got out of the kayaks quite happy. Some ice cream and a last visit to the kids’ favourite playground in Frank Kitts park later, we were back in Plimmerton for a last evening with Liz and Zeph. The evening saw lovely conversation, wine, chocolate and then a dog that needed to be rescued in a spectacular fashion through a lot of gorse.

After all the excitement of last night, we had a lazy Sunday morning. It was lunch time before we actually left Plimmerton. I was quite happy that we will return again for a couple of nights before leaving NZ as I will miss the very good company of Mat and Liz and the kids dearly when we live on the other side of the globe again.

Afterwards, we fullfilled on of the kids’ wishes: We went to Wellington zoo!

We decided to stay in town on Sunday night as the ferry to the South Island will leave on Monday morning at 8am and we have to check in way earlier than that. Instead of just parking at Te Papa, we’d stay overnight. Being right in the middle of town does have its advantages. We met up with Aaron for a stroll along Cuba Street festival which didn’t feel like it had really started. After a failed attempt for a coffee at Fidel’s (which was already closed), we had pizza and the signature hot chocolate at Scopa. The kids loved the hot chocolate and I managed to get this particular itch scratched. 🙂

Flo got the kids into bed, Aaron and I hung out at the waterfront and then we actually went out to the Library. It is one of Flo’s and my favourite places to go out to so we were very happy to be there. It’s a cozy little bar full of books and some live music. It serves great cocktails and also desserts so I had a lovely chocolate mousse while Flo sipped port. Aaron had the rocky road dessert which turned out to be a gigantic portion so he shared.

Bye Wellington, bye Aaron, bye Liz, bye Mat, bye former home!