The Wellington Blues

Well ICANN Wellington is over and done with and lets see what comes up in the coming months. Of interest is how Dot Triple-X will evolve and the introduction of Internationalised Domain Names. It will also be interesting to see how much more a role GAC will play in ICANN deliberations.....

ICANN Wellington was generally very well organised. The nightly ICANN Bar was definite hit as was the Welcome Night at the National Museum - an excellent location. There were some issues with Wi-Fi in the meeting rooms but I think this can be attributed more to delegates with poorly configured machines than anything else - too many were trying to be an AP themselves.........

I was quite impressed with Wellington as a city. Its relatively small and compact and being someone who loves wintery weather, the cold blowing winds and rain were fine with me (though I know most would prefer something else). Wellington has an abundance of eating places and just about every cuisine you could think of. We did Turkish one night at a place called "Harem". There was a lot of excitement initially in the choice of name but alas there were no topless (or nude!) dancing girls, just pide and sheesh-kabab.....the restaurant interior was quite interesting and the loo was also decorated in line with the rest of the restaurant which was interesting.......we also did Indian one night but unfortunately at a restaurant pretending to do Indian - the food was just plain terrible - maybe for someone who does not have much experience in Indian cuisine it would be passable, but really I am not sure how it won the award it claims on its front window as the best Indian restaurant in Wellington. I would suggest the people involved in judging the awards were either severely gastronomically challenged or high on something (or perhaps both!).

Nightlife was good too......we ended up at the Bristol Hotel on Cuba St (Mall) one night with our good friend from Bangalore (and wearing an ICANN hat for the week) Madan. It happened to be a Blues night and the band was pretty good. As members of the group started to doze off sometime after midnight (not because of the band - all were just plain tired), we decided to call it a night. Apparently there is a place called Boogie Wonderland or similar playing blasts from the past (amongst other things) so perhaps next time.........and if one were to traverse far enough up Cuba St one will find a lot of other colourful pursuits and things........Molly Malone's (not far from the Museum) is also
recommended on Tuesday nights when Andy Linton and his gang play a bit of Irish culture. The Brewery on Taranaki (location of the ICANN Bar) has a good sample of local brews......I prefer the dark and made good use of what was on offer.

Wellington also has a (small) zoo which isn't too bad either, complete with roaring lions, sleepy tigers, hungry giraffes and some real cheeky chimpanzees. The cable car ride to the hilltop is OK too but nowhere as spectacular as the Hong Kong version.......people are generally friendly and the ethnic background is quite cosmopolitan - from Africans to Indians to Europeans to Arabs to Pacific Islanders. Shopping isn't spectacular - Wellington lacks a decent shopping mall but has a string of shops, but its not exactly a shopping mecca........but there do seem to be second-hand book stores all over the place, one of which is run by our own Don in Newtown which we paid a visit and left with a bag full of gems.........not quite sure why the NZ parliament is shaped like a beehive though......sort of makes a point about the queen bee..........

All in all Wellington is a fine city (and I recently got told its currently the 4th most livable city in the world).......did not have time to visit the surrounding areas (I believe the Lord of the Rings trilogy was shot in the area) which I understand is quite good too.......and remember for some decent Wellington Blues, its the Bristol on Thursday nights..............